Shocker of the Year

Last week, after delivering her baby, my patient coughed up and spit out this 8" worm. And if there is one worm, there are many, many more. And the worst part is that she said she coughed up a worm with her last baby (which was over three years ago!), so she has had them for quite some time.

We agreed to pay for her and her family to be treated, but she has completely disappeared and has not come back for any checkups.

Please pray for Mer and her family--that she will show up at Mercy Clinic again sometime soon and that these worms do not lead to any other complications.

Pictures of the Week

Dad sent me these pictures today (thanks!!), and I just can't stop saying "Awwwwww." :) I can't wait to see this little (or not so little anymore!) guy.

"A Million a Month Dying without God"

I just finished reading a great book about Hudson Taylor and some of his work in China (definitely a must read!) Riveting from the very first page till the end, the author tells of Hudson's trust in Christ, his dedication to doing God's will, his devotion to prayer, and incredible will to win lives in China for Christ.

So, I'm sort of a "facts and statistics" person, and one section in the book (mostly taken from a pamphlet written by Hudson) especially interested me:

The Chinese Empire extended to 44 times that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; 104 times that of England. Its population: 400 million. 'What mind can grasp it?' [Hudson] imagined them walking past him, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, taking, he reckoned, over 23 years. And the total number of Protestant converts-say 3,000-would pass by in as little as an hour and a half. The daily mortality was estimated at 33,000, or more than the population of Leeds; in 3 months deaths outnumbered the population of London. And almost all died, in St. Paul's phrase, 'having no hope and without God'. Indeed, Taylor loosely summed up his findings by coining a slogan, 'A million a month dying without God', a slogan which hammered on his mind, bore down on his sleep, domninated his prayers. He found that in the seven provinces with mission stations a total of 185 million souls were at present 'utterly and completely beyond the reach of the Gospel'. Eleven provinces inland, totaling in population 197.5 millions, had not one single missionary.

Ok. Wow. But that was over a hundred years ago. What are the statistics today? I did a little research (mostly using the Joshua Project), and here's what I came up with:

-The Chinese Empire's population today totals 1,301,101,000. (More than 8.5 times that of the population of America.)
-The estimated daily mortality rate is 25,610. (This is more than the 3 times the population of Sandpoint, ID. And in less than 2 months more than the population of Idaho.)
-Over 83% of the groups of people in China are unreached*. (There are NO "unreached" people groups in the U.S.)
-SO, if 83% of the estimated daily mortality rate are unreached, that means that approximately 21,250 people die every day"having no hope and without God".

I can understand why Hudson said, "A million a month dying in that land, dying without God. This was burned into my very soul. I scarcely slept night or day for more than an hour. I feared I should lose my reason. Yet I did not give in. The voice of God: 'I intend to do it through you.'"

"For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all the nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations...to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations." ~Isaiah 66:18-19

"For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!' ~Romans 10:13-15

Hmmmmm, Tibet anyone?


*Note: According to the Joshua Project, an unreached people group is: "A people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group."

To the Fantabulous Editor Extraordinaire

Mom, I love you. I don't have enough words to express how highly I think of you and how much I admire you. Thank you for every minute you've put into each of us siblings.

Happy Mother's Day!


See you on your birthday! ;)

Jordan United

It seems all four of Jordan's not so dedicated co-writers/siblings have all disappeared! But the lost four siblings aren't simply too lazy to write an occasional blog post; they are busy doing... more important stuff. Like:

changing out the oil


or taking a nap


or walking on the treadmill


or ice skating on the driveway (I would have posted this a month ago except I've been ...busy)


or hauling the van out of a wasteland of snow (i.e. our driveway)



of course we have to do the annual breaking of the ice




Aaaand we can't forget Ultimate Frisbee!



So we are still around. And we are extremely thankful to Jordan for keeping Siblings United alive.

Huh?!

Yesterday, I spent almost 5 hours at the immigration office to finish up the last bit of paperwork (including lots of fingerprints) for my visa....so that I can come HOME in July!! :D Although the long lines and paperwork were rather painful, the look on the immigration officer's face when I entered his office was priceless. The conversation went something like this:

Him: "Are you Jordan Geyman??"
Me: "Yes sir"
Him: "And you aren't a BOY??"
Me: "Ummmmmm.......nooooo!"
Him: "Ooooh...I thought you were a male. But your name is Jordan?"
Me: "Yes. You can see on my application that my full name is Jordan ELISABETH-JANE. It's a girl's name."
Him again: "Aaaah....ok." [looks intently at my paperwork] "Also, your immigration number says you are Korean." [looks at me] "You aren't KOREAN, are you??"
Me [Good grief...have YOU ever heard of a Korean with the name Jordan Elisabeth-Jane???]: "Uhhhhhhh.....no sir. I'm American"
Him: "Ah. Ok...I thought I was going to be interviewing a male Korean. Just wait awhile. I'm going to need to change all your paperwork."
Him [a little later]: "Are you pure American?"
Me [Is this a trick question?!]: "Yes, I'm a pure American."
Him: "Really? You're sure?? A PURE American?"
Me [very confused]: "What do you mean by 'pure' American?"
Him: "Well.....I just think you really look Hispanic."

Huh?!?! A blue-eyed, blond-haired, white-skinned male Korean Hispanic who is really a PURE American. That's a first! :D Anyway, he was very nice and changed all my immigration numbers, and we were able to mail the paperwork back to Manila to be processed. And, I finally got my passport back!