Monday, February 1, 2010

Update on Prayer Requests


Thanks for your prayers about both Preetika’s father and Pastor Kebby. In both situations we have seen evidence of many praying people around the world.

First about Preetika’s dad, just about every report was encouraging good news. All 3 stints put in 3 ½ years ago are clear and doing their job. Despite passing out due to the overexertion, there does not appear to be any indication of another heart attack nor any new damage to the heart. For all this, we are extremely grateful. Her dad will just rest and recuperate for a week or so at home before getting back to his normal routine. Thanks for all your prayers and emails of encouragement. It sure helped sustain us through a trying time.

Now about Pastor Kebby, the news is also pretty good but he has a longer road of recovery ahead of him presumably. He was discharged from the hospital on Saturday morning (too quickly for my liking) though he still had trouble walking, had severe head aches, and was seeing double out of one eye. According to the doctors though, the swelling on his head had gone down and he was therefore ready to go home. (They actually took a tape measure to his head to determine that. I don’t know if that is standard medical procedure, but it looked a bit strange to me.) He was told to come back Tuesday to have the estimated 40 stitches removed from three separate gashes on his head. He was sent home with no medicine, but told to purchase our equivalent of Tylenol for pain. Needless to say, that has not done much to take care of the pain. Today, Monday, we took him to a private doctor for a second opinion, and his advice was to ask the hospital for a referral to the hospital in Lusaka, our capital city, to have a ct scan done. There are no such machines in all of Livingstone. His educated guess is that it Pastor Kebby either had a concussion or a blood clot somewhere between brain and skull. I don’t remember the medical term he used, but that is my understanding of what he said. He said the concussion will go away on its own while the other can be treated with drugs but only after being confirmed on a ct scan. He also mentioned that a symptom of the “blood clot” scenario was falling asleep suddenly. That has not been occurring according to Pastor Kebby’s wife, so we are encouraged that it may have been a concussion – serious enough but the best case scenario all things considered. He is still quite weak and a bit unsteady on his feet, but is much better than a few days ago. His voice is rather weak, but he is talking and seems to be understanding and remembering most anything we talk about (though still very little about the specifics of the attack and afterwards until waking up in the hospital).

Please continue to pray for his full recovery as well as wisdom for us on the best way to help him recover. Also do keep the people of the Fallsview Bible Baptist Church in your prayers that many of the members will take up the slack during the recovery. God is in control and it is apparent to all of us here in Livingstone that the LORD still has further plans for Pastor Kebby. Praise God.