Greetings All!

We trust this finds you all enjoying the beginnings of summer. Seems like it is getting off to a hot start. We are happy to report that our kids, Geoff & Tina, had a good trip up from Peru, South America, and arrived here safely Saturday night to begin their home assignment. It has been a very busy last week for them as they were getting packed up, traveling to Lima, getting Covid tests, and missing out on a night’s sleep due to the travel schedule up to the USA. They are getting caught up on some rest and it is GREAT to have them home. We are looking forward to getting to do some fun things together with them this summer.

We are starting to see some positive signs of things opening back up in Asia Pacific. It looks like some places in the country will be opening up for tourism next month, and then as I mentioned in our last correspondence we are now able to get a business type visa for entering the country if we apply directly with the immigration office in the capital city. At this point I am still making plans to travel in mid September and looking forward to getting back and rubbing shoulders with all our friends and co-workers there.

In the meantime we stay in good touch with the likes of “Skype” and “WhatsApp” and thankful for this good way of communication. One example of how this works is we have been working on revisions on the translation of the book of Genesis. With skype I am able to bring the file up on my computer and then “share” my screen with them so that we can work together on the revisions with all of us viewing it in real time on our respective computers. We would have never dreamt of doing something like this 40 years ago when we were just getting started in the Wana work!

This year marks the 50th anniversary of our mission being in Asia Pacific. With that we have been tasked with gathering some pictures together of the work dating back to the earlier years. We thought with this email we would include some of the “blast from the past,” shared below. It has been a blessing to see what God has done and what he still continues to do in Asia Pacific. Thanks so much for your part through your giving and prayers. We appreciate each of you very much.

God Bless,

Ed n Jeanne Casteel

Church Planting Asia Pacific

Building our airstrip in the village of “Uebone”, Wana Tribe – all done by hand
Ed teaching a small group of Wana in our living room
Steve Rosengren (co-worker) teaching on his front porch
Early Baptisms down at the small river
Baptizing in our hydro electric holding pond.
Jeanne and Linda getting ready to hike to a garden
Jeanne holding a little Wana child
No, our Wana churches are not made up of just women :-). In Asia Pacific it is customary for women to sit on one side of the church and men on the other.