Prayer Letter Archive

December 20, 2007

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given...." We are grateful for this time of year where we once again give special remembrance to the real reason for this season - to be able to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It seems all the news media is concerned about are the circumstances of life and how much money the businesses are making or losing. As I was reading in my quiet time this morning no matter what our circumstances in life may be we can take heart with Job in saying, "I know that my redeemer liveth...." Isn’t it great to keep our focus upon Him!

It seems life is always full changes and challenges. We have had the privilege of having Jeanne’s 88-year-old mom, who lives in Phoenix, come to live with us for the past 4 ½ months. Earlier this past Spring she had operations on both her eyes for glaucoma. She was seeing quite blurry after the surgeries. It was very difficult for her to get around and she was losing weight and not looking well. It was a very scary time for her. We felt it would be good for her to come and live with us during her follow-up doctors visits and until such a time she felt well and comfortable living on her own once again. Eventually her eye sight and eye pressures did return back to normal, and we are thankful that she has gained 13 pounds and is getting around much like her normal self once again. She felt she wanted to try to live on her own again - at least for the winter, so we took her back down to Phoenix the week before last. We will have to re-evaluate things next spring together with her as she is getting to the point now where she is needing more and more help. She was easy to have around and Jeanne enjoyed her company while I was in Indonesia.

We were thankful for the trip to Phoenix as it gave us opportunity to touch base with one of our main supporting churches and many of our individual ministry partners. On Sunday the 9th I was able to address over 1000 people in church and Jeanne and I were able to meet with the missions committee as well. It was exciting to be able to hold up a prototype of the N.T. before them and have them see what they have been praying for for so many years. One of the fellows on the missions committee asked me if he could just hold it in his hands for awhile. What a blessing it was to us to be able to share that moment with them. I know it was an encouraging time for them as they were able to realize the fruits of their prayers and labors.

We continue to appreciate your prayers for our team which includes two of our Wana families who are living in the provincial capital of Palu. These past weeks we have been finishing up some topical lessons we have been working together on. We have also been making preparations to start lessons on 1 Peter after the 1st of the year. The Chronological lessons for 1 Peter were just finished in "Indonesian" a couple of weeks ago so these will be a big help to our Wana co-workers as they begin helping us develop these lessons into the tribal dialect.

We would also like to ask special prayer for a dear Wana family who have faced a lot of tragedy in their family this past year. "Bapak Nyai and his wife" were one of the Wana families who were very instrumental in getting us invited into the tribe 28 years ago. From day 1 we have been very good friends with them. We were saddened this past Spring when his wife had a stroke and went to be with the Lord. Then just yesterday I was talking on the phone with Esron (one of our Wana co-workers) and learned that Bapak Nyai’s oldest son just passed away 4 days ago from an infected boil and complications from surgery. Also their second oldest son who was our main language helper in CLA is suffering from diabetes and had to have a toe amputated some time back, and the father is suffering with dementia. We praise the Lord that their whole family has come to know the Lord as savior but life has not been easy and we would appreciate your prayers for them. One of these days the Lord will give us all new bodies and what a great day that will be!

Well I must close for now. We trust that you have a wonderful Christmas and that you will enjoy spending this time with family and/or friends. May the Lord also richly bless you as we enter a New Year.

Joyfully yours,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel