Mission Update from Russ and
Heidi Smith in Chile
June 2008
Dear
Family and Friends,
Now here I will share with
you family and ministry needs. Joel�s shoulder situation is quite a bit worse
than we originally thought. Arthroscopic surgery won�t do. One doctor described
his shoulder as �pulverized� and �the worst case he�s ever seen in someone so
young.� I�ll write a full report and post it on my Facebook and if any of you
want all the details you can go there to read them. (Write me if you don�t know
how.) The summary is that one nerve is not showing signs of life. The doctor
prescribed 20 sessions of exercises and another nerve test in a month and then
decide how and when to operate. Unless the nerve responds (which happens within
3 months of the accident, if it is going to happen) there is no possibility of
the type of surgery that could restore his shoulder and arm to full capacity.
Even then, according to the surgeon, there is a 15-20% possibility that the
surgery not be successful and that it will NEVER be fully functional again.
Please pray. The dr. did say that Joel�s age and level of physical activity are
definitely in his favor. In any case it will be a year before Joel could even
think of starting to participate in sports again. When he came he brought his
snowboards, thinking that he would have an operation, a few weeks of recovery
and then he would get a job teaching snowboarding here during the southern
hemisphere winter. That will not be happening. It was the best thing to bring
him here. Although the type of surgery that the dr. hopes to perform (provided
that the nerve begins responding again) will cost close to $10,000 here,
apparently in the US it would be around $60,000, without insurance! We are very
grateful we are here! Still the amount of money we are talking about is
daunting. Please pray for God�s provision. Because Joel is not a student at
this time, he is not covered by our missionary insurance. Which brings us to
one final development: Joel has decided to stay here in Chile and not return to
the US for the present time. He is looking into studying in an institute here,
possibly something along the lines of tourism, which would go well with his
bi-lingual ability as well as his outgoing personality. Lots to pray about.
Having him here has been an adjustment for all of us (he really has not lived
with us for 5 years and been living on his own for the past 2 and a half
years), but it is going better than we had expected. There�s not a lot he can
do with one arm but he has taken on the responsibility of training the dog, as
well as building fires in the woodburning stove, among other things. It is
great to have him as part of our family again. Jocelyn said, �Now our family is
complete.� Our 4 J�s are together again. We would not have chosen the
circumstances that brought that about, of course, but God is sovereign and we
are trusting Him to use this for good in all our lives.
Joshua, Joyanne and Jocelyn are in their last few
weeks of the school year. They�ll have three weeks off in July and then the new
scholastic year begins. This semester the big emphasis the whole school was
working on was language arts. It culminated last week with all the students
participating in written and spoken competition. They and all their fellow
students were amazing. Joyanne got top honors for her written story in the 7th-9th
grade division and her story was read at the awards program. Jocelyn was the 2nd
grader chosen to recite her poem that night also. Joshua�s oral presentation
was outstanding, but he was not chosen to recite the selection he had
memorized. He did have the distinction of being the only student to also
�compete� in the Bible preaching category. You know what I loved most of all
though was how the students cheered for each other. The seniors showed just as
much enthusiasm for the 1st graders as the young ones did for their
big brothers and sisters. They really showed encouragement and support. Thank
God with us for Santiago Christian Academy.
Talking about SCA, please pray that God will provide
teachers, particularly for junior high history and science. And if you think
you might be the answer to that prayer, let us know. You would have to raise
support or be self-supported, (and be able to meet SCA�s requirements) but the
rewards would be out of this world!
Last month we asked you to pray for Heidi�s talk for
the pastors� and leaders� wives retreat. It went very well. It ended up not
being just a short devotional. She was told the morning of the talk that in
fact she had 90 min.! Begin that she had been busy with schoolwork up till the
last minute, she had to do most all the planning on the 8 hr. bus ride to
Temuco and early in the morning of the day she gave the talk. But the Lord
helped her, and through her helped the women present who are going through
difficulties and needed the Word of the Lord and the support of the body of
Christ. As a result, she was asked to give a similar talk on the topic �From
coping to hoping� to a group of ladies at the church last Saturday, and she
felt that it seemed to flow as the Holy Spirit spoke through her.
At San Lucas we have now begun our series on
Genesis. We will be preaching through this foundational book for the rest of
the year, except for September and December. I will be responsible for five of
them. In addition I continue to preach and celebrate Communion at several other
congregations each month.
Heidi�s Mom and Erin, Joyanne�s friend from our
church in CA, are arriving on June 30th�
and will be with us through most of July. We�re really excited
about that and hoping to get away with them, at least for a few days. We saved
2 weeks of our annual vacation time for this purpose. During one week of that
time, Joshua is planning to participate in the MOU (a big evangelistic event)
again this year, and just a few days ago Joyanne announced that she and Erin
are going to, too. We are really pleased that Joyanne has become much more
involved in youth activities at church in these past months. She has finally
found her niche here in La Florida and doesn�t go back to Villa Alemana nearly
as often as she did the first months. It has also helped having Elizabeth our
Australian-Chilean student living with us. She�s a great big sister and buddy
to both our girls and it�s a blessing to have her with us. She will be Joshua�s
guest at the end-of- the-year high school banquet next week. Joyanne has
invited a boy from youth group. Lots going on. We do have a full house and are
grateful God provided us one with 6 bedrooms (albeit not large ones!). Even
though we didn�t know we would need that many, He did and we are very glad.
Thanks for reading through this long report, for
your encouraging emails and support, and especially for your prayers.
With Love in Jesus,�� Russ and Heidi and family