Serving the deaf in Kenya

ELLIS FAMILY NEWS

WYC
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Orla O Box SSOCI
Min n d o 620 AT E
S May 2011 Issue No. Three
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(503 AMON M10 8
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6-40
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(503 IRIAM
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6-40
41
“Those who were
not told about Him
Romans 15:21 will see, and those
who have not heard
will understand”

HAVE YOU MISSED US? FIND

OUT WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP
TO BELOW!

THE HOUSE IS FINISHED!

It is finally done! Can you hear my sigh of
relief ? After almost two months of packing,
sorting, organizing, moving, storing, selling,
cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming and painting,
we have officially handed over the keys of our
Deaf Bible Training & Translation Center Click Here for a High-Res Photo
house to the new renters!
Continued on Page 2

DAMON’S HEALTH
Those who are not on Facebook will probably
not have heard about our many fun adventures
in the Newberg Hospital Emergency Room
(can you sense the sarcasm here?).
Continued on Page 2 Kenyan Staff Housing Multi-purpose Building

WE HAVE PLANE TICKETS!

The Deaf Bible
We received our plane tickets! Our official Training &
departure date is May 17th - less than two Translation Center
weeks from the time of writing this! was dedicated
What we haven’t officially announced yet is February 26th!
that we will be back in Oregon September
25th!
Continued on Page 3

www.ellisfamilynews.com | www.wycliffeassociates.org | damon_ellis@wycliffeassociates.org

ELLIS FAMILY NEWS!
Providence Newberg Medical Center - our home away from home
THE HOUSE IS FINISHED!
Continued from Page 1
If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t
heard from us for months, this is why: we
have been SO busy vacating our house!
Miriam has spent six hours almost
every day for almost two months at the
house with all of the preparations.
First, we prepared for a moving sale
which went amazingly well! Thanks to the
help of cousins, aunties, and church family
(thank you all!) the preparations went
quickly and in two weeks we had a
successful sale that brought in almost
$1,400! Praise the Lord!!
After the moving sale there was more
moving and sorting to be done, and hauling
of all the remainder of our stuff to the local
Thrift Store or to our storage unit.
In the mean time, our family has been
staying with, first, Miriam’s father, and then
Damon’s mother, and now we are back with
Miriam’s father for the remainder of our
time here.
We’ve loved being able to spend time
with our families, but we are so ready to
have our own home again!
www.ellisfamilynews.com | www.wycliffeassociates.org | damon_ellis@wycliffeassociates.org
PAGE 2
Center St. House - We’ll miss you!
DAMON’S HEALTH
Continued from Page 1
Back in February, Damon had a procedure “And that
done to check the status of his Crohn’s repentance and
Disease, and we had quite a shock when the
remission of sins
results came back. For the first time in 15
years, we saw a dramatic improvement in should be preached
Damon’s condition. For 15 years, the in His name among
Crohn’s Disease had infested Damon’s all nations,
entire GI (Gastrointestinal) system. Now, beginning at
after countless years of praying for healing, Jerusalem.”
we saw that the disease had been almost
entirely healed, remaining only in a small Luke 24:47
portion of his colon. What perfect timing
our Lord has!
Damon’s GI doctor was thrilled (as
were we all), as this opened Damon up to a
whole new range of medications to treat the
Crohn’s; one of which would hopefully “He said to them,
work for us in Kenya! So the doctor began “Go into all the
prescribing Damon some new medications. world and preach the
And that’s when the trouble started. gospel to all
Shortly after starting the fir st creation.”
medication, Damon began to suffer a severe
allergic reaction. When his temperature
reached 105*F, we rushed him to the Mark 16:15
hospital.
Continued on Page 4
ELLIS FAMILY NEWS!
See below for ways you can be
keeping the Ellis’ in prayer!
WE HAVE PLANE TICKETS!
Continued from Page 1
We will be back in September for an
undetermined amount of time while we
continue raising support.
At that time we would love to get
together with as many of our friends,
family, and supporters as possible! We’ll
have many experiences to share as well as
more infor mation about DOOR
International and their ministry.
PRAYER: PRAISES!
Miriam had a blessed time speaking with
the amazing women of Newberg Friends
Church’s Women’s Bible fellowship!
We received our first paycheck from
Wycliffe Associates! We’re official!
We have medical insurance! We’re insured!
Check out that graph on the side. We have
almost 30% of our support raised! This is a
true testimony to God’s provision as we
have had almost no time at all to spend
“raising support”.
www.ellisfamilynews.com | www.wycliffeassociates.org | damon_ellis@wycliffeassociates.org
PAGE 3
PRAYER: REQUESTS
Please be praying for the plane
trip; for safety and health, and
that Joy wouldn’t be too fussy.
That we would have
everything we need before we
leave, and that we wouldn’t
forget anything. Oh, and that
we can fit it all in our suitcases!
Ribbon cutting at DBTTC
T hat we would have all of our
documentation on hand and that we have a
smooth passage through customs.
That our integration into the deaf We’ve reached
community is quick and easy and that we almost 30% of our
would be able to communicate with our support!
new coworkers!
We are really looking forward to being back
in September to visit friends and family and
share our experiences, but we also know
that frequent moving and not having a
permanent home can be stressful on our
kids and our family, so please be praying
that our support would come in quickly so Raised: 29.5%
that we can return to our new home on the
mission field as soon as possible. Needed: 70.5%
ELLIS FAMILY NEWS! PAGE 4

Don’t forget the Ellis’ going-away party

Saturday, May 7th! We’d love to see you there!
2:00 PM AT FIRE STATION 21 IN NEWBERG

DAMON’S HEALTH
Continued from Page 2
The ER staff gave Damon fluids and
medications, brought down his high
temperature and helped with his pain.
The next day saw us back at the
Emergency Room at the insistence of
our GP for more fluids. It was
suspected that Damon might have
pneumonia, so he was put on an
antibiotic.
Two days later, Damon began to
notice a rash of hives begin to appear
all over his body. When he began to
have trouble breathing, we went back
to the hospital for the third time. As the
original medication was now out of his
system, it was suspected that the
antibiotic was the culprit of this second
reaction.
As we’d not had luck with the first
Crohn’s medication, Damon’s doctor
started him on a second. About two
weeks later, Damon began to show flu-
like symptoms. We went back to the
Emergency Room when he started
having severe pain in his abdomen.
The ER doctors did some lab work and
saw that Damon was having acute
kidney failure and drug-induced
pancreatitis. Obviously, the second
medication was not going to work for
us either.
Damon spend about 5 days
recovering in the hospital. At this point
we began to stop and really think about
how we were handling this situation.
We came to the conclusion that we had
not been very faithful. Hadn’t God
worked a miracle in Damon’s body?
Why weren’t we trusting in His
continued care? Why were we trying so
hard to medicate Damon - to treat his
Crohn’s on our own - when God had so
clearly shown us that He could take
care of it without any help from us?
So we decided to stop. We stopped
all medications and made the decision
not to treat Damon’s Crohn’s, but to
help him maintain a healthy body
through a good diet.
Our family has been on a gluten-
free diet for about 6 months and this
has seemed to help Damon’s condition.
We will be continuing the diet in
Kenya, and trust that the Lord will take
care of the rest. And so far, it’s been so
good!

Snapshot of the invitation to our going-away party Fire Station 21, Newberg

www.ellisfamilynews.com | www.wycliffeassociates.org | damon_ellis@wycliffeassociates.org