Craig and Cheryl Cassel Training Indonesian Missionary Candidates Pray For Cheryl
Here is our latest UPDATE. Please click on this link PRAY FOR CHERYL to read and pray.
HAPPY THANKS GIVING
We are so blessed and want to share thanks giving to the Lord. Click here HAPPY THANKSGIVING to read more.
On the Road again….
We are just over half way through a ministry trip to the mid west. We enjoyed a visit and cold cold soccer game in Independence OH with NTM missionary friends. Thanks Steve, Carolyn & girls.
Had a great stop over in Michigan with former NTM co-workers from the Wogi days.Thanks John, Shirley, Dillon and Divinity. You guys made us feel right at home. The “Man Cave” was awesome.
This past weekend we were at Medinah Baptist Church for their annual missions conference. We enjoyed some great time of fellowship, worship and sharing our ministry. Medinah Baptist you guys are awesome. Thanks Ray and Bev for a great stay again. Lets keep praying for each other.
Can coffee spark the heart?
Presently we are at the King and Queen of coffee drinkers (Bill and Stacy). Looking forward to 3 days of great food, fun, fellowship and freshening (with coffee of course) and franticness. 
God is so good to give us sooooo many friends everywhere.
Pray for a continued safe trip and great growth in our lives.
The Joy of Salvation
Over 80 Moi have expressed a clear understanding of the gospel.
Thank you all for faithfully praying for this last outreach. It is with great joy that we share about the wonderful work God has done here. We along with the Moi Bible teachers were able to individually follow-up with most of the 110 or so Moi who had faithfully listened to the seven weeks of evangelistic Bible teaching. Over 80 of those have given clear testimonies of salvation. What a praise as the Moi church has grown by nearly 200%! The total amount of believers now makes up more than half of the population of adults and older children within a full days hike from Daboto, our home. Many years ago the prophet Habakkuk wrote, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. ” (Habakkuk 1:5) He’s right. Not only have we heard about it, but we’ve seen it with our own eyes and still we can hardly believe it.
Karen and Iyodogotabo (Karen’s left) following up with some ladies
So many of those who had been entrenched in fear and were subjects of the Enemy (Heb. 2:14-15) are now liberated. People like, Apabo, who had been adamantly opposed to the gospel are now praising The Creator with tear-filled eyes. (You can see for yourself on our YouTube video “The Joy of Salvation”.) On Friday, September 24th, after the presentation of the gospel everybody was so excited they planned to return a week later to celebrate their new life in Christ. With so many adults and older people saved this time they chose to do it typical adult Moi style, by throwing a feast.
The Moi celebrated their new life by singing and dancing.
We were privileged to have some guests right after our teaching. First some of our MAF friends came for an overnight. Right after they left we were joined by some of our family friends, Jason and Jodi, (Jason is a co-leader with Rich) and Mike, our Church Planting Consultant with NTM. They stayed for four days. It was great timing as they also got to join in the celebrations with us and the Moi.
Mike (w/hat) and Jason share some encouraging words with the eight Moi Bible teachers
I’m sure many of you may be wondering how our three girls have been doing through all the busyness of the last few months. We believe because of your prayers they have not only “survived”, but truly grown. They have done so well. This evangelism has really acted as a catalyst for further growth in their understanding of the Lord and His love for sinners. We’ve been amazed at the amount of understanding they’ve shown over the last few months. To us it’s just a testimony of God’s power to not just sustain, but over-sustain those who choose to seek Him first. He has truly blessed us in an abundance.
Now that company is gone and most everybody has left, we’ve had a chance to rest a little and catch up on some things, like this update and our video.
As you can imagine, with such an expansion of the Moi church, our responsibility to disciple and lead them to maturity in Christ has grown that much more. We covet your prayers as we now endeavor to facilitate the Moi church to care for and nurture all the spiritual newborns. Many of those who haven’t reached a point of understanding the gospel really want to. We need to also take time to do some reteaching for those who are interested. Thankfully us missionaries are not alone in helping with these needs.
We can’t say it enough, thank you for your part in this endeavor. The light of Christ is illuminating the dark valleys of the over 400 square miles of Moi land. With only about 1/4 of the estimated 100 hamlets spread all over considered “reached”, the work has only begun. We look forward to sharing what God is going to do to continue to build His church here, not only numerically, but spiritually.
By His Grace,
Rich and Karen
Moi Evangelism Update – After the Gospel was preached
This is the next update from the Moi Evangelism. Read and REJOICE with us.
Positive Signs
It’s been a very busy couple of days, but we really wanted to pass on the good news. We had the gospel presentation yesterday and the final lesson about Jesus’ ascension earlier this morning. After this mornings lesson we set out to interview the 110 Moi who had faithfully attended the teaching. After doing some training with the eight Moi Bible teachers we split up into four groups and were able to follow-up with 54 people today. Of those, 44 gave clear testimonies of their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, believing that He paid for their sins as their substitutionary lamb. We praise the Lord for what he’s done. Only the Lord knows their hearts, but it is obvious God has done a tremendous miracle once again in Moi land.
Bubabo (holding a thermos) interviewing two ladies with us
Thank you for your faithful prayers during these days. God is making history among the Moi and we are privileged to be a part. We look forward to giving you a full report in the coming days, once we get a chance to catch our breath as a family. Before we do that though, we get to celebrate with many of the new believers as we meet together for worship Sunday morning.
Tears of joy over Pobamigea’s clear testimony of salvation
Only By His Grace,
Rich and Karen
What God is Doing in Moi Land- Indonesia
Moi teaching Moi
We recently received this letter from the Browns in Moi land, Indonesia. This ministry was started by several missionaries, including one of our former Indonesian students.
READ & PRAY
One More Day
Please pray for the gospel presentation this Friday.
Dear Friends and Family,
Excitement is building as we prepare to teach about the final days of Jesus’ life on earth. Most of the 100+ listeners have been paying close attention to the teaching about Jesus and can’t wait to hear about what he did in order to pay for their sins. We praise the Lord for the tremendous work He has been doing among the Moi over the past 6 weeks. Words can hardly describe all the miracles God is doing in order that His Son, Jesus, may have the preeminence in the hearts and lives of the Moi.
Through the past week and half of teaching they have fallen in love with Jesus and see that he is God’s promised Messiah spoken of by Moses and the prophets. Not only is he perfect man, but He is God incarnate. They have been amazed at Jesus’ power over sickness, blindness, demons, nature, and even death. Yesterday we taught about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after he was in the tomb for four days. Death is all too familiar for them and they know that after four days the body starts to stink. When Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “Lazarus, come forth!”, he came out of the tomb fully alive. We could hear them talking among themselves and one of the guys spoke up, “How long was he in the tomb?” Rich said, “Four days.” He then said, “Wow! That is truly amazing. Thank you, God.”
The unbelievers aren’t the only ones growing in their faith. As you know we have all been praying for food. The gardens were supposed to have run out two weeks ago. This evening Karen was visiting with one of her believing friends, Iyodogotabo. During the last six weeks she has been hosting four or five ladies along with five kids, plus her own two. She told Karen her prayer, “Lord, I want to feed these extra people staying with me. I want them to hear your truth.” She then said to Karen, “God has been providing! There is not a lot, but every day there is food. Every little sweet potato I dig up I thank Him for it.” Her garden had very little to begin with and yet God keeps multiplying it. The Moi listening to the teaching are amazed that there is food and believe that it’s only because of God. He is showing Himself powerful on their behalf.
About a month ago we posted an article on our blog about one of the guys following the teaching, Apabo. It’s entitled “Softening Hard Heads”. Just a few days ago Apabo shared with Rich that besides (taking the life of) one of his own wives, (he took the life of ) three other women accused of sorcery, along with one other man as compensation for a death; five in all. Sitting in Rich’s office today, with his head hung and tears welling up in his eyes he told Rich, “Like I had explained to you before, I have much sin. I know that I’m going to go to hell because of it. When I lay down to sleep or work in my garden it’s all I can think about. What can I do to be saved?” God is doing a tremendous work in Apabo. We believe his sorrow will soon turn to joy. Please pray.
We are so proud of the eight Moi Bible teachers. Their faith has been tested and they have proven themselves faithful. Now together we wait for the harvest.
There is so much more we could share, but we hope this gives you an idea that your prayers are being answered. Thank you for standing with us and the Moi believers as we finish up this evangelistic Bible teaching. We look forward to sharing some good news in the next few days.
For His Glory,
Rich and Karen
Tags: faith, Friday, God, Indonesia, Jesus, Messiah, Moses, potato, Pray, teaching, working
Lunch and Senior Saints
Greeting from NH. Cheryl and I are presently working on our next update but I wanted to let you know that we are in NH. Today we will be having lunch with the “Senior Saints” at our home church Christian Fellowship Baptist Church. This will be a great time of fellowship and sharing our ministry with these “Saints” of the senior years. Pray that we can be a blessing and a challenge to them. We trust they will also be a blessing and challenge to us.
Have a great day and thanks for praying.
Craig for …
The 4 C’s.
Craig_Cassel@ntm.org
Cheryl_Cassel@ntm.org
www.ntm.org/craig_cassel
The Rest of the Story
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HOPIN & HOPIN
Hopin & Hopin
WOW!!! Where do we begin. Things have been hoppin for us over the past several weeks. We took the first bit of our time here in Green Country (Oklahoma) to just hang out with family. Our first Sunday here we spent the afternoon in the emergency room. Cody’s lymph nodes in his necked swelled up wicked bad. After four hours and many test, he was diagnosed with mononucleosis. After several weeks of rest he is doing fine.
Once we got settled into our “non routine” routine we have had many chances to partner with several churches in the area. We were the missionaries during VBS for three different churches. Twice we went to “Saddle Ridge” ranch and once we cruzed “Route 254”. Each time was a great time of sharing about missions to kids from pre-school on up to high school.
In the Churches
We have also had opportunities to share with several churches in the area what we have been doing in Indonesia and lay the challenge that God lays out in scripture, “Who will I send and whom shall go for us?” . We have a few more engagements before we begin our travels back east August 23rd. Pray that the LORD will raise up more laborers among our Native American churches to “go into all the world” and preach the gospel. Pray that the Lord will raise up more of these churches (and individuals) to partner with us through prayer, finances and encouragement.
Spiritual Refreshment
This week we are in the Arbuckle Mountains attending Indian Falls Creek (IFC) bible camp. Its a great time to get refreshed, connect with old friends and meet new ones. It has been 18 years since we have been able to come. It’s awesome to worship the Lord together with people from many tribes and tongues throughout North America. I (Craig) am definitely in the minority here. We are thankful to Euwasa Baptist Church for allowing us to hang out in their cabin and to Twin Oaks Baptist Church for paying the registration fees. Pray that the LORD will have his way in each of our lives, teaching us about HIM and what HE has for us.
Under the Knife
Our time will be cut short here at IFC. Thursday morning Cody will be going in for outpatient surgery. He will be having his tonsils and possibly his adenoids taken out. We will make our way to Talequah after the morning sessions on Wednesday. Thursday morning Cody will “go under the knife” and then we will take a few days of rest. We are thankful to the Lord for providing a place to stay close to the hospital. Pray that all will go well and for a quick recovery for Cody. He is looking forward to all the ice cream he gets to eat. I think we will all have to “suffer” along with him on this one. We will let you know how everything goes. By the way, today August 3rd is his 14th birthday. At least he won’t be in the hospital on his birthday.
Thanks for praying, giving and encouraging us in the ministry.
Craig for….
The 4 C’s
Craig, Cheryl, Cody & Cheyenne
Count Down to Departure
Cheryl has just written our latest update. If you click UPDATE , it will take you right to it.
Read, Enjoy, Pray.
Craig for…
The 4 C’s
Craig, Cheryl, Cody & Cheyenne
