DeckerUpdate November 8

Dear friends,
Greetings from chilly gray November in Minnesota! These cold temperatures and early sunsets are quite a shock to someone who's been in Africa for the past three Novembers! Brrrr!

We are thankful for so much as we approach Thanksgiving day in the U.S.! Today, Joey returned to the doctor and got his cast off. According to the x-rays, the bone has healed correctly! We are so thankful for that! His wrist is very stiff, and he has quite a bit of physical therapy for the days ahead. He says he is supposed to do exercises almost every hour, and they are pretty painful. So keep him in your prayers as he works to regain his flexibility and mobility in his hand.

My time in Pennsylvania with Heartstream Resources was very helpful as well. I've got some new thoughts and concrete plans for returning to West Africa in my role as Member Care Facilitator. And Dave and Jacob did very well without me, getting invited out by kind friends and relatives for several meals and enjoying tv dinners for some of their other meals.

Already we are drawing near to the end of our home assignment time in the States. We are praying about our support, and hoping that we will hear from people in the next few weeks as to how they would like to partner with us as we return to West Africa. We will most likely need to re-schedule our return if we don't have the needed support promised by December 15. Please keep this as a matter of prayer as well. We will wait until God provides what is needed-- and yet we see reasons why it would be very good to return on January 7. Jacob's school starts up again on January 9, and the transition for him will be much smoother if he can begin second semester with the rest of the students. We also have WAFA Council meetings scheduled for January 14-16, and we know that it would really help these meetings if we are back. (Especially Dave!)

We are looking forward to Joey's return from Northern Ireland, and to Danny being home with us for 9 days as well at Christmas time. We are very thankful to have time together at home once more with these young men before we head back to Senegal. And we're excited that Danny's special young lady, Leah, will be with us as well!

We are thankful for you and your prayers for us. Please pray earnestly that God will help us to work out all details as we look ahead to our return to Senegal.

With much love in Him,
Mary
for the Dakar Deckers