Prayer Letter Archive

June 26, 2008

Dear Ministry Partners,

We trust you are doing well and enjoying this first week of summer. Our prayers have gone out to the many in our country who have been suffering from the effects of the bad storms whether that be from all the floods or tornadoes. It has been a very unusual year that is for sure.

We want to thank you for your continued prayers for Jeanne. She has had a difficult time since her foot operation in April. Apparently the strong antibiotics that the surgeon put her on caused a "C-Diff" infection which then had to be treated. She has suffered extreme nausea these last number of weeks and made two trips to the doctor to try and get that straightened out. This past week has been better so we are trusting that she is on the mend. We have meetings planned out in Ohio next month in which we have planned to visit Jeanne's home church along with other ministry partners. We are still trusting that she will be ready for this trip.

Last month I mentioned that we had a number of our tribal pastors from our province attend a church wide conference in Borneo in May. It was an encouraging time for them. The pastor that attended from our Wana tribe along with our Wana co-workers are presently making the rounds to all of our Wana churches and giving a report of their time there in Borneo. It has been raining heavily in Wana land right now so pray for safety for them as they hike from village to village and pray that they will be a blessing to each of the churches.

Steve and I have been busy working on the Bible Curriculum for 1 Peter. All of the rough draft lessons are now finished and we will soon be finished with all the revisions as well. It is encouraging to see these come to completion and ready to put into the hands of our Wana pastors and teachers to use. We are also making preparations for our Wana teaching meetings coming up in September. We are really looking forward to this time as we are teaching in a village where we have never taught before. Many unbelievers will be attending these meetings so we are planning to teach through our phase 1 foundational lessons thus presenting to them a clear gospel message. We will appreciate your prayers that the Lord will be preparing the hearts of these people to receive His word.

Jeanne and I will also appreciate your prayers as we make plans for my departure to Indonesia the end of August. Just this week Steve and I began the process of applying for our visa entry permits. Along with the visa we would also appreciate your prayers for the finances to make this trip possible. I am needing to trust the Lord for $3000 for this trip. So far $450 has come in so we thank the Lord for a good start on seeing this need met.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your prayers this past month. We appreciate your partnership as we labor together to expand the reach of the gospel in Indonesia.

Joyfully Serving together,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel