How do weeks and months pass more quickly every year? It feels like we were just leaving for Tennessee to take Dean to see a specialist, and I *blinked* and now it's almost April! There has been a lot of momentum in this new year of 2022. It feels like everything is growing and happening, which also makes the time rush by. We have gained new church attenders and CR attenders. We welcomed back our first post-pandemic mission team! Also, our family had fun celebrating birthdays, school successes, and getting to see our extended family at Christmas for the first time since 2015!
Most of you follow us on social media (facebook, instagram), but in case you missed it - Dean's kidney was not lacerated! Instead, the opposite kidney had a big 7mm kidney stone! The doctors at ETCH took incredible care of us. It took two surgeries to successfully remove the stone, but they got it out and Dean healed up really well and quick. We are so grateful that God was gracious enough to send us people to advise us to go back to the US when we prayed for wisdom. We were told that there was only a 30% chance of a stone this size passing on its own. In addition, too much longer and the stone blocking the kidney from emptying could have caused permanent kidney damage. God's timing was perfect and we are praising Him for it over and over. Dean will need to see a nephrologist once a year for the foreseeable future, but drinking a lot more water and limiting his sodium intake should help prevent new stones from forming.
Dean got to ride in a wheelchair throughout the various airports! We still thought he was injured, and he had started having lots of pain. We were really thankful for the airport staff wheeling us all over the place.
We loved the nephrologist, Dr. M, and the urologist, Dr. Irvine! Dr. Irvine even did two years of med school in Nevis and had a lot of insight into what our life is like in the federation. He knew immediately that the stones were caused by dehydration, and the tests later confirmed this.
On surgery day, Dean was feeling pretty anxious. On arrival a sweet volunteer at Children's Hospital let him choose a stuffed animal. The silver lining in two surgeries was that he wanted two animals and got to get his second choice the second time.
Surgery 1
Surgery 2
Once we were able to have answers about Dean, we realized what a sweet blessing it was to be "home" for the holidays! We experienced traditions and created memories that we had laid down years ago. We would still choose this life of obedience to God every time, but it was such beautiful grace to experience a Knoxville Christmas again.
Cousins hearing the "Little Christmas Tree" story
A surprise visitor (our friend Chase) came by
My family had a photo shoot as a gift from my sister
Extra time with the Comer cousins!
And so. much. snow! It snowed 3 times while we were back, surprising all of us (except Dean who prayed for it).
Even before we left, we were experiencing sweet things with our church. We continue to see new students coming in, and recently new local families as well. The pandemic did quite a number on our attendance, seeing many people move away and word of mouth suddenly not having that many mouths. We are LOVING getting to know these new people! The numbers are not important to us, but I can tell you that it sure is encouraging to go from around 12 people a year ago to nearly 40 this past month!
We had a beautiful Christmas service and send-off Sunday. We even sent off of our last student who was here before the pandemic! Saying goodbye to Karen was hard, but we are so happy for her new adventure as she finishes vet school in the US!
We wrapped up the sermon series on Genesis and headed in James
We had a fun games night with our amazing Life Group! We have about 15 grad students who come over every week to study God's word, laugh, and share our lives with each other.
Clover is pretty in love in with Life Group too
In March, we were able to have a mission team from Faith Promise Church come down to see us for a week! They were able to help us run a CR info meeting in Nevis, share as a panel at CR St Kitts, create a clothing closet so we can serve our community, paint a wall in the CCF Kids room, and clean out and install shelves in our church storage closet! They brought down and purchased gifts for the residents and the officers at the prison, which opened up the doors for us to all come in and spend some time with the men and women! The group led us in a time of prayer with our church at a bonfire, and taught an awesome message about faith at church on Sunday morning. They also enjoyed our beautiful island, shared openly about CR and church everywhere they went, and loved on us all week long.
On their way!
Nevis Info Meeting
CR St Kitts Night
Pretty wall!
Clothing Closet space halfway done.
We had soooooo much stuff from years of just putting things in the closet
The Dump
We got to throw out all kind of broken and unusable things. it made my minimalistic heart so happy! However, the dump did a number on my mini van. (Im currently waiting it's return from the mechanic)
Life Group helping us pack bags and write notes for the prisoners!
(Not pictured) Our time at the prison was precious. It was a direct answer to prayer! We believe that we will be allowed to start CR classes in the prison once again very soon!
Robert prayed over many different people at the bonfire, and over our church!
He also prayed over Aaron and it touched us deeply
It may be the Scotch-Irish side of me, but I love a good bonfire song and dance time!
We stayed until the moon rose high, and drove home so full after an evening of praise and prayer.
Chad bringing the word at church!
Thank you Faith Promise and the mission team for coming down to love us and serve alongside of us!
Our family has had a lot to celebrate this last few months. Not only Dean getting healthy, but all of our birthdays, awards at school, and new experiences.
Aaron turned 36 in december!
Then Addalyn made it to being a teenager the next week!
I turned 35 in Janurary :)
And Dean hit double digits at the end of February! (Yes, thats a lot of kids in our living room. And yes, I made them spend most of the party outside. And yes, I would do it all over again, Dean had so much fun!)
Our kids worked their tails off and both won awards in their classes and at the elementary school and middle school over all for their social studies projects! Being in Knoxville for Christmas inspired them to do Knoxville related subjects - The 1982 World's Fair and Mountain Dew!
Addalyn has started playing volleyball! There is just one more class in the session, but she loves the sport. We are praying that they do anther session soon.
As promised, we have some exciting news. A big goal for us has been to train up local leaders for Celebrate Recovery and Caribbean Christian Fellowship. Having local people in leadership provides incredible insight and wisdom into a culture that is not our own. It also matters in our international church to have local people, and people of different ethnicities, represented from the stage and in all areas of the ministry. We LOVE our students, but they are only one demographic on the island. We recently had two different people express to us that they thought our church was only for Americans. One even asked permission before she came! We know we have to do better so that we can be a place where all people can come and feel welcome, loved, and learn about the hope that is found through a personal relationship with God!
You have seen and heard us talk about this amazing couple, Yamarlor and Shackila Dorsett, before. They have both served as volunteers on our church's and CR's leadership teams, with the children's ministry, with the worship team, and pretty much wherever a need has been evident.
While they have served humbly as volunteers for years now, we believe God has something more for both of these individuals. God has been calling them to work in ministry for a while, but none of us were sure of what that might look like. Through prayer and seeking wise counsel, we have now offered them full time positions on staff at Caribbean Christian Fellowship! They accepted, and we are all very excited!
CCF is a small church with an even smaller budget. For that reason, the Dorsetts will have to be paid by support that is raised just like Aaron and I are. We have already had a generous donation for part of the needed resources, and we are looking to raise an additional $1,000 a month to be able to officially hire this couple on. That’s just 10-20 people who can give $50-100 a month. If God is prompting you to help us accomplish this goal, you can donate here:
Through this link, you can set up a one time or monthly reoccurring donations! All proceeds go directly into CCF's US-based bank account, and CCF is a registered US non-profit so your donations are tax deductible as well! Thank you!
Love,
The Comers
Dear Comers,
ReplyDeleteThis was all such a blessing to read. I feel like I am reading about Paul, Timothy, the new Christians & other followers of Christ in New Testament days. The Bible is the living, breathing Truth, living in St Kitts & Nevis. Praise God for your obedience to His calling. There is no greater joy.
I am so sorry for Dean's kidney stone, but am so glad that he is better and once again God took something bad & created so much good & joy. So glad you got to have Christmas at home & the snow!! God bless you all.
Thank you for sending us these letters of encouragement. Praying for you, those you serve there, & your families here at home.
Love,
Mary Dew Moody