Luke

We have had an interesting week this past week. It started Friday night during an event called "Harvest Fest", a fundraiser for the Senior class. Luke was in a water balloon battle and was being hunted and ran backward and stumbled and tried to break his fall with his left hand. He proceeded to start crying and thankfully a nurse was sitting right there. They helped him up and got ice and tried to clean him up. His wrist swelled immediately and was very distorted looking. They ran to get us and we took him immediately to the hospital. Thankfully they called ahead because the radiologist and the orthepedic surgeon were waiting for us when we arrived. They did an x-ray and quickly it was determined the wrist was broken. The surgeon spoke ridiculously fast french and whisked Luke away. We panicked and called our mission nurse wh0 came to the hospital but after Luke was taken up to the surgical floor for the doctor to reset his wrist. It was so frustrating to not be able to understand what the doctor said!! We went back the next day and saw the x-ray and found out that he put pins in his wrist - what??? They explained that his growth plate was broken and it needed to be set with these pins. The doctor said that they set it right, but we had a second opinion. The other doctor said that it was set well, but not excellent. We need to go back to get a x-ray Thursday to see if there has been any shifting - if so it might need to be reset. Please pray that it doesn't shift and that the pins hold it in place and that his arm will heal perfectly.

Update

We are continually amazed at how fast the time flies here. We just finished our first quarter and only a 1 1/2 months until Christmas break. The kids did great this first quarter. Zach received straight A's, with one of his classes being AP French. He is really wanting to be on National Honor Society, so that really motivated him. He was cast in the play "The Curious Savage" and that happens in 2 weeks. He is nervous, but really excited. He was also selected as 1 of 12 high schoolers to be on a peer mediation committee. He had to be recommended by the faculty - we were very proud of him. He continues to grow in the Lord and has quite a reputation for spiritual maturity. Luke did well on his report card - with all A's and B's. He probably won't be the scholar that Zach is, but has so much personality teachers love him!! Luke has really thrived in the dorm. His dorm Mom says that he is her right hand man and is constantly in the kitchen helping her cook. He really has taken an interest in cooking - he even joined the cooking club. Faith loves being in the dorm surrounded by all of these girls. She did great on her grades, earning all A's and B's. She loves her teacher and still loves being in Africa. She is on the junior basketball team and really likes playing.

Electricity has been much improved in the last month. Although we have lots of brown outs, we rarely lose power. That is great! We have heard that this is just until February when the elections are being held. You can pray about that - pray that it is a smooth, fair process.

We are excited to be in the process of coming home for furlough. While we love being in Africa and know that this is where we are supposed to be, there are days it is hard. We are excited to be back in the States and see our family and friends. We are continuing to work on figuring out schooling for the kids, living arrangements, travel, visiting churches, etc. We know that time will fly and we will be home before we know it! We love and miss you all greatly and look forward to when we are hanging out!