Joan update and prayer requests

Thank you for your prayers for our sweet Joan. She had a successful surgery inserting 3 pins to hold her bones in place. She has returned to GSF for her recovery. For the rest of this week she is supposed to be laying in bed with her arm elevated. Not an easy task for an active 10 year old. This afternoon I brought her some books to read together. She sat up for a bit, but we made sure to keep her arm raised in order to reduce the swelling. 

After two weeks she is scheduled to go back and have a pin and some stitches removed. Please pray for continued healing and relief from pain as she recovers. Pray for her housemom, the nurses and missionaries here to know how to encourage and care for her well. Please pray that the other girls in her house would be kind and help care for her. 

As I have been praying and trusting God to work for Joan's good in the midst of this situation, I began thinking about how children in an orphanage rarely have one-on-one attention. Since Joan is in my cord group, I am hoping to spend some extra one-on-one time with her during her recovery. It has also made me think about how I might find individual time for each of the seven girls in my group. Sometimes it is a bit of a struggle to make that individual time with my own 4 children a priority. 

Now that Cody and Katie Fox have returned, I am able to reduce to teaching part-time again. There are so many things that I want to do with my additional time. I want to spend more one-on one time with the girls in my cord group. I want to help GSF kids who are struggling in math. I want to learn Luganda better. I want to read the Bible with more of our non-Christian neighbors in Buwundo village. There is no shortage of opportunities for ministry. I also know that I need to set aside time to rest. That has become clear to me in the past few months. 

But my first priority is to pray! I don't want to just jump into more ministry just because I see a need and have a little time. I want to spend my time the way God wants and calls me to spend it. Please pray for God to direct my steps as I seek His will for each day, trusting Him to meet the needs for his children!