Elijahs Birthday, Update on Shar...

It has been 1 month since Sharlene's surgery! She is doing very well as she recuperates...

Right now she is walking around without the aid of cane or crutches-- for the first time in over a year! She is able to walk around the block ( a large, hilly block) and not need a rest. She has minimal pain most of the time and is now only taking extra strength Tylenol, mostly at night.

Please continue to pray for her continuing recovery! She is off to the Doctors in Canada next week (October 15, 16) for her 6 week appointment. Her biggest struggle right now appears to be learning to walk without the limp she's been used to for quite a few years! She needs to continue retraining her leg muscles to walk without the limp... Praise God both for her speedy recovery and His provision of our needs with Shar's plane trips back to Canada for appointments!

2 Weeks ago we had Elijah's 10th birthday party! We had some missionary friends over and a friend from the Children's home as well. He got a LEGO set (Mars Mission) and was very happy with it! We had to wait for his party because Shar had JUST gotten back a day or two before and needed a week to rest before we could host a party!

Washing Cat, Caleb day...

Here are some pics















Rosie the Boy Cat has fleas... He seems to have them so bad, that he is scratching around his neck so much that he's been drawing blood!! We took serious action and Shar washed the kitty in flea shampoo while I helped (by taking pictures for posterity sake...) It actually went quite well, even though Shar disagreed with my preferred method of rinsing the cat off via the "Swirly" method... we opted for pouring water on him- He responded with a desperate, pathetic, howl of protest...

He still has fleas...

















We celebrated "Caleb Day" last Sunday afternoon. Caleb has his birthday in the summer and this summer we were in Canada, in between camps. We had an rhubarb crisp with a sparkler in it in Turtleford, SK, but for some reason, he wanted to celebrate with other kids too!

So we decided to have a "Caleb Day" which happened to fall on the same day as another Missionary kids birthday, so we celebrated both! We had 18 people over (4 adults) and whacked a piñata, played some games and ate cake, Carne Asada and Chips. It was a good Caleb day!














Here is Caleb and Ethan (the other Birthday boy) with the severed head of the Spiderman Piñata. Cute!















Caleb and his Caleb Day cake!

One Evening in Mexico...

Last Monday I left the house early to go hang out with one of the pastors from my class. He is looking at planting a new church and has to look for some land, so I went to drive him around, because his car is not really able to get very far these days...

I took the 50 minute drive out, after having stopped for a couple tacos, and at the end of the highway when I tried to stop- it worked for a few seconds- then I lost brakes! After i let the brake up- it regained some strength- but then the brake would quickly hit the floor with little efficacy.. I decided I was close enough to the church to keep going...

Now to get to the church you need to turn left into a gas station and then drive down the dusty, rutty, shoulder of the road- the wrong direction- for about a block. Halfway down the block you actually have to go out on to the road (going the opposite direction of traffic!!) and then turn left down the back roads. For the most part you don't really need strong brakes because it is so rutted you cannot drive very fast anyway. but at the end of the road, you go down a curvy hill over a train track. Monday they happened to have 2 busses stopped at the end of the road... I decided to forgo the stopping and drive quickly past the busses into the oncoming traffic- which actually turned out ok because Mexicans are very polite drivers if someone needs to do something unorthodox, they'll assume you have a good reason (like no brakes) and let you through. I made it to the church and then off to a mechanic-- down a huge hill with a sizable ditch at the end... via the old- brake pumping method-- there was enough brake fluid left in the system to keep us from going over the edge.
The Mechanic decided it was the master cylinder and sent us on a 30 minute drive to the store to get the part ( without brakes...) halfway there the brakes were almost completely gone-- we made it out onto a 4 lane throughway down a hill and up a hill and then halfway down another hill and into the car parts place parking lot...
for $30 we purchased another master cylinder and for another $5.00 a super-large bottle of brake fluid- which we put into the master cylinder for the 30 minute return trip.

5 minutes into the trip i had no brakes again and once again we crawled back to the shop where for $10.00 labour the mechanic spent an hour fixing the master cylinder.

We went to check out some land and then to class-- which went well. We had an exciting discussion about eternal security and the perseverance of the believer...
Then I piled about 10 people into our 6 seat van and drove them back to their home... then the brakes failed again- My side door is permanently locked for some reason so all the folks in the back had to climb out of the front door--- It must have looked like the clowns in the VW bug with the never ending line of folks coming out the front door!!

So back to the mechanics (up and down large hills in the dark- with little brakes) to wake him up and fix the brakes again at about 10:00pm...

He replaced a brakeline (actually kind of fashioned his own line out of spare parts!!) and adjusted the brakes and sent me home at about Midnight...in Mexico...

It's not wise to drive that late at night, but had little choice and so off I went. about halfway home I saw 6 cows in the median of the road. I gently slowed down from 100km/h to 80km/h and kept my high beams on regardless of oncoming traffic. The week before we saw someone on the side of the road after hitting a cow and destroying their vehicle. 2 weeks before I saw a van on fire on the side of the road. Normally you would think to stop- but it is not too unusual for thieves to burn an abandoned car waiting for someone to stop to help- and then rob them-- also in Mexico you are guilty until proven innocent, so if the police were to happen to see you there- you would be assumed to be the culprit and held in jail until you could prove your innocence... I slowed down and noticed no one around or in the van and kept on going...

I'm thankful for the safety I had and the economical fix to the problem-- please continue to pray for our vehicle situations-- I am waiting for red tape to be cleared in importing a 1991 Ford Explorer 4x4 to handle the roads better. Right now the trips on the bad roads is slowly dismantling my van! I think sometime in the near future we may just need to buy a newer 4x4 as a regular vehicle. We ought not buy a new one because in the neighbourhoods we work in a new SUV makes you a target for kidnappers or thieves or corrupt police or uncorrupt police assuming you may be drug dealers-- so older, and reliable is better!!

We appreciate your prayers for safety!!

Until next time,

Mike

Recent happenings

Most recently we've been having an enjoyable time...

My classes have taken off- we are 1/3 through the first course "Methods of Bible Study and Bible Interpretation". We have about 30-35 coming out (they have not all shown up on the same day yet and we've had a few new ones join-- maybe some others drop out- we'll find out for sure soon!!). So far the reviews seem to indicate that they enjoy it alot and are learning quite a bit- I'm glad to be a part of it!!

If you could pray for us, though. My translator's English is good, but Theological English is a little different and he's taking the class at the same time so he's trying to learn new things while trying to translate them into Spanish- we've had some struggles recently. One night we just weren't getting on the same page and so we took a break and I asked the people to pray that we'd communicate well. Well all 30 folks began to pray at once- loudly! We prayed together for about 10 minutes or more and as the sound began to quiet down, we started the class again. The rest went very well and they "Got it" at the end! Praise God!!

Sharlene is doing well- My mom went home last Monday and Shar is doing well. She is walking with a cane still and is better than she was pre-surgery, but still in pain and in need of rest almost every day.

Elijah had a birthday party last week. We had a bunch of people over and we had Carne Asada for lunch (Thin BBQ Steak tacos). It was a great time and I'll include some pictures.

We went to a $3.00 circus about a week ago- we were hoping for animals and got dogs and 1 tiger. The tiger was at the very end. Mostly it was people dancing around on stage. We won't go to another circus unless we see elephants and such out front... This one didn't even have circus goats.
Here are some pics...

Mickey Mouse and Ariel along with a bunch of dancing disney characters...


Circus tiger-- he was there for1 minute and then whisked away- after that they brought in another, slightly dopey tiger tied to a table with a standard dog chain. You could get your pic with the tiger for $10.00-- some people put their infant kids on the tigers back!


Circus dog being swung around



Elijah's 10th Birthday

lizards- 2 of 5 the boys caught today-- this big one about as long as the tip of my middle finger almost to my wrist...

Until Next time,

Mike for the family...

class in session

Hey folks,

Just a short note with a report and prayer request...

1. Shar is back in Mexico now. She is doing very well!! She needs to get a couple hours of bedrest each afternoon, but is able to get around the house with only 1 crutch and she walks around the block with 2 crutches almost every day. She gets her staples out this week and is looking forward to increasing mobility and decreasing pain in the coming weeks and months.

2. My mom is still with us for 2 more weeks- she has been a great help and will continue to be while shes here. Shar's first day back she did too much (happy to be home again!!) and needed to rest alot the next day- so now she is learning to lean a bit on gramma!

3. Bible Training for Pastors and Leaders has been going for 1 week now. The first monday we had about 12 out- which was a bit discouraging, because we'd been aiming at 20 or so-- The next saturday we had quite a few brand new faces and we had about 18 out. Last Monday night we had 23 out and a few were missing from the other sessions. So we are maxed out at about 30 or so (I need to order more books). More than half seem to be pastors and/or spouses, and the rest are church leaders with an interest in Bible Training.
So far it seems to be going well- with good response and lots of interest- Please pray that it continues to go well and that we would all grow closer to Jesus as we study together!!

4. Our vehicles--- are still in insurance and registration limbo... Our donated 1991 Ford explorer 4x4 (needed for the roads down here-- ask someone who's been here!!) is in process of getting imported. Hopefully it will be done by this weekend, because it is supposed to rain here this weekend and everythign stops without a 4x4 here...
Our van has Mexican Plates, but we are working on getting the proper Mexican and US insurance on it. That is tough enough when you come from provinces with "Plate Insurance" that is automatic when you get your license plates... but even more so when you are trying to get insurance that is good for 2 countries and do so in your second language (I don't quite have my "insurance Spanish" perfected yet- but am improving...). As in most things here-- it will be done "Mañana" (Literally "tomorrow"", but in reality only means "not today!) Please pray that this gets done quickly- as we have been "borrowing" a YUGO vehicle with a bad transmission. It is costing us 10 cents// Mile and has been since August 22nd-- when my Saskatchewan plates expired.

Thanks for your prayers and partnership!

Blessings,

Mike

Medical Missions

It seems to be a recurring theme this last while- Medical needs...

Last week I took Pastor Daniel in to an eye Doctor to have him look at Daniels cataracts. Daniel has been waiting for 3 years to get his eyes done as they progressively got worse. He could no longer see well enough to drive or work much and they had been living off of very little income. Last spring he asked me for a large print Bible because he could not read his with the print so small. He then went on to tell me about his cataracts and how it was very very expensive to fix- $700.00. Which may be close to a few months income for them. No way he could afford it.

I mentioned this need in Canada at Little Woody Baptist church and a lady came up to me afterward and said that she could pay for his surgery- well, last Friday was surgery day. It was somewhat marred because Dolores, his wife, had a horrible toothache. The cost to get one pulled was between $35 and $50 US- too much for them to afford- especially after the medication.

I bought her some new medication and it helped- but today she is in pain again and needing it to be pulled soon...

While in the Colonias we heard of a young guy- 16 years old- who is the single breadwinner of his home. He broke his collarbone at work the other day. they cannot afford to go to a doctor. So what do they do? he can't work- and if he doesn't work - they don't eat...

Another little girl has some issues with her legs and is in need of crutches. She has been in need for months or years and finally, in the mail this or next week, will come the crutches she needs to be able to rehabilitate and be somewhat mobile.

Another lady is in need of medical work- and still another has a severe tear duct blockage which has resulted in a bad eye infection. She has found someone to help pay for her surgery- about $300.00 and so she'll be better soon...

The needs are huge- and this is only in one small church of about 35 people in one community!! It can be overwhelming at times to see the great needs and our limited resources.

As I finish re-reading my post I realize this... It looks kind of like a psalm in a way. At once I am lamenting the overwhelming needs of my friends and their friends, but as well I'm inadvertently sharing the blessings of God's provision of resources for others! The needs are huge, but our God is bigger! Please pray with us for the folks who have not yet had their Medical needs cared for- ask that He would be their provider!

And if you happen to know of anyone who has the abilities to doctor, nurse or dentist- Pray that they would be moved to lend their skills in service of the poor!!

God bless you all- thank you for your partnership with us...

Sharlene comes home tonight.... Praise God!

Until next time,

Mike for the family...

Shar's Recovery

Thanks for praying!

Sharlene had a great surgery! The worst part, she says, was waiting around for a LONG time for the surgery to begin!

In pre-op they froze her from the belly button down and gave her a pretty pink pill that made her feel "a little loopy" during the surgery. She could hear things that were going on, but is pretty sure she slept for at least part of it. Near the end she had a brilliant question to ask the Doctor, yet all she could seem to get out of her mouth were unintelligible gurgle sounds. She even heard herself do it- and wondered why she couldn't talk, but was not too overly concerned.

From the wait time, to pre-op, to operation, to the time they took her out of post-op to her room was 3 hours.


Sharlene was staying at the Health Resource Center in Calgary. Today (Friday) she will be out of hospital and on her way to Ponoka, Alberta to stay with a nurse friend for a week. They let her out a couple days earlier than she expected, and so she needed to do some rearranging of transportation to Ponoka, but it all worked out- Praise God!

She does not particularly like the pain-killers she is on- they make her mind a little foggy and she finds it difficult to think or make decisions, so they will be cutting her down a bit- hopefully the pain will be bearable!

She feels absolutely none of the hip pain she has lived with for almost 10 years only muscle pain from the surgery! She is doing well, her excercises are going well and she has been walking around the hallways already!

Thanks again for praying!!

BTW, My mother arrived safely and in good shape. She was up at 2:30am EDT to catch the shuttle to the Toronto Airport and she just went to bed at about 9pm PDT - Midnite her time- so hopefully she'll be able to get some rest tomorrow.

We truly appreciate you, our partners!

PS- Please pray for our finances this month!! I am importing and insuring 2 cars (total cost about $1600.00) Shar bought her blood thinner today at a cost of almost $500 and she'll need to fly back once more for a check up at an additional cost of about $400... We were given some generous gifts that have helped cover the cost of our Summer Support raising endeavour and our initial costs of returning and we are trusting God that he will supply all of our needs these next 2 months!

God bless you- thanks for partnering with us!

Mike