Prayer Letter Archive

June 2004

Dear Praying Friends,

First of all we want to thank you so much for your prayers this past couple of months as I journeyed back to Indonesia to minister to our Wana Tribal believers. The trip went very well and I wanted to let you know that I did find my way back! Thanks for your prayers too for Jeanne as she held down the fort alone during my absence for over 5 weeks.

We had a number of goals for this trip and thankful that these goals were all met except for one and that one is in the process of being met. The first thing on our agenda was to help our Wana co-workers get started in lesson development on the book of John. They have been through our mission training institute so this was a big help in getting them started. We were able to work through a number of lessons with them while there and are excited to see the superb job they are doing on them.

We were greeted at the helicopter

The next step was in to our tribe. As the helicopter set down in our little remote village we were met by a large crown of our Wana believers. It is always a blessing to get back to our little home there in the mountains of Sulawesi. A good part of our first week we spent in leadership meetings with the church leaders from all three of our churches. It was a blessing to us a we used the book of Philippians as our text and just allowed the Lord to take it from there to meet the felt needs of our tribal churches.

The beginning of our second week will go down in the annals of our Wana church history! For a number of years we have been wanting to start an outreach in an isolated Wana area known as the "Kaju Morangka" During our time there we were invited by the chief of that area to bring the helicopter over - BUT - we were not allowed to land - only hover. Missionary Pilot Andy McCain was ready to do what he could to help us get the ball rolling and even had a gift ready to present to this chief. The chief's assistant was the liaison between us and the chief so early Sunday morning on May 9 he along with two of our Wana evangelists, along with my co-worker Steve Rosengren loaded in the helicopter to fly over to this area. Upon arriving the area the assistant chief, much to our surprise, motioned for the pilot to set down in an area some distance from the houses. Andy set down but kept full power going. The assistant chief then got out of the helicopter taking the gift for the chief. Some days later he returned to our village with the good news that the chief had accepted us. He wants our believers to come and give them the gospel and we have his full blessing to come over next time in the helicopter and land. Our evangelists seem to be very excited about this and just this past week sent a team over to begin teaching. Please pray that this teaching will not get interrupted and that these fellows would be able to carry the teaching through until these folks have a full understanding of the gospel and know the plan of salvation.

Scripture comprehension check

During our time in the tribe I was also immersed in doing a comprehension check on 474 verses in the book of Luke. It took nearly the whole time in there to do that but we were very glad it could be finished bringing us one step closer to the final check of that book. I always enjoy these checks as besides just being a check it always turns out to be a time of teaching and learning for all of us as well.

We also had intentions to set up new SSB radios in each village to help in their communication between one another and with the mission base. We were only able to get one radio installed but since that time have been able to purchase the other two radios and solar panels to charge the batteries, so our next trip over in September we will finish this project.

Yes, September, Steve and I will be headed back over to Indonesia and are already making plans. We will again appreciate your prayers for this trip. Our mission is wanting to do church planting evaluations in a number of our tribal works so that will be one of the main objectives and goals for this next trip.

Another item of praise was for the Satellite phone the Lord graciously provided for us. I would have dreamt 25 years ago when we first started the Wana work that someday I would be standing there in the tribe and talking with my wife, who was back in the U.S.A., on the phone!! What a blessing that phone is for communication and to have for emergency in this unstable world we live.

Thanks so much again for your faithful prayers.

In His Love,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel