Lipok and Sanni

We have been spending a lot of time the past couple of weeks with Lipok and Sanni, planning and structuring the new prayer ministry here. This couple is incredibly precious to us. She is from Germany and he is from Nagaland. They have both worked several years with a House of Prayer in Delhi and have committed to starting a prayer ministry in our city now. We are so excited. As we have gathered together and started seeking God concerning this ministry, we are truly looking forward to the weeks and months to come. We all have a heart for worship and prayer, as well as reaching out to our city in practical ways, so we are looking at a schedule that will include both prayer and outreach. We have also been searching for a building that we can be working out of. We have between 28-30 staff right now (which is more than we've ever had) and so we are in need of more housing anyway. We are still continuing to run the same training programs that we always do, but we are expanding with this new ministry as well as in mumber of those who want to join and work with us. It's really a neat time and we are very thankful for all of the quality people that surround us.

There are so many things going on and so many stories to tell. The pictures haven't been uploading today and it's a little frustrating. I've updated some pictures of our time in the States in the "my pictures" link, they're mostly of our families.

Beverley's birthday is on Saturday and we are going to Lipok and Sanni's house to celebrate. Here in Shillong it's cheaper to buy a live chicken (85 rupees, a little under two dollars) than it is to buy it de-feathered, so Lipok and Sunny are going to show me how to kill and de-feather it. This is a true adventure for me as I was a vegetarian for about 14 years and only started cooking meat after getting married. When they first told me about it, I had imagined a headless chicken running around, with lots of blood spurting all over the kitchen. But they told me that there is a way to break it's backbone and it dies suddenly. So let's see, maybe in the days to come I will have many interesting pictures to share with you all.

Dave has been super busy these days and he is happy that way. He gave the message at church on Sunday and did a good job, I'm quite biased though. He will be leaving on Friday for a few days for some meetings in a different city, so he'll miss out on the chicken adventure.

Toshi

Toshi is a very good friend of Dave's. He has known and worked extensively with him for about 7 years and considers him to be one of his closest friends here. He has been very sick for the past few months and I just wanted to post a few excerpts from some e-mails that our friends were sending out for the sake of prayer.

As soon as Dave found out how serious it was, he got off the phone and wept. The next day he went and visited him to pray for him and check on Toshi and his family. He said that he has never seen him look this thin and sick before. (He's not been able to eat anything since January.)It has been pretty bad. At one point Toshi couldn't remember the name of his two children. There have been quite a few times that he couldn't have any sort of pain medication because of the nature of his injuries and surgeries and has been in great pain. We have been praying for him and would just ask that you would remeber him as well.

Again, the following are excerpts from some e-mails that our friends have sent out...

Dec. 9th

We have a special request...a close friend of ours here in Guwahati just found out yesterday that he needs to have a gallbladder operation. His name is Toshi, and we've known him for the last six years or so through Y*AM. He's having gall stones, and it looks likesome stones have already come out and he's at risk of jaundice. Hehas already talked to a doctor whom he knows personally and who iswilling to do the operation for the minimum expense, which comes to around Rs.25,000...that is, about $570. They don't have any money to do this, and have asked us to forward this request to anyone who might help. They're hoping to do the operation sometime next week, since that's the soonest the doctor is available. Please pray that Toshi won't have any further complications before he can do the operation next week and if you would like to help contribute towards the cost, please reply to us and we will let you know how.


Dec. 20th

I wanted to give you an update on our friend Toshi who had his gallbladder surgery. The operation went well, though there were complications because of a prior appendix removal that was not done properly several years ago. After 4 hours of surgery, he is recovering and actually coming home today. He's a bit sad that he'll never be able to enjoy the Indian pork curries again that he's so fond of...but as they say here, "kya karega" What to do! :)
I can't tell you enough how grateful and overwhelmingly blessed Toshi is by all your prayers and support for him. Without your help, this kind of operation would have put him into serious debt that would have taken years to recover from. He is such a good friend of ours, and to see the way that God provided for his needs and then some, is amazing for us to witness as well! Thank you...

Feb. 11th

Please continue to pr*y for our friend Toshi who had the gallbladder surgery in December. He was recovering well, but about 3 weeks ago,he took a turn for the worse. He's been in the hospital for the last 2 weeks unable to eat or drink anything, and has become extremely weak. Joshua & I visited him yesterday, and they had just gotten the results from the latest tests which showed that there is an obstruction in his intestinal area which is preventing him from eating anything. He needs another operation to remove the blockage and will hopefully have it in the next day or two. Please pr*y that the operation will go smoothly and that he will recover quickly!! Toshi had the operation on Feb. 12th in the Satribari Hospital here in Guwahati and is still there now. They needed to do extensive repair on his intestines and he was under for almost 4 hours again. It's been a week and a half now and he's surviving only on an IV since he's unable to take any food or water by mouth. They tried water 2 days ago, but it was not staying in his intestines, so they're going to wait a few more days hoping that the stitches will heal a bit more and try again. He shared with Joshua & I that the money he was blessed with for the previous operation is finished and they are now in debt to the hospital around Rs.70,000 ($1600) as of today. This includes the last operation to remove the blockage in his intestines, staying in the hospital for almost 1 month now, and the IV saline & nutritional supplements that's keeping him alive. Please do pray for Toshi, and if you would like to help contribute towards his medical bills, please let us know.

small catastrophe

We stopped in Thailand for a couple of days to meet some friends, and to get some dental work done and I thought that I would get a haircut while we were there because it's cheaper and they usually do a good job. So I go to a salon sort of place that I've been before, and waited for awhile until a hairdresser was free.

While I was waiting, I looked through a few magazines and picked out a picture of what I wanted my hair to look like, something sort of shoulder length. My hair had grown quite long and I wanted a few inches off. So I show the lady the picture and she looks at it and then starts cutting. A few minutes later, my stomach starts to hurt as she cuts more and more and more inches off. I just kept thinking of my poor husband who I had to beg to even cut my hair, period.

Minutes go by, and she's still cutting and using a razor sort of thing and I feel like I'm nearly going to cry. I ended up just closing my eyes until she was finished. I tried real hard to smile at her and say thank you, but my stomach was seriously hurting. I have never had my hair this short since being a baby, and I leave the salon dreading the moment when I see my husband, so scared about what he is going to say.

He was incredibly gracious and kind and said he would love me no matter what my hair looked like. But still, it was a small catastrophe. It sure is a lot easier to take care of here, but it makes me real nervous whenever I see myself in the mirror. Dave keeps telling me that it's going to grow back, so I guess everything is going to be ok.

there and back again

We are safely back in Shillong after a busy couple of months. We were so happy and privileged to be able to come home and visit with both of our families during the Holiday Season and to have a time of rest and refreshing. We have definitely had a tremendous amount of adventures and blessings along the way and our hearts are full. At the same time we are happy to be back in our home, unpacked with our slippers on.

Life here certainly did not stop while we were gone and so we come back to a great flurry of activities and to really cold weather as well. The Discipleship Training School is running and there are 14 students from all over the Northeast taking part in it, plus we have a large number of staff that have joined in the past few months. We have been meeting with another couple about a new prayer ministry that we are starting here and we are all really excited about that.

So we have been back for a couple of days and have been trying to clean our house, unpack, meet with all of the staff, and just get adjusted to the time difference.