The Eagle Departing!

Greetings all,

Yes, you read that correctly! When Geoff and I returned from our last trip to Asia Pacific in April I began thinking about another trip in September. However, some things had come up which were making this trip look very uncertain to the point I was thinking it would likely not happen. But the Lord opened up the door and last week we were given the green light for me to go. So it has been scurry-scurry-scurry to get all my packing and everything ready, as I will lift off from Kearney, Nebraska, arriving in the Asia Pacific after about 30 hours en route.

Once again I am looking forward to being with our Wana brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of the things I will be involved in will be making consultant visits with some of our missionary teams – many of these teams have Wana missionaries serving on them. Then while I am in the Wana tribe our “in house” Wana church planting consultant team, made up of Wana pastors and missionaries, will be meeting and also working with some of the Wana church leaders. You might remember in March we taught on Shepherding, and this time we will be teaching on the work of deacons as they make plans to ordain more deacons to the local church ministry. We will then be traveling to another village where we will hold our biannual Bible conference. Again, we will be teaching out of the book of Joshua with the goal of teaching them how to dig out application from Scripture –“Inductive Bible Study”. This is more of a challenge as we are working with an oral culture who are not used to this kind of study. Also, another individual from our outreach in the village of Watusongu is planning to be baptized at that time so that will be a special time for us as well.

I want to let you know that the Lord has graciously supplied for the financial part of this trip, but we still need and covet your prayers. Pray for strength and health, pray that the Lord would put his words in my mouth as I teach and disciple our Wana friends, and pray that I will be a blessing to them as I know they will be to me. Last but not at all least pray for Jeanne as she holds the fort on this end – that she would be safe, stay healthy, and that things around the house would stay in working order during my absence. Thank you so very very much for your help in this way – it is MUCH appreciated!

God Bless you all!

Ed n Jeanne Casteel

Pray for our “Wana Church Consultant Team” as we meet

Then as we teach the church leaders on the work of a deacon

Pray for men and women who will be taking part in our Inductive Bible Study conference

Ed Casteel

Church Planting Asia Pacific

Update: Delayed!

Greetings all,

“The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth – Ps 97:5.”

I am not sure how many of you have been following the news from Asia Pacific but an active volcano, Mt. Krakatau, has erupted causing a major transportation crisis. Due to a huge plume of ash, the main airport along with 7 other airports were closed down for the better part of the past two days, leaving over 350,000 people stranded. As you know I was scheduled to depart tomorrow morning for Asia Pacific, but this development has put a bit of a pause in my plans. There was a high possibility of my flight getting canceled somewhere along the way and getting stranded. And once the airport does fully open it will still take days for them to work through this huge backlog of passengers. After discussing this with our field leadership this morning it was decided I should postpone my trip, so with that my new departure time is scheduled for next Monday morning September 14 arriving in Asia Pacific at about midnight on the 15h. I spent a good chunk of this morning changing reservations. It went very smoothly and hardly any extra cost – and even able to get isle seats on short notice so an extra blessing from the Lord! When these large-scale natural disasters happen it reminds us of the awesome God we serve and WHO is in charge – it is YHWH the OWNER of the whole earth who is in charge! We will appreciate your continued prayers and if it is the Lord’s will, He will open up the airways for travel to happen next week.

God Bless,

Another update!

Greetings all,

I will make another attempt at departing for Asia Pacific. Since I wrote a few days ago the airports in Asia Pacific have reopened and flights have resumed. If all continues as is, all the backlogs of passengers will have been worked through when I arrive. We would ask for prayers though as the “Ring of Fire” along the Pacific rim has been very active triggering many volcanoes and earthquakes in Asia Pacific. Besides this there has been a bad dry season with very little rain for a few months which is causing for forest fires and lots of smoke. This has also caused flight delays and cancellations. We know the Lord is in control of all this so just ask Him to guide and direct in all of my travels and that I wouldn’t get delayed traveling over, while there, and also when returning home. My trip is about 30 hours in route so I should be arriving Asia Pacific just before noon, which is the middle of the night there. I am then scheduled to fly on up to the province on Thursday. Thanks so much for your part in praying, we REALLY appreciate it.

Blessings,