Urgent Update on Kyle Guimon

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Hello, all. This is Anna. Please be in fervent prayer for Kyle Guimon today. Last night in the night (once at 2:50 AM and once at 3:50 AM) his heart stopped completely and they had to restart it. They don’t know what caused this to happen. Right now he is on dialysis. His kidneys are working but no where near what they need to be doing. The hope is that giving him the dialysis several times over the next days will help cleanse his body enough for them to see marked improvement in his health. Please pray for the Great Physician’s healing touch on Kyle. Both Kyle and Debbie are very aware of God’s presence with them and Kyle believes he is going to live through all of this. Pray for Debbie and Matthew. Debbie has been at Kyle’s side almost constantly over the last days, even sleeping in the hospital waiting room. She is very tired both emotionally and spiritually. Pray for the Dr.’s to have wisdom as they work with Kyle. Thank you all for your prayers!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-11-2006

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I have some more news on Kyle Guimon, for those of you who are praying for him. The heart surgery was a complete success. In every way it could be measured, it turned out perfectly. His heart is pumping at full capacity, and the blood flow through his arteries has been restored. Now, the difficulty is this: he contracted a drug-resistant strain of pneumonia while in the hospital. He has what is called Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The result of this is that he cannot breathe without a ventilator. Additionally, his pneumonia has gone septic, so the doctors have him on a cocktail of high octane antibiotics to try and get that under control. So, he could be on the ventilator for the next two weeks, and in the hospital for four. He will be quite weak when he does come home, with about a four month recovery at home before he gets his strength back. The good news, however, is that he's already showing improvement. Pray for Kyle and this unexpected medical setback. Pray for Debbie, that she will be willing to go back to the house and get some sleep before she makes herself sick. Pray for Kyle's family as they deal with this.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-11-2006

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Hello, again! We're back in town again, and getting caught up on things around here. We have a week off, which, it turns out, we need since we've all picked up colds. Our meeting in Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lebanon, MO went great. I would have filled you in on more details sooner, but in West Plains where we were this past week, there was no internet to be had, not even via cell phone. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about this cool thing they have at Tabernacle Baptist every Sunday night for soldiers from Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. It's called One Day Away, and once, during basic, they bus the recruits into town, and they get to spend the day at Tabernacle Baptist Church. The church feeds them, lets them use cellphones with free nights and weekends to call their folks, has places for them to play basketball and other sports, lets them get candy out of their vending machines (you don't get any junk food during basic), and just loves on our soldiers for a day. Then, in the evening, they bring them into the auditorium and preach Jesus to them for an hour, and every week, at least a hundred or so soldiers ask Jesus to be their Savior. The night we were there, 126 soldiers were saved. It was one of the most glorious things I've ever seen. Every week this happens. Last year, over 5,000 soldiers were saved. What an incredible harvest of souls! It was especially significant to me, because, as I reported in our last letter, my son, Ethan, also got saved during the invitation, so 126 soldiers were saved, and Ethan.

We were home for two days, and then we beat feet down to Central Calvary Baptist Church in West Plains, MO (Pastor Frank Mulford). It was a precious time. They're a country church, and just made us feel right at home and welcome. The family we stayed with were great. They took great care of us, and we were able to rest a bit. The conference went very well. I showed our slides and preached on Sunday night, and the LORD really blessed, because somehow we left my sermon notes at home, so I had to preach from memory. I could really feel the LORD helping me, though, and it went very well anyway, in spite of me. We heard from some of the other great missionaries that are out on deputation right now, and the LORD blessed.

Our next meeting is on February 19, with Lighthouse Baptist Church (Pastor John Morris) in Sioux City, IA. Pray that the weather will be good for our drive up there and back. The unseasonably mild weather we've been enjoying has lapsed, and real winter is back. We haven't had any snow or ice yet, and we'd like to keep it that way. Pray that the meeting will go well, and that we'll be an encouragement to Lighthouse Baptist, and her Pastor.

Also, I've mentioned missionary Kyle Guimon for prayer before. His heart surgery went well, but his recovery has not. Within days of being released from the hospital, he had to be re-admitted due to shortness of breath. They put him back on a ventilator, and pumped over 2 liters of fluid from his lungs. I have heard that he's had to have a blood transfusion due to the procedures they've had to do on him. Pray that his healing will progress, and that he'll be able to get out of the hospital soon. Pray that the doctors will be able to diagnose the problem accurately, and address the issues he's having properly so Kyle can get well. Pray for Debbie (his wife), and Matthew (his son), as they continue to deal with this, and for Nedra (his mom), who's worried for her boy. Our pastor and wife are down in Arkansas with them right now, and hopefully, I'll have some good news to report on his condition when they get back.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-30-2006

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Remember to be in prayer for missionary Kyle Guimon today. He should still be undergoing open heart surgery at the moment.

As for us, we're having a great conference here at Tabernacle Baptist Church (Pastor Don Ball) in Lebanon, MO. I'll have more to report in a few days when we're finished with the conference, but the most pressing news is that last night, during the invitation (Mike Edwards, Heritage Baptist Church, Woodbridge, VA), my son Ethan prayed and asked Jesus to forgive his sins and be his Savior! He raised his hand during the invitation when Bro. Edwards asked if anybody needed to be saved. We had been praying for him for some time, and talking about salvation a lot in our family Bible times. He had raised his hand before, but when I talked to him about it, I could tell he didn't quite "get it". This time was different. He was clear – Jesus had died for Ethan. He knew he'd done bad things to displease God, and he understood that Hell was where people who didn't have Jesus as their Savior went. He knew Jesus died for him, and that God raised Him from the dead. So he very simply prayed and asked Jesus to save him, and He did.

Great news!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-25-2006

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Greetings! We had a weekend off due to a rescheduling (a good reschedule – it got us into a missions conference in the same church in Februrary). Our meeting in South Campbell Ave. Baptist Church went well. Turns out their Pastor, Joe Decker, has heard of BBTI (Baptist Bible Translators International), the school we'll be attending in Fall of 2007. He would like to attend also, but his duties as Pastor preclude this. However, his heart is in bringing accurate Bible translations to groups who lack them, as are our hearts. We are of one heart on this matter.

We'll be heading to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lebanon, MO with Pastor Don Ball on Saturday afternoon for their missions conference. Pray for the conference that God will be involved, and we'll be used of Him to be a blessing, and an encouragement to the church, particularly as it pertains to His children answering the call to preach or to missions. Pray for our travelling. The weather has been unseasonably warm so far (good thing), but we do have a trip up to Sioux City, IA in February to make, so pray for our safety in travelling. We have a pretty full schedule ahead of us (also a good thing), but I still need to schedule some more meetings in July and August, so pray I'll be able to line those out, meaning, God lines them out.

Pray for my friend, Kyle Guimon. He and his wife, Debbie, are the two-term missionaries in Uganda we'll be working with. The Guimons are home in America to get some badly needed rest, and, as it turns out, one of the reasons he's been so exhausted is that he has some serious blockages in his heart. A routine checkup revealed significant blockage in three major arteries, and a mitral valve prolapse. He will be in surgery in Jonesboro, AR on Monday to remove the blockages, as well as to replace the malfunctioning valve. It's open heart surgery, so be in prayer for him and his family during the surgery, and the fairly lengthy recovery time in which he'll be involved. He is still planning on being in some conferences with us in March, so apparently if he takes it easy, the risk must not be great enough to forbid travel. Pray for him and his health. He wasn't planning on being here for the long-term, but evidently, God had other plans. We love Kyle and Debbie, and we'd like his health to do well.