Today was a big day for us, for the last three weeks we had a woman here from the states who was making a documentary on our life and ministry. She was also here to film the opening of the Airstrip which has been in works for six years. The day started off quite normal waking up to see the sun, knowing that this is going to be a good day! We praised the Lord for his work and all that he brought us through to this point! As the day progressed on the helicopter was able to land and two pilots were on the ground. One pilot doing the survey which turned out to be a praise espeially when he gave the answer of YES it can be opened! He said “We’re ready to come in and land the plane!” but as he was saying it, clouds rolled in… you see during the time that he was doing the survey and walking the airstrip with Caleb, everyone in this village was doing their own sorcery magic. They were dressed in their original get up which has a foundation to their ancestors demon worship. They were also doing their chants and holding there relics.
As the pilot was talking, saying we are now going to come in with the plane, the weather was changing. The woman who was with us for three weeks jumped into the helicopter with the two pilots and they were just able to get out leaving us standing there with a massive storm rolling in. We’re talking thunder, lightning HEAVY rain… mind you we had no storms for the last 22 days. We haven’t had any of that. It’s not even the weather pattern for this time of year. The pilots waited at another airstrip not too far away for three hours hoping to make it in to land! It wound up not working out for that day. Caleb and I truly believe that it had to do with Gods judgement. It seemed so strange what was happening.
The same night Caleb said to me I feel very cold, but being that the storm came and the temperature dropped significantly by 20° I just thought it was that. I woke up in the middle of the night and felt him and he was burning up with 102 fever, for the next 2 days he continued on with the fever telling me he had severe head pain and bodyaches and his stomach just didn’t feel correct. We did a malaria test 2x and it came back negative so we continued to help him through the day with Tylenol and Advil but the morning of November 2 Caleb progressed to worse. He woke up in the morning around 4:30am and I heard him faint in the bathroom when I got to him I am not sure if he went into a seizure, but he was slightly convulsing in his hands and his eyes were rolling and he was gagging, my body started to shake and I thought “Oh please Lord, don’t take him.” We weren’t really sure what it was. We started to do a cold, shower and cold cloth on his body to bring the temperature from 102.7 down, I was able to get a hold of my friend in Ukarumpa who got a hold of the nurse for me and praise God for the Nurses and Dr’s of SIL!!! They spoke to me over the radio and told me to give him the malaria medicine even though it didn’t come positive. As we started the medicine. We also gave him Tylenol to keep his fever at a 99 the rest of that day. I was very fearful as we approached the night again that we would go through the same thing again from the night before but I prayed and went to sleep. The fever broke that night sweat pouring off of him, his body was dripping so we put a bath towel under him. I was just so thankful to know that it was malaria and that the medicine was working. For eleven years we’ve been in this country and we’ve never had malaria. The medicine is a three day course and by the third day he was back to normal with no headache and able to function again. The hours of the morning on November 2 are something I’ve never dealt with before…worrying about your husband while you’re feeling helpless in a place that’s so remote is hard. It might even wanna make you give up, we prayed so much that day for him. We were advised that maybe we should also try to get out but knowing that this would be a huge task we just asked for the Lords hand and guidance to tell us what to do. I praise God for His hand on Caleb and His protection over our family.
We’re now looking at having the Airstrip evaluated and landed on the 2nd week of November. He continually shows his hand upon all things always. I know that I’ve written that more than 1 million times, we were also extremely thankful that the woman who came to visit and was able to get out because if not, she would’ve missed all of her flights that we’re scheduled for the next two days to get her back to America. God answered SO many PRAYERS of the day! God is in control of all things and there’s so many times that I have seen miracle upon miracle of what he’s proven to us that that makes me not able to quit.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord and in the land of the living wait for the Lord be strong and let your heart take courage wait for the Lord - Psalm 27:13-14
This God, his way is perfect. The way of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him Psalm 18:30
Nov 14 The plane did land for the first time and we were able to finally open the airstrip! It was an amazing day!
