Summer Holidays

THE KIDS:
It's SUMMER HOLIDAYS for the kids - Tryphena & Theo both did very well in their final exams and were promoted to the next class, which begins on June 1st.
Tryphena will be going to Std.V and Theo will be going to Std.II


Now, it's time to think of some ways to keep them entertained.


Our host, Vimal & Hannah along with their little boy Jowen - had invited our whole family, so the kids could spend some time there.

As a family, we had to planned to go to Tanuku (in Andhra Pradesh), while we conducted the Preacher's Workshop there.


But with the turn of events (as you would read later on), they had to cancel their trip.
The kids were a bit disappointed, but we assured them that we will take them there during the 1st term holidays, later in the year.



THE DOG:
In the meantime, we had to give away our dog "Sparkles". With the dog growing big and wanting a lot more attention, we decided to give her away to the Dog Shelter - who will find her a good home, or keep her in their care.
Sparkles had been with us since Dec. '09 and the kids were quite attached to her.
But due to the increased labour for Carmen in taking care of her, we decided it's best to give her away, where she will be more free and taken care off too at the same time.


CARMEN:
Please keep Carmen in your prayers, as she is having a spasm on her back. It's been a recurring thing on and off, and she thinks it could be Spondylitis. We had undergone a test initially and the doctors advised her some rest - but with the ongoing household chores, she is finding it difficult.
Please pray with us for someone to come and help us - which will be a big relief for Carmen.


RAJAN:
On the 20th of March, while I was in Mizoram - i was on my way to the "Faith Ministries" church, when i felt something quite not right with my Prosthetic leg. It was jammed and it wouldn't stretch itself forward - this created a bit of a problem for me, as Aizawl is on a hill.

Anyway, I got back home and took it to the Prosthetic Clinic here in Bangalore and they inspected and told me that it has to be sent back to Germany, as something was not quite right with the Hydraulic function.
In the meantime, they had given me a replacement - which is an older model.
This one doesn't support me as much as the other one did, and it started giving me some problems. I tried to balance myself in awkward positions causing a disturbance on my lower back and eventually onto my hip and then on my stump.

I was in excruciating pain on the day before we were scheduled to leave for Tanuku (AP) for the 2nd of the Preacher's Workshops.
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 I was writhing in pain & no pain killer tablets seem to have any effect. When I couldn’t control any longer, I called for some doctors to come home and give me some pain killers – but no one was available.

So, I had to be rushed to the hospital that night – where I was administered the pain killer – but to no effect again. They had to give me 3 pain killing injections (shots) to bring the pain down – the final one being a real strong one.

The test results showed everything as being normal and the Orthopaedic surgeon said that it could be the prosthetic device which is causing this.

To cut the story short, the following day we flew into Vijayawada and then travelled by road to Tanuku (about 120 kms.) and conducted the workshop - which was a great blessing. Read more about this in THE NEST NETWORK UPDATE BLOG.

Upon return, I visited the clinic again to see what the cause could be .. and i realized that the length was not adjusted properly. It was slightly longer, which forced me to follow a different gait (walking pattern), which caused the stress and the pain eventually.

So, the new one had to be cut short by about 1.5 cms to make it more even for me to walk properly again.

Now, my original prosthetic leg has been sent to Germany and the latest update is that it should be fixed and arriving back in Bangalore on the 25th of this month.