Prayer Letter Archive

10-September-07

Dear Ministry Partners,

Well another month has passed and just 9 days now until I will be departing for Indonesia. All my paper work is finished and my visa is in hand. Thanks for praying for my passport to get back from the consulate as it seemed to take longer than normal this time. Items to take over for different people are laying all over my office floor reminding me that I need to get packing and see if I am overweight or not.....not to mention I need to clean up the mess - ha. We will appreciate your prayers for these next days as the week before departure seems to always be a hectic one with all the last minute items needing to be done. We have appreciated your prayers for the finances of this trip as well. We thank the Lord that so far about 1/3 of the needed funds have come in for my air travel costs.

We are also thankful to report that our team was able to finish the revisions and the final proofread on the New Testament! Just last week the final formatting was also finished which means it will be ready for printing in October. My co-worker, Steve Rosengren, will be joining up together with me the end of September in the provincial capital of Sulawesi to begin the printing process. We have already notified the printer of our plans so he will have enough supplies on hand. With the planned 2000 copies we have figured we will need around 400,000 sheets of paper for the project! While we monitor the printing process Steve and I will also be involved with our new church plant in Palu, working with our co-workers in lesson development, and also conducting leadership meetings for our Wana tribal church leaders.

Heavy rains continue to be a problem in our tribal region. Plans for all of our Wana churches to get together last week for a time of fellowship had to be postponed till later this month due to the flooding rivers and streams. We are thankful that none of our tribal folks have lost their lives in all the flooding and landslides that have occurred. Our Wana co-workers are now back in the saddle after having spent a number of weeks in the tribe. They are busy working with our church plant in the provincial capital along with working together with us on further topical lessons on "interpersonal relationships". Along with this we have also begun lessons on 1 Peter.

Our kids, Geoff & Tina, are finally settled into their apartment down in Peru, South America, after 3 months of waiting for one to open up. They also have a house promised to them up in their Quechua village which they plan to rent so their next step will be to get some things moved up there so they can spend extended times in the village during their tribal culture and language study time. However today they are headed for Lima as they have had some medical needs which have needed follow up by a specialist there.

Jeanne's mom plans to stay with us until I get back from Indonesia. After surgery she was disappointed with all the blurred and double vision but little by little she has been noticing improvement for which we are thankful. Then last week Jeanne had some acute stomach pains. After three days we thought it was time for her to see the doctor and after a CT scan she found out she was suffering from diverticulitis. Little by little she too is now starting to feel better.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers this past month. Jeanne and I will also covet your prayers for these next six weeks in which will be separated. Pray that Jeanne will not run into any difficult situations while I am gone and I too will appreciate your prayers for health, strength, and safety in my travels. Also pray that Steve and I will be a blessing to all those with whom we come in contact while in Indonesia.

Joyfully Serving together,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel