tom and janine.

he had white hair and kind eyes that looked as if there were permanent tears threatening to fall.

she had a very serious, unblemished face that could be described as expressionless. but then she smiled. her face instantly went from stoic to one of the most vibrant i have ever seen. there were hundreds of wrinkles on her face with each grin - no doubt from decades of smiling and laughing.

they spoke in thick australian accents and not for the first time since being here, i was extremely aware of my flat and nasal way of speaking. after introducing herself and asking why i am in a freezing cold guesthouse on the outskirts of lukasa, she said, 'you look and sound awful.' i laughed and said i felt equally as awful.

she led me to the dimly lit dining room where her husband was sitting and the first thing i noticed were the well worn bibles with yellowed pages sitting open on the table in front of each of them. they said they were catholic and here to do the LORD's work and they were ministering to the prisoners of zambia. w.o.w. disabled children are easy after hearing some of their stories.

they offered me a seat and within minutes their hands were on me and they were speaking in tongues and oil was being drawn in a cross shape on my forehead. my mennonite half was screaming prayers of safety and truth and my i-don't-know-what-kind-of-christian-i-want-to-be-yet half was calming myself down and telling me that it was normal.

after the prayer i knew i had a decision to make. i could either walk away from the two and thank them for their prayer or have a conversation with them. i was exhausted and wanted the stiff bed waiting for me more than anything. instead of being polite and normal, i asked, 'if you don't mind me asking a personal question...do most catholics speak in tongues?'

the second the words were out of my mouth i regretted them, knowing the conversation much longer than my brain and body had the capacity for. but as we talked for the next 2 HOURS(!!) my fever completely vanished and i was immersed in a conversation i couldn't have been happier with.

we covered everything - sex, parents, marriage, dating, definitely religion, prison ministry...you name it, we talked about it.

they gave me references they felt were applied to me - ephesians 2:8-20, hosea 11, and john 4 (in spirit and in truth).

the last one is what struck me the hardest. she said she could tell that i approached my faith intellectually and she said it's too much in my head. she said that i needed to have faith in the spirit to speak truth to me - that it was separate from my soul and something that GOD instilled within us. i never thought about it like that.

they said a final prayer over me before i went to bed and spoke different prophecies into my life that were pretty spot on.

that was all on monday night and i think the only reason i rested well was because of their prayers that night.

since then, i have a fever that is escalating and a pretty awful case of something flu-like. i'm a little scared to be sick in africa because i have no idea what it could be. please pray for me. i went to the doctors at the hospital and got antibiotics yesterday, but i'm just getting worse. i'll get some tests tomorrow if i'm still not feeling better. oh, i took a malaria one - it was negative.

love you all and miss you!!