NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday visiting family and friends in Fort Worth.  We had a great trip down last Friday afternoon and arrived at Mom Duncan’s after a 9 hour drive. 

Our 4 "turkeys", I mean kids, were going to miss a few days of school so they took their homework with them and were able to finish it so they weren’t too far behind.  Keith and I also had some homework that we did before we left so that we wouldn’t get behind either. 

We missed a few days of school because Keith had some doctor appointments on Mon and Tues.  He went to see his neurologist on Monday.  Keith has once again been struggling with migraines almost every day and we are frustrated all over again because it seems that his medicine isn’t working any more.  His doctor suggested that he add another medicine that is supposed to focus specifically on migraines.  So now he is taking two medicines for his migraine prevention.  It is supposed to take about a month to kick in though.  Please pray that his migraines would be few and far between while he is waiting for this new medicine to start working.  Pray, too, that this new medicine would really help him.  It is discouraging for him to be on a medicine for about 6 months and then to have it quit being effective.  That seems to happen to him a lot. 

The kids enjoyed playing with the neighbor kids that they had gotten to know when we lived in TX last year.  They had a good time relaxing and playing outside everyday.  The weather was beautiful and sunny every day.  We found that we really didn’t need our "winter" clothes that we had taken down to wear.  It was more like an Indian summer and we all enjoyed it fully.  Mom had steaks for us to grill and a wonderful roast and of course thanksgiving dinner.  We ate a lot of "yummy" stuff that we hadn’t had in a while.  

We had a great trip back Saturday afternoon with overcast skies, but clear roads the whole way.  It was a nice trip.  We are thankful to have had the time away and feel ready to face the rest of the semester. 

We are heading down to Texas today.  We will be driving 9 hours and will arrive around 9:00 or 10:00 tonight.  Pray for safety as we travel.  We have doctor appointments on Monday and Tuesday so pray that all is well and the doctors will have wisdom as we talk to them about Keith’s continued migraines.  Thank you for your prayers.

We just got a preliminary report from the hospital regarding Keith’s sleep study.  He does have a slight case of sleep apnea.  He is set up for another night in the hospital on December 16th for them to fit him with a mask and c-pap machine.  We praise the Lord that we have found this information out and are praying that this might be a positive step toward helping with his chronic fatigue and possibly even his migraines.  We are praying that it will help with his energy level to finally start getting some good sleep.  Please continue to pray with us regarding his health.

This Saturday, the 11th, was Kaylee’s first gymnastics meet.  We went to watch as she showed us all that she has learned this semester.  It was a lot of fun to watch her, but scary too. She has learned so much in just 4 1/2 months of gymnastics. It is really something that she loves and she does very well.  She is definitely built like a gymnast – short and stocky with very strong legs.  She showed us her back bends, walkovers, backflips, handstands and more.  She ended up with a tropy for first place in her age brackett – 9 and 10 year old!!!  Yeah, Kaylee!!

Pray for Keith’s sleep study results to be processed quickly and pray too that the results would give us some answers…

Pray for Krista’s "scolie" brace to be correcting the curvature of her spine.

Pray for Alec to get over his ear infection

Pray for Nicole to get over her cold that has her feeling pretty miserable

Pray for us as we drive to Texas on Fri afternoon, the 17th.

Pray for our time in Texas as we have many doctor appointments set up and a car "doctor" appointment as well

Pray for finances for our trip to Texas

Pray for finances for our January school bill

Last Wednesday night, Keith spent the night in the hospital.  No, he did not have any serious problem that made him have to go.  He was doing a sleep study.  He said that he wished he had taken his camera to get pictures of himself after the nurses hooked him up to the monitor for his sleep study.  He had about 25 wires glued to his head (the nurses actually "slathered" his head in glue) and a lot more hooked up to his chest, legs and abdomen.  He then had an oxygen hose hooked up to his nose.  He looked and felt like an alien.

We did this sleep study in hope that we might find a reason for his not sleeping well at night.  We also thought that it might even be a contributing factor in his chronic fatigue.  We are hopeful that the results will be in by this next week so that when we get to Texas we will be able to discuss it all with our doctor there. 

Pray that there would be clear results and that it might help us understand and be able to deal with his chronic fatigue even better.

In August, Nicole, Krista, Kaylee, & Alec started school in the Camdenton public school system.

Nicole is in 7th grade and is enjoying going to the middle school football games, changing classes, and staying busy with her friends. She is taking Algebra 1 this year (as an "honors math" class) and is maintaining an "A" in the class. Her class did a project to collect food and money for the homeless shelters in the area and did so well that they had an article about it in the local newspaper. Nicole has also enjoyed getting involved in youth group this year.

Krista is in 6th grade and is changing classes as well, just in a smaller more controlled atmosphere. She has a group of 4 teachers and alternates between their classes each day. She has some good friends at school but is being challenged daily to stand for what is "right" in Jesus’ eyes. She twisted her ankle pretty badly on the trampoline about a month ago, but is trying to "baby" it to get it better before basketball starts in the spring. She is also faithfully wearing her "scolie" brace for 10 hours every night and we are praying that it is working!!!

Kaylee is in 4th grade and is doing very well. She is a little social butterfly and has many little friends that she loves to play barbies with each day after school. She is in a gymnastics program here in town and is learning all kinds of awesome things that really scare Mom and Dad. A few weeks ago they had pictures that were made into a billboard to advertise for American Gymnastics. So now as you drive through Osage Beach, MO, you can see Kaylee’s beautiful little face smiling down at you.

Alec is also in 4th grade, but does not have the same teacher as Kaylee. He is doing great and his teacher just recently told us that he has adjusted very well and is loved by just about everyone in the class. He generally gets along well with others and is a natural leader – that sometimes tends to get him in some trouble, but we are praying that he learns to be the kind of leader that Jesus wants him to be. He is really enjoying having so many boys around to play "swords" or football or all kinds of other things that little boys like to do.

We are currently in training with New Tribes Mission so that we may better reach the lost with the gospel of Christ.  We hope to update our site at least a couple times a week, so come back often.