We appreciate your prayers. The cardioversion was done without incident… but also without success.
After the maximum number of 3 jolts, Bill’s heart was still in AFib (out of rhythm). He will see his doctor soon to discuss what options to try next.
Stay tuned.
Thanks so much for for standing with us!
We have three health concerns that have come up recently that we’d like to ask you to pray with us about…
About two and a half weeks ago Bill’s heart went out back of its normal rhythm into AFib (atrial fibrillation). So his cardiologist ordered a procedure called cardioversion to reset the rhythm.
Bill will have the procedure tomorrow (Wednesday January 4th), around 2 p.m. PST. He’s had cardioversion twice before and it has worked both times without incident. He will be briefly sedated while the doctor shocks his heart with low-energy jolts from a defibrillator. The whole thing takes only about 3-5 minutes, but is sandwiched between 2 hours of check-in and prep and and hour or two of observation before they will let him go home.
At the same time, we’re waiting for results on two biopsies which were taken from moles on Bill’s chest last Thursday. The doctor says that they are skin cancer. Neither one seems to be melanoma, but she wanted to make sure. Once we get the pathology results, we will schedule surgical removal of both.
We also recently learned that Donna has very early-stage breast cancer. It was discovered during her routine annual scan, and we’re thankful it was caught early. It’s very small, and in situ, meaning it hasn’t grown or spread at all. Several other factors are also positive and point to the likelihood of good results. We’ll be meeting with the surgeon next week to discuss the initial surgery and what might follow as far as treatment.
This is where you come in! We’re thankful for having a prayer team like you to stand with us. We really appreciate each of you. Please pray for us and for healing and successful results from all these procedures and treatments coming up!
Our hearts are encouraged in all this. We’re truly grateful for our excellent doctors and medical care team. And even more, we’re trusting our gracious heavenly Father to continue to care for us.
We trust you had a special Christmas!
Here’s a quick update on our lives and ministry…
We must be getting old. In September we attended Donna’s 50th high school reunion, then Bill’s 50th reunion followed in October!
In November we were blessed to attend an international conference in Thailand with nearly 300 delegates from our ministry all over the world.
It was exciting to get in-person updates about what God is doing through our mission in places no one can talk about openly because it would put missionaries and converts at risk. Christ is building his church!
We also got to personally meet several of Bill’s students from the online missionary training courses he recorded a while back. These 3 students were from the very first graduating class and took his classes in late 2021. They are from closed countries in SE Asia and wanted training to reach unreached people groups in their region. They told Bill he was their “favorite teacher”! One of them even started quoting all Bill’s examples and illustrations, telling us how he is already teaching the same material to others! That really made our day. A second group has already graduated, and the videos are now being watched by the third group who enrolled in the course, with students from 9 different countries.
During the forum Bill had a chance to give a presentation to everyone about his team’s project.
Then after the forum, Bill and his team spent 3 days presenting their new CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) materials and app in more detail to over 80 field leaders and language consultants. This was the LONG-AWAITED FIRST STEP in the launch which will make these materials available to missionaries everywhere! Bill is busy getting ready for a big launch event in late May.
We got home from Thailand just in time for Thanksgiving and Bill’s birthday, starting our family’s busiest season (8 birthdays and 3 holidays in two and a half months!) Some family members had some sickness in December, but are recovered now.
2023 looks to be a full and excited year. Bill will be leading his team as they finish final details of their CLA materials; there will be lots of travel in the US and internationally, as well as on-line conference meetings, etc., to train consultants how to use them.
Thank you for your interest in our ministry. We appreciate you and value your prayers and partnership!
Here’s a strange thing… we published a ministry update a couple months ago. Our blog’s server was having technical difficulties, but in the end, it seemed to have sent, and we got a copy of it by email. But somehow it is now missing on our blog’s server and we can’t find record of it, so it makes us wonder! We hope you received it. If you did not receive that missing update, we’re sorry for how long it may have been since you heard from us.
Here is a quick update here so you can be praising and praying with us…
It took a couple months, but Bill was able to see a rheumatologist. A mere 4 hours (yes, FOUR HOURS) after the first dose of prednisone, the PAIN WAS GONE! The doctor has already almost completely weaned Bill off the prednisone and we’re hoping the pain will not return. Please pray about that.
This morning we were able to share with several youth groups who were doing a work project in Tijuana Mexico with a ministry called Caravans. Bill talked about how God worked in his life to become a missionary. Please pray that God will continue to speak to those kids’ hearts and that they will respond to let him use their lives however he desires.
It’s not as dangerous as Donna’s recent melanoma, but Bill’s dermatologist found a basal cell carcinoma on his face. He’s had several of these in the past. Tomorrow he will be getting a MOHS procedure to remove this one. The last time Bill had a MOHS (on his forehead in 2019), his face swelled up for a few days like he’d been in the ring with a heavyweight boxer. Please pray that this time they will get all the cancer, but that Lord willing, the recovery won’t be so long or painful.
Our next update will move away from health issues and feature some good news… we’ll share how the Palawan church is thriving, young men are helping to lead the church, and how they are using the Palawano translation!
Donna’s lab results after her surgery showed that all the cancer cells were cut out. The doctor will not need to cut out a wider margin.
Thank you for your prayers!
Thank you all for praying! Donna’s surgery, under local anesthetic, was done quickly and without incident. She’s home now, resting while I pamper her.
The doctor said it might be up to 11 business days before we get the biopsy results. Then we’ll know if they need to cut out a wider area or not.
Please pray that this first one was enough. We’ll keep you posted.
-Bill for us