South America - Tolosa update

Since our last prayer/newsletter, we made a trip back to the states after Charles’ sister in- formed us that Charles’ 85 year old mother was not doing well in a hospital in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. Charles’ father requested that we return because of fears that Mom was pos- sibly on her deathbed. We made quick arrange- ments with our Deaf national church leaders to continue the various ministries in our absences, purchased round trip plane tickets on our zero balanced MasterCard, packed our needed be- longings, and departed South America for Mi- ami on August 9th.

We thought that we would miss all our con- necting flights to Michigan because of a 2 hour mechanical repair delay at our South American airport. Once we arrived in Miami, we thought for sure we missed our flight to Atlanta. How- ever, that flight was also delayed 2 hours and 35 minutes because of severe thunderstorms in the Atlanta area. Then we thought for sure we’d miss our connection in Atlanta to Grand Rapids, but were surprised to find out that that flight was also delayed due to all the previous flight delays. So, we finally arrived 2 hours late at 12:40 a.m. the next day (August 10th) instead of 10:40 p.m. as originally scheduled.

After getting some much needed rest, we went to the hospital about 10 a.m. to see Charles’ mom. She was sitting in a chair next to the bed looking very weak and lethargic. When she looked at us, she didn’t seem to recognize who we were. Charles’ sister asked the doctor why mom did not recognize Charles and Betty. The doctor reluctantly admitted that the medication Charles’ mom was receiving was affecting her mind and that they had made a mistake in admin- istering the WRONG medication from a list Charles' sister had given the hospital staff of what Charles’ mom could take and what she could not take. Once they got the medicines corrected, Charles’ mom “came out of it” and was back to her normal self again. Charles’ mom had been in one other hospital for pneumonia, came home for one day, and then back into a different hospital where Charles’ sister found out that both hospitals had made the same mistake in administering the wrong medicines to Charles’ mom. However, we praise the Lord that she is now home and seems to be on the mend.

When we arrived back to our assignment in South America, on August 21st, we had plenty of things to do in order to “catch up”. Thanks for all of your prayers and email notes of encouragement during those uncertain days. Charles did catch a bad cold while in Michigan, but is better now.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Please pray for us as we travel to Mexico City next week (September 2-8) to do some minis- try work with some fellow missionaries to the Deaf who serve with our organization.

2. Please pray for Betty and two hearing national believers presenting the work among the DEAF at a missions conference in “C” on August 31st.

3. Pray for us as we travel back to North Carolina for a week of meetings with our Deaf leader- ship team on October 1-6.

PR Evangelical School for Deaf update

The Evangelical School for the Deaf in Puerto Rico has put out their December newsletter here.  Check it out!

Prayer calendar for deaf worldwide

Please use this calendar and pray daily for the 16 million plus unreached and unengaged DEAF people of the world!  (Click the calendar to get a full-size view.) 

South America - Tolosa update December 2012

This year has gone so fast that we wonder “where has the time gone”? As we consider what God has done this year, we are so grateful that He has shown Himself time and time again to be faithful and true. As we end 2012 we wanted you to “look back” with us as we give praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

February
69 Deaf attended our first Deaf camp
Volunteer Team from NC came to help

March
Began new small group Bible studies in several homes

May
Traveled to the city of “SM” to survey
New Bible study began in the city of “G”

June
Vacation Bible School
Volunteer Team (Ohio and Colorado) came to help

July
“H” Family from Washington to see work/ministry

September
Traveled to Mexico to see fellow colleagues who are
Ministering with the Deaf in Mexico City
New Bible study began in the city of “SM”

October
Deaf Affinity Leadership Team Meeting in Asheville
First Deaf ladies retreat — 25 ladies attended

November
Traveled to Ecuador to see fellow colleagues who are
ministering with the Deaf
Traveled to “C” to do training of Deaf leaders

and 65 Professions of Faith!

From our hearts to your heart we want to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and
blessed New Year in 2013. We have been very busy over this past month traveling to a different country and a distant city in Colombia. We have been viewing and reviewing one of our missionary families — their ministry in another South American country. We have studied, prepared, and taught some new Deaf believers the StoryOne process in Medellin just last week. We will be traveling to another distant city,
Cali, on November 30th to lead another StoryOne training/ workshop and then on to Bogotá on December 4th to teach the Deaf /Wycliffe “Jesus Project Team” about the StoryOne process with hopes of producing these stories into video for distribution throughout Colombia in the months ahead. Guillermo will be joining us in Bogotá to assist in the training with the Jesus Project Team.

Please pray for us as we continue to serve and minister to the spiritual needs of the many thousands of Deaf un- reached and unengaged in this country as well as to the spiritual growth of the new Deaf believers. Pray that the Holy Spirit will create a flame of urgency and revival in the hearts of the Deaf believers to see, accept, and obey their responsibility to GO and “make disciples” among their own people group. Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. Please continue to remember to lift us up in prayer as we plan and prepare for the quickly approaching Deaf Camp 2013 in January. We count it an honor and joy to be
your missionary among the Deaf in South America.