After so many updates filled with uncertainty, I’m excited to be writing this update filled with good news and more concrete plans. Knowing of course, we hold all things loosely to allow God to lead as He wills.
Joe’s recovery is going great! He is off all prescription meds and is just taking herbal heart health remedies. In August he started working 1-2 half days a week and has worked up to doing 20ish hours now, slowly regaining strength. For him it’s been tedious, but honestly compared to many others that have had the unbridging surgery, he’s way ahead of schedule in recovery. God has been so good to us in this.
After hours of both Joe and I trying to schedule follow up testing, we’ve finally accepted that we will have to wait longer than we thought. The soonest he can see the cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic is in January (Stanford was March), but our family doctor scheduled his CT scan in December to speed up the final testing process. So, if everything shows up healed properly, it looks like we will be heading to Brazil in February!
A hidden blessing in this delay is that we should be able to work enough to get our medical expenses paid down before we return. It also gives us a bit more time to visit our supporters and hopefully gain a few new ones. As always, we can’t thank you enough for your prayers and support. God has blessed us beyond measure and we look forward to serving Him in Brazil again soon!
Prayer Requests
- Praise God! He has provided the follow-up tests for Joe’s surgery! Joe is off all meds and recovering well.
- Praise God! He has provided Joe and I good jobs to help pay off our medical expenses.
- Please continue to pray for Joe, that his follow up tests show that everything is perfect and that we can return to Brazil in February. For his continued regaining of lost strength and recovery.
- Please be praying for God’s provision, that we could get back up to our 75% or more monthly support. Since we lost some support this year and our budget increased we are now at 70%.
- Please pray for our Visa paperwork process. We are working on gathering everything we need and it usually takes a few months to get everything together to submit.
- Please pray for Liam. Erin is taking a hands on class in November on craniosacral therapy which has been shown to help a lot with autism. Pray it helps him with some pain and other issues. After we returned in May he wouldn’t talk to Erin for 9 days, this year has been hard for him with lots of moving and changes.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
Psalm 40:3
Thank you,
Joe & Erin