Julie's Health

Dear Friends and Family,

Julie normally writes the email updates but I am writing this one because she is currently not feeling well. Over a week ago she started feeling some pain in her abdomen area but it suddenly became unbearable last Tuesday. I was attending a pastor’s conference in the mountains outside of Fortaleza and she and the kids were staying with Molly Goossen in Guarraciaba Do Norte (5 hours away from each other). She decided to go to the clinic of a doctor that Molly knew and he did an ultrasound. He found fluid around a large mass which he determined was probably a very inflamed ovary. He was willing to operate on her in a local interior hospital but we decided that it would be better to transport her to her doctor in Fortaleza where the facilities are much more up-to-date.

Arranging this had many difficulties because it was a national holiday but the Lord worked things out to our advantage. This doctor admitted her into the hospital where she could take strong antibiotics and then take another look at the infection/fluid. After two days, the antibiotics proved themselves because Julie’s blood work showed the infection was leaving and another ultrasound showed that the fluid had dissipated. The “ovary” was still very large which still caused some pain and discomfort but Julie was released from the hospital on Friday. Two weeks of antibiotics were prescribed until her return doctor’s visit to help decide if surgery is needed. The doctor seems to believe that he will need to schedule an operation soon after the visit and that the situation will not change. We have notified him of our travels in December and he doesn’t think that they should be affected by the operation.

Please pray for us today as we meet with the doctor one more time before we go back interior for two weeks. Pray that we will be able to take action when needed and trust God at all times. Also pray for our kids groups because we are unable to notify all of the kids about this unplanned absence. Julie is scheduled to sing for a wedding on the 20th of this month and would like to fulfill this request for a friend.

Thanks for your prayer. We will keep you posted on what happens today at the appointment, if any thing changes.

Love and prayers,


Todd Hendry