Update on Urgent call to prayer

2016-10-19

Good morning, prayer warriors. I am so grateful for the continued prayers of each of you, who love the Lord and His people and use your intercession on their behalf. I wrote this message last week and thought I had sent it, but in the busyness of getting James and Christine cared for I apparently forgot to actually send it. The following is what was written the afternoon of last Tuesday.

*This has been one of the special days when we see the Lord’s hand working in a special way. The plane that brought the Edwin family from Kamarang was a miracle–no one knew it was coming, and it pulled right up to the hospital. The pilot walked in and said he was headed back to Georgetown empty–that was a miracle right there, to have him arrive at 0930, and not have return cargo–and asked if there were any patients who needed to get to town. He was able to bring not only the Edwin family but also a woman who has been bit by a snake for treatment.

They were taken to the hospital for evaluation. Kaden has been admitted for observation. Please pray that he will not vomit tonight but will continue to recover. The physicians suspect that he has typhoid.*

For any who have not been on Facebook and seen the rest of the information posted by Christine (I’ve been sharing many of her posts), you will get to skip all the suspense we have been in the last 8 days and just hear the final result. Ask Kadin’s blood work came back negative, and his first stool sample was also negative. He does not have typhoid, leptospirosis, or any of the other bacterial infections originally suspected. After coming to town, Kadin has not had any more vomiting. Late last week Kadin had diarrhea again and his parents had another sample taken. Friday evening he had terrible stomach pain and felt nauseated but did not vomit. All this time Joy and I have been reading all we can to help advise Christine, and she has been consulting with their family doctor in Canada.

Finally on Monday they got the results of that last stool sample and it was positive for giardia! Now, giardia is no fun, but it is very treatable and usually self-limiting, so this is good news. Kadin is on Flagyl and we have hopes that he will soon recover fully. The doctors believe that the blood he was vomiting came from a tear in the lining of his stomach or esophagus caused by the persistent vomiting every night for over a week.

Analise, the little sister, was diagnosed with a staph infection and is responding well to treatment.

We believe Kadin contracted the giardia a few weeks ago when he was at a relative’s home in the village and drank some river water (all the village gets its drinking water from the river.)

Thank you again for all your prayers. The Lord delights to answer the prayers of his people.

Today Grant and I are finally going to fly out to rejoin Steven in Paruima. For the last four weeks our only communication has been over the HF radio here at flight base, and we are eager to be together again! We currently have no internet in Paruima. The school has a satellite dish, but service in Guyana is very expensive and not very good. We discontinued service after last school year and have not seen the way open to restart the connection. Please join us in praying that the Lord will open a way for us to have better means of communication, both for the ability to communicate with our family and friends and the added safety of being able to get help rapidly in an emergency.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support over the past two and a half years. The Lord has blessed us through each of you, and we feel privileged to do his work here.

We will be on the radio with our GAMAS team every morning, so if there anyone needs to contact us, please write out pilot, James Ash, at ashjam7@yahoo.com.

God bless you all in your individual ministries and service for him as we all work to hasten His soon coming.

In His service,

Alice Williams