Greetings all!
I trust you all are doing okay in the midst of this coronavirus and the change of life that it has brought with it – staying home except for the important things, wearing a mask in the grocery store, remembering to sanitize hands after exiting, going through the hand soap at twice the speed, and attending church from our recliners in the living room by watching via live stream as our pastor and praise team bring the service into our homes. We miss the fellowship of our church and our Bible study group during this time.
Our Wana churches are facing similar adjustments. They of course can’t live stream so are meeting in small groups instead. They are such social people and this thing called “social distancing” is so foreign to them. They get bits and pieces of information through the limited access they have to TV and internet and often are made afraid by the news they hear. I am thankful that we do have internet service in one of our Wana villages which in turn has radio contact with other Wana villages so we can help explain things to them. I am on phone via WhatsApp and Skype nearly everyday with them. Questions like – how do we know if we have coronavirus? What medicine do we take if we get it? Do you Americans have a medicine for this? How many people in America have the disease? How many have died? Will everyone who gets the virus die? And the questions go on. And with this they have no doctors or hospitals close by to help. We try and answer their questions and encourage them that the Lord is before us, behind us, and beside us, at all times – Ps 139.
Along with this it is rainy season in Wana. With this comes a lot of sickness including Malaria as the mosquitoes are so bad. The Wana churches on the south side of the mountain ridge which divides the region were nearly out of medicine so were asking if the airplane could bring them in an emergency supply of medicine. Due to travel restrictions they were unable to travel to the coast to purchase it themselves. It was right at that time that our airplane’s inspection ran out due to the inspectors not being able to travel. Along with this the governor instituted a travel ban not allowing our plane to fly. So last week we all worked together to send in a large medicine order overland from the provincial capital. It was taken 8 hours over land to a large river and from there transported by canoe up to the nearest Wana village. Today they are in the process of trying to get it transported from there up over the mountain pass to their villages on the other side. The Wana people have asked for your prayers for them at this time as their faith is being tested. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”.
Below I have included some images of a recent literacy class being taught in one of the villages. So many are excited to learn to read so they can read the Scriptures which have been handed out to them. The pictures are taken with a cell phone so are of poor quality but we are thankful for a good quality literacy program that has gotten off the ground in Wana Land. Thanks so much for being a part of these peoples lives!
God bless you!
Ed n Jeanne
You must be logged in to post a comment.