Greetings all,

We have more exciting news to share with you today. For some time the Wana people from the village of “Chosen Water” have been asking to be taught God’s Word. As excitement and momentum has been growing in the Wana churches a new evangelistic team has been formed and they are now just beginning this new outreach. One of the evangelists “Pa’a Handri” (Father of Handri) has this to say:

Good afternoon. Here is the news from our evangelistic team that went to the village of “Chosen Water.” We were there just two nights. Our plan had been to meet with the chief of the township first, in order to report to him our plans for teaching there. But when we went to see him we found that he had left to go to the county seat. We ended up going back to “Chosen Water” and that evening we explained the situation to the people there who wanted to study, and we apologized that we couldn’t yet begin the teaching because we didn’t yet have a letter from the chief. When they heard that news they were very understanding – they truly wanted to begin study of God’s word, but we told them to have patience as we must follow the regulations of the Chief so that he could defend our work in the event that there were those who would oppose what we were doing. Once we have his permission, we will be free to start the teaching. So earlier this morning we made the decision to return home first, and as soon as the chief returns we will also return back to get his permission. As you see on the photo there are 16 families who are signed up and very happy to begin studying. They told us there are actually more than that who want to study but those were the ones who have signed up so far.

As I am writing this email, I am also in the middle of correspondence with “Pa’a Handri” and told him I was sharing this prayer request with you. Just a couple of minutes ago he answers:

Thank you very much for sharing this report with our friends in America. We really need prayer as the people there have a sincere desire to be taught the Gospel. I saw while we were there that they really wanted to be taught but we couldn’t yet begin at that time. So, WOW, we would really feel indebted if we couldn’t share the gospel with them.

It is totally amazing what is happening in the Wana churches as this time as a fire has truly been sparked amongst them! Thanks SO MUCH for praying!

God Bless,

Ed n Jeanne Casteel

The evangelistic team, “Pa’a Handri” in the front
A stop along the way
The village
Meeting with the people of the village
Those who have signed up so far. You will notice that most of the names start with a “Apa”. In Wana it is not polite to call someone by their first name, but rather they refer to each other by the name of their first child. “Apa” means “father”, so we have “Father of Dadang”, “Father of Lono”, “Father of Niki”, and so on. Each of these names represents not only the father but rather His whole family, so probably at least 50 people represented by this list, and maybe more. Maybe we could take this list and pray for each one by name.

 

Ed Casteel

Church Planting Asia Pacific