False Alarm

Thanks to all those who have been praying for Dave. After spending the day in the clinic and consulting with our doctor friend the doctor in the clinic decided that the second EKG was fine and that he could go home. So, Dave still has some problems but they probably aren't heart related. It is such a blessing to know that we have friends who care and who pray!

Pray for Dave

Please pray for Dave, he was experiencing some heart relate symptoms yesterday and finally last night he got me up to go to the clinic. The doctor on call told us that we would have to come back in the morning for an EKG because the technician doesn't work at nights. Dave asked what that would mean if he had a heart attack at night and the doctor's response was "c'est la vie". Not very comforting!
He slept well and seemed to be feeling a bit better this morning, but Cole woke up with a fever. He decided to go in for the EKG because the doctor told him it was good to have something to compare it to even if he wasn't experiencing any problems at the time. He assured me that it would ok for him to drive himself because he was feeling ok and it would be best for me to stay with Cole. So, I let him go, but I have just received a call that they are admitting him for monitoring because the EKG has shown something. As I write this I am waiting for a neighbour to come take me to the clinic to find out what is going on-- the added blessing is that the neighbour coming is also a missionary doctor. I will try to update when I know more, thanks for praying! He is in good hands.

Catching Up

Sorry I haven't gotten to this earlier, I thought that life would slow down long before now, but I should have known better...
The retreat went really well, thanks to everyone who was praying. Dave did a great job of handling the preaching and was even able to incorporate a number of interactive sessions. There was a good attendance with church leaders from four different churches involved. The ladies from Brantford did an amazing job, in fact one family was told by their kids that they didn't want to go to a birthday party (that was at least impart for them), they wanted to stay for the rest of the kids program.
I never could have made it through the weekend without Joan from St.Catharines, because she helped with Cole who was very sick for the whole weekend (and most of the rest of the week). If fact as I was writing last weeks blog Dave came in to tell me that Cole was throwing up and had dry heaves. However it wasn't until Cole told me that I was standing in it that I realized that he hadn't made it to the toilet and that Dave hadn't cleaned it up.
Unfortunately after the conference was over the ladies that came to help had some difficulties of their own with traveller's diarrhea, but were able to overcome that and made it safely home on Friday. Thanks to them and all the others that helped to make it possible for them to be here.
I was hoping that things would be slowing down by now, especially because I have a week left to get my assignments done for the courses I took this summer. But I have had some digestion difficulties of my own this weekend and then shortly after we came home from church tonight a friend came to our house looking for help because his one month old baby was running a fever. Please pray for the baby and for Dave as he has driven the family to the hospital as I write this. Also remember me in your prayers this week, I have an incredible amount of school work to get accomplished this week.

Please Pray for us Today

Hi, if you have taken the time to read this today, please take a moment and pray for us. We are running a leadership retreat this weekend and found out two days ago that the main speaker will not be able to make it here. So, Dave is preparing to preach Friday night, three times on Saturday and Sunday morning, with limited preparation time. The rest of the team that made it is preparing to run a kids program on limited sleep (having gone through a 5 hour time change in the last three days). Cole woke up early this morning with diarrhea and fever. So I am trying to care for him and pull all the rest of the administrative pieces together for this retreat. I am truly grateful that Ben is still healthy, pray that he will be able to enjoy the kids program and not feel lost in the busy-ness.

As I write this, I am praising God because I know that whatever happens this weekend will be because of His divine intervention and He will get all of the glory, because there is no way that we will be able to pull this together in our own strength. So, join with us in prayer and be apart of the miracle that God wants to perform in the lives of these church leaders this weekend.

Things look different in the dark

I got up at four this morning because I was going to take my Nigerien friend to the bus station. It had been a short night because we had been at a send off for missionary friends who were leaving the country too. My friend was directing me down what she felt was the best way to the bus station and we were talking a little. I noticed what I thought was the shadow of a large pothole ahead of me and slowed down (mistake number one) to enter the pothole. Within inches and seconds I recognized my second mistake, the darker colour wasn’t a shadow, I was driving into a swamp of excrement that covered almost the whole road and was at least four inches deep (if not deeper in places). I was moving too slow and the sludge was too thick and slimy to plow my way through and so I was stuck within moments. I tried all the usual tricks of switching back and forth to try to gain some ground, but it was no use. Under normal circumstances there would be at least a few people around that would be willing to help me out by pushing , but at 4:30am the street was bare. So my friend and her two daughters that were nicely dressed to travel for the next 24hrs on a bus, got out and started pushing. With some prayer and some pushing we were out of the hole in less than five minutes (I was really amazed! God is so faithful!) and on our way again. As my friend recommended another route that ended up going through garbage sledge, her daughter in the back seat got a little concerned—I think that she was afraid that she wouldn’t be leaving Niger today as planned. Thankfully they made it to their bus on time and were relatively sludge free. I got home and told Dave that I didn’t want to minister to women any more, he said why because you don’t like saying goodbyes. I said yes, that and I don’t like getting up at 4am for bus runs and I really don’t like getting stuck in the back streets of Niger. Oh well, God gives us the grace for each day and I will continue to love and minister to the women that God puts in my path.

Please pray this week for the team coming from Canada, they leave Monday and arrive Tuesday July 27th---hopefully I won’t get stuck in the mud with them too. Pray also for the retreat that they are coming to help lead the following weekend.