Of Recovery, Return, and Teeth

Just a few friends posing for the camera…

Recuperation

Just wanted to let you all know how thankful we are for your expressions of care for us this last week. We are so grateful for the prayers that were said on our behalf and for the notes that we received. I (Nate) still am experiencing daily fevers and some residual weakness and aches, but I am out of the woods and happy to see daily improvement. According to those in the know, we can expect that it will be 1-3 months before I am back at full strength so we are settling in for a bit of a long haul there. You can pray for encouragement and wisdom as we try to figure out how much we can take on and how to let some things go.

We’d also like to take a minute to publicly acknowledge the support personnel who were there for us in the emergency. From the mission doctor who took 2 am phone calls, to the pilot, supply and maintenance guys who dropped everything to get the helicopter ready for us, to the many folks who took turns to stay with me in the critical hours or to watch our kids so Elizabeth could. We are so very thankful for the great team here in PNG, truly we would not be able to be here without them.

Elias and his homemade boomerang…

Return

In light of the progress that we are making health wise, we are planning to return to Pal this week. Our preference would have been to give it one more week before taking back on the rigors of life in the jungle, but our mission helicopter is due for some maintenance and a rather complex modification that will put it out of service for the whole second half of May. We are looking forward to being able to be there for our new partners who have had to pretty much go it alone in Pal for two weeks. We are also looking forward to being in our own place and settling back into a routine as a family. You can be praying for our kids especially – the shock of seeing dad so seriously ill was pretty hard on them and we are seeking to help them through the transitions that have been coming at them so hard and fast.

A tender shoot – some decoration for our house – that we noticed recently

Teeth

So, in the midst of the rush of dealing with Dengue, Noah complained to Elizabeth about a strange blister in his mouth. What seemed to be a blister turned out to be an abscessed baby tooth. At the time that it happened, we were not aware of any dentists outside of the capital city. (Imagine having to go to Washington D.C. every time someone in your family got a toothache…) We checked around and were pretty sure that one of us would have to fly him down there to have the tooth removed. In His perfect timing though, God brought about another solution. I was about to buy tickets this afternoon when Elizabeth tried one last time to the SIL dental clinic located within driving distance… turns out the dentist just arrived last week from cross-cultural training and was willing to take us tomorrow! The financial and time savings are immense! We are so very thankful for the folks in the missions community here who have taken it upon themselves to care for us in Jesus’s name.

Thankful for you all,

Nate for us 5

Posted via email from PNG Time