Update on Ken/Prayer Requests

The doctor's appointment went well for Ken on Monday. He had a hearing test and examination. The results were that he does not have "crystals" attaching to his inner ear that could be throwing off his balance and causing the dizziness. Instead, he has 30-40% hearing loss in his left ear from his years of doing construction and remodeling work with high-pitched power tools. Unfortunately, when Ken was younger OSHA didn't have "laws" on protective hearing devices, and quite honestly, Ken wouldn't probably have taken the time to put those on anyway! His medication that he has been taking for the dizziness and nauseousness does seem to be helping and this medication could potentially cure that problem altogether. It was recommended that he have a hearing aide, but that because a portion of his hearing is still partially good, that he wait awhile on that decision until after he finished the course of medication to take away the dizziness first. If the dizziness does not go away, then he will probably need the hearing aide. But, if the dizziness does go away, the recommendation was that he would actually hear things a lot louder with the hearing aide because of the good side of his hearing, and that the $1200 hearing aide would probably drive him crazy and end up in a drawer! For now, it wasn't a hard decision since we don't have the $1200!

The second night of orientation went well even though we were exhausted from being out all day doing errands, and a prayer was answered in that we told the Lord, "we are weak, please make us strong for You". We had 68 volunteers from the church show up to hear us do the orientation. They are on fire to reach the community behind the church, a squatter village, for the Lord! So, please keep this church in your prayers as they also continue to prepare for our short-term missions team that we will bring in to do three days of Medical Clinics, Children's Ministry and Children's Ministry Training in their church in January.

The Medical Clinic in Palomo; we had a good number of Youth volunteers show up with the Youth Pastor to help us out. We saw about 100 patients in six hours and did not run out of medications or vitamins. We brought in what we thought was enough food for just our volunteers as we closed the clinic for one hour to provide them lunch. At one point, Ken looked in the supply box and cooler and said, "I thought they would eat this, but we have more than I expected left"! So, he began cutting the loaves of baguette and making sub sandwiches for the kids that were there to be seen by the physicians. We had enough to feed every single child that was waiting! God so often multiplies our supplies that it is overwhelming to us! We were so happy and blessed to be able to serve the children sandwiches. Some looked like they hadn't been eating regularly.

Our family left the clinic just a little bit early to go to our friends house for Thanksgiving dinner. We really enjoyed being able to eat turkey which is very hard to find here and quite expensive, though we found a Butterball to donate to the dinner at a reasonable price this year. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and sitting around talking afterwards.

On Friday, Ken and I prepared the camp for a group that was coming in that afternoon, doing custodial-type work. When I was finished with that, I ran home to tidy up the "drop and run" house from a busy week of ministry and prepare it for a new ministry that we are involved in. Heather has always helped facilitate a small group Bible Study for Youth with the assistance of the Youth Pastor in our neighborhood. About six months ago, Heather decided that she felt she needed to step down from that ministry, having served in it for over a year, and give more attention to her homeschooling. At the same time that she was serving in that ministry, she was also teaching a Sunday School class during the church hour. We supported her in that decision and the Youth Pastor found someone else to lead the small group in the neighborhood with him assisting them. But, like most ministries in churches in Central America, it is difficult to find someone who will be consistent in ministry and the Youth Pastor after six months came back to Heather and asked her to consider leading the small group again, since they were not able to meet regularly and the group was falling between the cracks. She, along with Ken and I agreed, and every two weeks the small group of Youth meet in our house. Last night's group was bigger than the group two weeks ago and we thank the Lord for that! So, please add the Youth's small group meetings to your prayer request. Their next meeting will be December 18th in our home, and then they will return to their every two week meeting schedule in January!

Today, I am finishing up preparations for my sermon that I will share tomorrow.

Next week on Tuesday, we will be preparing the Celebration Center for a wedding that will take place on Thursday evening as two teenagers (in their 20's) who attend our church and have grown up in the neighborhood tie the knot! We will also be working on the final preparations for a short-term mission team coming to us from the Great State of N.C.; arriving on Saturday to stay for a week and do VBS! We need to do the grocery shopping and final preparations at the camp on Friday for this team.

On a frustrating note, when we returned to the States in August we bought a new digital camera and for some reason, it has died already! I apologize for the inability to post pictures on our blog. Please know with all the exciting things that God is doing here it is extremely frustrating for us not to be able to share that here!

10:52 p.m...just getting home!

So much to write, so little time! We literally just walked in the door and are ending our day here in Costa Rica. Just in time to roll into bed and be on the road again tomorrow no later than 7 a.m. Here's an update of what has been going on in our corner of the world!

Ken has been sick and is now entering his third week of being in a state of constant dizziness. The first week we thought he had a virus since Jordan has had similar symptoms in the past, but for shorter lengths of time (only a 24-hour period). Last Monday, beginning the second week of feeling dizzy we visited our doctor. An IV was started in the office, we were given instructions on fasting blood tests that needed to be drawn the next day, and he was placed on complete bedrest and was asked not to drive. On Thursday, we received normal blood work results, and began another trial of different medications for dizziness, nauseousness and were told he still could not drive and should remain on complete bedrest through the weekend. This Monday, we returned to the doctor's for a return office visit and examination. We were referred to an ear specialist who we will see tomorrow at 9 a.m., undergo a full examination and hearing testing, and while Ken can be on his feet when he feels good, which isn't often, he still cannot drive and is still suffering from dizziness. So, YES, you could pray for Ken!

We have had back-to-back rental groups on the weekends at the camp and last week we had a week-long rental group for a unique Pastor's retreat with Pastor's attending from all over Central and Latin America.

Tonight, we did an orientation for the volunteers at one of the church's where we will take one of January's short-term missions teams to do medical clinics. Ken spoke about Global Outreach Mission, I did children's ministry orientation and Katherine & David did the medical clinic orientation. Tomorrow night, we will do the same orientation, different church location in preparation for the January team. Please pray for us as we talk to this church!

When we return home tomorrow from Ken's ear appointment, we will head over to the neighboring town of Palomo, just about 4 miles from the camp, and set up for a medical clinic that we will be hosting on Thursday Day (Thanksgiving Day) from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. This town is of low-income and has a lot of problems with alcohol, drugs, teenage prostitution, etc. We will also be taking volunteers from our church here that meets at the campground on Sunday mornings to help us with evangelism. Please pray for this outreach!

We have some good Christian friends, Gary & Debbie, who live in Orosi who have asked if they could minister to "us" by cooking Thanksgiving dinner and having us over on Thursday. They have really been wonderful to us; they take care of our dog when we have to leave the country for VISA renewals and drive us to the bus station in San Jose to get on the bus at 4:15 a.m. to travel. They just go above and beyond what would seem even reasonable to ask someone, and always with smiles on their faces! Gary leads our Sunday afternoon Bible Study that we take in English...whoot-whoot!

On Friday, another rental group will be coming into the camp to spend the weekend.

This Sunday, I have been asked to share a message by the Pastor. Could you please remember to pray for me as I finish preparing and then share on Sunday!

So, some of this might explain why there have not been recent updates from me, although as I read this over, I realize that in a little over one week we have a short-term team coming down from Charlotte, N.C. to do VBS, and I haven't even mentioned all the preparations that have already been made in advance of this team coming. All of this does keep us busy, and more importantly, out of trouble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and thanks for checking in on us!

"Baby Towle"

We made it safely to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua yesterday afternoon for our 72 hour visit to renew our VISA'S. Last night we got an urgent email from Brad & Danielle to get on the computer on Facebook chat as a family. We did so as soon as we got the message to have these words cross the screen, "we are expecting a baby"! So, as you can imagine we are excited, but feeling a little "old" knowing that we are going to be Grandparents!

We ask that you please pray for our little grandbaby as he/she develops. Pray for Danielle's health. All I can say is, it wasn't an easy road for me, gaining only 6 lbs. the entire 9 months from being so sick, and she weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. I pray that she will have a much easier road!

We "SURVIVED"

We're feeling a little like "Rocky" this week! We've survived the year-long process of red tape, waiting, changing of appointments, surgical recommendations (jaw realignments....ummm, gracias, but "No"), teeth pulling, molding to get to this picture of Heather with braces on her teeth! Kind of makes you want to run up some steps and throw your hands up in the air in true Rocky-style, but all I have around me are highly elevated mountains and while I should for health reasons, it's already raining here. I was really beginning to wonder if this day would ever happen!

On behalf of Heather, Ken & I; thank you to an anonymous donor who 11 months ago sent money to Global Outreach Mission, not because we asked, but out of love for Heather that she might have her teeth straightened. They are about half the price here as in the States. We are very excited and thankful for this dental work and for your sacrifical giving! I never thought I would witness the day when a teenager would be so happy to have this much work done on their teeth, but she truly is. We can't wait to see the end result of an already beautiful smile made even more confident! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for blessing us in this way!

The height of rainy season

We have internet back up and running! Right now, there is thunder rolling in over the moutains and 1:48 p.m. in the afternoon is moving toward looking like 8 p.m. at night as the skies are beginning to darken. I am not sure how long the internet will continue to operate. This is the height of the rainy season, so we frequently have internet and electricity that comes and goes which always makes life exciting. Just want everyone to know that we are doing well and we are busy. Right now, I think I need to dig up some spare candles just "in case"! Try to update tomorrow in the morning with better "details". And, another missionary friend from a nearby town just called and said on the afternoon news just a few minutes ago, our town is expected to have very severe weather this afternoon and evening. Off the internet I go!