Dear praying friend,
A little more of the story! Actually just a couple of days before I had all this trouble with my leg and stomach and all, we had 4 guys arrive from the US with the AIA basketball staff. I don’t know how many of you may have watched the Worlds which were here in Saitama, just northwest of Tokyo, but they were going on in other cities at first and then the final 16 in Saitama until yesterday. Anyway, we were privileged to pick these guys up in 2 groups arriving by bus from the airport, and they stayed at the guest house just near our home and close by the kids school. So we had a wonderful visit with them at the beginning, got them set up with one young college student who took them around town for their first couple days, and then they were on their own, visiting various players, agents, coaches, and FIBA world congress reps.
Afterward we heard God opened up some wonderful contacts with key people among those, including team USA invited them to do 2 chapels on 2 days, which is voluntary participation of course, but about 20 came to each of those. They were given tickets to some of the games and even found they were sitting near by key agents or other leaders they had been praying to meet! Finally they were also asked to join one of the team USA practices. There they were able to get some great video interviews with players, background footage, etc, for the next AIA basketball video they are working on. Some of the AIA guys were also able to meet representatives of basketball for countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and other harder to make contact locations, so they were all really happy about the special doors God had opened for their time.
All that was going on while I was really sick! It encouraged me how God is always at work.
Current update: still have the sore throat, but if they are right that it is probably a virus it will take some time. Still have 2 spots on my leg that the color hasn’t yet changed from red, so we are concerned about those, especially that the bacteria not get used to the antibiotic. In that case I may need a different antibiotic to finish knocking this thing. Please pray that these 2 spots will just settle down like the rest and go away. Still have swelling in the lower leg (it goes down at night pretty well). Thanks so much for your prayers!
With Jesus love,
Steve