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.
1 comment:
The problems you seem to face on a daily basis seem so much bigger than the trivial ones that I face here at home. Thanks for the encouragement and constant reminder for me to keep my eyes on him, even when things seem impossible. I'm praying for you guys! Kara
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