Feb 2023 Update from Abel and Sarah

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you for your prayers and giving.  Again, we were overwhelmed with how God provided for all of us to fly back to Ohio for Abel to have rotator cuff surgery.  

The surgery went very well and the doctor was pleased with how the shoulder looked when he was finished.  Now, Abel is in a sling for 6 weeks, which will finish in a week. After that, he doesn’t have to wear the sling and he can start doing minimal physical therapy like stretching.  After a month or two of that he can start lifting a small amount of weight.  All that to say, it’s a long process to being back to normal, however, in the long run it’s not too bad and Abel is more than willing to do the steps needed for recovery. 

While in Ohio, we stayed with my gracious parents. We were so encouraged and happy to see friends and family, eat from our favorite ice cream shop, walk on a peaceful country road, play in the snow, catch up on way too many Forged in Fire episodes, visit a couple of community groups from our church, and eat blueberries.  Pacey’s so cute and sweet. She had a long “bucket list” of things to do while in Ohio.  I think she was able to do all of them except a few things like go to Bob Evans, Hobby Lobby, and Pet Smart.  

Abel and I needed to renew our Ohio driver’s license and it had been long enough that we needed to take both the written exam and driving exam.  So for the first week or so we had to have people drive us around until we could get the license.  We are grateful for my parents and for the others that helped with that!  Also, upon arriving, we were blessed to find a ton of meat in our fridge and freezer given by some good friends.  Thank you.  

We thank the Lord we were able to all fly back to Tanzania together after the first week of January.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip back.  We were happy to get back home and happy to be warm again.  Of course we are now missing the cold weather and remembering our nice time in the US. We are very grateful.  

Abel started back in the office and other various work and meetings a week after we got back.  It was probably too soon for him to be so active, (the bumpy roads don’t help either) but he is encouraged with all that’s being talked about and accomplished.  

The kids were happy to see friends and family from Ohio, but it was hard to say goodbye again for awhile. They were glad to get back to routine and life here. They went back to school the day after we got back, jet lagged and all.

Andrew is going away this weekend for a YoungLife youth event.  Please pray for him and everyone that is going for safety but more importantly that God would use this weekend to stir in all their hearts, drawing them more to Him.  

We are so grateful for you all.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen some of you, but we hope that when we come back for a furlough in a year or two we can reconnect.