Peterson's Progress - September 2007

The Lord rescues the godly; He is their fortress in times of trouble. The Lord helps them… He saves them, and they find their shelter in Him. Psalm 37:39-40

God has indeed been a fortress and a shelter for us this past month. Thank you so much for holding us up in your prayers! We look back and can see God’s fingerprints all over the place! We can never thank you enough for partnering with us in this invaluable way.

I returned from Australia on Saturday night (August 25). My body clock is still mixed up, and I’m not sure I’m all here at times, but it is good to be home! The time with my mother was precious and timely. It meant a lot to her to have me with her for some key medical appointments. The check-up of her bladder cancer revealed that it has aggressively infiltrated the muscle layer. That led her to further tests to see if it had spread to any other parts of her body. Thank God, it is still contained. In consultation with her doctors and family, Mum has decided to go ahead with radical surgery (removal of the bladder and all her reproductive organs) as soon as possible. Her overall health is not good, so this is a risky operation. However, the alternative is not good either. At least one of my sisters plans to be with her when she goes in for this 4 hour surgery on September 21st. They plan to do it under an epidural anesthetic. At this stage, I plan to return to help her for a few more weeks when she gets out of the hospital, probably around 2 weeks after the surgery. Some money has already been given to us to help with the cost of this second big trip. Gary’s mom has offered to come over from California to “look after” him and Josiah during my absence. Your prayers will be appreciated once again as we have this time apart.

My “little” sister had a baby boy while I was there. What a special gift from the Lord it was to be invited to be present at his birth. My sister, Kathy, surprised us when she decided to come from the other side of Australia for a brief visit while I was there as well. Various other friends there blessed me in many different ways, from providing me with a bed and rides to and from the airport, to hosting an Open House for me so I could see a lot of friends at once, thus not shorting my time with Mum.

Esther returned to Bible College without a car, and seems to be coping okay so far. She surprised me by coming to the airport to meet me on my return.

Gary has been dealing with headaches almost constantly for the past month or so. He is now awaiting results from several tests to see if we can figure out what’s causing them. An MRI will be next if nothing shows up from the blood work. He has continued to work, but has felt tired and had a hard time focusing, as you can imagine. Please pray for healing and for wisdom as we work through this. We are planning to take a two night get away to spend some time together and get some rest this coming weekend (Sept. 1-3).

Josiah’s summer job came to an end, but now soccer season is about to start, so he can continue earning money as a referee on Saturdays. He’s made a good start to 11th grade.

We’ve recently found out that our second car, in which we’d hoped to install air-conditioning, and a functioning speedometer, isn’t worth it. It has been suggested that we just sell it and buy something that already has air-conditioning. Once again, pray for wisdom in this, and the Lord’s provision.

We didn’t manage to get our newsletter out before I left, so we will be working on that next. Also, I have received a summons for my interview for US Citizenship on Sept. 5th. We’re not sure how long after that I’ll go through the swearing in ceremony, but pray that it won’t be awkward timing with my trip to Australia coming up as well.

We would appreciate prayers for the following upcoming events:

9th We begin our small group again after a break over the summer.

10th Gary speaks to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at our local high school to launch the new school year.

17th Gary teaches a Perspectives class here in Orlando.

21st Mum’s surgery

25th Bill Bright Awards Banquet. Gary will be a part of the Wycliffe team hosting it.

27th A special Scripture celebration at the Wycliffe office. Gary will be a greeter and give tours to special guests.

Another colleague has recently joined the WordSpring education team to work with youth, so Gary has some help. Pray for them as they learn to work together, maximizing each other’s strengths.

News from the Dudecks - August 07

First let me start this with an urgent prayer request. Pam has been having discomfort in her head for several weeks, and today it was so bad I had to take her to the local Urgent Care center. Her blood pressure was very high, and she apparently has a sinus infection. Pam wanted to go to the mission doctor a couple weeks ago, but he is no longer taking appointments. She has an appointment with another doctor, but that is still three days away. This brings up the need in our local SIM mission medical office here in Charlotte for at least one long-term doctor. Our current doctor has retired, and the mission has so far been unable to find a replacement. Please pray with us, as this situation is impacting a lot of people.

Our life and ministry has been fairly uneventful lately. I continue to work on information technology projects at SIM International. I'm working on something called the global eDirectory, which should be important in making the mission administration function more efficiently. Progress has been slow but positive.

Pam has been working since March as part-time receptionist in a law office in uptown Charlotte with three Christian attorneys. As you remember, Pam finished the paralegal program at the community college last year, and this job is sort of a foot-in-the-door position. But she still needs to move into a better paying regular paralegal job.

Jennifer will be starting her senior year of high school in a couple of weeks. This summer she has been busy with several different camps. In June she went with me to the International Conference on Computing and Mission at Taylor University. In July she went to a two-week engineering camp for high school girls at Virginia Tech. After that she went to BigStuf, the high school beach camp that our church sends our young people to, in Panama Beach, Florida.
Last week Jennifer was at Camp Cherith, the Pioneer Clubs camp, where she completed a three-year program called Campers In Leadership Training. They had a special graduation ceremony for the three high schoolers completing the program. They hold the camp at Clemson University, about a 2-hour drive from Charlotte. Pam and I took a vacation day Friday to be there. In spite of being a week of record-breaking high temperatures, it was a blessed time.
We are grateful for the growth in Jennifer's life. Jennifer has natural aptitude for engineering, art, and writing. She is interested in studying computer science. While at Taylor she got a campus tour, and is very interested in the college, though we are still exploring colleges. Others being considered are NC State, UNC Charlotte, and Vanderbilt. Another possibility would be my alma mater, California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo. But California is a long ways from Charlotte! Thank you for praying with us for Jennifer's college career.

We'll have to write about our French-related ministry another time. We would love to hear from any of you. If we aren't using your best E-Mail address, please let us know.
Much love, John, for Pam and Jennifer

John Dudeck
jdudeck@zenia.simcsg.sim.org
Charlotte, North Carolina