October 2026

Greetings all,

Yes, the eagle has landed and safely back to his nest 😊. I am sorry I couldn’t do more emailing while I was gone but most of my time was spent in the tribe where I only had my cell phone to work with.

The trip was very busy and my schedule packed, but everything went smoothly! My first days were spent in the provincial capital where our consultant team met with a couple of our missionary teams and where I was also able to meet with our “Youth Team.” We are excited what the Lord is doing through these missionary teams and also with our “youth!”

I was then nearly two weeks in the Wana tribe where I spent time in two separate Wana villages with the two largest churches. The first village was the village of Paramba where we held our biannual church wide Bible conference studying from the book of Joshua. We made it up through chapter 22 so enjoyed discussing God’s fulfillment of his promise to Caleb and also lots of discussion from chapter 23 regarding making “assumptions” as did the 91/2 tribes on the west side of the Jordan when they realized that their friends on the East side had constructed an altar at the Jordan river. It seems we are always making assumptions and as we all know those can oft times be wrong.

Last year we developed a team of Wana pastors which we call our “Visiting Team” which makes visits and helps to encourage the many churches and outreaches. We missionaries used to assume this position but have now developed a good team of men whom I work together with. We spent considerable time discussing the needs of the Wana churches and how we might be able to assist. We were also asked to do some teaching in another church on leadership, focusing mainly on the duties of a deacon. It was very interesting as we dug in a bit to the lives of Philip and Stephen, who were deacons, and learned what kind of men they were and how God used them.

From the tribe I was back in town for 3 days where I was able to spend time some more time with our missionary team and also with our church plant there. Last Sunday we discussed 1 Corinthians 13 focusing on “love” and tying that to 1 John 3 and how that love is not just a feeling but also includes action. Two days prior we had a medivac flying one of our Wana missionary ladies to town who had just suffered a stroke, so we discussed how we had many opportunities to “show” our love. It was very encouraging at the end of the service when the youth agreed they would like to give a financial gift to this suffering family.

I arrived back here in Nebraska Friday night after getting hung up for a whole day and night in Denver due to a canceled flight on my final leg. It was good to get back home and with Jeanne for sure. Now a few days with some jet lag and I should be as good as new again 😊. Thanks SOOOO much for your prayers – they were so much appreciated.

God bless you,

Ed & Jeanne

 

Ed Casteel

Church Planting Asia Pacific