Hi Everyone!
They aren't kidding when they say time flies! September was a crazy month of travel and busyness, and now things seem to be settling back down into a more normal pace (if there is such a thing as "normal" in Africa...).
As we already mentioned in previous e-mails, Jon went to England to apply for new visas for us, and we got 6-month multiple-entry visas with 3-month entries, which means we still need to leave every 3 months but that is far better than every month like last year! So our next time out will be in December, but we won't have to apply for new visas until March of next year. Considering what we've been through, that's a pretty good feeling :-). Jon's trip was a crazy journey, but he did get to see some old friends of ours while he was in England, so that was good. Kyran and I flew down to Maputo where we were reunited with Jon, then we traveled together to South Africa where we got to rest for a while.
While we were down in South Africa we met up with a friend from college (David Pollack and his mom, Lynn) who were came back to Dondo with us and visited for a week and a half, which was great. It's always so encouraging to have people we know come visit, and it was a good and stretching experience for them too. We made sure they had “The Complete Experience” in visiting Africa! They got to pray for the sick in the hospital, preach in the jail, teach in the Bible School, preach through two translators for church, shop in the biggest and busiest market in Beira, take the crammed public transport minibuses, eat beans and rice, wash laundry by hand, visit people’s homes, go without water and electricity for many hours (or days) at a time, buy fabric in a crowded store and take it to market to have a tailor make outfits, and on Saturday we gave them a break and went to the nicest beach around. Overall it was a blast having them!
I have been able to start back up with my English classes, which have been very well attended. I taught some last year, but quit when we were given responsibility of the whole base and I no longer had the time and energy for it. Now I have a little more free time, and everyone wants to learn, so here we go again!
We are in the process of trying to start up a preschool on base as well, which so far is just in the preparatory stage. We had another visiting team paint the classroom and now we have our construction workers making some tables and seats to go in it. We are also trying to get our clinic up and going. Here's a bit of Dondo history: one of the first directors of the base was a doctor from Holland, and he built a clinic on the base but after he left and there was no medical staff to run it, so it just sat there and we used it for guest housing. Now we're trying to turn it back into a clinic, we're working on getting it registered with the government, and we have a Brazilian doctor who has volunteered to come in two days a week to attend the community until we can find full-time medical staff. It's exciting to see new things popping up!
And of course we can't forget the Kyran update! The little guy turned 7 months at the end of September, and he is getting so big! Thus far he's been a great missionary kid by "eating whatever is put in front of him," whether it's really something edible or not... As of right now he can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth; he hasn't fully figured out the motions required for crawling, though I'm sure he will soon!
That's about all the news we have to relate. Prayer requests are as follows:
Please pray for one of our kids, Marcos, who has been very sick for over a month now. He's lost a lot of weight (and he didn't have much to start with), and he's very weak. He has been staying off-base with some relatives for more attention and care, but he doesn't seem to be getting better. With the medical quality what it is we still don't know exactly what's wrong, all I've heard is they've determined he doesn't have HIV, which is good. Just pray for a quick recovery from whatever it is he has.
Please continue to pray for more missionaries to join us, as we are struggling with a skeleton crew again and it's going to get worse soon with some of our people leaving.
Thanks for the prayers!
~Carla, Jon, and Kyran Reinagel
They aren't kidding when they say time flies! September was a crazy month of travel and busyness, and now things seem to be settling back down into a more normal pace (if there is such a thing as "normal" in Africa...).
As we already mentioned in previous e-mails, Jon went to England to apply for new visas for us, and we got 6-month multiple-entry visas with 3-month entries, which means we still need to leave every 3 months but that is far better than every month like last year! So our next time out will be in December, but we won't have to apply for new visas until March of next year. Considering what we've been through, that's a pretty good feeling :-). Jon's trip was a crazy journey, but he did get to see some old friends of ours while he was in England, so that was good. Kyran and I flew down to Maputo where we were reunited with Jon, then we traveled together to South Africa where we got to rest for a while.
While we were down in South Africa we met up with a friend from college (David Pollack and his mom, Lynn) who were came back to Dondo with us and visited for a week and a half, which was great. It's always so encouraging to have people we know come visit, and it was a good and stretching experience for them too. We made sure they had “The Complete Experience” in visiting Africa! They got to pray for the sick in the hospital, preach in the jail, teach in the Bible School, preach through two translators for church, shop in the biggest and busiest market in Beira, take the crammed public transport minibuses, eat beans and rice, wash laundry by hand, visit people’s homes, go without water and electricity for many hours (or days) at a time, buy fabric in a crowded store and take it to market to have a tailor make outfits, and on Saturday we gave them a break and went to the nicest beach around. Overall it was a blast having them!
I have been able to start back up with my English classes, which have been very well attended. I taught some last year, but quit when we were given responsibility of the whole base and I no longer had the time and energy for it. Now I have a little more free time, and everyone wants to learn, so here we go again!
We are in the process of trying to start up a preschool on base as well, which so far is just in the preparatory stage. We had another visiting team paint the classroom and now we have our construction workers making some tables and seats to go in it. We are also trying to get our clinic up and going. Here's a bit of Dondo history: one of the first directors of the base was a doctor from Holland, and he built a clinic on the base but after he left and there was no medical staff to run it, so it just sat there and we used it for guest housing. Now we're trying to turn it back into a clinic, we're working on getting it registered with the government, and we have a Brazilian doctor who has volunteered to come in two days a week to attend the community until we can find full-time medical staff. It's exciting to see new things popping up!
And of course we can't forget the Kyran update! The little guy turned 7 months at the end of September, and he is getting so big! Thus far he's been a great missionary kid by "eating whatever is put in front of him," whether it's really something edible or not... As of right now he can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth; he hasn't fully figured out the motions required for crawling, though I'm sure he will soon!
That's about all the news we have to relate. Prayer requests are as follows:
Please pray for one of our kids, Marcos, who has been very sick for over a month now. He's lost a lot of weight (and he didn't have much to start with), and he's very weak. He has been staying off-base with some relatives for more attention and care, but he doesn't seem to be getting better. With the medical quality what it is we still don't know exactly what's wrong, all I've heard is they've determined he doesn't have HIV, which is good. Just pray for a quick recovery from whatever it is he has.
Please continue to pray for more missionaries to join us, as we are struggling with a skeleton crew again and it's going to get worse soon with some of our people leaving.
Thanks for the prayers!
~Carla, Jon, and Kyran Reinagel
Have they tested him for TB yet Carla? That's what it sounds like to me. None of our kids ever tested positive by Chest xray or skin manitoux cause usually it wasn't pulmonary TB (but elsewhere in their body) and their immune system was too weak to form a response to the skin test. They can draw blood and do a PCR which, if elevated, and he tests HIV (i'd have him tested more than once), and other blood work shows no active infection, would be highly indicative of TB. You just gotta keep pushing them to test him again and if no other diagnoses can be made...it's most likely that. Praying for ya'll and for little Marcos!
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