That month went quickly lol!  When we came back to our place in Pine River we had quite a few doctor’s visits and appointment with Dan. We had some of our family to our place for Thanksgiving and celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family. 

We prepared to travel as we had meetings in California in January and had to be in Connecticut in late February.  We left the first of January and visited with a few family and friends as we made our way to Long Beach California.  We spent a little over a week with the rest of the Africa Initiative leaders and Director at an Air B&B and had trainings during the day at a church there.  It was a wonderful week of training and vision-casting and getting to know more of Converge’s African missionaries. We left deciding that we would be leading an initiative to the Gotel Mountain Region of Nigeria, focusing on the least-reached people groups in our area in addition to the regular ministry that we do there.  We weren’t sure what that meant or how that looked, but we knew that was God’s heart and we needed to join Him in that work in our area if we were approved to do that by our temperments and working styles.

We then headed to the East Coast.  We visited all of our Connecticut churches and were at our last church for a huge mission’s conference when everything was shut down due to the Co-vid 19 Virus.  We stopped and visited with our friends, the Heaton’s in Ohio and headed for home.

When we got to Pine River we just stayed home.  Everything was shut down and we had been traveling for three months.  Who knew what we picked up along the way? It turns out we picked up nothing and are very thankful that we have remained healthy despite Dan’s strokes.

This summer along with learning how to use Zoom and re-doing our web presence and planning and preparing for the Gotel Initiative we also organized every area of our house as we have not been able to do that since we moved in and moved to Nigeria a few months later.  We had Dan’s parents Estate Auction and set up a packing area in our pole barn.  We have packed about 600 boxes, weighed, numbered, and inventoried for our next shipping container that will go to Nigeria.

 We have had the opportnity to visit some new churches, and have had many meetings with our Africa team as well as potential partners in the Gotel Initiative.

In August Dan had an ablation and has not had any challenges with A-fib since.  In August I was having pain in my leg and a hard time breathing.  I had a blood clot starting in my foot going up to my groin and a saddle pulminary embolism in my lungs.  I was in the hospital for a couple of days on i.v. blood thinners and am now on blood thinners too.  

In October Nigeria has started to open up travel and we started work on getting our stamps on our Visas as they expired in July during a no-fly time in Nigeria.  We have received the temporary stamp and am working on the permanent one now.  We look forward to going back to Nigeria as soon as is possible after getting our passports back.  We have been blessed to be able to spend time with Dan’s mom and work out some additional help for her as she is soon to be 94 and a little frailer then before Covid shut downs occurred.

Merry Christmas friends!  Remember, even in this season of uncertainty there is one thing that is certain.  It is the reason we celebrate Christmas!  Jesus.  Much love from Minnesota for now!