Update on Steph

Hi everyone!

We were hoping maybe Steph would be released today, but her doctor is off, and I think he'll want to see her before they let her out. So she's in another day. The bleeding has stopped and both her and the baby are doing great. The doctor said the placenta is not covering the cervix at all, and he hopes that it will move up like it normally does. The problem occurs when the placenta is too low and the stretching uterus starts to pull a little bit of it loose causing the bleeding.

Kaitlyn and I stayed with friends (Uncle Attie and Aunt Meriel Louw) who used to live in Ladybrand but have moved to Bloemfontein recently. They live in a retirement community/game park. It is very nice. We saw springbok, gemsbok, and red hartebees this morning before breakfast.

Love to all and thanks for your prayers!

Glenn

Steph in Hospital

Hi everyone,

I'm at an internet cafe, and I'm not sure I have everyone's e-mail
addresses correct. Feel free to pass this on to anyone who would be
interested. Mr. Howard, could you please pass this on to Michelle
Asbell. I don't have her e-mail address.

Thursday night Steph had some bleeding. It wasn't a lot, but her doctor
wanted to see her asap on Friday. He put her in the hospital for
observation until the bleeding stops. She has a placenta previa, but it
is only a grade 1. The placenta is not covering the cervix at all, but
it is lower than it should be. This problem should fix itself
hopefully. There's nothing the doctor can do to treat it, and there's
nothing Steph could have done to prevent it. At the moment it is not
terribly serious, but if the placenta doesn't move up like it should,
then it could result in serious bleeding. If that happens, then of
course the doctor will have to take the baby. Fortunately the baby is
far enough along that with the neo-natal ICU in Bloemfontein at the
hospital where we go the baby has a a very good chance to live even
now. Every day improves that outlook.

As far as we can tell the bleeding has stopped. Steph's doctor is off
this weekend and a partner saw her this morning and said everything
seems OK. I doubt if she will be discharged until Monday, however. The
doctor may limit her activity at least some once he discharges her, and
I'm sure he will be seeing her pretty often. We'll try to keep in touch
one way or another to let you know what is happening.

Steph is feeling fine and doing well emotionally. She said she got a
good night's rest last night in spite of the nurses checking her and the
baby every four hours. Fortunately Kaitlyn is a daddy's girl, so we're
doing fine, too. I tried to do her hair this morning and that didn't go
so well. It looked about the same after I finished as before! :-)

Love to all. Thanks for your prayers!

Glenn

Brrrr!

Last night it snowed quite a bit in Lesotho.  At Matukeng where we live, most of it melted as fast as it fell, but some stuck.  Here's a picture from the village where we held an outreach today.  The sun shined all day, but the wind was bitter cold!

TLC Lesotho 2009

We've been having a great time with the TLC team that came to Lesotho.  They have been a HUGE blessing!

The TLC team helped us with an outreach where we're planting a church at Mphatane.  We passed out tracts, the girls held a short children's service, and we held an open are service.

Matt, Joe, and John played Candy Land with Kaitlyn.  She loves the team!

TLC has been a huge help with several projects that we just haven't had time to get to.  They painted the carport, ran a water line to the pig pen and we're still trying to get the leaks in the plumbing to the apartment sink to dry up.

The 4-day VBS was a great success here at Matukeng.  They also helped with a children's service at Ha Motheho.

Here's the team that did the children's ministry.

Kymberly really enjoyed her "Super Bowl Sundae!"  She LOVES sprinkles and ice cream!

Today we climbed to the top of the plateau behind our house.  Yes, that is snow on the mountains in the distance!

The looooooong lost group e-mail

Hi everybody,

From the frequency of our communication with you, you probably already guessed that life has been a bit hectic for lately. I suppose it's more a problem of priorities so I won't make any more excuses.

Tuesday I left Matukeng about 3:00am to go to the airport to pick up Joe (Steph's youngest brother) and the TLC team. I was a little late arriving for Joe because of construction and traffic jams in Johannesburg, but he said he had only been waiting five minutes for me.

From the airport we went to a mall to kill the day until the TLC team came in in the evening. Neither Joe or I are shoppers so we bought a packet of french fries and sat at a restaurant for several hours talking. Then around 1:00 in the afternoon we went to an Indian curry buffet for lunch. We both really enjoyed the food and had a nice time talking there too. After lunch we checked into the Baptist mission guest house where we were to spend the night. We both slept for about an hour there before leaving for the airport again to pick up the TLC team

The TLC team leaders are Matthew Thompson and Angela Haynes, both from Hobe Sound. We've known them both since college, so it's really nice to
be with them. The rest of the team members are John Miller, Rachel Grate, Kayla Shannon, Kimberly Rynearson, Jennifer Worrell. They are a great team and we are really enjoying being with them.

Yesterday we went to Mphatane (one of the newest church plants) for an outreach with youth from the church here. God really helped as we passed out tracts and held a short open air service. All the TLC team testified and I preached a short message. The TLC team also spend time with the village kids, taught them some songs, loved them, etc. A lot of the people responded to the Gospel invitation. I felt like it was very profitable outreach. The chief of the village was drunk but very supportive. He didn't go forward at the invitation, but I heard him praying the simple sinners' prayer that Nt. Kali led the people in. He said he would help us find an empty house to hold services in. The deceased witch doctor's family lets us hold services in their house, but they live in the edge of the next village which is much smaller. It would be better if we had a house specifically for the church and in
this larger village.

Today we're going to work on some simple projects around here, get ready for the service tomorrow at Ha Thafeng, and prepare for the VBS that starts on Monday. Also Joe will be leaving with Uncle Piet for Zambia on Monday, so I need to get a few camping supplies out for him to take along.

Well, that's the news for today. I'll try to put a few pictures on our
blog to go with this if you want to look there. The address is
http://gaultsinlesotho.blogspot.com

Glenn