The rains have finally, mostly let up, and dry season is here. Vann has been able to finish many of the projects that he set out to do before we leave for our furlough at the end of this month. The goal is to get the base running more or less on autopilot while we’re gone for the families that will be living here, and for all of the farm animals to survive the dry season without us. In order to accomplish that goal, Vann has installed automatic watering troughs for the horses and cows, built a new pen for the dogs, put in a new fence/pasture for the horses to hopefully have enough grass while keeping them away from the neighbor’s laundry line! He has built a parking shed to keep the farm vehicles and the neighbor’s car out of the sun, and finally hooked up the new septic systems that he built earlier this year, and the list goes on and on. In the midst of all of our own projects, he took a couple of weeks to do a demo/remodel project for SAM academy along with some of the other fathers. I am just so very proud how hard he works with such a servant’s spirit.
During all of the busy, we’ve taken him for a CT scan per the urologist’s request.
It just so happens that the cause of the massive pain in his abdomen is a 12mm stone in his left kidney. That is a dangerous and un-passable size, and he will need surgery. There is not enough time left before our trip though, so we will schedule it on our return to Lima, and hope and pray that it doesn’t move before then. We are trusting that God will provide the finances for it, and give him the strength to handle the pain until then.
End-of-school-year events have kept us on our toes! Corynn and Ethan went on a mission’s trip up river on the Ucayali with all of the SAM academy high school along with a local church. They helped put on an outreach program for the children of a small community. They had a blast, and came home tired, and quite sunburned!
Field Day is always a fun challenge for our kiddos, and they slayed it again this year!
The SAM academy drama class is presenting “Beauty and the Beast” this week.
Corynn is Mrs. Pots, Ethan is LeFou, and Clara is one of the three “silly girls”. They have worked so hard and have done an exceptional job! Also, a huge shout out to my mother for making the costumes for me before she left – she saved my life, and did a beautiful job!
Ethan’s birthday was last month, and he is now fifteen years old! He is most certainly taller than me now, and one of our first stops Stateside is going to need to be for some clothes! We are so very proud of the young man that he is, and are praying that he stays close to Jesus. We will be taking both him and Corynn to get their driver’s permits this summer! I am not ready.
This time of year always gives us the opportunity to celebrate Easter, Mother’s Day, and our wedding anniversary. 19 years this year! We are so crazy blessed to serve a risen savior, to be gifted with children that are following Him, and to get to do it all together for all of these years, and Lord willing, many more to come!
Thank you for your prayers for Milka – our house helper. She has had a difficult journey to healing after her surgery with a massive post-op infection, but thank God, she is healing – albeit slowly. Her husband, Edgar, was also recently hospitalized, and has been diagnosed with diabetes. Please pray for the extra financial burdens that they are carrying right now, and that God will use this crisis in their lives to bring Edgar to a saving knowledge of Christ.
We very much look forward to seeing so many of you soon! Please pray for travel mercies as we have over 11,000 miles to drive, stops in sixteen States, presentations in ten churches, and we will be touring ten universities along the way, all in ten short weeks! Our time is so limited, but if you would like to schedule something with us, please, please reach out and contact me! Forgive me in advance if we miss visiting with you, or if when we do get a chance to see each other, I’m only half awake, and my eyes are a bit glazed over. Please know that it’s the hard schedule that is our summer, and not you! Please pray for my blood clots as we travel – I don’t handle pain as well as Vann does, and having to stop every couple of hours to walk around will slow us down considerably. This trip/furlough will be wonderful and very difficult all at the same time!
Thank you all for your prayers, and to those of you who so faithfully give, may the Lord bless you abundantly!
“The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way.” – Oswald Chambers