Greetings!
I cannot believe it is already April 13th! So much for this being the March update! Seriously though, Mary’s parents returned from the U.S. on April 6th and we are just now getting things caught up and into a “normal” routine!
March was a much quieter month for us overall, which was a welcome blessing after the insanity of February! The majority of the month consisted of normal routine Children’s Home work which, believe it or not, will keep you hopping for about 24.5 hours a day! Mary was feeling quite a bit better and with the help of the medicine the doctor put her on the contractions were mostly under control. She was supposed to be on partial bed rest but since the doctor didn’t give me a padlock to keep her in the room that was a moot point. She handled all of the laundry for the kids and we both worked together on the cooking. There were up and down moments including some problems with a few of the kids but God used them to bring about more harmony and peace within the home in the long run.
One notable exception to our scheduling bliss was a last minute trip to the States to pick up a 15 passenger van that was donated to the Children’s Home by a wonderful church in Kentucky. One of the van’s at the Home is on the verge of death, well to be honest it is already dead and simply being kept alive by life support, and needed to be replaced. Mary’s parents had picked up the donated van in the U.S. while they were traveling and parked it in Indianapolis but they did not have a way to get it here so that the Home could begin to use it. So Jake and I drove to the border on Saturday with plans to fly out to Indianapolis on a Monday early in the morning and pick the van up. The day before we left little Sam was running a fever of around 103 degrees and so we took him to the doctor and they gave him an antibiotic. We didn’t think much about it because he was on an antibiotic and assumed he would get better. On Sunday when Jake and I were at the border I called Mary to check on everything and found out that Sam was getting much worse. She had taken him to the General Hospital Saturday night and he was running a fever of 105 degrees. They had given him a cold bath and brought his fever down, gave him additional meds and sent him home but by the time she got him home his fever was back up. Sunday night she took him to the Special Hospital (private) because his fever seemed higher and he was hallucinating even worse than Saturday. At the hospital he was running a 105.7 degree fever and the doctor said that he had a severe infection. He took him off all the meds he was on and placed him on several new high-powered medicines. He said that we would know overnight if the infection was responding or getting worse. Needless to say we didn’t sleep that night! We were trying to decide whether I need to fly back down and be with Sam or go on to Indianapolis and get the van. After praying about it we decided to wait until morning to see if he was responding to the meds before making any decisions. When we landed in Houston and called Mary she said that his fever was down to 103 degrees and he was doing much better! The rest of the trip went like clockwork and we were back at the Children’s Home on Wednesday night. I have never felt more helpless than I did sitting there knowing my son was so sick and I couldn’t hold him or do anything to help him but then I remembered that God was in control. God was sovereignly in control of the whole situation. As parent’s we like to think that we know what is best for our kids or that we know how to take care of them best but the truth is that God is in control and He is capable of taking much better care of our kids then we ever could dream of. Whether we are right there beside our child or a million miles away the best thing we can do is to pray for them, definitely one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn!
Once again the oil pan on our Jetta cracked! Thankfully we noticed right away and there was no engine damage! The Lord provided the funds to fix it right away and it was up and running again with two days which was a real blessing. Please continue to pray that, in the Lord’s timing, He provides a vehicle better suited for the road conditions here.
Everything else is going great! Mary has about five weeks left in her pregnancy although the doctor said that the baby is very big and should come early (but not early enough for Mary I am sure)! Now that Mary’s parent’s are back we will be living at the Home from Tuesday night to Friday night and helping out many of the other days as well as continuing to focus on learning Spanish. Mary and I will continue to teach the Tuesday night women’s and teen’s class at church while her dad teaches the men. The biggest project for the month of April is going to be finishing the boy’s addition at the Children’s Home. Tomorrow we start pouring the floor and Lord willing by the end of the month it will be getting close to ready to go.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and words of encouragement as well as your faithful financial giving which allows us to be here on the field preaching the Gospel, learning Spanish, and ministering to the kids at the Children’s Home. We are thankful for each and every one of you. Everything we do here is an extension of what you are doing to allow us to be here glorifying Christ in Mexico.
Please continue to pray:
– For our Spanish speaking abilities!
– For a vehicle that would be better suited for the driving condition here.
– For the Children’s Home and Church here is Jerez.
– For the work the Lord has for us in Oaxaca. We are working on the paperwork necessary to be able to live in Oaxaca and preach for an extended time but the process is time-consuming and difficult.
– For Mary and Baby Jack as we count down the last few weeks until his arrival! For both of their health and for the paperwork processes for Jack’s citizenship to go smoothly.
– For the financial support needed to be here on the field.
In Christ,
Nathan, Mary, Sam, & Jack