[Beens Prayer Partners] Up date from the Beens

Hello to all,

 

Thank you for all your prayers on behalf of Izebiu.  He is doing well.  I, Dan, was unable to visit him for several days, but finally made it to see him today.  He was sitting up and moving around.  He may get to go home within the next few days.  What a praise this is!  God protected him mightily during this whole process!  Please keep Izebiu in your prayers as he continues to heal.  Thank you for being part of our ministry during this rather stress-filled event. 

 

Blessings,

Dan B. 

[Beens Prayer Partners] Izebiu's surgery

Hello to all,

 

Just to let you know that Izebiu made it through surgery okay.  I, Dan, was out of town all day at a discipleship point, Netia, but once I was back in Nampula I stopped by the hospital.  The nurse said he was doing fine and the surgery went well, however, I don't put much stock in what the nurses say.  They don't do much more than sit around.  It is up to the patient and family to care for the patient and make sure medicines are taken on time.  But, Izebiu talked with me briefly and said he was feeling "okay".  I was glad to find him alive!  Medical care in our part of the country can be very frightening.  But...so far so good. 

 

Please keep praying for him and we will keep you updated.  Hopefully I'll be able to talk with the doctor tomorrow or Friday.

 

Blessings,

Dan B. 

[Beens Prayer Partners] Izebiu set for surgery

Dear friends,

 

Just wanted to give you the latest on Izebiu.  The malaria has cleared enough so that surgery is now set for tomorrow (Wed.) morning (your Tuesday night).  Please keep him and the doctors and such in your prayers.  Dan has talked with the doctor several times and thinks he seems to know what he's doing (at least for here).  The doctor did comment today that within Mozambique spinal surgeries are only done here in Nampula and that people even come up from Maputo, the capital, to have things done.  That does strike us as a bit odd, however if true then it's a good thing he's here.

 

Izebiu hasn't done a great job of lying still these past few days.  It's just so hard for people here to understand the seriousness and inter-relatedness (is that a word?) of health issues.  For example - we did find out (by "accident" on Saturday evening that Izebiu has epilepsy (teammates had come into town and we were relating the stress of the week, telling the story of a man falling off the roof, etc.  It then struck us as perhaps they would know Izebiu since when they had lived in Nampula for a time they'd attended the church Izebiu attends.  When Dan told Chad the guy's name it was Chad that told us of the epilepsy)!!!  Neither he nor the man he was working with saw this as a reason for not working on a roof to begin with, nor had they thought to inform the doctors of that.  Anyway please pray that his movements won't have caused further damage & pray that post surgery he'll be able to appropriately recuperate!

 

Dan's heading to Netia tomorrow so I don't know if we'll be able to give an update tomorrow or have to wait till Thursday but we'll let know as soon as we can.

 

Blessings,

Robin

[Beens Prayer Partners] Update on Izebiu

Hello to all,

 

Please keep praying for Izebiu.  He did not end up having surgery yet as planned, as when they ran bloodwork this morning they discovered he has malaria and have to wait to treat that before proceeding with an operation.

 

Keep praying - he's probably moving around in the bed a bit more than he should, though I can't fathom how difficult it'd be to lie still and not move at all. 

 

We will keep you updated.

 

Blessings,

Robin

[Beens Prayer Partners] update on Izebiu

 Hello again,

 

Please continue to pray for Izebiu.  X-rays show that he's broken 2 vertebraes.  The wait in the normal part of the hospital for surgery is over a wk and doctors say if he moves much at all then he risks paralysis.  We've moved him over to the special clinic and he'll have surgery tomorrow morning (the equivalent to Thursday evening where you are).

 

Please pray for Izebiu to make it through the night without too much movement, pray for the surgery tomorrow morning and for his recovery and for his family through all this.  

 

Any surgery in this country is a rather scary thing to think about and now we're talking about surgery on someone's back - please be in constant prayer.

 

Blessings,

Robin 

[Beens Prayer Partners] prayer request

Hello,

 

Please pray for Izebiu; he is a man who's been assisting with the renovations at the training center and just after lunch today fell from the roof, through the ceiling boards to inside one of the offices.  Dan was called in and they quickly took him to the hospital here in town. 

 

At this point all I know is that he's capable of moving his limbs and that he has a severe cut on his chin (hit it somehow coming down).  Will update you when I can but until then . . .

 

Blessings,

Robin

[Beens Prayer Partners] Sept. prayer letter

Dear friends,                                                                                         September 2006

 

How grateful we are for your prayers and support.  Please know you are appreciated!

 

August was a great month.  Although we managed to stay fairly busy, it also managed to afford a bit of rest, at least more so than we’ve had this summer.  We were thankful for that and now are once again running full steam ahead!

 

Praises:

• Laura Rosten, our new teammate, has now safely arrived in Nampula.  We are so excited to have her here.  Her first several months will be spent solely in language study (pray for her in this – that she would learn well and quickly) and then she plans to work with churches in the city to help them establish some sort of children’s programs (which at this point are virtually non-existent).  Possibly she will also be teaching English classes through the center in town.
• Dan’s trip to meet at other churches in the Netia area went very well.  He managed to visit 2 different areas and this month will be heading to a few others as well before they pick back up at their regular discipleship point in Netia proper.
• We had to let two more workers go due to theft, but we do now feel we’ve got the situation in hand.  Paulo and Domingos are our new workers and we are very thankful for them!!!
• School continues to go well for Karunia and Josiah
• In late August we headed further north, to Montepuez, where several colleagues work.  We’d never traveled that far north and it was wonderful to be able to see where they live and work as well as gaining some time to visit with them.
• Dan had opportunity to preach each Sunday through August and the 3^rd of Sept. in several different churches and each Sunday went well. 
• Shawn & Sarah Gardner, our teammates, welcomed their 3^rd child into the family.
• Renovations have finally begun at the center!
• Weekend classes have started again.  Dan’s first class had 14 in attendance and Arlindo’s was equally well attended.  Included in Dan’s class was one of the ministers from a “troublesome” church here in town.  We’re excited about this; the church is often divisive and hasn’t been willing to send anyone to study at the center in a long time.  We’re trusting this to be an open door to help out this church as well.

 

Requests:

• Please pray for Robin and Laura as they work closely together in the immediate days and weeks ahead.  So far they’ve made good progress in getting the shopping and initial business items accomplished to help Laura settle in, though there will still be much to do.  Pray Laura adjusts well and that she doesn’t become too homesick.
• Pray for the men who’ve begun the weekend classes – that they’d be faithful in attendance and that their minds and hearts would be open to really learn and apply God’s word to their lives.  Pray also that they in turn would be able to lead and teach those around them in the Truth from God’s Word.
• As mentioned in the praise section, renovations have begun at the center.  Please pray for this as well – that all would go smoothly and there wouldn’t be too many unexpected surprises.
• Dan will be traveling out to Netia area this month to visit several of the churches.  Pray travel would go well as well as the teaching times and that he’d be a blessing to those he comes in contact with.
• We’re currently in the planning stages for a brief trip to S. Africa at the end of this year to take care of needed doctor appointments and to take a short holiday.  There are many details to figure out – please pray we’d make wise decisions in how to make this trip happen.
• At the end of this month 4 different GNFA families will be returning from their furloughs.  Pray for their final days in the States as they finish visiting their supporting churches and families.  Pray for safety in travel and that they’d be able to settle back into work and life here without complication.
• Esperansa has been battling diarrhea for over a week now.  We’re thankful that is her only symptom of illness (no fever, etc and she hasn’t dehydrated at all), though please pray that we’d figure out the cause and that she’d recover.

 

Thanks again.  We trust all is well with you.  Drop us a line when you can – we’d love to hear from you!

 

Blessings,

Robin & Dan

 

Misc. other things:

• Josiah now has a chicken and after consulting with a another family in town he’ll be expanding his “responsibility project” at the end of this month to include several chicks (the number is still to be determined).  We figure it’s a win-win situation.  He’s having fun and super excited about it.  Hopefully it’ll help him gain responsibility and eventually we’ll gain the benefit of eggs.  If he isn’t responsible then we can terminate the project and gain dinner.
• One of the teenage girls in town (expatriate family) is going to give horseback riding lessons to Karunia and Josiah; a very fun thing which we definitely couldn’t do in the States!
• Though the conveniences/lifestyle of Nampula are nothing compared to America, we are still in a small city and can easily forget how life is outside of this African city.  Well on Dan’s trip to the various churches of Netia last month, he came home saying, “well I went to Africa today.”  Things were really remote and at one point several kids were running along behind the car.  One actually caught up to the side of it (not hard when you’re driving 10km/hr) and then exclaimed, “There are actually people in that thing!!”  Apparently he’d never seen a car before!
• We did get to attend a party where one of the men which Dan disciples, along with his wife, gave special thanks to God for their children and were dedicating them to Him.  Apparently in the past they’ve had problems in having children (we don’t know the specifics) but at one point, just after they’d lost a child the man who always brought their vegetables to them simply shared in their grief with them.  Jorge promised that day that if God ever blessed them with children he would give this man a goat (yes, that seems odd to us too).  Well now, many years and 3 children later, Jorge was able to present this man with a goat and celebrate with friends the blessings in his life!  What a fun day it was!