The school year finished a week ago with college graduation. The last few months have flown by. Preparations for my trip, cleaning out my room and storing everything have taken a lot of that time.
My nephew JJ had heart surgery on April 14. The surgery went well, but unknown to us at home, Joel did not come off the bypass easily and had a couple scares with that. His recovery has been slower than expected but steady. JJ had a couple scares with some internal bleeding and a pinched off vein during the first week which both turned out to be simple fixes. Once he was stabilized from those, his chest was sewn closed. He remained sedated and intubated until May 6 when they began to wean his sedation meds. Over the last few weeks, JJ has progressed to where he is now on a nasal canula (cpap at night). He is able to talk a bit more which took awhile due the length of time he was sedated which causes the vocal chords to become weak. JJ has been doing physical therapy for about two weeks. He is beginning to get more interest in regaining his physical abilities. Some days it has been a struggle because he gets tired easily. He has been allowed to feed himself ice chips and some very soft foods. JJ still has 3-4 weeks to remain in Bsoton. Please pray that he continues to progress quickly as he is allowed to eat more solid foods. Pray for Andy as there have been many difficult days and nights for him. During the last few days when JJ was allowed to begin having ice chips, JJ didn't understand that his tummy is too small to eat a lot at a time, and he has had some issues from that as well as from withdrawals from the various sedation and pain meds.
JJs mom, Julie, remained in Iowa with their other six kids. Baby #8 is due any day. Please pray that all goes well with the rest of the pregnancy and delivery. Please pray that Julie's kids continue to do well even though daddy is not around to help with their needs.
My friend Gail and I leave for England on June 1. I am praying that the baby arrives before that day. Please pray for Gail's and my safety, and pray that we will be a blessing to all those we will be serving. I now have missionaries to help lined up through the end of the year. I will be in England, Macedonia, back in England, Poland, and Tanzania. I will return to England for Christmas, and I may spend some time with my cousin who is a missionary in Scotland. I already have a scheduled trip to Nigeria next August, so I will be looking for missionaries to help to fill in the time between January and the time I arrive in Nigeria. Please pray that God will open the doors He wants me to go through and close the ones He doesn't.
I am still trying to raise my support level from $300 a month to $1000 a month which will allow me to travel on a more continuous basis. Please pray that God will open the hearts of pastors and churches to take me on for support.
My mom's health has been difficult since her heart attack last year. On May 7, one year and one month from the day she had the heart attack, she had another heart cath and had two new stints put in. Please pray that she can find some natural heart doctors who can help her come off some of the meds which I believe a re major contributor to her ongoing issues. Please continue to pray that her hip muscles will continue to heal. She has now been five years with the torn muscles.
Please pray as my parents continue to follow God's leading for their future. Dad is still pastoring in Maine, and the Hatian service they started is going well. Please pray that Maine will get a good governor and that many changes for better economics, integrity, and protections for families and churches will be implemented.
I am excited for what God has in store for me. He has taught me a lot in the last two years. some lessons were difficult and revealed the humanity of people I trusted. Others opened the door for healing in my own life and in my family's life. The unspoken request I had for five years was answered when I was able to meet with my sister and brother-in-law when I was home for spring break. I learned how to fast and pray a bit more for things that I knew I could not fix or when I needed God to come through with major answers for the problems I was dealing with, or for miracles of healing, protection... I wish everyone could learn what I have learned about spiritual warfare when dealing with everyday conflicts. It doesn't matter how old in Christ you get, there is always so much more to learn about life, from Scripture, from receiving counsel... I am so thankful for the godly friendships I developed with 8 women who pray with me and for me.
