Perplexed, but not in Despair

Thank you so much for praying for health as well as encouragement for us as we mentioned in our last update that we’d been going through some discouragement.  It may sound strange in light of the news in the rest of this update, but we have felt your prayers.  We certainly don’t always understand why God chooses to answer prayers in the way that He does, but we are learning daily to rest in the fact that God is quite a bit smarter than us, and also that He has a better plan than we do–always.

The region fair, evaluations, kick-offs, my (Jennifer’s) 8-day trip to another island to help with more evaluations, and welcoming the new language study family all went well and kept us busy in November.  We now have one student in stage 4 CLA (culture & language acquisition), 10 in stage 2, and 2 in stage 1 (the family who just came in November.)

The first week of December, Tyndale’s Henoch-Schonlein purpura symptoms, which had been mostly “quiet” since July, came roaring back.  Since then he has had 4 episodes of the “rash” (bleeding under the skin) over almost his entire body, accompanied by joint pain so severe that he hasn’t been able to walk for most of that time.  We have been in communication with specialists in Singapore, and at this point DJ is planning to make a trip there with Tyndale on the 29th of this month for an appointment with a pediatric immunologist who specializes in HSP.  We aren’t sure how long they may need to stay in Singapore in order to get the care Tyndale needs.  At the end of last week we were able to get a bunch of blood tests done that one of the doctors had recommended.  We are still waiting for the results of some of those, but they should all be done by the time Tyndale sees the doctor in Singapore.

Please pray:

–For healing for Tyndale.

–For wisdom for us as we seek out the care he needs.

–For provision of the extra finances needed to cover unexpected (to us, at least) travel and medical expenses to begin a new year that already promises to be full of many travel expenses.

–Continued mental and physical healing for me (Jennifer) as I think I might be dealing with some ongoing fatigue and depression after my last bout of dengue fever back in August.

–Some much-needed rest and family time over the kids’ Christmas vacation–Dec 17-Jan 7.

Thanks so much for your prayers, Friends.