Fifth Update on Whitney

What are Whitney and Mommy doing during our days in the hospital? We are listening to some books on CD and also some kids radio programs (Adventures in Odyssey & Paws and Tales). While we are listening, Mommy is knitting a blanket for Whitney. Hopefully, I will finish it before we leave.


We spend a lot of time snuggling too. We have played some word games too, like, "What do you think of when I say the word...?"


This is Whitney and one of her nurses, Eylem. She is such a sweet girl and I am praying for the opportunity to share the gospel with her.


Yeah!!! McDonalds!!! We don't have it in Albania and so we decided that we would order McDonalds to celebrate a good day. McDonalds actually delivers to the hospital. It was a pretty tasty dinner.





Dear Prayer warriors,

Whitney and I have been reading through Matthew these past days. I thought that reading about the works of Christ on earth, at this time in Whitney’s life, might make them seems more real and interesting. When we got to chapter 9, we read these verses:

“But Jesus turning and seeing her said, ‘Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.’ At once the woman was made well.” (v. 22)

And a few verses later:

“When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them; ‘See that no one knows about this!’ But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.” ( vs. 28-31)

At this point, I had to stop because I was a little bit choked up. Whitney said, “Reading about Jesus healing all these people makes me think that He can heal me too!” We had such a great time talking about how big and powerful our God is and how we would want to run around all over the place telling people if God healed Whitney’s eye too.

Well, we have some opportunity to “spread the news about Him throughout all the land” today! God has been answering the multitude of prayers that are being lifted up on our behalf.

PRAISE GOD THAT:
• Whitney noticed this morning that her vision was quite a bit less blurry. At the Dr.’s appointment, she was able to read the first line of the eye chart. The Dr. said that she has recovered 10% of her vision.
• The blood in the front (anterior) part of the eye has almost all dissipated.
• The infection in her right eye is largely cleared up.
• Whitney can now keep her left (good) eye open for parts of the day. This is really helpful because now that she is feeling a little bit better it is really hard for her to keep both eyes closed.
• The light isn’t hurting Whitney’s eyes as much as before. Up until today, we have had to keep the room quite dark because it hurt her eyes.
• We have been able to praise God for His amazing power to our nurse, Eylem, and the ophthalmologist, Dr. Oram.
• God’s Word is vivid and real to both of us and we see, with new eyes, the healing touch of God on Whitney’s eye.
• We are being encouraged and strengthened by the body of Christ, YOU!


“O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt HIS name together.” Psalm 34:3

In regards to the hemorrhage or rupture in the middle/back (median) part of the eye that I wrote of yesterday, the Dr. said that it is still there and has not started to dissolve itself. He plans on performing a very specialized test that will scan that part of the eye on Monday to determine if they will need to do surgery. He is still concerned about a secondary hemorrhage, so Whitney has to remain on bed rest, but at least she can open good eye some.

Continue to pray:
* That the hemorrhage will dissolve on its own so we don’t have to have surgery.
* That there will not be a secondary hemorrhage to cause permanent vision loss.
* That Whitney’s vision will continue to improve over the weekend.
* That our “light (would) shine before men in such a ways that they may see (our) Heavenly Father and glorify (our) Father who is in heaven.” (Mtt. 5:16) We have made good friends with one of the nurses (picture with Whitney attached). She is celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramazan this month and I am praying that the reality of our amazing God would stand in stark difference to her “god”.

A note on the home front (Albania): Kris and the girls are doing well. Kris has been so amazing getting them all ready for school and doing lots of fun things with them. They are going to want me to go away more often if he keeps up all the fun. Our team has been so amazing by providing dinners for the family as well. I am so thankful to God for the way He is providing and caring for my family while we are apart. I know that so many of you are praying for Kris and the kids that I wanted to let you know that they are doing well.

Thank you for your faithful and impassioned prayers for us. He is at work and we are honored to be a part of His plan to glorify Himself.