Falling into Fall
Dear
Friends and family,
I am
very sorry for the tardiness of this update. It seems our little family has
been struck with one thing after another and it has been very difficult for me
to get time to get to my computer. But I must say that through all of the
illness, hospitals, car troubles and changes God has been blessing us and the
ministry here.
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to
the bones.
I know
that you all are very curious to hear an update on Chello. He is recovering
very well from the surgery and is almost back to his old self. We have the
results from the mass removed from his abdomen and it was a neuroendocrine
tumor and it was in fact malignant. Because of this he has been visiting the
oncologist regularly , as well as specialists. They are fairly confident that
they removed all the cancer but he is going through testing now to make sure it
hasn’t popped up anywhere else. So far all tests have come back with good
numbers; but we are still waiting for some results. We are not really worried;
because ,as I have said so far, only good numbers and we both know that God
loves Chello and anything that come our way ,He will be going ahead of us.
But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears,
because they hear.
Chello
has not let anything (especially health) get in the way of ministry. He has
been discipling a group of young men; he hangs out with them, works out with
them and is really pouring himself into their lives. One of the young men,
Jano, has been suffering some severe persecution at home. It is hard for Jano
to get permission to come to church or Bible studies. It has been hard for
Chello to counsel Jano to listen to his parents and respect them when he knows
they are hurting their son. Please keep Jano in your prayers.
Another
exciting thing is we have launched a youth church service. On Saturday, the VK
church opened its doors early before teahouse to have the first official youth
service. We were blessed to have the youth from Lucenec (our planting church)
come and support us. There were 30 plus people there and we are praying that
God will bring those who desperately need to hear about Him. This coming
Saturday Chello will be preaching on “Jesus is the Savior”
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Because
I am mostly home with Zoe and we don’t have a babysitter here in VK, I have
been pretty limited in the ways I am able to serve; but I am accepting the
challenge. I have hosted a few Ladies Nights at my house, inviting the young
ladies from Teahouse and church.
I am
also mentoring three young ladies, all three are wonderful and all are dealing
with hard life issues. I realize that in this culture it is more challenging to
have this kind of relationship as Slovaks are less likely to be so open with
struggles, but God has been gracious in giving me the right words to dig deep
with them. Also they are all adults and getting them to commit to times to meet
outside of work and ministry is challenging; but God is blessing the
relationships and I am grateful to serve in this way.
Also
Chello and I have been very proactive in opening our home as often as we can.
We are constantly having people over for dinner, lunch or coffee. I am grateful
we can raise Zoe in an environment that is community driven and really using
all we have to serve.
Deuteronomy 31:8
The Lord is the one
who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake
you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Zoe in
the past two months has been to the doctor and hospital more times than I can
count. Our poor girl has had bronchitis, severe allergies and the stomach flu
on top of all her normal hospital visits. Right now she is healthy and doing
well, praise God.
At her
last check up in Bratislava for her heart the doctors said again that there was
no change in her condition (and that is good news) so they won’t be doing the
balloon procedure on her left pulmonary artery any time soon; our next checkup
won’t be until February. Also they have cleared her for the surgery on her
hernia, so we will be checking into the hospital in Banska Bystrica on November
2nd and they will do the surgery on the 3rd. We hope and
pray that this will be the last surgery that this darling little girl has to go
through.
Prayer Request
That the
Lord will lead our steps and we will let Him
For Jano
to have the freedom to go to church and a better relationship with his family
For
Chello as he speaks on Saturday that it will be God’s words flowing through him
and that there will be a good turnout of students
For
Zoe’s upcoming surgery and for wisdom and leading for her doctors
Thank
you all so much for your patience as I know I have not been very good at
communicating. I will try my hardest to be better. Thank you all for the
prayers you have sent up on our behalf as we have been going through some
challenging times. We really cannot thank you enough! We are blessed by you.
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