Dear Friends!
How we thank the Lord for you, and for your prayers on our behalf. I keep thinking I will give a different kind of report each month, but the needs in our family seem to trump it each time!
I will add that last this time, and give you a report from one of our first students in the missionary training. He is serving in Colombia and Jack writes:
“This month has just about gotten away from me. It started with a bang. In the first week of August I was jarred out of a sound sleep when something crashed onto the top of the mosquito net that covers my bed. Happy, my dog, got all excited and started barking, so I knew that the author of the noise had to be something quite alive! And was it ever! I shot out of bed and hit the light switch. There clinging to the mosquito net was a huge possum! My house has a lowered ceiling and she had fallen through it onto the bed! Of course the fall scared her and she started spraying a musky smell all over the mosquito net which of course sifted on down to me and the bedding! “How do I know it was a female?” you’re probably asking. After I grabbed up a machete and Happy and I finally got it cornered and I had disposed of it, I discovered that it had five baby possums in a pouch on its stomach. So I guess you could say that six possums fell onto my bed! Possums are a nasty scourge out here in the Sticks. They stink to high heaven and get into everything that they can possibly get access to. How many of you knew that possums had a kangaroo type pouch that they kept their babies in? I didn’t know that! How many of you knew that they can spray like a skunk? It just doesn’t stink as bad. Of course I don’t consider myself a “possum expert”. But I’ll say this, “I know a lot more about them now!”
In August each year there is a big fair here and Indians from all over to sell their wares. So we’ve had a lot more Indian traffic this month than normal, and have seen some Nukak people that we rarely see. That has been nice! They hang their hammocks in the park (or wherever) and pretty much camp out for the duration of the fair. “Public facilities” aren’t a readily available commodity here in the Sticks, so I had a lot of folks showing up at my house asking to use my facilities, if you get my drift! It’s sort of amusing, as they’ll show up and a common greeting among them in English would be, “what brings you here?” I would ask them that and they always would say, “Oh, I just came to see you.” But ultimately when they couldn’t stand it any longer they would say with strain in their voices, “can I use your bathroom?!?” Sometimes they just want something to drink. Sometimes they want to take a shower. And sometimes they really do just come to visit. So you just never know till they clarify! It has been a fun month!
Praise the Lord with me:
· for my mosquito net and that the possum didn’t actually end up in bed with me! They have nasty teeth and can give you a nasty bite, and with all the garbage they eat I shudder to think what infections one could get!
- for the opportunities to spend time with Nukak that we rarely see
· for progress in language studies
· for God’s grace and provision
Please pray with me:
· for discipline and encouragement with my language studies – I truly am NOT a natural scholar!
· for continued opportunities to be an encouragement and light to the Nukak
· for continued safety and good health
Thanks for remembering Jack in your prayers. He has really stuck with it for years and years working on the Nukak language and culture.
Speaking of “sticking with it” our Beka is hanging in there. She has been so sick with all day morning sickness,( SEE Hyperemesis Gravidearlarum), and the subsequent loss of fluids, she was spending a bit of time in the ER at the hospital where she used to work! She was there again a weekend ago after a shopping trip with her sister, Amy, and ended up going by ambulance with her blood pressure at 66/30. So, please pray for her, and for Cody as they hang on through these bouts of sickness, and the many bills these visits to the ER are creating Presently her OB has just said to “schedule it” to come in twice a week for IV fluids! That is helping! They did find out the gender of little Burns this weekend, A bouncing baby Boy will join their family in February!
Amy and Hector are in Eastern Oregon doing Ministry Partnership Development. They spent a long weekend with the Burns, but about 2 hours out on their way home, their van broke down! OH NO! God is in control, and we trust He will do amazing things on their behalf! They spent some time in Kennewick, WA with former members and friends of Ethnos360, and then Cody picked them up to return to his house in Spokane Valley. They returned to Haines, Oregon last weekend in time for Hector to share in their sending church. God is providing for a new vehicle. Please pray they will find the right one.
Dad Heckman is back out of the hospital (after another week+ long stay). He has a great attitude, and is plugging away with PT and OT. Pray for healing of his wound, and the infections he continues to fight. He has a new Facebook page if you want to see it! Frank Heckman is his name. Let him know you’re praying for him! Last week, Mom was in the hospital for an overnight of observation. It turns out she was dehydrated again, and that caused some other complications. Pray we can keep her hydrated. Some days she refuses to drink.
Life is always full of adventures when you walk with the Lord! Sometimes it is something falling on your bed, and sometimes it is a vehicle breakdown! But in all the drama of our life, God is in Control, and His loving Hands guide us along the paths He wants us to travel!
Thank you so very much for your support in prayer and friendship. We are so thankful for the many ways God uses YOU in our lives! Thank you. We are encouraged in our walk with Him.
In His Grip,
George and Linda Heckman
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