So much to say...

There just aren't words--and, unfortunately, there just isn't time--to tell you all about the ways God has blessed me in the last few days here at Mayfield. But let me give you a rundown before we dash out to the airport this morning...

Oh, which I should mention—we got a flight! Kimmie was scheduled to fly this morning anyway, and they were able to squeeze me in, too. Hooray! Praise the Lord! So I’ve just got a few hours to finish up all my business in Kenya, then we’re headed home. :)

Last night, Dick from AIMCare came to check on me. I guess word got back to the States, then back to him, that I might be stuck here for a while, etc. So it was good to chat it up with him for a while.

And, in a funny twist of divine help, just as he was telling me, “If my wife (an orthopedic nurse) were here, I know she’d tell you not to go back in,” my friend from our training last July popped her head over the back of another couch. Duh, Andi. She’s was a physical therapist back stateside. Talk about right under your nose.

She gave me a bunch of exercises to start doing, got on me about my posture (Kim likes to tell me I look like Quasimodo) and the way I’m carrying my arm, and hammered home that if I wanted to really throw a baseball again, I’m going to have to work for it. Gulp. I’ve never been much for disciplined workout routines. Well, until I found my bike. But you see how that turned out. Hmm.

What else? OH! Get this. I’ve been stressing a bit about money. And I suppose I have good reason (if you’re allowed to say that and not appear “unspiritual”). The things that aren’t covered by insurance—the flights in and out of Sudan (probably $800+), my and Kim’s accommodation here at Mayfield, the phone calls to doctors, the $100 taxi out to Kijabe alone, and random expenses here and there—have heaped up to nearly $2000. Do I have that kind of money lying around? No. No, I do not. And I don’t have it in my work funds account either, come to find out. Whimper.

Can I talk about money so candidly? I haven’t a clue what’s tactful. Anyway, all that to tell you this: I went to pay for Kim and my guesthouse bill yesterday and John at the desk gave me this squirrely grin and talked around in circles for a while before putting it as plainly as an African can—“It’s taken care of.”

WHAT?! Yeah, I dunno. Someone paid for our stay. That’s $350!!! They won’t tell us who it was. But wow. I get all teary-eyed just thinking about it. Wow.

Anyway, I’ve lingered too long. Suffice it all to say, I’m really feeling the love of the AIM and African missionary family. That’s cliché, I know, to say we’re like family. But it’s true. And I’m feeling so much support from home—from my family, from my churches, from random folks. (Hello, random folks.) And I’m blessed. I know I am. Sometimes I just forget to live like it.

So, I’m going to try to be as thankful as I can for the opportunities God has provided me on my path to a new bionic shoulder, as disciplined as I can about getting my fastball back, as trusting as I can about the financial situation and as joyful as I can about being in Christ and being able to share him with the LoPeeps. :)