Memorial Day Weekend

Hi. Don't have new news on Lisa until the 24th of June when we see the surgeon. But do continue to pray as we make decisions and deal with some of the ramifications of this obstacle...
We are still confident God is good, and peices are coming together in this puzzle, but it is not complete yet.
He has more to reveal, and we need to be patient to see each piece in its time...

Some big issues have already been "settled". I'm not able to go into detail, but I assure you we've been seeing Gods hand of love at work. :-)

Hilary flies to the US... (Dakar-NY-Detroit) Possibly all by herself... Would you send your 16 yr old daughter on a flight like that? Maybe not. We're confident Hilary can handle it, and are looking forward to seeing her up close! And hearing many many school stories... :-)
She will add some cuteness to our family again, too. (Oh Daddy....)

In the meantime we are being active in our local surroundings. These pics are from a bbq picnic today with friends from South Church. Apparantly they are rabid about croquet in Lansing. So we enjoyed some high competition croquet where I was not champion of one of the rounds, but won a t-shirt for 2nd place.
Very nice. We had a good time, and are getting to know a new batch of believers in another corner of the body of Christ.. I never tire of that... :-)

Here are some pics...








Thanks for praying and stopping by today.
Tom & Lisa

Hello again! Questions.

Maybe these are some questions you would like to ask us. (in fun...)

So is eating out all you ever do?? No.. but we have enjoyed taking pictures of friends we do get a chance to visit with. It has been such a blessing to eat and share with people who care about you, and have prayed for you over the years...

So will I ever get my picture on your blog? Sure, watch this space.... :-) It could happen.

Well, here we are again...
This time we are with Aunt Joyce and Uncle Frank...

And here is a long table shot...
Some family from the Cherry/Snore side of the family...
We did enjoy renewing those friendships again...

Thanks for stopping by, and watch this space...

it could be you who is posted next...

Tom & Lisa

Caleb's 8th birthday party

Lisa, Grandma Holsteen, Caleb, Grandma Maire, Ben.

Caleb- Chuckee Cheeses.

Ben- Chuckee Cheeses.

So we celebrated Caleb's 8th birthday today. Had a fun time at Chuckee Cheese's after seeing Narnia: Prince Caspian. Enjoyed the film. Had a good day.

Lisa continues to do ok. We need to get her meningitis shots before they do ear surgery, also have "homework" assignment to get xray & mri done. Those have to be available for the surgeon to look at during the upcoming appointment...

Thanks for continuing to pray for her...

God Bless,
Tom & Lisa

Fort Wayne Visit...

Our exploits in the US continue!!! We were able to visit our friends at Wallen Baptist Church in Ft. Wayne this past weekend. We had such a nice time seeing so many old friends and smiling faces..

We spoke in the two services, and shared in Sunday School classes. People were so warm and open to us. It really felt like we re-entered a friend zone... So many offered a hug and encouragement to Lisa & I. And so many said they enjoy this blog! It was an encouraging weekend for us. THank you Wallen!!

We also were able to visit other supporters, and our friends at Anchor Room. (Sorry, Jan you weren't there... but we will come again...) Hilary will want to see her Ft. Wayne friends, I'm sure....

Saturday, we were able to have lunch with Stephan and Christina , and found out that the food at the Taj Mahal Indian food restraunt was a lot like African food... (Except for curry... :-) )
It was so nice to catch up with them again, and see how their girls have grown..

Of course Caleb was able to hang out with his friends, and here he is with Michael and Josiah. These are the two kids he's talked about so much in Africa... Of course Caleb has good friends in MN, Wheaton, Michigan, and Quebec as well.. But he did so enjoy time with this little gigglers...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tom & Lisa Seward

Ft Wayne visit

We had a good visit with the doc. (Audiologist) on Thursday. She is not the doc who will be doing the surgery, but the doc who will be doing all the follow ups and technical stuff on the cochlear implants once they are done...

She first had to test Lisa to see if she is a good candidate for cochlear implants, and to see if she can be helped with hearing aids, instead.

Hearing aid test was funny... If you have a sick sense of humor like me...

Left Ear with hearing aid.... 0%

Right Ear with hearing aid.... 6%

Definately not a pass.. :-)

So she is a candidate for the implants, a particularly good one because the hearing loss is recent, and her speech is still fairly normal...

Unfortunately, the next appointment we could schedule for to meet the surgeon was June 24th.

That is disappointing that it will take so long just to see him. Then the surgery is scheduled, assuming the business/insurance side of the transaction is squared away...

So we have a little down time... it seems. But Lisa doesn't want down time.

So... We are in Ft Wayne this weekend, visiting our church here, and seeing many friends from 3 years ago...

Including the folks in the picture, Rob & Jenny... They've been so kind to host us...

And their kids were high on the list of kids our kids have to see in America...

Caleb really wanted to see their 8 year old.. Josiah. So they have the opportunity now..

I think we weren't at their house 1 hr before Caleb and Josiah both fell in the creek out back of their house.... :-) Boys were having oodles of fun, though...

We hope to get to see many of you during our time here in the States. We just can't promise tomorrow! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
God Bless

Tom and Lisa

Update on Lisa - May 7th

Latest news for prayer... Feel free to share this with people we may have missed communicating with...

Hi. We have an appointment with the Cochlear Implant Surgeon... a Dr. Steve Talian
Our appointment yesterday with the ENT was: "Boy, your wife is really deaf..." And a referral to coch surgery... (There are no other viable options for her at this time...)

So called, got an appointment with this doc for next Thurs the 15th...
He was referred to us actually by a former mission pastor (David Brooks) who talked to Dr Talian at his church. (I'm not sure if it is Talian or Talia...) Anyway Dr Talia is very interested in Africa missions, has been to Kenya, and is equipping a team to go to Togo this summer sometime.. He is active in their church. He is also head of Cochlear implant surgery at university of michigan hospital... Handy guy to know right now...

Our Detroit friends, while this means we will be seeking treatment in the Ann Arbor direction, it does not mean we won't come see you at some point. :-)

****So we've entered into a sea of applications and forms and paperwork that frankly is not my forte, and blows my mind to deal with... So pray for grace and capability for me...
****Pray for Lisa of course.. The steroids did no good whatsoever... So this is the next step.
****The boys are doing well. Although 2x yesterday I heard "I wanna go back to Africa.. this was said while walking through a Meijjers store!!!"

We'll keep you posted one way or another as these developments unfold further...

Tom & Lisa

Emily back in Kadiolo

Emily & some of the kids in her courtyard.

Please pray for Emily. She came out to Kadiolo in November 2007. She came to work with women's ministries, and has been living in an african courtyard. (This pic is her with some of the kids that she lives with...) She has been learning bambara in this situation. Total immersion is good for learning, and she has come a long way. She has been very courageous, and we are proud of her.

But we did not plan for us to be gone for a few months, even possibly the summer while she stayed to work.
We may have counselled another short termer to cut their time short and go home, but Emily is so capable.
She is still there, and is moving from language study phase to beginning to teach community health with local women phase.

1. Pray for her. She needs students who are willing to learn.

2. Pray that God would give her the contacts she needs, and that many would be non-churched ladies who would be willing to learn.

3. Pray for her stamina, that she would be able to continue to do well in spite of the situation.

4. pray for a good partner to join her who would be able to teach and translate alongside Emily. This would have two positives. That person would help Emily communicate, and that person would be trained a bit to teach on community health issues as well.

5. Pray for a video project. Emily has an idea that maybe the drama team could do some short skits that teach on some of these community health issues. If they could be videotaped, they could be used for some time to come...

As you see, the work in Mali does not stop with us being gone. We are thankful for Skype that allows us to keep good contact with those on the field... :-)

Thanks for stopping by...
Tom & Lisa

Almost 4 weeks of deafness now...

Jerry, Barb, Lisa, Caleb, Tom, and Valerie (Lisa's mom.)

One thing that we've been blessed with in this mess has been to see so many of our friends.
Jerry & Barb are Lisa's aunt and uncle. We enjoyed dinner with them Tuesday night.

Lisa is taking her steroid meds. Still no progress there. We fear that we may well be recommended for implant surgery on the 6th when we see the doctor. We have been so blessed by the many many of you who have emailed, called, written on our facebooks, skyped or said to us in person that you've followed Lisa's story and that you've been praying for us... Each person has been a blessing to us. We smile bewilderedly sometimes, and say "God, you are in control, and you love us..." Each time we hear from one of you. It is humbling...

We won't be doing official church visits at this time, because our reason to be on this side of the ocean is to treat Lisa's hearing as best we are able... But we do have some plans this summer to travel as far as MN,
(we may get down to Bushnell, IL as well. :-) ) So we may make it your way to see you.... Lord willing.

Other than that... No news yet on Lisa, no new improvements. Thanks for sticking with us...
We're planning to fly Hilary home for the summer. But she WILL be going back to Dakar Academy for school this fall.. Even if we may be slow getting back to Africa... Her flight is out of budget, so if you would like to give a little to help it would be greatly appreciated. :-)

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward