I have come to "speed bump" of sorts in my project. The front end of my project has been a lot of research and gleaning all the information I can get my hands on. The research aspect of my job has been better than expected (last month I had someone tell me they had 3000 media resources for me to distill and catalog!).
Now, I have embarked upon perhaps the most important part of my time here - partnering with nationals. You see, it's not about me, the foreigner, coming in, "fixing things" and then leaving after two years. No, it's about joining Him where He is already at work and equipping nationals to complete the work that He has called them to in hopes of working towards something that will last beyond my brief stay in South Asia. Here's where the "speedbump" comes in - lack of national partners. The nationals know better than anyone the areas of the city that have no access to the word. One of the goals of this project is to identify those pocket areas that have little to no access to the word and focus on saturating them for the next two years. Many aspects of my job cannot move forward without national partnerships. All this to say, these have been some of the challenges and frustrations I've faced over the past month, but I guess anything worth having takes a little blood, sweat and tears, right?! What's it going to take? I'm ready to do it. Whatever it takes. I covet your pr.yers:
Pr.y...
-for at least two national partners that I would be able to work with for the duration of my term here in S. Asia.
-that I would be able to clearly communicate the end-vision of this project to potential national partners.
-that the fact that I'm a single woman wouldn't be a hindrance to working with local past.rs and leaders.
-for good networking to happen over the next month with nationals and other M's doing the same type of work I am so we can share ideas of what is and is not working.
-that I would know who to trust in terms of who to partner with. This can sometimes be tricky here, especially with the communication breakdown.
-for at least one national partner who will be willing to do field research. There are many places I can't go to because I'm a woman and a foreigner. I'm desperate for a national who would be willing to go to these places on my behalf in hopes of better understanding the people of this city.
-that He would provide at least one national woman who has a heart to reach and/or knowledge of the musl.m people. It would be great to have a woman's perspective, especially since the woman has the most interaction with children and younger generations.
-that I would wait on Him for guidance and direction. My tendency is to go out there and do all the research and work myself, but I realize the importance of nationals doing this work instead of me. Pr. that He will remind me of this daily when my "Type A" personality wants to check things off a list.
-C
