 February Newsletter '13
Greetings,
So let me begin with apologies… in my 10 years of writing prayer letters every month, this is the first time that I've literally been too busy to find the time to stop and sit down and draft our monthly prayer letter. Folks, its been frantic, hectic, no sleep, not-enough-hours-in-the-day-crazy-pants busy! But all good! I believe the culprits were the Christmas season events, and an unfortunate accident here on campus; allow me to explain…
______________
"RYAN!!!… RYAAAAAN!!!"
This was the call I heard echoing across campus almost 5 weeks ago. I thought, "what could that be making so much noise… is that my name?" I walked outside to see my Boy's Dorm Parent, Dale, slumped up against his car. "What?" I shouted. He lifted his head and hollered back, "I just cut off my foot!"
Its amazing how slow your brain seems to process emergency information, it felt like I froze for a full minute. Then, I dashed back into the house. Dale, saw me running, but running back into the house, so he was a little confused. I ran back in to get a belt to use as a tourniquet; if he did cut off his foot, he's probably only got minutes before the bleeding kills him.
As I raced back out towards him, his wife (who is from Mexico) was chasing towards me with the baby in her arms, shouting something to me in Spanish. We passed each other and I arrived on the scene. So, not as bad as I thought it was, but not good either. Dale had basically ran the skill saw right into the middle of his foot, fully cutting off his big toe, which was left hanging by a thread inside his sock.
The next 6 hours saw us going to 3 clinics on the island, and an emergency care flight out to Nassau. Accidents like this are a dreadful reminder of how far away we live from medical care. Now after 4 weeks of healing, Dale's toe is back on, but still painfully healing slowly.
So, when I thought that there's no way I could add more to my scheduled of being a full time Vice Principal, Campus Coordinator, Science Teacher, Administrator, Bible College Leader, and Local Pastor, I'm also the new Boy's Dorm Parent.
Please keep Dale and his family in your prayers. He has been a champion through all of this. And please pray for the school and our family and we're completely maxed out and leaning on the promises of God every moment of every day.
Click HERE for a picture of the Dale's missing toe - [WARNING DISTURBING IMAGE]
______________
Checkout the Website for What's Been Happening
To save space in this prayer letter, I'm just going to attach the links to the last 2 month's worth of updates. Please check them out if you wish to see what we've been up to.
December 5th - The Windermere Christmas Choir (they did great)
December 18th - Our Staff Christmas Parties and School Christmas Program
December 25th - Christmas Morning
December 27th - Kari and her new fiancé, Jimmy, visiting Eleuthera
January 14th - Preaching in Spanish Wells - by Emily
January 25th - New Missionaries
January 27th - Micah's First Junkanoo, and character-building for Emily - by Emily
______________
Update
Our household has just been so busy. Last night Emily was making 5 pumpkin rolls for a banquet tonight, cake for a birthday today, 3 dozen cake-pops for Micah's class today, and 5 batches of "heart-cookies" for tomorrow.
I attended a Vice Principal's meeting yesterday for the upcoming basketball season… we'll see if the boys can get motivated to play this time… but that's starting up on Monday next week for me.
Micah is doing great. He is reading sentences in school, and he is a genius with scissors and cutting (who knew?!). He draws me pictures and does great just being a little boy. Last night he prayed at dinner and it basically went something like: "God thank you for helping me obey my mommy and daddy and help me to love my friends at school. Amen." We just love him!
There are countless other things that have been occupying our energy these last two months, some good some bad. God has given us the grace to continue to put our family first even in the midst of all there is to do. Please pray for us, that we'd continue to make God #1 in our lives and that He would continue to be kind to us as we serve Him here, helping us to thrive as we're getting-by.
To all our supporters, thank you so much. Some of you have given above and beyond, and with a few mounting bills from the end of last year, the Lord has provided exactly what we've needed. We're so thankful for you and blessing you are in our lives to not only give financially, but to continue to life us up in prayer - thank you for being on mission with us.
______________
Prayers and Praises
Praise for Dale's toe being saved
Praise for God's provision in our lives and ministry
Praise for all the ways we've been able to invest our lives in the schools and communities on Eleuthera
Pray for a recent accident involving 3 players on my night-league basketball team. They were involved a fatal head-on car accident and all of them were careflighted in the middle of the night to the hospital with broken limbs.
Pray for my summer team-season preparation, I'm looking at purchasing supplies all this month
Pray for peace and strength, joy and perseverance as we're working short-staffed on the mission field. Please pray for more workers.
______________
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and your involvement in our ministry with God's mission. To find out more about support CLICK HERE.
- Ryan Emily and Micah |
