[Beens Prayer Partners] THEY DIDN'T GO

Dear friends,

 

God is so good - we wanted a clear signal as to whether or not we needed to take Josiah to S. Africa and we got it.

 

Late yesterday afternoon the Tylonel actually took his fever completely away (as opposed to lowering it).  The fever returned slightly as the medicine wore off but never very high and when Dan checked him at 11pm his fever was completely gone even without medicine.  Dan continued to check him every couple hours throughout the night and even woke him a couple times to make him walk around and such.  Finally around 3am he decided that they wouldn't go (at least not as early as planned). 

 

Josiah woke up around 7 this morning and is doing so much better!!  He's still not quite moving his neck "normally" but it's not near as stiff and he is moving it on his own.   His fever hasn't returned and if you ask him what hurts his only reply is his stomach (which I think is a side effect of some medicine we're giving and we're looking into changing to something else).   He slept most of the morning but is now down playing on the ground (and has even argued some with Karunia and Asher).

 

Please do continue to remember him in prayers as he's not quite back to normal but we praise the Lord for his recovery thus far.

 

Praise the Lord also for giving us such clear guidance in regards to making the trip.  We rejoice that travel wasn't necessary.

 

Blessings,

Robin

 

 

[Beens Prayer Partners] more on Josiah

Dear friends,

 

Thanks for your prayers.  This morning Josiah seemed perhaps a touch better, after having received all the malaria medicine - at least he showed a bit more energy in that he tried to work a puzzle and play a bit.  He's crashed again, but that's typical of malaria - in that it comes in cycles. 

 

Our great concern is the stiffness and pain in his neck.   This stiffness can be common with cerebrial malaria but is also classic for meningitis.  In fact with this symptom the two become indistinguishable (for those living in malaria areas both are to be treated at the same time when this symptom appears, unless you can rule one out).  Anyway we've consulted with a Dr in S. Africa - he really feels Josiah should get south to be tested for meningitis.

 

I'll be honest - we really don't know what we should do.

 

We've currently booked a flight out 1st thing tomorrow morning for Dan and Josiah on the MAF plane (mission aviation fellowship).  Since it's a chartered flight we'll see what the doctor says about whether we should all come or not (if meningitis then potentially everyone's been exposed).

 

Our request is this:  please pray for God to make things extremely obvious to us.  We have between now (3:30 pm) and tomorrow morning for him to recover so that we can cancel this flight.  If this trip is un-necessary then please pray for a quick and obvious recovery so that we can feel confident in not going!   If we need to go, then things will be good to go for the flight.

 

Thanks so much.

 

Blessings,

Robin

 

[Beens Prayer Partners] Josiah

Dear friends,

 

We'd like to ask you to please pray for Josiah as he's fairly ill at the moment.  For 2 days now he's had high fever (104 or so) and has been achy all over, specifically in the back of his neck.

 

Several around here have been battling the flu, however most have not had exactly the same symptoms that he's showing.

 

We've run 2 malaria tests - one at home last night and another at the lab today.  Both tests came back negative, however we learned late this afternoon that if the fever isn't running high or if Tylonel has been recently administered then results can come back negative even when it should be positive.  I don't remember the specifics surrounding last nights test, but I had given him Tylonel about an hour before his test today.  The doctor examined him ruling out things like strep throat and such.  He feels that b/c of the degree of the fever that it probably is malaria despite the negative test results.

 

Anyway - we covet your prayers on his behalf.  Pray the Lord would bring healing be this malaria or the flu.  We have begun administering the malaria medicine so pray that would be effective if indeed it is malaria and if it is the flu then please pray he'd heal quickly from that and that the rest of us wouldn't get it.

 

Thanks so much.  We'll keep you updated.

 

Blessings,

Robin and Dan

[Beens Prayer Partners] From Dan and Robin Been

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

I wanted to say thank you for all you do to help support our ministry.  As we continue to get settled into our life here in Mozambique, one of the things we are doing is, after 10 months of living her, is hanging pictures on the walls.  We are creating a collage, of sorts, of pictures of friends and family.  Since you are all very important to the work we do here in Mozambique we are asking that you send us a photo of you for us to include in this college.  It does not have to be anything professional - a snapshot from your camera will work just fine or something you print off your computer is okay as well.  You can mail them to:

 

Dan and Robin Been/BNPA 

CP 688

Nampula, MOZAMBIQUE

 

Sorry for the snail mail address, but printer ink is so expensive that we can't print email pictures of all of you! 

 

Thanks so much,

 

Dan and Robin Been

 

PS.  All the recipes everyone sent are great.

[Beens Prayer Partners] urgent prayer from the Beens

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

Please pray for the following situation.  Two years ago our teammate, Shawn Gardner, bought a building here in Nampula.  It is where we hold our classes and discipleship times.  For the last two years there has been a huge effort to get the title changed from the name of the previous owner to the new owner, which for ministry reasons is a Mozambican Association called the Mustard Seed.  The Mustard Seed was also started by Shawn so that from the beginning, the ministry was in process of being nationalized.  Well, two years later, the process is almost done.  However, there is a discrepancy in the documents.  There are two purchase prices, one is correct & the other is incorrect - much higher than the correct price.  For things to be finalized the previous owner must sign a document stating how much he was paid so the discrepancy in the paper work can be corrected.  However, when asked to do this he said he did not receive the full purchase and is still owed several thousand dollars (which is true).  Remember things in Africa aren't as easy as in America.  The Association should be able to show all the documents to prove the purchase price....but that is not what they were told needed to take place.  At this point, the previous owner can seriously mess things up.  Pray that God will touch the previous owner's heart and mind (he is not a Christian) and he will do what is truthful and right and sign the document.  Pray for God's justice to be done and for God to be honored and brought glory, no matter what happens.    

 

Also let us say that the 1st month for our food distribution program went very well.  Each of the 13 churches was able to give one large sack (by large sack I mean it stands about waist high) to each family within their churches and several other large sacks were provided to others in the community, distributed through the mosques and a few other churches.  It was all so appreciated and we are grateful for the smoothness with which things ran.  Continue to pray for people and to pray that April's (the last month) distribution would go well.  Praise the Lord for the funds he has provided thus far! 

 

Blessings,

 

Dan B. 

[Beens Prayer Partners] update

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

• Please be in prayer for Dan as he is preaching today.  He is preaching at the monthly church conference and the topic is worship.  If you think worship can be a touchy subject there at times, it is doubly so here.. 
• We are starting day number 5 with outwater.  Please pray that whatever the problem is, the water company would get it fixed and that we would REALLY conserve water.  We have been using water from our reserve tank, however, I'm sure that is getting low.  Praise God because it rained yesterday and last night.  That is good for the croops, but it also meant we were able to capture some much needed water in buckets.  Because of the rain the Josiah, Karunia, and Robin all ran outside to "bathe" in the rain, as much as you can bathe with cothes on; they did manage to wash their hair!  Also since it rained we had enough water for some laundry last night and should have enough water for baths and dishes during Sunday and Monday.     
• This week also is the food distribution, please pray that all goes well and God is glorified. 
• Finally, pray also for us as I am busy and starting to feel the pressure and need for a small break (long weekend away).  You see even on my days off people come to the house, call, or something comes up.  It is very hard to just "stay at home and relax".  That is one great thing about our team.  When one of us has a day off and someone comes looking for us to talk, or get medical help, or food or whatever, each of us is very good a protecting the other from having interuptions.  It is a strange concept here to take a break to rest.  How can someone rest from illness, hunger, and all the daily needs that take place because of the harshness of life?  (Of course it is a strange concept here to want to spend time with your wife and kids as well.  For example there is another mission couple with four kids and we take turns watching each others kids once a month so the other can have a "date night".  Three weeks ago we had a "date night" and then two weeks ago we watched their kids so they could go out on a date. Their kids and our kids combined meant we had 8 kids ages 7 and under running around our house!  This prompted questions from our guards.  Dan explained we were watching our friends kids so they could have dinner alone, time to talk, and just be with each other without any interuptions.  Our gaurds asked us, "why would you do that?"  Dan explained that it is nice to have a few hours alone to talk with our spouse, to just sit in quite, to watch a movie with out being interupted, to eat with out having to feed or care for others, etc.... The guard then asked, "each night when you put the kids to bed can't you do that?"  Dan answered, "not necessarily without interuptions!"  Our one night guard started to grasp the idea, but the other could not understand why a husband would want to spend time with his wife.  Oh well, so goes life here....)  

Thanks so much for standing in the gap on our behalf!!!

 

Blessings,

Dan