Prayer Letter Archive

13-October-2007

Greetings from Indonesia,

Today is a big holiday in Indonesia. Last evening at 6:00 p.m. local time the Muslims broke their fast for one last time as the month of Ramadan finally comes to and end. Today and tomorrow they are celebrating the end of the fast know as "Idul Fitri" in which everyone is expected to visit their Muslim friends and relatives.

Backing up a bit - I do want to thank you for you prayers as I traveled back to Indonesia last month. I departed the USA on schedule September 20th and arrived in Jakarta on the 22nd. I was in Jakarta for a couple of nights and then proceeded on up to the city of Manado in Central Indonesia where we held our Central Indonesia area leadership meetings. It was an encouraging time for us as we discussed our various works here in this region, discussed the many things going on and the challenges and opportunities that lay before us.

Then two weeks ago I flew down to the city of Palu, which is the provincial capital of central Sulawesi where we have worked for the past 28 years. My co-worker, Steve Rosengren, had arrived the day before so met me at the airport. It was a joy to meet up with him and with long time Indonesian friends and coworkers. Our first task was to turn in the finished Wana New Testament to the printer for publication. We "thought" that everything was in order but a few days later received a phone call saying that the margins needed readjusted in order to make the sewing and trimming of the edges possible. This sounds like a simple task in this advanced age of computers but Steve and I found ourselves up until the wee hours of the following morning trying to get this all fixed. Changing the margins also changed the position of the pictures we have included so it was a bit of a nightmare. However we were able to turn it back in the following day and it looks like everything is going to work now - lets keep praying in that direction. It is such a huge printing job that they will not be able to have all the printing completed by the time we leave, however they will be able to give us some "prototypes" to bring along home with us which will show what the finished product will look like. Hopefully all the printing will all be finished the middle of November.

Steve and I have also been enjoying working together with our Wana co-workers the "Kaku" and "Panius" families who work along side us in Scripture translation, Bible lesson/curriculum development, and discipleship. Our first task was to get their computer problems sorted out. We were able to get their best computer virus free and working well, and then retired the other two and bought them a new one. They now have two good computers to work with so hopefully things will run well for them. The next lessons we plan to develop with them will be for 1 Peter so this past week Steve and I have been going through this book with them helping prepare them to make lessons for this book. We have also enjoyed working with them and other Indonesian co-workers with the new church plant we have here Palu. This too has been a challenge as we have such a very mixed cultural group here with folks from various language and culture groups in Indonesia. In about six days our Wana pastors and teachers will be arriving town and we will be holding leadership meetings with them. We are really looking forward to this but will appreciate your prayers as we have a lot of material to cover with them during that week.

Jeanne and I want to thank you so much for your prayers and support for us this past month. We are so thankful for your partnership and stand in awe how that the Lord has used you and your prayers to enable us to continue on with our ministry here. It has been totally amazing how the Lord has supplied in special ways to make this all possible.

Serving together,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel