Facing Fears—Zach has had malaria. It was scary, but not quite as bad
as I had imagined it might be. It was really scary, especially when
the first finger prick blood test came back negative and I was pouring
over the Where there is No Doctor book trying to figure out what else
could possibly give him a fever as high as 104. I felt better after
the second test came back positive and we knew what to do. We had a
couple of very wakeful nights and he quit walking and was just really
lethargic, but we had some medicine on hand (Praise the Lord!) that
worked very well, and after about six days he's himself again.
Fixing Fossilized Films—Before the war Jesse's grandpa coordinated a
gospel film ministry. He had several film projectors and lots of
gospel movies (35 mm reels) that he either traveled and showed himself
or let various church leaders borrow. During the war it was unsafe to
travel, so the films and projectors sat in a storeroom and decayed.
The storeroom was invaded by rats and covered in layers of dust. Soon
after we arrived, several church members approached Jesse about
starting the ministry up again and volunteered their time to help if
they could. Together, we've begun the monumental task of clearing out
the storeroom and seeing what is salvageable. We hope to project
those that are still in decent enough shape onto the wall and video
them with our digital camera and put them onto DVDs. One of my
cousins and her husband have blessed us and the work here incredibly
by purchasing our first digital projector for us, which we are hoping
Jesse's brother Luke and his wife Gina will carry to Africa when they
visit in July. Meanwhile some other missionaries have offered to let
us borrow theirs as needed. We are heading into the hills to Makamba
on the weekend of June 3 to show the Jesus film. Pray for us if you
think of it- we will spend two nights staying in a little mud house,
which could be interesting with Zach in tow.
Fostering Faith and Fellowship-- Jesse is still leading his Bible
Study each Tuesday and Saturday, and we have started attending a small
missionary fellowship group that meets every other Thursday. About
one Saturday a month Jesse has been teaching four hour seminars at
churches in the area, and he is preaching about two Sundays each
month.
Forging through Frustrations-- After lots of paperwork and time, we
finally have two year visas!!! They cost us about $660, which is a
lot of money but nothing compared to the several thousand it could
have cost, so we are thankful. The American Ambassador has so far
continued to deny access to her pool, so we have begun visiting the
public pools in town hoping to find one that is clean and relatively
quiet that we could go to to relax.
Well, I'm out of "Funny Frases" and you're caught up, so TTFN! Love
and prayers, Joy
