The Hand of Hur, Inc.
Archive for December, 2007
Good – Clear News Article on What is Happening Here…
Dec 24th
I read this article this morning… and think that it gives a pretty clear understanding of what is happening here in Bolivia. Enjoy!
Bolivian Breakup? – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119846556465648393.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Evangelistic Meeting, MCC’s 5th Anniversary & More
Dec 24th
It’s hard to believe that Christmas is almost here already. As always, the year has blown by us and we’re ready to start another one. They always say that as you get older, the years seem to go by quicker… I guess they were right.
All has been much better here. Norah has been much better over the past week. She seems to have gotten most of her energy back, and has been much more active lately. Derrick is great, as long as he has milk and a clean diaper… he’s happy. 
Both Derrick and Jordan did get sick earlier this week. Jordan had a high fever and diarrhea, while Derrick had something, although he didn’t get the fever. That lasted about a day and a half, and then all was well again.
In the church, we are preparing for two major events that are coming up next Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, we are renting the largest coliseum here in the city, and will be meeting with 6 other churches who are also working with cell groups. The meeting has two purposes… 1) as a huge evangelistic event and 2) a time to celebrate all that God has given us over the past year. Each church has large goals for the meeting. Our church alone has the goal of taking 200 new people to this meeting. Mostly our church and the one other large cell church here in Sucre are the ones who are organizing and running it. After a time of worship there will be a few specials, and the I will be giving a small evangelistic message. Afterwards, every cell leader will pass down to the basketball court with the new people that they have who have given their lives to the Lord, and we will be praying for those people. Afterwards will have a time of singing and dancing with our worship team leading.
On Monday the 31st, New Year’s Eve, we will have an overnight service, celebrating the New Year and also our 5th anniversary as a church. So we have quite a lot to get prepared for, and lots going on. Sometime this week I want to write a small history of our ministry here in Sucre and how this church got started. Hopefully I’ll get the time! I’ll also be taking pictures of the events that we have next week, and will be posting them here, so keep checking back.
As always, we ask that you keep us in your prayers. We REALLY need them. God bless! Hasta Pronto…
Jason
Interesting Times
Dec 14th
A state owned vehicle being burnt last
evening in Sucre
I personally have never lived in a time like what we are living in Bolivia. It’s a time that is quite interesting. Looking at all that is happening here, it seems to be a recipe for disaster. At the same time, there is so much hope behind each side and movement, that people have a load of mixed feelings. Fear, worry, excitement, hope, despair, etc. What will happen? No one really knows, but let me give you an update on what is going on here in this suddenly exciting, and world news worthy country.
The government continues forward on its plan to enable the new constitution that was approved illegally by members of its own political party. The text was written and finally approved without meeting the quorum necessary by law to approve it. This has caused an incredible amount of repercussion in the country. Over the past two days, 4 of the country’s 9 Departments (States) have declared themselves autonomous from the main government. They haven’t said that they are creating a new country, but have passed local laws that will enable themselves to withhold most taxes that are collected in the Department, to create their own police departments, etc. This of course is being done without permission from the Bolivian Government, so the government has declared a state of emergency and has sent hundreds of police units to these Departments. The Governor of Santa Cruz has also said that hundreds of members of the armed forces have moved into their capital city, entering as civilians.
There has been a great amount of pressure for Sucre to do the same thing that these other 4 Departments have done. There have been many protests in Sucre over the past several days. Last night a state owned vehicle, while parked outside the building where the new constitution was being written, was burnt by protestors who are against all the government is doing. Yesterday morning a policeman was found dead in his home, apparently hung. No one seems to know who the authors of this homicide are. Today a march is scheduled in Sucre, supposedly one of the biggest to ever happen here, which has the purpose of showing the people’s rejection of the new constitution.
Through all of this, the government continues forward, showing no signs of working towards unity in the Country. These definitely are “Interesting Times” here in Bolivia… 
Norah is Home After D&C
Dec 12th
Norah, Jordan & Derrick a few minutes ago.
Norah even put on a smile 
— Jason Skipper 2007/12/12 19:26
This afternoon, at about 3:15 PM, Norah went in and got a D&C done on her to clean out her uterus. They were very careful with her, and had to change the type of anesthesia they gave her, because her blood pressure dropped quite a bit since this morning. This morning he pressure was at 95/55, but the doctor told me that it had dropped considerably (I don’t know how much) this afternoon. So they gave her some medicine to help bring it up and changed the anesthesia to one that supposedly doesn’t make the blood pressure drop much.
In any case, she came out of it fine. The doctor said that there was just a little piece of something in there that was bothering her. She stayed in bed until about 6:30 PM and then we came home. She has been bleeding quite a bit since that, but I hope that will stop soon… real soon! She’s lost enough blood. I hope that with this, she’ll get better quickly, and that her blood pressure will come up.
Please continue to keep her in your prayers. Love you all!
Update on Norah
Dec 10th
We got Norah’s blood test back, and it shows that she still only has a slight anemia, which is the same as when she left the hospital. That was quite surprising to me and the doctor, but was also welcome news. We were very worried that she had a bad case of anemia. I had been looking up all of these things on the Internet, and I was half convinced that she was experiencing symptoms of Shock that comes from acute anemia.
These tests show us totally differently. What the doctor believes is 2 things: 1) Norah’s passing out and weakness is a result of her very low blood pressure. While we’re not exactly sure why her blood pressure is so low, she has always had very low pressure, averaging about 90/60 (Up to there is what the doctor said), so just the slight anemia and maybe the loss of many of her nutrients in breast feeding may be the cause. (That’s my part of the theory, not the doctors… he didn’t give me his theory) 
2) It looks like Norah still has a rather large blood clot in her uterus, which is causing irritation, and is causing the uterus to continually try to expel it. The doctor does not believe that she is losing any more blood, but that she needs a scraping of the uterus to be able to stop of the fluids and whatever else is descending from there.
The doctor has given Norah some medicine that should help bring up her blood pressure to a more normal level. While she is taking that medicine, she can’t breast feed, so we will have to give Derrick milk formula. That most likely won’t be a problem, because we have already complimented Norah’s milk with this at several times, and he drank it right up. He hopes that either on Monday or Tuesday, once her pressure is back up, he can work on her and do a D & C to clean her out and hopefully get over whatever problems she has continued to have since the baby’s birth.
Norah has been very weak today, but I believe that she will be ok. I was very worried for awhile there last night, thinking at one moment that we were losing her, but thank God, that doesn’t seem to be the case. We know that quite a few have been praying for her. We truly appreciate it.
I’ll keep everyone updated with any new info that I have! Blessings…
