Jim and Joy Elliott Partnering with YOU to reach the Morop Finally home with mixed feelings
We are finally back in the tribe.
After 14 passes over our airstrip in an attempt to land, we flew back to a nearby landing strip and refueled. There was a slight rain over our village and the airstrip so we could not land, and each time we got lined up on approach we would fly into the rain again. The pilots are not allowed to land on our strip in any rain due to its short length. I was praying each time we could land, but it seemed that God had other plans.
So after flying an hour from town and circling over our village for another hour we flew to the nearby airstrip to refuel. While there we were thrilled to meet with many of the young school kids from our village who live there and attend school. We were able to give them some snacks and treats, and get some village news from them as well.
One of the very sad things that happened while we were away was that one very dear friend died as well as one of my best friends baby girl. This was very hard news for me and Jim, and the return flight gave us a bit of time to process this information. However upon arrival and seeing my dear friend I could not help but sob in her arms as we morned the death of her precious little girl together.
As I write this post tears fill my eyes again at the shock of this healthy little girl dying so quickly from what was described to me as pneumonia. It is so hard for me to understand why things like this happen when she was just a week away from a possible life giving shot. This is where I fall into God’s all knowing, all loving arms and trust that He has a perfect plan for this young couple.
The other dear friend that died had been our next door neighbor for 6 years and also was one of Jim’s language helpers. This was also hard news, but I believe he had HIV and although we were able to treat his sicknesses in the past he just kept getting worse. We have a deep feeling of loss with these deaths.
Please pray with us as we continue to press on to see the lost reached with the only real life giving gift, Jesus Christ.
It is good to be home despite still being sick. I, Joy am still in pain and running fevers, but it helps me remember to sit down and rest a little despite the business of being home. We have had people visiting all day long since we landed, and they are so happy we are back. It is good to be loved, but a lot of work too. :0)
Micaiah seems to be all better and Alina is gaining strength too. Jim is tired but doing a great job taking care of the rest of us.
Thank you so much for your love and prayers. We covet them, and your part in our lives here.
Returning to the Tribe
Yajasi Aviation's Charlie-Foxtrot flying over our house. Always a welcome sight!
Tomorrow morning our family will be getting on the airplane and returning interior. We came out to town five weeks ago to get our new visas signed, take a two-week break and to have our kids go through the SAT testing at the HIS International School.
Praise the Lord that we were able to get our visas signed within three days of arriving in town! Now we are set for another five years. We are very thankful to the Lord that He provided, through our supporters, the $12,000 plus that we needed for the cost of these visas! For those of you who helped with our visas, either through prayer or financial support, thank you so much for being a part of our work! Without your help we could not be where we are today.
We are also thankful that Alina was able to take her SAT testing and that she thouroughly enjoyed her time in class. Micaiah wasn’t able to take the tests due to coming down with Dengue Fever so he will have to wait until next year for his SAT’s.
Please be praying for us as we get settled back in the tribe. We will be playing catch-up with all the people’s medical needs over the next two weeks and have a lot of supplies to put away. Pray that Joy will be feeling better as it appears that she is working her way through her own case of Dengue. She’s not as sick as Micaiah was but still feels quite miserable. Pray we would all get back to full health and be able to get settled quickly so we can continue on with our culture and language study.
Thanks for praying for us!
2 Bottles and Counting…
Last night Micaiah’s fever broke and the tell-tale rash that accompanies Dengue Fever appeared. This signaled the start of the crucial 24 hour period where regular Dengue Fever can become the more severe Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. It also meant that mom and dad din’t get a whole lot of sleep as we were continuously checking on Micaiah throughout the night.
At around 1:00 a.m. Micaiah’s temperature had dropped to around 97 degrees Farenheight and he was feeling a bit cold and clammy. His condition remained the same through the night and in the morning his temp. was down to 96-96.5 degrees. So, knowing that these could possibly be signs of shock I called the ex-pat nurses here in town and then our ex-pat doctor, Dr. Matthews, to get her advise. She recommended to get a 2nd round of blood tests to see what was happening.
One of our nurses putting in the IV. Micaiah did GREAT holding still!!!
At the hospital they had a hard time finding a vein and finally found it on their third attempt. I was afraid Micaiah would pass out walking to the lab and back to the car but he made it. All the wheelchairs were unavailable!!! You definitely learn to work with the system in a third-world country!
Once we had the results from the bloodwork I called Dr. Matthews again and ran the numbers by her. She recommended an IV to get his blood volume back up and so we went to the pharmacy at the hospital and bought all our IV supplies–needles, bottles of fluid, IV tubing, etc., all for about $20!
Back at home one of the ex-pat nurses came over and put the IV in and after about 15 minutes we could already see an improvement! Now he is finished with his second bottle and starting a third and Micaiah is feeling WAY better! He actually ate a little too, first time since Saturday!!!
He is now sitting in the living room watching a movie with some friends with the IV still in his arm. After five days straight in bed he is very ready for a change!
Laughing with his friends...quite a change from this morning!
Thank you all for praying for Micaiah and for us during this time. Joy and I are both very tired from both the stress of the situation and also from a lack of sleep. We certainly appreciate your prayer for us and please continue to pray, Micaiah isn’t completely well yet and we will need to keep an eye on his situation over the next several days. Pray we will still be able to go interior on the 18th. If Micaiah isn’t well enough we will have to extend our stay in town by at least a week.
On a lighter note Alina is absolutely LOVING her SAT testing at school! She has been SOOOO excited to be in a ‘real’ school with a desk and everything that goes with it! We are glad that she has had such a good time there but disappointed that Micaiah will miss it. There’s always next year though!
Micaiah Update
Sick with Dengue Fever
Thank you all for praying for Micaiah. His malaria is getting better but he is still very sick. We had his blood tested today and it confirmed what we’ve been suspecting over the last two days, that he had Dengue Fever. He has not really eaten in 4 days and we are having to force him to drink fluids so he doesn’t get dehydrated. Please pray that he will recover and not have any complications to the disease as it can, at times, develop into Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever which is very dangerous. We are staying on top of his condition and trust that he will make a full recovery. Please pray for the Lord’s healing hand to be upon him and to give us wisdom as we care for him.
Please Pray for Micaiah
We found out yesterday that Micaiah, our son, has Falciprum malaria, a very severe and dangerous type of the disease. Thankfully we were able to diagnose it early and he is on the medication for it. He was up last night with vomiting and diarrhea but this morning he is feeling a lot better. Please pray that he would recover quickly and without any complications. Pray also that the rest of us would be able to avoid coming down with malaria or dengue fever which are both very common in the area.
Final Jena Update
After making a slow recovery over the last several months, Jena was finally able to get out of her house and do small amounts of work, carrying wood and working in her garden. We were encouraged in her progress and had hoped that she would be able to make a full recovery from the surgery that she had way back in October last year. However, on March 1st Jena came down with a severe case of malaria. We told her relatives to come and get the much needed medicine, which they did. Jena, however, did not want to take medicine again and refused it. She died two days later on March 3rd from complications of malaria.
While it is easy to shake our heads and feel deep regret over her loss we realize that each one of us are in the hands of our Heavenly Father and that it is He who controls our destiny. Graciously, He has given us the ability to choose where we will spend eternity, whether in heaven or in hell, the choice is ours to make. Sadly, Jena never had the opportunity to make that choice since she was never able to understand the message of God’s Word. The Lord has left this all-important task of evangelism to His church and it is up to us to take His Word to those who have not yet had the chance to make that choice.
Please continue to pray for us as we study the Morop language and push on toward the goal of teaching the Morop people about the Creator’s Talk.
Jim
Jena Update
Jena is doing fairly well but is still in the ICU waiting to be moved to the recovery room when space opens up. Last Tuesday it wasn’t looking too good as her blood pressure was still low and the doctors had to add two more units of blood plus continue her IV trying to get her pressure back up. When I went in again on Wednesday there was remarkable improvement. Jena was a lot more alert and was able to speak with me. By Thursday the nurses had started giving her food again in the form of biscuits mixed with milk. She has been improving daily.
Jena in ICU as of Sunday Afternoon--Aug. 8, 2010
Please continue to pray for her as she still has at least another week in the hospital. I am returning to the tribe tomorrow morning, weather permitting. I am very much looking forward to being home again! Joy did a GREAT job taking care of the house and the kids while at the same time caring for the people in the tribe. Thank you all for praying for us during this very difficult time! Please continue to pray that Jena will make a full recovery and be able to return home soon!
Latest News–Jim escorts Medivac Patient to Hospital
7/21/2010–Wednesday.
I, Jim, left the village with a medivac patient today to take her and her husband to the hospital on the north coast of the island. The plane had come in yesterday to bring in needed supplies for our family and was supposed to go out the same day but the weather closed in and the pilot was forced to overnight in the village. The next day the weather cleared and the plane was able to take off without any problem.
I left Joy and our two children, Alina and Micaiah, in the tribe thinking that in about 10 days I’d be able to return. Joy has now been taking care of the kids, trying to keep things running around the house and providing daily medical care for the people now for over 10 days! Added on top of all this, Joy has been caring for a critically malnourished baby that was brought to her about a week ago. Thankfully, baby Daniel (Joy named him this as he has been snatched from the lions jaws, much like the Daniel of the Bible.) is doing well and has been gaining weight each day. He was so thin and malnourished when he was first brought to her that Joy said he was worse than the emaciated village dogs that we have running around our village! Pray for her as she continues to care for this baby and for the rest of the people!
Jena waiting in the hospital
The medivac patient, a woman named Jena, has been suffering from bleeding for several years and has been in serious need of a hysterectomy. About two months ago Jena almost died from a severe loss of blood and then again about two weeks ago she had severe bleeding again due to her monthly cycle. Joy and I were able to convince the husband that he and his wife should go out to the hospital for the much needed surgery as without it Jena would surely not survive much longer. He agreed to go out and I was able to escort the husband, Didimus, his wife Jena and also my language helper, Moses Walam to town. Moses had come down with severe jaundice and needed to be examined at the hospital as well.
7/28/2010-Wednesday.
Once at the hospital Jena was found to have an extremely large tumor in her uterus. She needed to have the tumor removed and also a complete hysterectomy. Surgery commenced rather suddenly today, as I had been told that Jena needed to have dialysis before the surgery. I still do not know why the surgery was so sudden except that maybe Jena began to hemorrhage after the doctor completed her pelvic exam.
After the surgery commenced the nurse came out and informed me that the tumor was inoperable as it was much to large and had progressed to such a point that it could not be removed. That meant there was really no hope for Jena. She would simply go home to her village to die.
As I walked through the hospital to get her another unit of blood, I prayed that if there was any way, Lord, please somehow heal this woman so she could one day hear the Gospel. I felt helpless as I walked down the dirty, open-air walkways where filthy rats are seen scurrying about and where the stench and filth are all too prevalent. In a hospital that is modern and state-of-the-art, I knew that even there this operation would have been difficult but in these conditions I felt absolutely helpless and all I could do was feebly pray and ask the Lord of the Universe to perform a miracle.
That miracle came as I returned to the operating room with three more units of blood. As I approached the room the nurses saw me and opened the door. Out came an arm holding a black plastic bag at the top. Offering it to me the attendant said “Here’s the tumor, it’s out.” I couldn’t believe it. The doctors had gone ahead with the surgery after telling me it was impossible. I stood there for a moment and asked “What am I supposed to do with it?” The attendant replied “We always give this stuff to the family since they often like to bury it themselves.” I asked Didimus if he wanted it and he said “For what?” I explained and he said “No, I don’t really want it.” So I said I didn’t want it either but the attendant said that we had to take it as it was evidence that the doctors had really removed the tumor and had done the hysterectomy. So I took it and simply placed it in a trash bin on my way out of the hospital. There was no where else to dispose of it.
There was so much more that went on during the surgery that it would make for a much longer story. But I did learn that trying to get four units of blood at a hospital that has a very limited supply is next to impossible, even when the patient is lying on an operating table in the middle of major surgery!
8/2/2010-Monday
As of this posting, Jena is still in the ICU after having the tumor removed as well as a complete hysterectomy.
Jena recovering in the ICU.
Today is Monday, and I had a flight scheduled to take me back to the village this Wednesday but it just won’t work out. I’ve had to delay my return once again due to Jena still being in intensive care. I can’t leave with her still in serious condition and will have to delay my return until next Monday or Tuesday. Pray with us as I make the one-hour trip in to the capital city each day to check on Jena. Pray also for Joy as she is in the tribe alone with the kids. Each day that goes by gets a little more difficult for her so pray that I would be able to return next week. Also pray for the Lords provision in this as many of the expenses that we have are paid for out of our own pockets. Thankfully we were able to get government assistance to help pay for Jena’s expenses at the hospital. All her other expenses except their airfare have been paid for by us.
Pray for the Lords provision as we continue to provide daily medical care to the people in the village as well. We just spent over $1,000 in much-needed medicines for the tribe and are finding it more and more difficult to afford these medicines. Pray the Lord would give us the strength and endurance that we need to continue on in the work that He has given us.
Thank you for partnering with us as we continue to strive to our goal of sharing the Gospel of Christ with a people who still live in darkness! And do continue to pray, we can’t do what we do without you!
Welcome to our new Blog!
Jim, Joy, Alina and Micaiah
I’m still working on setting up our blog so it will be a few days before it is fully funtional.
Joy and I are doing well and are currently in Tennessee near the Tri-Cities area (Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport). If you’d like to contact us, feel free to give us a call or e-mail!