Happy Sad

Hello one and all,

so now the dust from John's epic fall has settled I can sit down and let everyone know what happened.

On Monday we arrived in Champery and it was beautiful, sunny and up in the mountains, and just a perfect getaway spot for us to learn more about God. But before the learning came the snowboarding so we piled into gondolas and swooshed up to the bit deemed good for skiing. Myself and the other beginners went to the bunny hill (sad lack of actual rabbits) while the advanced group - including John - went off to the scary bits.

I had a lovely day and was very excited to come home and tell John that now his wife could, potentially, maybe, get herself down a slight incline on a snowboard. But then I got a phone call saying that 'John's arm is broken, they're not sure about his spine and they're helicoptering him to the hospital'.

I freaked out a little bit. There may have been some swearing. I also did not finish my Mars Bar, which is a sure sign of catastrophe.

This was followed by much wrangling with insurance and Swiss hospitals. Insurance companies assume you're lying and Swiss hospitals assume you're too poor to afford to pay. So by the time I was allowed to see John they'd taken him into surgery. And handed me his wedding ring in a bag and his clothes that they cut off of him. I freaked out again. But then they told me that his back was ok, they just needed to sort his arm out. So I calmed down. But did not yet have a Mars Bar.

We blagged our way into the hospital at about 10pm, and were relived to find a beaten up but alive hubby. Slightly bewildered because of all the french speaking doctors and painkillers, but happy to be alive. Quote: 'now I can sing Blessed be your name cos I have something hard to praise him in!' I think they were strong painkillers. Apparently on the mountain he was quite giggly.

So he was in hospital for a couple of days and that was, well, rubbish. Boring, scary and sad because he was in lots of pain. He's got plates on both bones in his right forearm, as it was quite an exciting break. I'd show you a picture of the scars on his arm but you wouldn't like it as they are a bit frankensteiny.

But he came home to the chalet on Wednesday and that was lovely - still beaten up and sad but we had time to just hang out and get him better. Everyone was so lovely to us, much chocolate was sent John's way but ended up in my belly. He felt poorly. Mmmmmm, Mars Bars.

So now we're back in the base and life is returning to normal. Sad for John because no more snowboarding for a year, plus, you know, it's rubbish being brokened. But he's doing really well and is happy that he doesn't have to write any book reports! We are so glad to have him home and functioning, it could have been so much worse. Hooray for doctors. And God.

So next week: we're having teaching on evangelism by a guy from Australia. We haven't really stopped to think about teaching etc this week as it's been somewhat intense, but it'll be good to properly get back into the routine.

Please pray that:

- the insurance will pay up. We have a two grand excess so financially this is not great, but it'll be so much worse if this doesn't go smoothly. It should do, but I am intimidated by admin.

- John will keep getting better and that he won't be sad. His body is a little traumatised.

- We'll be able to keep pushing in to God stuff and won't be too distracted.

Ok so the whole time i've been writing this Cat has been stroking my hair but she's going now so i'm going too.

Lots of love,

F and J xxx