Shiphrah and Puah--new girlfriends

Okay, now, the title for today probably makes you think I've totally lost it. These are the names of the two midwives (in their day, of the lowest social and economic class) who dared to defy the Egyptian king Pharaoh when he commanded them to kill all the boy babies at birth. Imagine! The king had absolute power, life-or-death power, and yet they disobeyed him, choosing life over death for many babies--including Moses and Aaron who would later be God's human instruments of salvation for millions of Israelites. (It's all in the book of Exodus.) I'm still reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, by Eugene Peterson, and yesterday I found this amazing tribute to the role of the ordinary and the personal in God's grand action of salvation. I see Shiphrah and Puah also as models of courage in the face of evil, no matter how powerful it is and no matter how marginal and weak we seem.

Weak would be the word right now. I didn't sleep as well yesterday as I normally do after kemo, but I could do nothing but lie in bed. I think today will be the same. God answered prayer and I was able to do some profitable reading and also enjoyed some wonderful worship music. He is good!

I'm having trouble with digestion. Everything I eat or drink feels like it packs up in my esophagus and crowds my throat. It's happened before following kemo, but seems worse this time. By tomorrow I think I'll be normal again. Oh! How I appreciate your prayers for me, and for Chuck too.

Love,
Carol