Goldfuss update

It's been a whirlwind, but God is GREAT!

First of all, thank you so much for praying for Faith's ear surgery.
The operation took about 2 hours, but the surgeon said he was thrilled
that he was able to get all of the tumor out, the eardrum is totally
intact without damage, and we have a follow up appointment to see him
later today (Thursday afternoon.) He was so happy that instead of
keeping Faith overnight for observation, he let her leave the hospital
around 7 PM. We were going to get a taxi back to where we had left the
van by the church, but as we were walking out of the lobby, I heard a
voice yell, "Hey Mike." I turned, and it was a family that we have
known for a number of years here in Mexico. Faith just saw the mom last
week for the first time in about 3 years. They had come to the hospital
to see Faith and ended up driving us all the way down to the south of
the city to where the van was parked. That was a tremendous blessing.

With Faith's surgery scheduled for this past Tuesday morning, (and we
only found out that it would be Tuesday on Saturday around noon,) we
also had our girls' competing in gymnastics over the weekend. Two of the
girls (Cristi and Caralyn) were supposed to compete on Sunday. That
obviously isn't an option. The moms at gymnastics feverishly worked to
find a solution--"Well, Faith, you and Mike go to church; we'll take
care of the girls." "We can write a letter that she's sick." If they
don't compete, they end up losing the whole year and have to repeat the
same cycles while their friends move on. We said that we wouldn't lie.
We also said that we don't go to church to be right with God or to make
Him happy with us, but because we love our Savior. The Lord worked it
out that Caralyn could compete on Saturday evening with Cherith (even
though the rest of Cara's group competed on Sunday), and that Cristi
could compete Monday morning. Her whole group was changed from Sunday
to Monday. :-) Cherith got first place out of around 60 girls, Cristi
got second place out of 50 girls, and Caralyn got third place out of 62
girls. Their coach makes all of her students get first, second or third
before they can move on. So it was really neat to see how the Lord
rewarded their faith and trust in Him this weekend. Even if they
wouldn't have medaled, they were a testimony to their coach, the other
mom's and some in our church. Praise the Lord that they really want to
glorify the Lord.

Saturday Faith was up at 4:30 AM helping the girls get ready for their
competition. Sunday she was up really early as she had to go to the
hospital to get her blood work done before church. On Monday, we were
up again about 5 AM to go to Cristi's competition. Because our van has
foreign license plates, we are severely curtailed in our driving
privileges here in Mexico City. We drove down to the church and a man
from church drove us in his taxi downtown to the gymnastics competition.
After we finished, we took a family to eat lunch and then Mike had a
great talk with two young people who have been coming to church for a
number of months--Eduardo and Norma. They are quiet and shy and from
Chiapas, about 15 hours from here. Pray for them to be saved.

Faith's surgery was scheduled for 11 am on Tuesday. The doctor said we
needed to be there at 9:30 for pre-op and everything. But, about a
month ago, we had already scheduled for the same morning, passport
renewals for Matthew and Cristi at the US Embassy downtown. Again, we
got up at 5:30, left our van at the church, took a taxi downtown and
arrived at 7:20. We got in the line at 7:40, made it inside to find
another LONG line in front of us. I mentioned to an officer that we had
a recently scheduled surgery for later that morning and he MOVED US TO
THE FRONT OF THE LINE. Our appointment was for 8:30 but we handed in
our apps, paid, got the pictures taken and were out and in another taxi,
in traffic, but still made it to the hospital at 9:15. THAT MIGHT BE
THE BIGGEST MIRACLE IN ALL OF THE WHOLE WEEKEND. :-)

So, we have had some very long days. We had a very good prayer meeting
tonight. Pray for us to rest in the Lord, trust in Him, and walk with
Him. Pray for Faith's follow up appointment Thursday afternoon at 5 PM
(7 EST.) I have some work that needs to get done on the van tomorrow.
Please pray that I'll be able to get that fixed in the small window of
time that we can drive tomorrow.

Thank you so much for your prayers and concern. We have felt the Lord
at work through you.
With much love in Christ for you all, from us all,
Mike, Faith, Mikey (17 on Thursday), Cristiana, Carissa, Matthew,
Cherith and Caralyn Goldfuss