Praise God that Kirsten is home safe and sound in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, with Pamala and the kids! Her BFA dorm parents worked so hard to get her to the airport early in the morning, and she was able to fly from Basel to Amsterdam to Zagreb. Pam picked her up at the airport, and now everyone is home together. Thank you for praying for this nerve-wracking “evacuation,” as several people worked hard to make this trip happen. She is quarantined in our house for 14 days, but that is fine since she has online school anyway and is glad for some alone time!
Our county and several surrounding counties in California are under a mandatory “shelter in place” order, which means we are to stay home except for essential reasons such as buying food, going to the doctor, etc. That order is in effect until April 7. Please pray that this will not prevent Matthew from being able to pick up his shoulder immobilizer and sling this week, which the USCF orthopedic clinic is making for him.
Matthew had his spine x-rayed today, and we sent the images to the surgeon at USCF. He will examine the images, and on Friday, Matthew will have a video chat with the surgeon to find out the results. Please pray that he will not need spine surgery or a neck brace.
Please pray we can get a consultation with one other neurosurgeon at USCF and for wise counsel from her on the best treatment for Matthew. We are praying that the travel restrictions here will not stop this appointment from happening.
We are asking for a referral to Stanford and that Matthew’s records be sent there. Please pray for the surgeon at Stanford to have much wisdom and to accept Matthew as a patient for nerve reimplantation if that be the Lord’s will. Pray that the three-week lockdown in this area will not prevent the doctors from seeing Matthew as a patient or performing surgery.
In order to keep all our options open, please also pray that we can also connect with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Mayo Clinic and find out if they would be able to do nerve reimplantation if Stanford is not able to.
Matthew’s school in San Francisco is giving an extension to the students since they are closed due to COVID-19. The blessing of that is that it allows Matthew to catch up on all the classwork he missed while he was in the hospital. Please pray for Matthew that he would be able to complete the classes online and receive his certificate for the course.
Pray for wisdom about whether we should drive Matthew’s totaled car back to KC to salvage, thus being able to use it to transport ourselves and his stuff from California, or whether to salvage it in California, which might not be possible since this area is on mandatory quarantine. We are looking into the best options regarding driving vs. flying and shipping his belongings.
Pray also as it will be an added challenge to sell or give away the furniture in his Oakland apartment since people will not want to come pick up the furniture.
Pray for me, our Bible translators, and our Bible translation consultant as we decide whether we should keep to our plan for a checking workshop in Croatia in the first week of May. Pray as we explore options of traveling to Croatia and Serbia, or having translation checking sessions by video chat.
Please pray for me, our consultant, and each of the translators as we translate in Luke chapters 5-19, for clear, accurate, natural, and acceptable translations into each of the five Roma languages.
Please also pray as our Croatian translators translate reference materials from English into Croatian, which will assist the Roma translators for translating into their Roma dialects. At present, different members of the team are working on reference materials for 1 Kings, Psalms, Daniel, and 1 Thessalonians.
Thank you for praying,
Todd