Dear friends,

Wow, I left for Asia Pacific during a cold March but have returned home to a beautiful Spring! Even though it was still cold here in the USA there was no lack of warm weather in Asia Pacific as it was very hot. There is always an acclimation adjustment when I go over in March as we are just coming off winter here and I am thrown right into summer literally overnight.

The first part of my trip took me into the captital city and then on up to the province where I would spend nearly a week with coworkers there. One of our main projects was to get the printing of the Old Testament portions underway. After receiving the first sample copy we again thought we might be facing some major format issues but thankfully it just turned out that the printer had made a mistake and it was easily correctible. We had originally been quoted a price of $6.00 per copy by the secretary. While there I asked to speak with the owner of the printshop who is a Christian. He was very excited to hear about this project and we asked him how much it would cost if we printed 600 copies he gave us a price of $3.20 per copy! Looking at the funds we had available I told him if he could print them for that amount then we would take 1000 copies. He then said that if we had a 1000 copies done then he would print them for $2.85 a copy! Wow what a blessing! With this we have enough funds left over to afford to fly these all in on the helicopter which will ensure they do not get wet like they might have going up by canoe. We are planning a dedication for this later in October during my next trip.

And speaking of the canoe…I had my first crack at riding the river in the canoe which the locals just refer to as the “Ketinting.” It is basically just a dugout canoe with one or two motors attached. Years ago we floated down this river on rafts returning home from our first survey into Wana, so it had been nearly 41 years since I had done any river travel! I was wearing my life jacket – just in case – but thankful we had a very safe trip both in and out so didn’t need to test the life jacket. The river was beautiful and even through some water was splashing into the canoe I was still able to shoot a few quick pictures of some of the scenery.

While there in Wana we had an excellent Bible conference with folks from all of our Wana churches present. We did an inductive study out of Philippians chapter two moving through it very slowly and carefully and asking our selves how it all applied to us in our daily lives. One older gentlement who had been struggling with bitterness toward another believer came up to me after the conference with tears in his eyes telling my how the word of God had pierced his heart and and spoken to him.

Just a quick update on our family – Jeanne’s mom has been in the hospital twice in the last two months for an UTI and Flu, and in the emergency room once for a gash in her forhead from a fall she had. Thankfully she is doing much better now. Jeanne’s sister, Janet, has finished her chemo and her CT scan last week show “no cancer” for which we were all very thankful for! And our kids, Geoff and Tina, down in Peru, are doing great and enjoying their ministry there.

The two of us want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for prayers for us and our ministry with the Wana tribal people. Thank you for being a vital part of our team as we seek to expand the reach of the gospel in Asia Pacific!

God Bless you,

Ed & Jeanne Casteel