NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We now have a teenager in our home.  Wow.  We can hardly believe it.  Nicole had a special day.  She received flowers at school (from Mom and Dad, of course), and then had a party with all of her girl friends here at NTM that evening.  After opening presents and eating cake and ice cream, the girls all did their hair "funny" and had beauty pageant (of sorts).  They had a lot of fun.  When that was done, they all went outside and played "hunter" (a form of hide-and-seek) until 10:00 p.m.  It was a fun night for all. 

The next night we cooked an Indonesian meal and shared it with Jim and Connie Turek.  We ate dinner and played games, then enjoyed a Dairy Queen ice cream cake to celebrate Nicole’s birthday. 

She had a special birthday and enjoyed it very much.  Nicole is growing into a beautiful young lady that we are very proud of and thank the Lord for the 13 precious years He has given us with our lovely daughter. 

* Please pray for Keith’s back – he has fallen a few times in the ice and snow in the last few days and his back and neck have been bothering him since then – pray that he will be able to get into the chiropractor to help him feel better

* Please pray for us as we start classes on Monday – heading into second semester

Most of you know that we came home in December of last year (2005) specifically for a medical furlough.  Keith was sick all the time and didn’t seem to have any energy.  He wasn’t able to fight illnesses and we thought he had had malaria numerous times.  We came home with the intent of spending at least 6 months focusing on figuring out what we could do to get Keith better.  We were thankful to find out that if Keith had indeed had "much" malaria, it had not affected his liver at all.  That was a real answer to prayer.  After many doctor visits, much new and changed medication and vials and vials of blood drawn, we learned that he has chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).  When we learned that, we began to look back over his past couple of years and could actually see signs that could have shown us it was most likely CFS.  We realized that many times when he "thought" that he had malaria, he may not have had it, but because our little Indonesian "clinics" weren’t very reliable, the tests would come back with false positives.  There were some times when he probably did have malaria, but other times when he probably did not.  So we actually were thankful to come to the realization that he most likely didn’t have malaria as many times as he thought he had.  The achiness and lowgrade fevers and headaches that can be signs of malaria, are all the symptoms that he still gets now when he has done too much and his CFS has kicked in and he is exhausted.

Anyway, we know that many of you have been concerned about his health and we wanted to let you know a few things that we have learned over this last year in learning to deal with his CFS.  As we have reflected over our last couple of years in Indonesia, we realize that there were a number of things that most likely contributed to his CFS.  First of all, our ministry as dorm parents of a high school dorm was a highly stressful job, 24/7, with no down time.  This is not the type of ministry that is healthy for Keith.  He needs a ministry where he can do the work and then come home at the end of the day to rest and relax.  Also, he was the PE Teacher for K-12 and that put him out in the heat all day every day.  Heat is a huge contributing factor for CFS and tends to exhaust even the most healthy of us.  So we know that he needs to be inside more than outside on a regular basis.  Lastly, because he was outside so much (being a PE teacher) and his energy level was low, he couldn’t fight off the malaria when he did get bit by those pesky mosquitoes.

As we have looked at these contributing factors and have been learning about CFS, we have recognized some things that need to "for sure" happen when we head back to Indonesia.  When we go back, we will not be going back to the same ministry that we were in before.  We realize that right now the dorm parenting ministry is too difficult for us with Keith’s health as it is.  We are going back to a different ministry.  Keith will be taking on a ministry that keeps him out of the heat as much as possible, away from the mosquitoes as much as possible, and the type of minstry where he can leave his job at the office and come home in the evening to rest and relax.

We praise the Lord for the things He has shown us to help us deal with and learn to manage his CFS.  We have also learned much over these past few months and we are very encouraged in the Lord.  Being here in training has been wonderful for us.  We are excited about what the Lord has in store for us and pray that He will challenge your hearts to continue to participate in our lives as you have been. 

We are back online and have our power back after going without electricity and phone lines for a period of time.  On Thursday night, the winter storm hit our area here in Roach, MO.  It iced Thursday night, all day Friday and Friday night.  By Saturday, we were telling the kids to stay away from the trees and we all moved our cars away from the trees and power lines.  Everything looked absolutely beautiful around us, but we knew it could be dangerous.  By Sunday afternoon, trees all over our campus had either broken under the weight of the ice, or had lost branches.  Our losing power was pretty much inevitable.  Sunday afternoon, a power pole with a transformer on it broke and took out our power.  Monday afternoon we lost all the plumbing as well, but we were thankful to say that the men worked hard all afternoon and by 7:30 this evening, our plumbing, hot water and electricity was back on.  Tonight it is still snowing out and supposedly there is another storm surge moving in, so continue to pray for this area.  There are thousands without power across this area and many places that may be without for days yet.  Temperatures are dropping and supposed to be in the single digits for the next couple of days.  So we would appreciate your prayers.  Pray that our power stays on and that the wind storms that are coming won’t blow any more trees over.  Pray for those who are still without power and may not have any heat as well.  Keep checking back here for updates over the next few days. 

*Pray that Keith would adjust quickly to his CPAP machine

*Pray that the machine would help him feel better – energy level and chronic fatigue

*Pray that we would get settled into our routine of classes again – starting Jan 15th

*Praise that we were able to pay our initial payment on our school bill

*Praise that we had a relaxing break and feel rested and ready for the second semester

We have had a good break for the Christmas holidays.  Mom and Dad Bracken joined us for Christmas in MO on Dec 22 and were here until the 28th.  We had so much fun and made a lot of memories.We had a family Christmas party on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner.   We visited with friends from Papua and Mom and Dad were able to catch up with a lot of their friends that they hadn’t seen in a while.  

Then on Dec 29th, Keith headed back to the hospital to finish out his sleep study.  With all these wires attached to his head, he didn’t sleep much, but the nurses were able to get the info they needed.  He now has his C-PAP machine for which we are very thankful.  He is adjusting well to the machine and we are excited to see how this will help his energy level and ultimately his chronic fatigue.  Continue to pray for his health.  He is feeling better and his migraines seem to be under control with this new medication that he is taking. 

We had doctor appointments in TX over the break so headed back down there on the 30th.  We had a good time down there over New Year’s and also celebrated my 37th birthday.  On my actual birthday, the kids gave me breakfast in bed (a grapefruit) and a "coupon book" they had made themselves.  The coupons were for things like a back rub, a caramel macchiato from Starbucks (they will pay), a Dairy Queen blizzard (they will pay).  Just a bunch of cute things they thought of themselves.  We have great kids!!!

The kids started school again this past week and we will start our classes this Monday, Jan 15th.  Pray for us as we get back into the swing of things.

• Please pray that Keith and I would finish out the semester strong.  We have classes until Friday
• Pray for Keith as he goes back in to the hospital on Sat to be fitted for his cpap machine for his sleep apnea.  He will be staying overnight
• Pray for our finances for these new medical expenses – his sleep study
• Pray for safety as we travel to Texas after Christmas for more doctor’s visits
• Continue to pray for Keith’s migraines to be controlled. He does seem to be doing much better with this new medication his neurologist put him on in November
• Pray for finances for our initial school bill fees for January.  We still need $1100 by Jan 15th.
• Praise that we have had such a great semester with such awesome teaching – we have been able to soak up so much and feel that God has blessed our lives by having us here at this time in our lives
• Praise that Keith’s health has improved and we feel that we are getting his chronic fatigue under control
• Praise that this new medication seems to be working for his migraines
• Praise that our kids have had a good semester at school as well

After 4 snowdays and a whole weekend, the kids finally headed back to school today.  The ice and snow has not melted but the roads are looking a little better.  School was cancelled because too many of the back roads were still really icy and the buses couldn’t get to the kids.  But thankfully, the kids headed back today.  Mom and Dad as well as the kids were sure ready for them to go back to school!!  We have had a whole lot of fun though.  We went sledding many times, had some great snowball fights, made a snowman had a lot of hot chocolate and really had a lot of fun.  But life goes on and thankfully the kids are ready to go back and finish out the semester.

Today we woke up to snow on the ground with more falling all day long.  We are in the middle of the huge winter storm that is moving northeast across the country.  The kids’ school was cancelled today because of the "many" inches of ice that was on the ground and continued to accumulate throughout the day.  There is no school tomorrow as well.  Although we here at the NTM MTC still have classes because we just have to walk to class, not drive or ride a bus.  So the kids had the day off and enjoyed playing in the sleet and snow that fell throughout the day.  We all went out this afternoon to do some sledding on the hard packed ice/snow.  If you want to see some pictures of our fun look in our photo album.  We are expecting 12-18 inches of snow tonight with temperatures in the teens for the next few days.  We are loving it, and thrilled that we get to experience it this winter. 

Keith has been experiencing migraines almost every day this last month and a half.  He saw his neurologist in Fort Worth this last week.  His doctor gave him a new medicine to add to his preventative that he takes daily.  Please pray that this new medicine would work and pray that it would work quickly.  He desperately needs some relief from these daily migraines.  Pray, too, for wisdom as we try to figure out what is causing his migraines to worsen.