Dear friends,
I guess I have fallen to the impractical desire to do a great job writing about everything that has been going on. Then I contemplate how long it will take to do that...and then realize I don't have that much time right now...and then it hasn't happened in weeks.
Here are a few highlights:
Allison left to go back to South Korea on January 4th after we had a wonderful time with her home for Christmas. Jenni stayed until the 15th and she and Jesse enjoyed each other while Jenni searched for summer engineering internships and Jesse finished high school and kept getting ready for Africa. Laura has survived the cuts at AT&T and still has a job. Greg still also has a job although Partners had to lay off several staff and cut the hours of others. No further cuts or personnel changes will happen between now and the end of June.
We have had so much snow here that even after slowly continuing to melt for several weeks, there is still 4 1/2 feet next to the driveway. We broke all the records and many roofs broke as well. Lots of stores in town had roof collapses and shoveling off house and business roofs seemed to be the big rage here for a while.
Another friend and I have promoted and organized a Kidzana training institute here in Spokane. Tomorrow 15-18 will gather to do this at our church. There are leaders from Samaritan's purse as well as from the Billy Graham Association flying in, and they will join folks from all over the area. I will help to do the food and participate as much as I can. Sylvia, the director of Kidzana was at Partners International today to speak in chapel and to meet with key leaders. That time went very well, and we will continue in dialogue to see how our ministries can be a blessing to each other in the future. Vision and purpose seemed to mesh enough to look into the possibility of Kidzana becoming a"Like Minded Ministry" with Partners in the future. I enjoyed connecting these people together. We will have to see what the Lord has in mind as we talk to our international leaders.
Jesse finished high school on Friday. He is now a high school graduate. I think he started having "senioritis" in kindergarten, so this is a good thing for him! We are praying that he will experience many things that will give him direction for the future while he is in Africa. He has set up a blog with Taylor, his friend who will be there with him called www.whereistimbuktu.com You can go there to get updates from them. Taylor has already been there for 3 weeks.
I have been spending a chunk of time going to the physical therapist for my knee problem. The current situation is that it improved some and then platoed, but still hurts. So I need to go back and see the orthopedic surgeon to get more ideas. My December cystocele surgery is healing pretty well and I have passed the 6 week mark as of today. I see my oncologist in Feb. for my quarterly visit. I have had molds made of my mouth for partials that are being made to solve my jaw and face pain issue.
I think that is all I can muster tonight. Not eloquent, but at least an update. I would appreciate your prayers for an excellent training over these next three days. Sylvia is from Seattle and has offered to drive Jesse to Seattle on Saturday to get him to the airport for his flight which goes at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning. It was a blessing how that came together. Well, good night all! Blessings-Nancy
