Urgent Prayer Requests

Danny Santiago has been declining over the past few months due to cancer. A few weeks ago he lost all strength in his legs and shortly thereafter could not move them. Now he cannot move his arms and has trouble speaking. His liver has ceased functioning, so his skin and eyes are very yellow. Tonight we received a call from Danny's mother saying that the doctors say he is dying, and all they can do is give him pain medicine and send him home. Danny was baptized about three months ago. The next day he was in the hospital. We gave blood to help him out then, but he's been in and out of the hospital ever since. Pray for Danny and his mother who also knows the Lord. She is doing well, but this is very hard on her. Bill has had numerous opportunities to witness to family and neighbors during Danny's sickness, and Danny is resigned to God's will. It's hard to say how long he will last.

Puerto Rico is also under tropical storm warnings. We had torrential rains at the end of September that they called the two-hundred year rain because that tropical wave left more rain in three days than we've received from any hurricane in recent memory. With the ground already saturated, they are calling for 15-30 inches more of rain with high winds. Landslides and flooding are always a danger with rain, but with wind, many trees will succumb to the super-saturated ground. We imagine if the storm comes we'll be without electricity for awhile. We will do fine with the storm as long as we are home. Our street floods when it rains hard, but the drainage system handles it fine as soon as the rains stops. Others from our church are not in secure areas and are making preparations now.

Our Jonathan fell in gym class last Tuesday. They took three x-rays at the hospital, said the technician would look them over good that evening, but they didn't think anything was broken. Jonathan didn't complain as much the next day with his splint on and me doing all his writing in school. But after picking up the results, we found that he does have a fracture. We were told to see our pediatrician. He told us this is not his specialty, so we should take Jon to an ortopedist. People at church said the hospital "dropped the ball" and we should go back to the hospital. The person at the emergency room said they don't deal with pediatric fractures (Jon is nearly 10), but she'd try to consult with a pediatric orthopedist in the hospital. After making a call, she said those doctors were all at a convention. Apparently this is not the week to break a bone. This has been a long holiday weekend because PR celebrates Christopher Columbus Day. So it's been a week since he broke his arm and with the storm, it may be quite a few days more until the situation is satisfactorily resolved. We'll keep his hand in a wrist stabilizer and trust it mends well.

Our Nathan also had x-rays in August because the pediatrician suspected he has scoliosis. The x-rays confirmed that he has a 20 degree misalignment of the spine. We have an appointment with a spinal orthopedic doctor on October 21. We don't know what to expect from this appointment, but we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom for the doctor and us. Nathan is also supposed to take his ACT test on Saturday (October 18). This is a big week.