Dear friends,
I would like to give you all an update on the events we experienced over the last two and a half months. Communicating with everyone was a challenge and even now I am meeting people who say, “Why didn’t you call me”. So forgive me if you didn’t hear or already heard and are hearing the whole thing again.
On February 13th in the morning Nick was experiencing major discomfort in our home. A nurse that works with us came over and as soon as Nick mentioned that he had chest pain we made arrangements to get him to our Doctor. Our doctor took one look and sent him to a nearby hospital. The doctor quickly left his clinic, came to emergency and took over Nick’s treatment with more urgency than was previously exhibited. As soon as possible we were in an ambulance with a nurse and dear friend, Lorrie (who became my treatment partner} on our way to a cardiac unit in Kampala. When we arrived our doctor was on the phone with the staff there urging them to hurry up. (smile) They did an angiogram and admitted him to the ICU.
I was told at that point that he would need a triple bypass. Over the next few days Nick was shifting downward daily. He had water in the tissue of his lungs, an edema , and then developed pneumonia. They intubated him, which was high risk because of the condition of his heart. He had fever, his blood pressure was extremely low and his kidneys were being adversely affected. By this point I had contacted our insurance company letting them know that he needed to be medevaced to another country where there was the care he needed.
They were talking of moving him to a hospital in Kenya. The head cardiologist did not want to move him until he was off of the ventilator. another cardiologist were calling me and saying “get him out of here to South Africa”.
On Sunday my sister inlaw, my brother’s wife in the USA was admitted to the hospital and intubated. Totally unexpected…
Sunday night at 8:30pm our primary doctor drove an hour from his home because he felt he had to come and see how he could help get Nick out of the country. When I told him about the phone call, he knew what needed to be done. About an hour later, he knew we had done what we could. Monday morning I had a meeting with the cardiology team and we were all in agreement about the next steps. Nick should be moved as soon as possible. The insurance company began making arrangements to move him to a hospital in Kenya.
Monday my sister inlaw suffered a subdural hematoma {a type of stroke and was pronounced brain dead} and was put on life support.
Tuesday at 4 am I woke up to an email that said I needed visas for Nick and I for Kenya by 6 am or the evacuation flight would be cancelled. so I applied for evisas. which ask for specific info I did not have. I sent the application in and had problems. I am not free to share how God solved that but he did. I went to the hospital. A friend in Kenya made hotel reservations for me. Then the message came that the plane had technical difficulties and turned back. Later in the day the team arrived to pick up Nick and I. Then we received word that the Hospital did not have a bed for him.
Back to the drawing board. The evacuation team stayed at the airport for the night while the insurance team made arrangements for Nick to go to South Africa. The original plan was that the team would take him to Kenya and transfer him to an air ambulance plane to South Africa.
Lorrie and I went back to our friend’s apartment we had stayed in during the week and cancelled all reservations for Kenya..
Wednesday morning, I went with my luggage to the hospital and waited. Lorrie left as we felt everything was sorted. My sister inlaw was taken off life support.
Sometime during the day I heard that the hospital in South Africa would send an air ambulance team directly to Entebbe and directly back to Johannesburg. The team arrived around 6 pm. I was greeted with the news that they did not have room for me on the flight.The insurance company and I had a communication breakdown somewhere. This was definitely my crisis point. I was alone and had to send Nick away . A couple of times between Sunday and Wednesday night Nick had experienced afibrillation and had to be shocked into the right rhythm, so I knew how serious his situation was and the risks involved.
As alone as I felt, I was not alone. By this time, hundreds of people were praying around the world. Within a few minutes Nick’s brother in law, Hilco, had booked a ticket for me to South Africa the following afternoon. My long-suffering friend allowed me to come back the second time after leaving, some dear friends sent a driver to take me and my luggage back to the apartment and then drove me to the airport the next day. My daughter changed the hotel arrangements she had made for me in Johannesburg. Sometime on Thursday morning early Nick arrived at one of the best cardiac hospitals in the world. I am not sure what time it happened but the surgeon told me that they had to intervene and did angioplasty surgery on the left side of Nick’s heart. They could not do a bypass because of the amount of blood thinners in his body and they couldn’t wait.
Meanwhile our South African friends went into action. Beth and Freddie met me at the airport, got a sim card for me, helped me change money and drove me to the hospital to see Nick and then to the hotel Erika had booked. Another friend Colleen called a guest house and negotiated for a room. Then three friends bought pre-made meals, snacks and flowers and got the guest house to let them in so it was ready for me. Our son, Nick wanted to come and be with me beginning in Kampala, however he became very ill with strep throat and could not travel. With help I figured out Uber and we were off.
Nick began to improve right away after the first operation. On Saturday they took him off some of the heavy meds he was on while on the ventilator for 8 days. Imagine waking up with no memory of the last 10 days, in a strange place. filled with tubes and machines of all sorts with your arms restrained. It was confusing for a few days.
The right side of his heart was much worse than the left. They waited a week to do the second surgery . The dye they use is very toxic to the kidneys and they wanted to give him time to recover before going through it again. The surgeon was positive he could fix his heart without a bypass and so on Thursday, Feb 27th the second surgery was done. Absolutely amazing what can be done now. Our Surgeon also did several heart transplants while we were there.
March 1st Nick was moved from ICU to a regular ward where he took his first steps. Then a couple days later was moved to a private room. He had a serious case of gout in his feet that slowed his recovery down a bit.
We returned to Uganda on March 17, after 32 days in the hospital. HIS HEART IS ABSOLUTELY FINE AND THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE MUSCLE WALLS. He is under the care of our most committed doctor and is improving everyday.
We realise that we have experienced a miracle. It will take some time for his body to recover fully from the multiple tramas it experienced. He is returning to work part time but has limited his travel. All through the process we definitely felt we were carried by the prayers of our friends and family. There were times when I actually felt like I was living a Bible Story. The enemy would send in one highly emotional problem after another and God would blast them away one by one.. God’s grace is an amazing thing to experience.
———————————————————————————————-
Nick – I’m so grateful for all the prayer, scriptures, songs and encouraging words communicated to us over the last few months. Cheryl has been amazing, strong, daily caring for me since I had my heart attack. Truly, He is our Healer! I am getting stronger daily… keep praying, His resurrection power is real today!
What’s next? God is not done with us yet. We’ve had a tough year but we plan on staying in Uganda. In fact, things that we’ve worked on and dreamt of for many years are starting to come to pass.
While We Were Gone…
* Our dear long-time friend from Ontario, David Hinds, came and shared daily for two weeks with our staff and students about God’s Father Heart and different aspects of the character of God. Our focus in all of our training is for the head, heart and hands. We were in South Africa for whole time that David ministered.
* Senior staff stepped up and took on lots of extra responsibility for which we are grateful.
* Our major training program, Genesis Agroecology Leadership Training, started again with students from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Uganda.
* Tree planting and creation care education continues daily with teams going to schools, community groups and partnering with organizations such as Rotary. As the general population feels the effects of climate change (some extreme weather), the message and practice of strategically planting trees is being better received than ever… a good sign for the future.
* We have offered excellent workshops to community groups and individuals on goat raising, black soldier fly production, poultry & pig production and plant nursery management
Thanksgiving and Prayer
* Thank our healer God for restoration of health in 2025
* Thanks for supportive, loving family & friends
* Thanks for supporting our training programs and prayer for financial assistance for students in 2025
* Thanks for your financial gifts to plant trees, train young people, provide jobs to young people
* For our personal support – Thank you to those who continue to assist us monthly. We have extra medical expenses and a large insurance bill that has come in. Much larger insurance bill than normal. With grateful hearts,
Nick & Cheryl
I would like to give you all an update on the events we experienced over the last two and a half months. Communicating with everyone was a challenge and even now I am meeting people who say, “Why didn’t you call me”. So forgive me if you didn’t hear or already heard and are hearing the whole thing again.
On February 13th in the morning Nick was experiencing major discomfort in our home. A nurse that works with us came over and as soon as Nick mentioned that he had chest pain we made arrangements to get him to our Doctor. Our doctor took one look and sent him to a nearby hospital. The doctor quickly left his clinic, came to emergency and took over Nick’s treatment with more urgency than was previously exhibited. As soon as possible we were in an ambulance with a nurse and dear friend, Lorrie (who became my treatment partner} on our way to a cardiac unit in Kampala. When we arrived our doctor was on the phone with the staff there urging them to hurry up. (smile) They did an angiogram and admitted him to the ICU.
I was told at that point that he would need a triple bypass. Over the next few days Nick was shifting downward daily. He had water in the tissue of his lungs, an edema , and then developed pneumonia. They intubated him, which was high risk because of the condition of his heart. He had fever, his blood pressure was extremely low and his kidneys were being adversely affected. By this point I had contacted our insurance company letting them know that he needed to be medevaced to another country where there was the care he needed.
They were talking of moving him to a hospital in Kenya. The head cardiologist did not want to move him until he was off of the ventilator. another cardiologist were calling me and saying “get him out of here to South Africa”.
On Sunday my sister inlaw, my brother’s wife in the USA was admitted to the hospital and intubated. Totally unexpected…
Sunday night at 8:30pm our primary doctor drove an hour from his home because he felt he had to come and see how he could help get Nick out of the country. When I told him about the phone call, he knew what needed to be done. About an hour later, he knew we had done what we could. Monday morning I had a meeting with the cardiology team and we were all in agreement about the next steps. Nick should be moved as soon as possible. The insurance company began making arrangements to move him to a hospital in Kenya.
Monday my sister inlaw suffered a subdural hematoma {a type of stroke and was pronounced brain dead} and was put on life support.
Tuesday at 4 am I woke up to an email that said I needed visas for Nick and I for Kenya by 6 am or the evacuation flight would be cancelled. so I applied for evisas. which ask for specific info I did not have. I sent the application in and had problems. I am not free to share how God solved that but he did. I went to the hospital. A friend in Kenya made hotel reservations for me. Then the message came that the plane had technical difficulties and turned back. Later in the day the team arrived to pick up Nick and I. Then we received word that the Hospital did not have a bed for him.
Back to the drawing board. The evacuation team stayed at the airport for the night while the insurance team made arrangements for Nick to go to South Africa. The original plan was that the team would take him to Kenya and transfer him to an air ambulance plane to South Africa.
Lorrie and I went back to our friend’s apartment we had stayed in during the week and cancelled all reservations for Kenya..
Wednesday morning, I went with my luggage to the hospital and waited. Lorrie left as we felt everything was sorted. My sister inlaw was taken off life support.
Sometime during the day I heard that the hospital in South Africa would send an air ambulance team directly to Entebbe and directly back to Johannesburg. The team arrived around 6 pm. I was greeted with the news that they did not have room for me on the flight.The insurance company and I had a communication breakdown somewhere. This was definitely my crisis point. I was alone and had to send Nick away . A couple of times between Sunday and Wednesday night Nick had experienced afibrillation and had to be shocked into the right rhythm, so I knew how serious his situation was and the risks involved.
As alone as I felt, I was not alone. By this time, hundreds of people were praying around the world. Within a few minutes Nick’s brother in law, Hilco, had booked a ticket for me to South Africa the following afternoon. My long-suffering friend allowed me to come back the second time after leaving, some dear friends sent a driver to take me and my luggage back to the apartment and then drove me to the airport the next day. My daughter changed the hotel arrangements she had made for me in Johannesburg. Sometime on Thursday morning early Nick arrived at one of the best cardiac hospitals in the world. I am not sure what time it happened but the surgeon told me that they had to intervene and did angioplasty surgery on the left side of Nick’s heart. They could not do a bypass because of the amount of blood thinners in his body and they couldn’t wait.
Meanwhile our South African friends went into action. Beth and Freddie met me at the airport, got a sim card for me, helped me change money and drove me to the hospital to see Nick and then to the hotel Erika had booked. Another friend Colleen called a guest house and negotiated for a room. Then three friends bought pre-made meals, snacks and flowers and got the guest house to let them in so it was ready for me. Our son, Nick wanted to come and be with me beginning in Kampala, however he became very ill with strep throat and could not travel. With help I figured out Uber and we were off.
Nick began to improve right away after the first operation. On Saturday they took him off some of the heavy meds he was on while on the ventilator for 8 days. Imagine waking up with no memory of the last 10 days, in a strange place. filled with tubes and machines of all sorts with your arms restrained. It was confusing for a few days.
The right side of his heart was much worse than the left. They waited a week to do the second surgery . The dye they use is very toxic to the kidneys and they wanted to give him time to recover before going through it again. The surgeon was positive he could fix his heart without a bypass and so on Thursday, Feb 27th the second surgery was done. Absolutely amazing what can be done now. Our Surgeon also did several heart transplants while we were there.
March 1st Nick was moved from ICU to a regular ward where he took his first steps. Then a couple days later was moved to a private room. He had a serious case of gout in his feet that slowed his recovery down a bit.
We returned to Uganda on March 17, after 32 days in the hospital. HIS HEART IS ABSOLUTELY FINE AND THERE WAS NO DAMAGE TO THE MUSCLE WALLS. He is under the care of our most committed doctor and is improving everyday.
We realise that we have experienced a miracle. It will take some time for his body to recover fully from the multiple tramas it experienced. He is returning to work part time but has limited his travel. All through the process we definitely felt we were carried by the prayers of our friends and family. There were times when I actually felt like I was living a Bible Story. The enemy would send in one highly emotional problem after another and God would blast them away one by one.. God’s grace is an amazing thing to experience.
———————————————————————————————-
Nick – I’m so grateful for all the prayer, scriptures, songs and encouraging words communicated to us over the last few months. Cheryl has been amazing, strong, daily caring for me since I had my heart attack. Truly, He is our Healer! I am getting stronger daily… keep praying, His resurrection power is real today!
What’s next? God is not done with us yet. We’ve had a tough year but we plan on staying in Uganda. In fact, things that we’ve worked on and dreamt of for many years are starting to come to pass.
While We Were Gone…
* Our dear long-time friend from Ontario, David Hinds, came and shared daily for two weeks with our staff and students about God’s Father Heart and different aspects of the character of God. Our focus in all of our training is for the head, heart and hands. We were in South Africa for whole time that David ministered.
* Senior staff stepped up and took on lots of extra responsibility for which we are grateful.
* Our major training program, Genesis Agroecology Leadership Training, started again with students from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Uganda.
* Tree planting and creation care education continues daily with teams going to schools, community groups and partnering with organizations such as Rotary. As the general population feels the effects of climate change (some extreme weather), the message and practice of strategically planting trees is being better received than ever… a good sign for the future.
* We have offered excellent workshops to community groups and individuals on goat raising, black soldier fly production, poultry & pig production and plant nursery management
Thanksgiving and Prayer
* Thank our healer God for restoration of health in 2025
* Thanks for supportive, loving family & friends
* Thanks for supporting our training programs and prayer for financial assistance for students in 2025
* Thanks for your financial gifts to plant trees, train young people, provide jobs to young people
* For our personal support – Thank you to those who continue to assist us monthly. We have extra medical expenses and a large insurance bill that has come in. Much larger insurance bill than normal. With grateful hearts,
Nick & Cheryl