Czech Mate Ministries International

Ken and Linda Stapleton's news site. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

My Photo
Name:
Location: Liberec/Seattle, United States

are missionaries living in the Czech Republic since 1997. Their support comes from individuals and churches in the United States and the Czech Republic. Send tax deductible contributions to; CMMI, PO Box 46068, Seattle, WA 98146

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

 Ken's recovery from hip surgery has taken far longer and has been more difficult than anticipated.  He had hip surgery February 5th and spent 2 weeks in a hospital 1/2 hour from Liberec, So Linda had to drive 1 hour a day to spend 1 and 1/2 hours visiting him.  He developed a horrible bedsore which was extremely painful and kept him from sleeping more than 1 or 2 hours at a time.  When he was released he was told not to put any weight on his right leg for 6 weeks nor ride in a car.  He came home by ambulance laying down.  Both the bedsore and hip gave a lot of pain.  He would shift from his bed to his chair in the living room every few hours and each time Linda would have to carefully raise his leg onto the bed even throughout the night.  It was like having a newborn baby in the house.  

After 6 weeks, he went back to the hospital for his follow-up exam.  The x-ray showed that he was healing okay and his bedsore was mostly healed.  He was given permission to start putting weight on his leg and ride in a car. Now he is able to attend our English Conversation groups which Linda continued to lead  for the last 2 months. The next step is 10 sessions of physical therapy.  It took a week just to schedule a consultation with a physical therapy clinic and now we must wait to start the PT until April 29th (over a month).  So he is still hobbling around on crutches, but he is able to do a little more each day.  He can now dress himself except for his socks ;)  His bedsore is healing and no longer bothering him but he still experiences pain in his hip.  At least now he can sleep in his bed for longer than 2 hours and he can raise his own leg onto the bed.  Now that Linda can get a full night's sleep the world is a better place ;)

Thank you for praying for us.  It has been stressful but we are very thankful that the Lord has given us the strength and courage to carry on. The medical care in the Czech Republic is excellent and the staff at the Jablonec hospital were very pleasant and caring people.  

I (Linda) am doing things I didn't know I could do:  all the driving, shopping, meal planning, preparation and clean-up as well as continuing the 3 English conversation outreaches in 3 different towns.  I don't know if you remember, but one of the complications of the chemotherapy for breast cancer was that I lost my ability to multi-task.  I can't say that I am back to normal in this area, but I can see a vast improvement.  I am able to compensate by making lists of the things I must do rather than keeping it all in my head.  Of course some important things aren't getting done, like communicating with you and keeping up our blog.  I hope you will forgive us.

New adventures await and requests for prayer:

In our mentoring of pastors and church leaders we have always taught them to reproduce themselves in ministry.  We have been praying for 3 years for an intern so we can begin to reproduce ourselves.  We finally have a young lady who just graduated from a Christian university who is interested in becoming a missionary.  She will live and work beside us for 3 months, May 26th - August 21st.  Please pray for Briana Oliver.  Also pray for us.  We have never mentored a missionary but we are sure that this is what the Lord wants us to do.  So pray that He will show us how to do it well. 

On June 27th through July 3rd, there will be a European Missionary Women's Retreat in Poland.  Please pray for a great time of refreshing and ministry.  Please also pray for the missionary hosting this event, Denise Johnson, who is currently in America to be with her mother who has a serious medical condition.  Also pray that the finances will come in to help pay for the missionaries to attend this important meeting.    

Also in answer to prayer, two ladies saw our documentary video and wrote to ask if they could be part of our Youth Summer Camp this year.  They are highly qualified and motivated and are coming to serve for 2 weeks in August. Shortly after that another church asked if they could send a team to our Youth Camp.  So please pray for our Camp and how to integrate our American friends with our Czech team to serve and influence the campers to start or deepen their relationships with Jesus.

So lots happening on this side of the pond.  Hope all is well with you.  I will not post pictures with this blog as Ken's 12 inch scar and his bedsore are not something you would+ want to see.

God bless you.

Counters
Counters