September 2021
Psalm 89:1 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
Dear Praying Friends,
God is so good. He has blessed us with health and with His goodness. We will continue to sing His praises as long as we are able. I am not sure what has happened, but I have lost several posts on our blog and several letters for our churches. I will try to find them and find out what has happened.
Through the blog you have probably learned that Ann was taken to the doctor the end of August. She had been complaining of pain in her abdomen. The doctor discovered a large “balloon” of liquid which he could move back and forth. He sent her immediately to the ER (a few dozen steps away) for further examination. There they discovered he ruptured appendix and damage to her colon. We were informed she would be going into surgery promptly. We were concerned because the damage to her colon could cause her to have major surgery with long-lasting results. The doctor removed her appendix, sutured her colon and sent her to her room with instructions to eat and drink nothing. Any action in her colon could still have caused the major operation. For four days my wife accepted the necessary requirements. Two different doctors were monitoring her oxygen levels because they occasionally dropped into the 60’s. They would put her on oxygen, she would build back up and when they took the oxygen off, she would go back down. She was supposed to be released the following day (Sunday). Saturday afternoon X-rays showed that she had pneumonia in her right lung. So she stayed another four days. Praise God for the good work of the staff because either of these problems could have become very dangerous. She is now recuperated, but she is slower in recovering all her strength. Thank you for your prayers.
We have been back and forth many times with the “red light” on COVID and several other colors. At Easter time, we were in red and everything closed. The week of Easter, EVERYONE goes to the beach. So miraculously, the Tuesday before Easter we went from red to green. After the holidays, we went right back to red again. If seemed a little bit doubtful that everyone got healed in time for vacation. Churches are now open but they have been closed again until two weeks ago. What has happened is that even many of even the “faithful” have become lazy in the attendance to church. They seem anxious to return but “something” always comes along. This is one of the many problems with having everything closed so long.
Gary is still teaching through PowerPoint once or twice a week (depends on how long the lesson is). It is really a laborious project. The passage is studied and prepared as a lesson. It is then put into a visualization of the concepts. Between each “slide” the concept is taught in sign language. Those we are studying are doing well with the system. Although we cannot see them physically, we are able to stay in contact with them.
The other important news is that the mission where we have stayed and where we keep our storage building has sold the property. They, like us, we flooded out more than once and have felt led of the Lord to change locations. The property is absolutely in a flood zone. It hasn’t been for years, but something changed and even folks who bought or built homes nearby cannot believe that now they receive water with almost every hard rain. The mission is moving to a nearby city to get to higher ground. We must remove our things and find a new storage place. We are so thankful that for 38 years they have helped us, allowed us to keep a storage building and trailer on their property. Please pray as they move their entire ministry several miles away and for us to be able to find storage for our things.
We thank God for your faithfulness in praying and supporting our ministry. God knows what is happening worldwide. Pray as we try to reach the deaf for Him.
For DEAF souls in Mexico,
Gary & Ann Layne
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