What a Day!!

(The Journey-girls that had my camera took these pictures. They thought they would be funny and give me a self portrait

- I think it's pretty funny - Their picture is on the World Wide Web.)

Saturday, April 15, 2006, did not start out as any regular Saturday. This was the day that I was to preach three times at the Baptist Union of South Africa’s annual Easter Conference in Tweelaagte, South Africa. I woke up at 5:00 am to get ready to leave at 5:45 am. I had two Journeyman (actually 2 college-graduate girls) that would be riding with me. We also had to pick up 2 other girls (daughters of a man that was already at the conference) on the way. We traveled about 2 and a half hours to get to the conference. What I haven’t told you is that the afternoon and all evening before Jody had been ‘tossing her cookies.’ So I was concerned about leaving her all day. To help her prepare for the day, I peeled and grated a potato for Andy to make hash browns for her. Andy has been making his own hash browns for the last couple of weeks. I also prepared the eggs to be scrambled in the morning. I showed Andy what to do to help his mother out. My usual routine is to make Jody and scrambled egg and a piece of toast before she gets out of bed. Then, in about an hour, I make her some hash browns – somewhere in between she will eat a bowl of Rice Krispies.
As we are traveling, I get a text message and then a phone call from Jody telling me that the electricity has gone out and she hasn’t eaten. I tell her to call the Beighle’s – other IMB missionaries 3 doors down – and ask them if their electricity is off. It was. So, Dale Beighle climbs into their attic to retrieve a propane stove and they come over and cook Jody’s breakfast. Jody takes about 3 bites and then quickly deposits that into the toilet. She had not been able to keep anything down. Jody then calls our mission’s medical department for advice. The short of it – go to the hospital.
As all this is happening, I am preaching my first of three scheduled sermons for the day. With about 7 minutes left in my first sermon, Jody tries to call me 4 times. I have my phone in my pocket on vibrate – so I knew something was up, and I knew I was almost finished, so I waited until I was able to sit down. By that time, Jody had text messaged me saying that she was on the way to the hospital. I let the people know of the situation and told them that I must leave. I make in back to Mmabatho by 1:00 p.m. I go to the hospital and she really isn’t any better. She was still nauseated and very uncomfortable. They were able to give her an injection for the nausea and she finally was able to sleep. When I came back at 6:00 p.m. she had already finished her supper and asked me to go get her a burger and fries. I did, she ate half of it and then went back to sleep. She felt good and told me to go home. A couple of hours previous, she said I was staying at the hospital all night with her. Through this time, the Beighles watched the boys and Bethany for us. They have become like grandparents to the b and B. I think that they enjoy it since they miss their grandchildren in the States. It will be a sad day when they retire next year after 32 years in Africa.
So, tomorrow is Easter and I will be going to the hospital in the morning to see when I can bring her home. Jody has saved an Easter dress for Bethany for about a year – it doesn’t look promising?! On Monday, we will leave for Johannesburg to pick up Jody’s dad, my mother-in-law, and the missions volunteer team. On Tuesday, we will travel 6 hours north to Tshipise to have our annual mission meeting. I would ask that you pray for Jody – that God would simply take her morning sickness away. We certainly don’t see the big picture, don’t know why this is happening. That would be our desire – if not, then wisdom to understand what God is trying to teach us.