prayer & grief

Sunday evening we arrived back at the MTI training center after a wonderful trip to Santa Fe to meet dear friends. We were severely blind-sided by tragic news- earlier in the day six of our classmates were in a horrific car accident as they drove from Palmer Lake to Golden to hear Philip Yancey speak.

We soon learned that two beautiful women, 42 year old Karin Jordaan from Pretoria, South Africa, and 21 year old Jessica Pety from Duluth, Georgia, died on the scene of the accident. The others, Scott (29), his wife Andrea (28), their 18 month old son Isaac, and Em (24) were all rushed to area hospitals. On Monday morning, Isaac also went home to be with the Lord.

Andrea has multiple injuries, including a broken clavicle, a broken jawbone, two fractured vertebrae, two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg and some internal injuries. She has undergone multiple lengthy surgeries and had a plate placed between her C7 and T1 vertebrae this morning. More surguries await her in the coming days. Her vital signs are strong, and the doctors are encouraged by her continued recovery.Scott has a torn rotator cuff and was transfered out of the critical care unit into a hospital room this morning.

Em also underwent surgery to repair fractured vertebrae. She is now breathing on her own and is recovering as well.

As you can imagine, this has impacted our community here at MTI in many ways. Although we only knew these friends for 2 weeks, we quickly grew to love them as we were all on the same journey and shared a common call and passion for missions. Our hearts are heavy. We miss them, and we wish they were here with us. The staff here at MTI has done an incredible job of allowing us to process the tragedy, grieve the losses, and rejoice that Karin, Jessica, and Isaac are now in GLORY with their Savior. What a roller coaster ride it has been. But, it has been such a life-giving experience to walk through this with such a loving community.

Please, please, please pray for the continued healing and protection of Em, Andrea, and Scott. Pray for Scott and Andrea as they grieve the loss of their only son. Pray for the families and friends of Karin, Jessica, and Isaac. And, pray for us as a community walking through this time of great sadness.

Jessica

Karin

Isaac

Tri-Lakes Sentinel

Weekend Edition



Well, the weekend is finally here and I am sooo glad to be feeling well enough to give you the scoop on recent happenings here in Palmer Lake and around the world!


-Prayers & Celebration
Yesterday morning my fever finally broke and after remaining isolated for 72 hours I reentered society and had dinner with my bride in the dining room. I was absolutely exhausted, so we sat alone, but it was encouraging to hear the applause of my classmates when I joined them in the buffet line. Their prayers have been fervent, I know, and it was a joy to see them again.

-A Tutor and A Movie
After looking forward for months to this invaluable preparation here at MTI, it was painful to lie in bed this week as morning and afternoon training sessions rolled on. Knowing that much of the material covered this week was foundational, I found myself anxiously wondering what I was missing. Fortunately, Lindsay is a wonderful student and teacher and she has already brought me up to speed on much of what I missed.
To pass the time I also borrowed some DVDs from the MTI library (limited selection). They weren't official lectures or lessons on cross-cultural adjustment, but "Little House on the Prairie" proves to be an excellent cross-cultural handbook. Laura Ingalls describes our own adventure to the DR quite well when she says, "I knew there would be rivers to cross and hills to climb; and I was glad, because this is a fine land and I rejoiced that I would see it."

-Eagles Soar


Last night Las Aguilas del Cibao defeated Los Tigres del Licey to become the national champions of the DR's professional baseball league. This, the Aguilas 20th championship title, comes at an opportune time as the team's city, Santiago, hosts this year's Serie Del Caribe to determine the top baseball team of several Latin nations. It's also nice that Lindsay and I will be moving to our new home in a year that celebrates the championship victory of our favorite Dominican baseball team.

Sick in Bed

Elliott is sick in bed....He has been running a high fever for the past 2 days, has body aches, and chest congestion. He has had to miss the last 2 days of classes. Please keep him in your prayers. Pray for his healing, and pray against discouragement in his heart. It is really hard for him to be missing out on all that is going on, relationships, and the valuable teaching. It looks like he will be out again tomorrow because his fever hasn't broken yet. I would also appreciate your prayers for my health, that I do not catch what he has (we are staying in a small hotel-like room). Needless to say, I am constantly Lysol-ing and drinking lots of Emergen-C!

The first 2 days of teaching have been AMAZING. I am learning that the mission field is going to be much more difficult than we expected, but also much more rewarding and fulfilling at the same time. Yesterday we took a test to find out how we are orientated...time vs. event, concealing vulnerability vs. revealing vulnerability, individualistic vs. group orientated, planning ahead vs. dealing with things as them come. Once we evaluated ourselves, we then evaluated our new country and saw where there is going to be potential conflict, and need for change (on our parts). I found out that I am very different from the DR as I am more time/planning oriented, and they are event/"go with the flow-ers." It is so good for me to recognize this before entering the field so that I am not "blind-sided" by it which can cause frustration, anger, depression, etc.

That is just one small example of all we are learning here. So far the time here has been invaluable to our longevity and enjoyment on the field!

In CO

GOOD MORNING!

Lindsay and I just awoke to our first morning at Mission Training International (MTI). We are so excited to be here!
Shortly after arriving in Palmer Lake, Colorado (just north of Colorado Springs) yesterday afternoon, we had orientation and met our classmates and trainers. Our class is 38 strong, representing 21 sending organizations and preparing to go to 29 different nations to make disciples. Perhaps most exciting, there's a family here preparing to serve with us in the DR! They will be working in Jarabacoa, about an hour and a half from Santo Domingo. Amazingly, after leaving MTI they will be in Antigua, Gautemala for 4 months studying spanish at CSA, the same school we're going to!
This connection is a HUGE answer to our prayers. Please pray that God will build a strong bond between us. They have three boys, ages 8, 7 and 4, and I can't wait to go sledding and build snow forts with them!

Peace to you. We'll right more soon. Off to class...

Hidden Talent

For those of you that don't know...Elliott is an advanced Rock Climber. Here he is scaling the North Face of Stone Mountain in Roaring Gap, NC. Notice how he has no need for a harness or ropes. He hopes to show off his skills some more while we are in Colorado for cross-cultural training.



We would also like to give a shout out to John and Kate for their outstanding commenting!