I'm in Colorado!

Dear friends,

I am sitting at my friend's computer in Highlands Ranch Colorado. I came to visit our church in Denver for the weekend to do a missions presentation to the Bible Blast Sunday School class. The church brought me here to meet with the class and do one of the 3 lessons a year I used to do with them. I got to teach 120 kids yesterday about the Dalits or "Untouchables" of India.

I had a hard time with the curriculum writing for this one, and a friend from formerly Caleb Project and now Pioneers, shared some curriculum she had written that dovetailed wonderfully with the points I wanted to cover. So thank you! to Karen Hardin. I took the statistics she had written up and blended them with specific information about the Dalits. One thing we did was to collect a large number of items to put into a simulated trash dump. Our trash was of course very clean and had lots of potential. We had the kids try to make up toys or games using the things they found in the trash pile. 25% of the kids were assigned to be upper caste, and they had to play with ready made games. We also gave them clean water and the Dalit kids had to drink water with vinegar and food coloring to make it look dirty. The morning went very well. We took out our 18' x 36' map of the world out and did the "Global Cookies" demo. It shows how unevenly the food in the world is distributed. Most graphic is Asia with 12 kids and 1 cookie to share, and North America with 1 person and 9 cookies. The kids got a chance to understand poverty and I think the Lord was there and that it really sunk in for them. Their prayers at the end reflected that. I did this for 2 hours with several adults helping.

I gave the class a little stuffed moose with "Washington" written on it and a piece of paper stapled between his antlers that says, "Pray for the Fritz Family." So, all this is to say that when I was feeling overwhelmed with this task, the Lord showed up and in my weakness His strength was obvious. The first hour a little 6 or 7 year old named Aaron raised his hand to tell me, "I really want to travel a lot to tell people about Jesus' love for them so they can know him in their heart." It was all I could do not to cry. He was extremely humble about saying this and when I told the kids that some children die from the effects of unclean water, like diareah, he raised his hand and asked if you could really die of that. The kids were amazed. So pray with me that what they learned sticks with them and that they remember to pray for the Dalits.

I go home tomorrow and plan to put away Christmas. Our visit with Heng Hua was absolutely fantastic! We love you Heng Hua! Several days after Heng Hua left, our dear friend Deb Sanders came to visit. We had lots of fun with her too. She and I especially had fun on New Year's Eve watching the Sound of Music while Greg, Jesse, Jenni and Allison went to downtown Spokane for a special celebration. They had fun together too. Jenni remains home until the 20th, and gets her wisdom teeth removed this Thursday. She got fantastic grades her first semester of mechanical engineering and is enjoying it. Allison started student teaching 1st grade on Thursday and I think it is safe to assume that she had been elevated to a level just below God in the eyes of those little cuties. They say very cute things and the first day asked if she could eat lunch with them and that she had pretty shoes.

I also saw my oncologist for a check up and he is sending me to meet a surgeon so she can monitor the scar tissue growing again where I had radiation. I met my new internist and he is just right for me. He also happens to go to our church and know someone at Partners International where Greg/we work. This week I have several medical appointments when I get home and I'll let you know if anything turns up.

God bless you today! Nancy Fritz