Current News and Prayer Requests for the Blyths! (updated 09/22/05)

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We're living in Jos, right in the middle of Nigeria. Barb spends most of her time taking care of Luke but also works in the SIM office two mornings each week. Mike's time is divided between the pediatric service at Evangel Hospital (taking care of kids and supervising family practice residents), developing the Internet connection for Evangel, and HIV/AIDS related work.

Luke, our foster child, turned 6 years old in February.  He loves kindergarten and is just beginning to read. He is the most social child we've ever had! His development is improving on all fronts though he's still delayed.

Reminder: Luke was born in "Blind Town," the part of Jos where the beggars live?the blind, the lame, and the lepers. (Hard to believe there is such a community?) He was apparently abused and unwanted, so ended up with us on Thanksgiving weekend 1999.

See videos of Luke.

Saralynn graduated from Wheaton College in May '04 with a degree in English and is now doing pre-med studies as well as doing editorial work. She has been living with us summer '05 and visiting-working at Evangel hospital, to learn something about medicine in a third world missions setting. She has now moved to San Diego this fall and plans to study medicine once she completes her required science courses.

Jonathan and Lori live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, about 90 minutes east of Minneapolis. Their son, Rowan, was born last December. They're planning to start an in-home daycare center later this year. Meanwhile, Jonathan has started school to become a massage therapist.

	Lisa and Steve were living in Warrenville, Illinois, not far from Wheaton. Baby Naomi was born July 2002, and Josiah was born November 2003. They are moving to Edinburgh, Scotland, in September (2005) where Steve will study for a masters degree in Muslim-Christian relations.
Barb feeds Josiah		Naomi snow bunny

Prayer Requests

Pray for the stability of Nigeria. There are many forces threatening to tear down the peace. Plateau State was declared to be in a state of emergency for several months in 2004--something like martial law but not quite. Nothing has changed for us in Jos but there is much conflict and unrest in some of the rural areas.
Pray for Luke's future. We want to adopt him and give him all the best attention he needs for his various problems, but there are a variety of legal obstacles.
Please pray for Joshua U. He's nearly five years old, and like both his parents, has HIV. He was treated at another hospital for TB, improved, stopped the drugs, and is now worse. I don't know whether the problem is TB or his advancing HIV infection (his CD4 count is only 35) and he hasn't responded to two weeks of TB treatment. We saw him for the second time Friday, and his weight was only 22 pounds. I'd like to start him on antiretroviral therapy but have to figure out how to balance that with his TB drugs, which are incompatible with the drugs we usually use. Update Aug 10: Joshua has improved and is able to keep his TB medications down. He has started eating again ... a big victory!  Update Sep 23: Joshua has started taking antiretroviral and we're praying that he will be able to keep them down.
	Joshua U.

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