Greetings all. Thanks for your continuing prayers.

We had a wonderful weekend retreat thanks to my brother Jim and his wife Janet in Illinois! While we woke up to snow on Sunday morning our afternoon trip home was pretty much free of snow. The IL roads were wet but things dried up as we went east. After church with Jim and Janet at Calvary in Washington (their new pastor gave a wonderful sermon), they took us to lunch and then we left for home. They went back to church for their annual business meeting, which Jim was chairing.

I had an appointment with the Center for Disease Control on Tuesday morning, January 27.
I have been identified with the crowd of 2 billion people in the world today who are infected with latent TB. I have been exposed to TB, but my immune system has fought it off (We thank God for good health). I am not contagious so there are no travel restrictions.

However, while I cannot spread TB to other people in this latent condition, it may develop into Active TB Disease should my immune system or health become distressed.

There is a six-nine month daily treatment regimen with careful monitoring that is very effective. If I was 34 the doctor would highly encourage me to take the treatment. However, the side effects for someone my age who is on blood pressure medication are significant, particularly for the liver. So I will need to give that some careful consideration. I will need to consult with my GP before I undertake the procedures.

We are very much at peace with our decision about withdrawing from going to Nigeria. While it is very disappointing and presents us with a series of other ramifications, each day that passes makes us more sure it was the right decision.

While we feel we need some time to re-orient ourselves for the future, we recognize that we cannot remain without jobs for very long. So we will orayerfully proceed with caution and keep you posted.

Peace to you,

Doug