A Quick Update

Three weeks ago, Yangga Tumbe, our dear brother in Jesus and Neil, stood side by side on a mountain in PNG and shared this moment for a photo. Yangga has long stood by our side since that first day in 1995 when he knocked on our door and asked, "Do you believe in binding satan in Jesus Name?". He told us that after months of frustration, God had told him to come and see us. After months of frustration on our end, the answer to our prayer came at our door and knocked!

Yangga's valuable insights into Mesem culture helped us to better understand the obstacles faced by our Mesem friends and their animistic world view. Yangga continues to be a pillar in the Christian community among the Mesem.

Neil is home and an update will soon appear in your mailbox (just after I get the expense report turned in). The goals of this trip were for the most part accomplished. We have some outstanding prayer concerns that continue to be a matter for intercession but we are rejoicing that the Mesem have told us that they are anxious for a 2011 typesetting deadline with 2012 as the prayerfully anticipated date for the Mesem New Testament dedication.

More to come. Rejoicing in the One who exploits the darkness.

Photographs and Memories

Today's photos did wonders for me. I confess, I was down about the truck, Wayung's continued oppression and the loss of the wallet and contents. Neil has come through a great deal and loves the rain forest and the people and the land. He finds these other hassles a necessary part of life, and indeed it is. I am a bit slower to rebound, as I find, after many years, I am very tired. At times I have asked, "Could we possibly have an uneventful time?".

So when Neil sent the photos this morning from the capital of PNG, I was really thrilled. I saw our house in the village. Tony was raised there. We tackled home schooling together there. I had the "joy" of skinning my first sheep there. I guess it has been the place of a many "firsts" and many tired and difficult evenings and many nights of saying, "God I thought I knew you but know I have seen you face to face". I would be poorer had I never lived in Samanzing.

I hope as you have the time, you will go to the photo gallery at www.vanaria.org or www.vanaria.info and look at the pictures of the people for whom you have prayed, and given and participated in giving the gospel not only to them but to their children, and should He tarry, to their children's children's children.

If you ever get time, do read Elizabeth Elliot's book No Graven Image. I believe it is the truest missionary book every written. It's supposed to be a novel, but anyone who has lived the life can tell you that she expresses there what so many of us feel, but which often is left out of books that require that the ends be neatly tied together. Nothing is neatly tied together in life. Jesus death was not neat. It astounds, confuses and offends. To those who choose to embrace His sacrifice, it also saves.

To pull together my thoughts: those closest to us realize that the last several years have been a painful and at times nonsensical journey. The unbelievable has been believed, the outrageous has occurred and when we cried out for help, it has seemed that God did not answer in the way we would have anticipated, but brought us along a new path. But when I look at the photos of the places we have lived, and to which, Lord willing, we shall again soon return, then I realize that the entire picture is so grand, involves so many people, and like most things of an eternal and perfect nature, doesn't make perfect sense from a mortal, finite perspective. But if Christ would have died to save just one, then for me, and thee and all of these, it is worth it.

Photographs are a wonderful thing. They let us visualize what we know in our heart.

The Far Side of the Moon

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the space program and like most Americans, there was not a single space mission that we did not follow with anxious anticipation. It was always a tense time when the astronauts would circle the moon and for a period of time it was not possible to have any radio contact with earth.

I jokingly refer to Neil's current situation as being "on the far side of the moon". It is always hard to explain that even in this day and age of cell phones and email, there are places in the world where it is not possible to send or receive a message short of a human being physically carrying the message from one point to another. So it is that as of last week, Neil has been incommunicado with us and will remain so until he emerges from the Mesem area in two weeks time.

This is a good picture of what it means to bring the gospel to people everywhere. While radio and TV and cell phones are marvelous things, God came to us personally, in the flesh. He went in person, touching, reaching, living amongst us to communicate with us on a personal level. He came down and spoke to us face to face. Bringing the gospel to all people everywhere still requires that some of those who bring the message go to places that are otherwise unreachable, and bring the Good News that God longs to be reconciled to us.

We appreciate your love and prayers while Neil is in a place where we can not get word of his well being and we appreciate all the more that Jesus came in the flesh to seek us out and to enter into our world to tell us He longs for us to return home to Him.

October and November and What God Makes New

Tommorow Neil leaves for Papua. In recent years, the months of October and November have been full of intense emotions for our family: the burning of the village, waking with paralysis in Bangkok, terminal diagnosis of Rosaria, the horrific accident that nearly has scarred our family, a painful anniverary last year and now Neil returns to a place that has been the center of our lives, and your prayers for years. He arrives on the anniversary of at least three pivotal events in our lives. The last week of October and the first week of November have been so full, I feel that were I to write all the events down, it would seem so unlikely that as one friend said, "It sounds like a Frank Peretti novel".

We just returned from "Minister's Institute". It is three day and two night retreat for Southern New England Ministers and it was a time of prayer and worship unlike anything I have experienced in recent years. We stayed in an attitude of prayer for nearly three hours. There was again the reminder of the scripture, "I will restore the years the locusts have eaten".

No one doubts that past Octobers and Novembers have been marked by tragedy, setbacks, assaults, and more. But God has given us a promise. Believing that promise he returns. This time tommorow, Tony and I will be like all of you, holding the ropes for Neil, as he goes down to mine for "gold".

All of you have stood so faithfuly with us and with expectation in prayer for the Mesem people. There is a Bible correspondence program. Mesem people have professed that Jesus is the only way. There are schools for teaching not only reading, but the Word of God. This has happened only because you have stood on the promise of God to answer prayer. His Character is such that He has done just that.

Tommorow we say good-bye to Neil and we have little ability to stay in contact. (We have no email and we do not know who has our satellie phone making it unlikely Neil will be able to purchase a SIM card). By prayer, we are as close to Neil and our Lord, just as you have stood so closely by us. We are trusting that the Lord will make this October and November different than any other: we are trusting He will restore the years/months, that have been so difficult for us in the past.

"Faithful is He who has called us, Who also will do it".
Pace, Kath