Late-Night Answer to Prayer

Last night I was out til midnight, not a usual happening for me. A few girlfriends and I were watching the BBC Pride & Prejudice, and I had a sitter for my kids, since Josh was out of town. We (a guest was with me) drove up a few minutes after midnight, and since my sitter was listening for me, she came outside to greet me.

As she shut the door behind her, the peg-thing that you bar the door with fell down into the hole in the floor, barring the door behind her with my 3 sleeping kids inside the house and the rest of us outside. OH, NO!

Since I had Josh's key ring (obviously not usual for me), I had the key to the garage padlock so we unlocked the garage door and tried the door into the house in there. No luck - later I saw that that door had the key actually in the lock inside at the time, so had we had the key to that door, it would have been useless anyway. We opened the garage door into the backyard and I highly doubted that we'd be able to get the kitchen door open but was praying anyway. We couldn't break into a window - they all have bars! The only other door was only accessible by a gate that was locked with barbed wire on top and the key was probably inside anyway.

Earlier yesterday I had taken the kids swimming and we'd opened the kitchen door to the back yard to hang the towels and swimsuits out on the line. Guess a kid was the last one in, because THE DOOR WAS NOT LOCKED!! Puji Tuhan!! Praise the Lord! I was able to go in and unbar the front door. God is sovereign and He proved it again last night when I couldn't depend on my husband to "solve my problem" - my Heavenly Father took good care of me - as He always does!

Thanks for your continued prayers for us - we truly feel them day and night! :)

Update

The dad of the 4 year old with Dengue Fever Shock Syndrome felt like he had a good talk with his doctor this afternoon. They are also in contact with an American doctor. His condition is not stable enough to be moved tomorrow on a commercial flight, so they have cancelled those tickets. After the 48 hour crisis period is passed, if they need to take him to another Asian country they will call a Medi-Vac flight.

He has passed the 24 hour mark, and although still very weak and on IV and oxygen, he is beginning to talk some. He is still in a crisis stage and the next 24 hours are very critical.

His parents are very weary--please pray that they could get some rest this evening, in spite of the round the clock nursing care that is a required part of being in the ICU ward.

The other 3 children are doing well.

Thanks for your prayers for the whole family.

4th of July Pics

Follow this link to our 4th of July pics! (you may have to copy and paste it into your browser)http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34707&l=2e36e&id=827110155

Tribal People Reaching Out

Following is a story sent out by one of the missionaries we serve here. For me it brought into focus again the great need that we're here to help fill.

"We have to hurry," Bungon told me. I looked at her with a wrinkled brow. We were sitting on her porch, chatting, and I didn't know that we had plans to go anywhere.

"We have to hurry and finish the Hobongan translation," she said.
"After that you and I are moving to Metalunai to learn Hobukot."

Hobukot is the Hobongan or Punan name for the Bukat people who live in the villages of Metalunai, Nanga Barang, and Nanga Hobat. They live like the Punan did 20 years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers. Much of the time Nanga Hobat stands as a deserted village while its nomadic inhabitants travel. The Punan believers had, at one time, tried to teach at the village of Metalunai but quickly realized that their limited understanding of the Bukat language was not enough to share the Gospel effectively with these people.


The burden to reach the Bukat still lingers, but the Punan church needs some help in order to plant a church among the Bukat. Learning another language is harder than they realize; it takes perseverance to learn it well enough to teach the Gospel. It takes some linguistic training in order to write an unwritten language and work on Scripture translation.


The Punan church planters are in need of co-workers in order to carry out their vision of reaching another unreached tribe. Do they need to wait another 10 years until the Punan Scripture translation is complete?

Do the Bukat people need to wait even longer before they get a chance to hear the Gospel?

"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -- Jesus in Matthew 9:38

New Family Interior and some Miracles

On Monday of last week we said good-bye to the Carpenter family as they headed to their new home in the interior region. They have 4 children: 2 boys and 2 girls, ages 5 to 13 or so. They will be living in a rough home with no bedroom doors for now and a built-on bathroom (with a brand-new toilet that flew in with them - the people interior don't use toilets like we do). I haven't seen pictures yet but I have heard that the house is non-stop full of people, mostly kids. This is probably very stressful as the Carpenters only speak the trade language and not the language of the tribe that they moved into. Thankfully there's another western couple already there to welcome them and help them get set up. When the Carpenters' plane took off last Monday we received word that their co-workers both had a bad stomach bug. As you can see, these families need your prayers as they work to settle in and start building relationships and learning the heart language of the people they have chosen to love and bring the gosepel of Christ to. The Carpenters will also be home-schooling their 4 children and doing all of the normal things we all do, minus the time savers like normal stove/oven, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. They probably wash their clothes in the river, cook over a gas flame and I don't know if they already have a propane/solar refrigerator or not...

They're going to be there for 24 days before they come out for the first time. When they do, they'll be staying with us. Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to minister to them, not having done what they're doing and not knowing how it's affecting them or what would be an encouragement to them. Their co-workers have said that every time they come out to town and then it's time to go back in, it's "an act of will" to go back. Pray for both couples with us. Thanks!

On to the miracles...
This last week we saw 3 miracles happen in one day - incredible answers to prayer. First of all, one of my helpers "lost" a large amount of money, her savings. She was understandably upset about it and though we did all we could to find it, it didn't show up. She left for home, having finished her time working for us and we continued to pray that the Lord would bring her savings to light. On Thursday we found out that 2 co-workers had taken the opportunity to seach her room thoroughly one last time, and miraculously found the money stuck way up in the back of her dresser. We were so glad that she got her savings back!

Then, as Josh was working in the office under a deadline, he was trying to transfer some files from one computer to the other. It JUST WOULDN'T WORK. We didn't know WHAT we would do - we were under a deadline and thought we might have to do all of the many hours of data entry again. He kept trying to contact people who might be able to tell him what he needed to do to fix this problem, when he got an email - one of the guys had received his data, extracted it and emailed it back to him. He plugged it in and it WORKED! Whew!

Finally, we had some friends from Australia staying with us for a bit. They'd planned to leave Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, but on Thursday at noon they were still with us. Their paperwork was STILL in government offices and they had tickets to fly home to be with their teenaged son for Friday. We received a phone call during lunch saying that there was a problem with government computers - some had been seized and so it was holding up the works. Who knew when that paperwork would make it out? After lunch as we were still at the table, talking, one guy suggested we pray about this situation, that the paperwork would arrive in a timely manner. 2 hours later, 1 hour before they needed to leave for the airport, our friends received the news that their paperwork had come through and they could go home.

It's been amazing as we wait on the Lord to see what He will do with the various situations in our lives - He is ALWAYS on time, He longs for us to depend on Him, to wait for Him, expecting a show of His strength, a show of His understanding, a show of His incredible care for us. He always comes through when we wait for Him and don't run ahead of Him.

Thanks for praying with us as we minister here.