A Bit of Seriousness

Saturday afternoon, we got a phone call from Steve's brother, Greg. It seems that our nephew, the son of Steve & Greg's sister, was in a 4-wheeler accident in Africa and was in pretty bad shape.

Our nephew, Jarrett, is 13. He was riding a 4-wheeler and had a wreck. We found out a couple of days later after he had been airlifted to Zurich, Switzerland, from Chad, Africa, that he fractured his skull in two places (on top and around his right ear) and broke his collarbone. The lining that surrounds his brain and holds the fluid in around his brain has a tear and the fluid is slowly leaking out of his ear. All the bones in his ear are broken and they don't know what kind of permanent hearing loss he will have. The hearing loss and broken collarbone are secondary concerns at the moment. Right now the main focus is keeping him flat on his back and very still so that there is minimal movement to his head since his brain isn't protected as well as normal (low fluid levels). He is also very susceptible to infection right now and we're a bit concerned about this because he was in Africa for about 24 hours before he got on the plane for Switzerland and was put in isolation.

As soon as the doctors determine that his ear is healed enough, he will fly back to Houston with his mom, Cindy. His dad (an oil company employee) and sister are still in Africa right now, but will fly to Paris next week and take a train to Zurich. Other than this, we have no dates or ideas about further travel.

I'm telling you all this in order to ask you to pray for my nephew. Please pray for another miracle. It is truly miraculous that he's alive and not paralyzed. I ask that you would go boldly before the throne of God and ask that He would heal the tear in Jarrett's cerebral lining and that his hearing would be restored completely. We see God's involvement and provision all along and are confident that He will be involved until the end of this.

Thanks, friends.