Dear Friends and Supporters,
Greetings from Florida. We want to thank you all for your prayers. Hurricane Ernesto, downgraded to a tropical storm, blew north, up the Florida peninsula, last week. We escaped most of the promised wind and rain for which we praise the Lord. These storms always stir up memories of what many of our neighbors suffered during Hurricane Charlie and Frances two years ago, right after we moved here, so we always await with a kind of dread wondering if it will be our time to suffer damage.
A week ago, Monday morning, Jackie’s mom, Mrs. Jackson, was very weak and her speech was slurred. Jackie decided to call the ambulance instead of trying to get her mom in our car for the trip to the hospital. Depending on which doctor you talked to, her problem varied. One did not believe that she had a stroke. Her regular doctor was not so sure. She does have congestive heart failure and three liters of fluid were taken off her heart and lungs. She spent a number of days in ICU, but she recover enough so that she was given a regular room on Thursday and we were able to bring her home on Friday night. Mrs. Jackson joked on Monday that this is her holiday trip to the hospital. She spent last Christmas there and now as she looked forward to all her children being here for Labor Day she was going there again. We are thankful she is back home with us. She is still very weak so please pray that she will recover her strength soon.
We praise the Lord Heather was not injured in a hit and run accident last Thursday night. She was driving to a friend’s house when a pickup truck with two people in the back came barreling out of a side street, sideswiped her car and drove off quickly. Heather said the ones in the back were laughing at her. She was a bit shook up, but not hurt and the car was still drivable so she drove into a parking lot to wait for the police and us. We taped the mirror back on with duct tape as best we could so she could still drive to work and to classes at Seminole Community College, which started last week. Insurance will pay for most of the repairs so today (Tuesday) we dropped the car off at the repair shop. In the mean time, she gets to drive a rental car until hers is fixed.
Work is going well. There is always much to be done in the old building that houses most of the mission’s offices and many of our home staff missionaries. We are thankful for two more men who have joined our maintenance team. Please pray for our safety in the many jobs we have to do to see our building maintained so that the Gospel might get to all the tribes around the world where the mission works without interruption.
Jackie continues to work in the Field Ministry Office when she is not running her mom or Cody and Haley about town. She is still teaching school in the mission school and has added another math class to her schedule.
Keep praying for Bolivia. We were told that the new president is doing a lot to help the native people, but not so much to help some of the smaller groups. We hear that he is really cracking down on corruption in the government, too. Our missionaries will probably be able to stay in the country, though some of their work may become much more difficult. Just pray that they can finish the job that God sent them there to do.
We do want to say thank you for your prayers and support each month. We appreciate you thinking of us and our ministry with New Tribes Mission. You truly are a part of the team reaching tribal people with the Gospel. Thanks and God bless.
Phil
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