How is Lisa??

Lisa and I yesterday afternoon. (April 2008)




Hilary & Lisa yesterday afternoon. (April 2008)

So what is going on with Lisa? Some good news. Some troubling news.
The good news is that she has made a pretty good recovery from the sicknesses she had. So sign of malaria, the pneumonia is almost gone without a trace.
The amoebes and fever are gone....

Troubling news. Lisa has contracted a deafness. We think it was due to an anti biotic she was prescribed as a follow up medicine when she left the hospital.
We had her hearing tested yesterday. (This only tests her state of hearing on testing day, does not tell us how permanent the loss will be...)
Anyway, the test said that you need to be at 100 decibels for Lisa to hear you.
Basically, unless you are the Newsboys live on stage, she won't hear.... :-)
This is quite alarming. The internet says that hearing loss due to this medicine in a controlled experiment 32% of the participants had hearing loss. A very high percentage of those regained their hearing after 5-9 days. So the hearing loss is classified as reversible... But was their fever as high as hers? Or were they as dehydrated when taking the meds? Don't know...

We are pursuing treatment, of course.
Pray with us that God would provide sound advice, and that healing would take place.

We are unsure what this means as far as how treatment will best take place. We are in communication with our med insurance guys.

For now, Hilary went back to school in Dakar. She took her flight last night.
Ben & Caleb are with us.. So they are part of any treatment plan/travel that might take place...

Will update more...

We're asking the question "is it worth it?" You may too in a situation like this.
We believe God called us to Mali for a reason. We believe that He works through us here, even in ways we are unaware of.
The early missionaries 200-150 years ago came to Africa with their caskets as part of their baggage. Many died to bring the gospel into this dark continent. Was their sacrifice worth it? Some arrived, and died right away, others were able to have a career here. From what we've seen in Cote D'Ivoire and Mali, the two countries we've worked in, God is at work in Africa. It is worth it. Both countries have a thriving church movement. Cote D'Ivoire more than Mali, maybe 5x the believers there.
But God is working here. A missionary colleague yesterday, (We were discussing the "is it worth it" question.) said that the church movement here is driven by national pastors with training and vision. He said every pastor who is a positive driving force has a missionary as a close personal mentor in his past. We find that to be true in our experience. The national pastors we work with who are the keystones that God is using to build the church are heavily influenced by the missionaries they worked closely with.
Is it worth it? Yes, I think so... The church in Africa has about 2% of the christian literature available to them that the church in America has. It has maybe 5% of the funds available. It has maybe 5% of the trained pastors available to it.
It is worth a risk to build up our brothers and sisters in Christ on this side of the planet... These friends know poverty, suffering, and have a passion for their faith in Christ that teaches us every day....

Anyway, this is a bit of my rambling as we try to piece together how these events affect us, and how we mesh those events with philosophy of ministry, etc.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward