Satan Attacks

Things have been pretty rough here lately.  Everyone has been getting malaria left and right, including we missionaries.  I've been out of commission for the last week now, and expect to continue to be out of commission for the next ten days.  I came down with malaria a couple days before two sabbaths ago, and started on Chloroquine, Primiquine, and Fansidar last Monday.  I swear the side effects of the medications is worse than the symptoms of malaria when you're on Doxycycline for prophylaxis.  The malaria just slowed me down and made everything take longer.  It also made me get frustrated easily, but that was it.  When I went on the medication, it was like someone had punched me in the gut, then hit me over the head with a brick!  Basically, it made me dizzy, nausious, weak, drained my energy to nothing, and if that wasn't enough, it made it so I couldn't even sleep to sleep off the effects!  Yeah, it wasn't pleasant.  The second day of the meds was the worst.  The thing about Chloroquine is that it messes with your emotions heavily.  It tends to make people very meloncholy (spelling?).  For me, it made me seriously depressed on the second day.  I remember thinking, "How can I possibly survive when I'm this depressed?!"  I was so depressed it hurt physically.  But God delivered me!  He brought to my mind the song, "As a Deer" and so I started singing it while I was laying in bed that night trying to go to sleep.  As I sang the words and let the meaning of them sink in, I felt my spirits lift and the peace of God washed over me like a gentle wave.  Within the next 15 minutes or so I was sound asleep and slept like a log all night long (quite an accomplishment when you're on Chloroquine).  One of the other SMs, Kiana, had it worse than me, though.  She had malaria AND giardia simultaneously, and the giardia hit her really hard.  Giardia causes nausea, vomitting, and diarhea.  She was quite a mess for a few days.  I finished the malaria meds on Wednesday, had a good day on Thursday but was still a little weak from the after-effects of the malaria (malaria destroys your red blood cells), and then started feeling nausious again about 1am Friday morning.  I was not able to eat anything on Friday until that evening.  After that I've felt a bit better, and found out yesterday that I have giardia as well.  Kiana got it from drinking river water when she was hiking into the moutains from the lowlands.  I got it from drinking the water at a village that's about an hour and a half hike from here.  I had forgotten to bring water with me and was feeling very dehydrated.  Fortunately, the giardia hasn't hit me as hard as it hit her.  Giardia is something that your immune system can fight off unlike malaria, so I'm grateful that God blessed me with a strong immune system!  I went on medication for that yesterday, and then found out that the malaria I'd had was a resistant strain, and that the medications I'd already taken couldn't kill it all.  So now I'm on Quinine and Erithromyasine (spelling?).  Both of them can make you nausious, and Quinine also causes partial temporary deafness.  I haven't felt the deafness yet, but I'm currently experiencing the nausea.  I took medicine for it earlier but not sure if it's helping yet.  I'll be on these two meds for the next ten days!  Oh what joy (sarcasm)!  Danny and Napthali (team missionaries) are also on Quinine and Erithro for malaria.
 
Aside from the illnesses, Satan has been attacking the school here too.  The two Palawan (Puh-lau-ahn) women who were the cooks for the school were stealing food and so are no longer cooks.  Then two of the Palawan teachers (both prominent church members) backslid a little and were caught drinking.  So they are no longer teaching.  It was just supposed to be a temporary thing (as punishment along with having work duties), but one seems to be backsliding more and is refusing the work.  The other is going through some internal struggles right now as well, and doesn't feel he should return to teaching yet.
 
Also someone stole money from our store a couple weeks ago, and other things have been stolen from some of the locals.
 
All in all, Satan is attacking in every way he can right now.  So please keep all these things in your prayers.  Satan does not want to let go of his hold on these people, and is furiously angry that God is moving in and driving him out.  But we serve a mighty God who answers the prayers of His people!  As always, there's SO much more that I would like to write, but one hour just isn't enough to write everything.  Once I'm well again and off medications, and have put in some more days of work (after being off for 2 weeks), I'll take a couple days of vacation and hike out to the lowlands to use the internet there, and fill everyone in on all the things that I haven't had the time to share from up here.  I don't know when that will be yet, but I'm hoping it will be soon.  In the mean time, keep us all in your prayers, especially the two teachers.  Both have been strong church members and even preach on Sabbaths, and Satan is attacking them hard right now.  We need to surround them with an army of prayer warriors so the Holy Spirit can excercise His might on their behalf, and let Satan know that they belong to God now and that he's not welcome.  I hope all is well with you all, and I think about everyone alot.  May God bless you all!
 
With love in Christ,
Jeremy Gable