NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We must apologize right away to any and all of you who have continued to check out our website.  First of all, we want to thank you for being faithful to come back here time and time again looking for news and new postings.  So, please be patient with us during this time.  We are settling in to life here and are working on getting into a routine, but there are many things in life that we just can’t do anything about.  Internet is one of those things.  Our internet connection is extremely slow and as a result we get "kicked off" over and over many times even while just trying to check our emails.  Why am I telling you this?  So that you will understand that although we have a lot to write about, we are just not able to post it on our website at this time.  We can’t upload photos and very rarely are on the internet long enough to even write a news article.  So, please hang in there with us and as things get better (or we get better internet), we will begin posting once again on our website.  Until then, we are sending out regular emails including information from the week and prayer requests.  If you would like to receive those emails, please email us first and we would be happy to add you to our list so that you can keep up with all that is happening in our lives that way, until we can post on our website more regularly.  Thanks so much for your understanding.

Monday, May 14th, was the twins’ birthday.  They had some friends from school and some from here on campus come to their party.  We had around 20 kids total.  "Momma" was a little nervous about trying to do a big party for them especially with trying to pack and get ready to leave.  But, after much thought, I was able to plan a party  that would be fun and not be too much work.  So, we had the party AT THE LAKE!!!!  The kids swam and played games in the water.  Then we ate cupcakes and had "bomb pops" and opened presents.  There was even time after eating for them to go back in the water.  Alec and Kaylee said over and over that they had a blast.  It was a special afternoon for all and we were thankful to be able to plan a special party for them.  Happy Birthday, 10 year olds!!!

Classes are almost over, our bags are packed, we have said our goodbyes and now we are ready to head out on our summer travels.

We want to give you an overview of what our traveling will look like and how you can pray for us. We will be traveling from Roach, MO, to Ft. Worth, TX, where we will be until Thursday, May 24th, then we will be heading up to KY to visit some friends. We continue on to Canton, Ohio, to share with one of our home churches, Faith Community Church. We will be in Ohio for the Memorial Day weekend until Thursday May 31st. We will be stopping at Niagara Falls for a day before we head to Corning, NY, to visit and share at North Baptist Church on June 3rd in the morning service and at Jackson Summit Baptist Church in Lawrenceburg, PA, for the evening service. Next we are heading to Washington, DC to spend a few days seeing the sights there and visiting cool places the we have studied and learned about in school. The following Sunday, June 10th, we are sharing at Open Door Baptist Church in Midlothian, VA.  We will then be visiting relatives in VA, WV, and back to VA again before heading down to Forest City, NC, for a couple of weeks. Then on June 26th we will head back to Ft Worth, TX, for Krista’s scoliosis appt. We will be in TX for the remainder of the summer. We will probably make a trip up to Hill City, KS, for a visit with Keith’s sister and her family and will also make a trip out to Amarillo to share at Family Life Fellowship on July 8th. Then on Aug 6th, Lord willing, we will be heading back to Indonesia.

We certainly would appreciate your prayers during our travels.  We will be driving over 3300 miles during this time. 

Last night we took supper and went over to Jim and Connie Turek’s (staff here at the MTC) house to visit.  We were kind of celebrating the twins’ birthday a little early.  We had pizza and ice cream cake and they opened a few presents.  Then the fun really began.  Jim Turek had just had surgery.  Last week he blew out his achilles tendon in his right foot and had to have surgery to put it back together!!! Ow!!!  So, Connie gave the kids some markers and the kids "went to town" on Jim’s cast.  They had a blast and it really made Jim’s day.  It was fun for them to know that they were encouraging him.  Please pray for Jim’s healing.  He will be off of his feet for quite some time.  Anyone who knows Jim knows that this will be a difficult time as he is not one who likes to stay still.  Please pray for Connie during this time too.

Alec’s ear surgery went very well.  The doctor was able to put t-tubes into Alec’s ears and he said they looked great.  Alec was in surgery around 8:00 am and out of surgery by 8:25.  When he came through the recovery room doors in his hospital bed post surgery, we could hear him talking.  The nurses told us that he "never did shut up."  Ha Ha.  That had us laughing.  He really is a talker and we just had to wonder what kind of things he told them while he was "out of it" under anesthesia.  He keeps us laughing and we are thankful that his surgery went well.  Thank you so much for praying for him.  (This picture of Alec petting a donkey in the parade is the most recent one I have, but I wanted to get a picture of him in this article.)

On Saturday, the 21, Kaylee was in the Dogwood Parade here in Camdenton.  Her gymnastics troupe, American Gymnastics, marched and performed in the parade.  The girls all wore their matching gymnastics suits and did cartwheels, walkovers, back handsprings and lots of other things that excited the crowd.  They ended up walking at least 10 blocks over the period of an hour.  It was really cute and they had a blast.  Alec and his friend played some games at the carnival and gathered up a lot of candy that was thrown into the crowd.  It was alot of fun and turned out to be absolutely beautiful day.  Kaylee loved her first experience of being in a parade.

Please pray for Alec.  On April 27th, he is having surgery to have t-tubes put into his ears.  He has had a lot of ear infections in the past two years and we are thankful that the ENT wants to put tubes back in his ears. 

Pray that the surgery will go well – that it will be fast – and pray that Alec will not be scared.  Pray, too, that he won’t have much pain.

Last week we were involved in a teamwork practicum where we had to participate in a ropes course.  It was a lot of fun, but scary too.  Of course, it helped to know that all of the hooks, and wires, and ropes were all rated for 5000 lbs. or more.  Still, it was scary being 25-30 feet off of the ground performing feats and doing the activities.  I climbed the vertical wall (30 ft) up to the platform where I used the ziplineto get back down to the ground.  On the "leap of faith", I had to climb up a 25 ft pole, wiggle my way around so that I was actually standing on the top, then leap out (about 8 feet) to try to grasp the trapeze.  But I missed it completely – at least I made the jump though.                                                    We also walked the "bridge of death" up to the platform to use the zipline down and climbed up a net, 30 feet, to the top of the platform as well.  It was an exhausting day, but a fun way to think and consider our teamwork and the importance of each other in our lives.

Basketball season finished this past week and Alec and Krista had a blast!!  Krista’s team finished with 5 wins and 3 losses.  It was so much fun to see these girls playing together and doing so well.  There were some really close games and all three of the games they lost were only lost by 2-4 points.  They easily could have won, but oh well.  Krista’s team ended the season in THIRD place.  She received a beautiful basketball plaque as the third place trophy.  It sure was a lot of fun.

Alec’s team finished with 6 wins and 2 losses.  They had a "ball" playing together and it was so fun to watch.  They really had some great plays and learned a lot about playing together as a team.  They took THIRD place in their division as well, although the top three teams were so close that they had to go to total points to figure out who won.  It was fun and we are thankful for the experience for Krista and Alec.

Thank you once again for falling on your knees before the throne of grace on Kaylee’s behalf. We had a good appointment with the corneal specialist, Dr. Sobel. We actually had 4 other eye doctors who have many years experience in tropical medicine consulting with us via email. They had sent us many ideas of things to check for and so we went in to see Dr Sobel well prepared with many questions. One of the doctors that wrote to us said that Kaylee’s symptoms sounded like "vernal conjunctivitis". (An online medical encyclopedia said this: Vernal conjunctivitis is a seasonal inflammation of the outer lining of the eyes, which is thought to be due to an allergic reaction. Vernal conjunctivitis is thought to be caused by allergic reactions. Often, it occurs in people with a strong family history of allergies (both Keith and Angela). It is most common during the spring and summer.) That same doctor mentioned in another email that he felt that we needed to be consulting a corneal specialist in order to get the proper treatment. (He didn’t know that we were already seeing one so that was a little confirmation from the Lord that we were at least at the right doctor.) At the end of the appointment today, Dr Sobel said that Kaylee’s diagnosis is vernal conjunctivitis. We left there feeling totally at peace. God had sent us many ideas one of which exactly matched up with what Dr Sobel diagnosed and He also had us already seeing the best type of doctor for that type of eye problem. He had it all under control before we even went in there today. What an awesome God we serve!!

So, we must figure out what Kaylee is allergic to so that we can find the proper medication to best fight the allergies in her eyes. Thank you so much for praying for us. We certainly felt the Lord’s presence as He worked out all the details – even down to the diagnosis. God is good.