Tuesday, April 17
I want to keep everyone updated, but I don't want to be a bother. Everything is going well according to the doctor, and he is more than pleased. He has removed all restrictions concerning activities and diet, so I am on the mend. At the most, this has been an inconvenience with minor repercussions. It was bothersome for the first week, and I still have a few sore places to date, but considering what they would have done just a few years ago, this is nothing. The only "problem" I have had has been snapping back to normal. Six days after surgery, I developed the beginnings of an nasal infection which threw me for a loop. As the doctor checked me in the other day, he asked if I had been taking the antibiotic. I answered "Yes" and Cheyenne answered "No." Come to find out, when she called him, he was leaving town, so they were unable to meet to get the prescription (no, the doctor cannot just call the pharmacy). He told Cheyenne to put me on a medicine to break up the mucus and to hold off on the antibiotic. So I thought I was fighting the infection with antibiotics and he had decided to see how I would do without the extra medication. Anyway, I struggled all week to feel like I was climbing out of the problem, so I was a little disappointed it took so long.
While everything is healing up, I am enjoying breathing. Yes, I have a runny nose like an allergy, but both day and night I am able to breathe. For years I have made comments to Ann that I would awaken feeling like I had sucked air through a straw all night. OK, I am a man. Something should have said to me that it wasn't right, but I have battled allergies since arriving here in 1983. Now, I often pause and take an extra large breath just to feel the air rush through the passages. WOW. According to the doctor, I haven't seen the true effects yet. It will take a total of 4-6 weeks for all of this to heal. After that,we can start to talk about the real measurable differences. I can't wait. PRAYER: Please to continue to pray that I can get ALL of my strength back. As is, I can do half a day's work and I am shot. I am not used to that.
We had a very good day at church with a regular attendance plus two very new visitors. Juan returned for a second week and brought his girl friend. It is really good that he was very good friends with at least four of our members as they went through school together. That opens the door for him by not walking into a room of strangers. He said he was so happy coming and can't wait until next week (he is unsaved but very open). His girl friend was a different story. You must realize that it has been anathema for years to be caught in a "protestant" church, and she was obviously aware she was in a different situation. There are no idols in our church (we have even been asked, "Well, what do you worship then?"), no gold, no ceremony, just good singing and preaching of the Word of God. She paid close attention but would not contribute by copying the signs or agreeing with the preaching. As soon as we shook hands, she bounded out the back door and remained outside waiting for her boy friend. She was very kind and pleasant, but very uncomfortable. He was meanwhile sitting in between ten or eleven guys chatting about the message. PRAYER: Pray that both of them will come to know the Lord, and although she was uncomfortable at first, that she will warm up enough to truly listen to the Gospel.
The trip home was a real trial. I was worn out (two hours travel to the church, two hour service, chatting, discipling, counseling and then a two hour trip home). When we board the bus towards home, we never know how the driver will react. Some will take off like they are already late. Our driver Sunday drove at about 30 mph all the way to our village. Instead of about an hour, the trip took almost two hours from the bus station to home. So I am recuperating and learning how to do things at short spurts instead of all out attacking them. So I read two emails today and the server quit connecting. I just read it was a problem at Google which they have fixed, but it sure put the hurts on my connection. Thank you so much for your interest and your prayers. Do pray the Lord will allow us to continue to be used of Him for His glory;
Gary & Ann
While everything is healing up, I am enjoying breathing. Yes, I have a runny nose like an allergy, but both day and night I am able to breathe. For years I have made comments to Ann that I would awaken feeling like I had sucked air through a straw all night. OK, I am a man. Something should have said to me that it wasn't right, but I have battled allergies since arriving here in 1983. Now, I often pause and take an extra large breath just to feel the air rush through the passages. WOW. According to the doctor, I haven't seen the true effects yet. It will take a total of 4-6 weeks for all of this to heal. After that,we can start to talk about the real measurable differences. I can't wait. PRAYER: Please to continue to pray that I can get ALL of my strength back. As is, I can do half a day's work and I am shot. I am not used to that.
We had a very good day at church with a regular attendance plus two very new visitors. Juan returned for a second week and brought his girl friend. It is really good that he was very good friends with at least four of our members as they went through school together. That opens the door for him by not walking into a room of strangers. He said he was so happy coming and can't wait until next week (he is unsaved but very open). His girl friend was a different story. You must realize that it has been anathema for years to be caught in a "protestant" church, and she was obviously aware she was in a different situation. There are no idols in our church (we have even been asked, "Well, what do you worship then?"), no gold, no ceremony, just good singing and preaching of the Word of God. She paid close attention but would not contribute by copying the signs or agreeing with the preaching. As soon as we shook hands, she bounded out the back door and remained outside waiting for her boy friend. She was very kind and pleasant, but very uncomfortable. He was meanwhile sitting in between ten or eleven guys chatting about the message. PRAYER: Pray that both of them will come to know the Lord, and although she was uncomfortable at first, that she will warm up enough to truly listen to the Gospel.
The trip home was a real trial. I was worn out (two hours travel to the church, two hour service, chatting, discipling, counseling and then a two hour trip home). When we board the bus towards home, we never know how the driver will react. Some will take off like they are already late. Our driver Sunday drove at about 30 mph all the way to our village. Instead of about an hour, the trip took almost two hours from the bus station to home. So I am recuperating and learning how to do things at short spurts instead of all out attacking them. So I read two emails today and the server quit connecting. I just read it was a problem at Google which they have fixed, but it sure put the hurts on my connection. Thank you so much for your interest and your prayers. Do pray the Lord will allow us to continue to be used of Him for His glory;
Gary & Ann
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