In our last update a few weeks ago, we mentioned that the kids and I (Jennifer) had all been suffering from coughs, and that the kids had fevers. Shortly after we wrote that e-mail, Tyndale took a quick turn for the worse. His breathing was very rapid and labored, suggesting pneumonia, so we decided we needed to take him to the nearest town downriver. We wound up staying for a week at the mission home there, treating Tyndale with antibiotics for pneumonia and waiting until he was better before returning to our village far from medical help. Looking back at that scary time, we’re so thankful for how the Lord watched over our son and restored him to health. Please do keep praying for our health here, especially for the kids. The tropical climate is hard on immune systems, and this incident reminded us that emergency help is quite a ways away.

We’ve been pretty busy in the week and a half since we got back from our emergency trip. DJ and two of the elders from our church here are teaching chronological Bible lessons to a young unbelieving girl from a different village who just married an elder’s son here. They are teaching her twice a day, morning and evening. Please pray for her salvation. She has never been taught the truth from the Bible before. So far she seems receptive, but it’s important that she understands and chooses to believe for herself and not just in order to make her husband and in-laws happy. Also, please pray that teaching the chronological Bible lessons through this time will give the elders and others confidence that they can teach this way and the desire to do it again.

I’m still helping to teach a literacy class most evenings of the week. The 4 ladies in the class are doing well and we’re gradually moving through the second primer (of 5.) Please pray that the Hobongan ladies I’m co-teaching with will develop more confidence as teachers, and that they’ll be willing to commit to teaching others who want to learn to read.

Thank you to those of you who’ve been praying for Areli, Galilee, and I as we finish up their first grade year. Tomorrow is their last day of first grade! It has been a challenging year. We appreciate prayers for the upcoming school year too. The girls still struggle some with reading, so pray that we’ll have wisdom about how best to help them get more proficient. Teaching literacy seems to be my lot in life lately, in English and Hobongan both!

Thank you again for praying. Your prayers are more critical than any of us probably realize.

In Christ,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, Galilee, and Tyndale Searcy

Please pray for our finances also since the cost of the trip to Malaysia and back and the surgery will be a pretty big strain on our budget. During the next two years we have a couple of big expense items that we need to be saving toward (paying for our 5-year visas next year, and paying for plane tickets back to the USA for our home assignment two years from now.) If any of you would like more details on either of those things or the state of our support level in general, ask and we’ll be happy to provide the details. We have seen the Lord provide before, and we know that He’ll do so again in His time and way.

The past month has kind of been a blur for us. Rachel spent the first two weeks of September checking the book of Mark and the rest of Genesis with a translation consultant and several Hobongan believers. Praise the Lord for a successful check! We spent those two weeks working hard to finish correcting, expanding, and formatting the Hobongan language primers and a Hobongan recipe book. Then we went down to DJ’s parents’ house where we all had some team meetings with some other fellow missionaries.

The last part of September and the first part of this month we have been out in town signing our yearly visas, trying to take care of doctor and dentist appointments, buying our groceries and other supplies for the next 4 months or so, getting the primers and the cookbook printed, etc. Since we only come out to town about 3 times a year, I’m sure you can imagine that the to-do list gets pretty long.

Thank you for praying. Some days we need those prayers more than you can imagine!

God bless all of you.

Now Rachel is getting ready to go downriver on September 1 and spend 2 weeks with a consultant and several Hobongan helpers doing the final check of the book of Mark and the rest of Genesis. Please pray for special wisdom and clarity for everyone working on that in the next couple weeks, and for stamina for DJ’s Mom as she feeds and takes care of all of them.

DJ plans to make an overnight trip downriver when Rachel goes down. He needs to bring up some supplies. Then in mid-September we will need to go all the way out to town and sign our visas. At that time we’ll also need to do doctor and dentist appointments, supply buying, and printing of literacy primers and books. Please pray that we’ll be able to finish getting the Hobongan primers and a few other books ready to print before we go to town. This trip to town is happening a month sooner than we expected (the timing of paperwork is always unpredictable), so we’ll need to work hard to get things done in time.

Another project for us this time out to town will be to switch our e-mailing list (this list) over to another mailing service, probably Google groups. Our current mailing service will be shutting down at the beginning of next month, so this will be the last e-mail you receive from this address. Sometime in the next month you should receive a notification that you have been added to our new e-mail list. Please let us know if you do not wish to continue to receive these updates. Our personal e-mail address (DJ_Searcy@ntm.org) will stay the same.

Thanks so much for your prayers and part in this ministry.

In Christ,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, Galilee, and Tyndale

Hang in there while I work on getting some updated information and pictures posted.

It’s been 6 months since we’ve been out to town.  We’re really looking forward to the chance to talk to our families on the phone again, as well as to fellowship with the other missionaries from our region.  The kids can’t wait to eat ice cream, and Mommy and Daddy will enjoy having internet access again for a little while.

Right now we’re down to the last week before our trip out, so we’re busy making supply lists, writing letters to send back with Amy, and tackling a whole list of other last-minute projects.  We plan to go downriver on May 10 and on out town on the 11th.  The 11th through the 14th we have fellowship meetings with other missionaries.  After that we have lots of supply buying, computer repairing, etc. to do.  DJ has some other meetings to go to in a different tribal area at the end of May, and then we plan to come back home to our village the first week of June.

Amy leaves for America on May 18.  It has been such a blessing to have her here.  During the time she was here, I was able to get in twice my normal number of language study hours each week.  I feel like I’ve made some good progress.  Praise the Lord with us for that, and pray that I’ll be able to keep making progress once I’m doing all the homeschooling, cooking, and housework by myself again.  I’m supposed to have another language check (the third of four) sometime this fall.

Please pray for DJ too.  A little over a week ago he stepped on a rotten piece of wood and got it stuck very deep in his foot.  At the time there happened to be a nurse in the closest village downriver from us, so he went down there and got his foot operated on to remove the wood.  However, the foot continued to be very sore and infected.  Since then more wood has worked its way out of his foot, but today he is running a fever and still showing signs of infection.  Please pray for healing for him and wisdom for how to treat his infection.

Thanks so much.

In Christ,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, Galilee, and Tyndale

We came back out to town on Sept. 2, and Hannah and Julie left to return to the States on the 4th. We miss them a lot.

Right now we’re still out in town, waiting to sign our new visas (they have to be renewed every year.) We’re not sure how long we’ll have to wait—the government gives no certain dates, so we never know exactly when the process will be completed. Lord willing, we would like to go back interior sometime this month and stay for a couple months before we have to come back out again. Sometime in November or December we will need to take Tyndale out of the country (probably to Malaysia) and then back in to get his one-year visa.

In the mean time, we’re working on supply buying for when we go back interior, and DJ has been looking for a washing machine for us, a vehicle for his parents, etc. I (Jennifer) have been working on planning language lessons for when we go back interior too. Please pray that there will be people available to help me with language study when we get back, and that I’ll somehow be able to plan my daily schedule so that I have some time for language study. Between taking care of kids and the house and making meals, my days are already very full, but I really want to make some progress in learning Hobongan.

DJ is gone to the airport right now to meet Julie (my sister) and Hannah (a good friend from Ohio). We’re so thankful they get to come and spend almost a month in Indonesia with us. Please pray that the time will be a good firsthand look at missions for them—that they’ll grow in their faith and be challenged, but also not be too overwhelmed by culture shock, etc. Also pray for their health, and for all of us as we recover from jet lag.

We are down to our last week here in the good old USA. It seems like we have been packing since we arrived in February. We have a few bags to finish up and then we’ll have to count up how much extra we will be charged for extra bags. It is hard to pack four years of supplies into the luggage that airlines allow these days.

We are very thankful that Tyndale is healthy and growing like a weed. He is already over 11 pounds. Areli and Galilee caught a bit of a flu bug this last week but seem to be getting over it fast. They love their little backpacks for our trip back to Indonesia. Missionary kids have to learn early how to pack and carry their own bags.

Areli and Galilee turned 4 on the 26th. We had a little birthday party for them and invited some of their cousins. They had a great time swimming, eating cake and ice cream, and opening presents. We treasure our time with family, trying to store up enough memories to last us for the next 4 years.

Please pray for us as we say our goodbyes this week. It doesn’t get any easier. In fact, it seems harder this time because now we know what it feels like to be gone for so long.

Our first flight leaves from San Antonio at 9am on Sunday August 3. From there we fly to Detroit and on to Tokyo. After Tokyo we stop in Singapore for half a day and will try to get some rest before flying on to Jakarta. We arrive in Jakarta on August 5. Jennifer’s sister Julie and our friend Hannah will be leaving a day later than we do and arriving in Jakarta on August 6. We are planning on spending a few days in Jakarta before flying to West  Kalimantan on August 8. Then on August 12 we take one more flight interior. That is where we finish our trip by boat. Hannah and Julie will be spending a month in Indonesia with us.

I was able to test our new Satellite email system and everything is working well. We will now be able to send emails from the tribe once again.

This is Jennifer. I wanted to personally thank everyone who responded to our last e-mail. Thanks for sending your congratulations on the birth of our baby boy, Tyndale. Thanks too for all your prayers throughout my pregnancy. We appreciate your continued prayers as we adjust to having a newborn again. One newborn is definitely a lot easier than two! Tyndale’s sisters love him. They enjoy singing to him and talking to him.

We have applied for Tyndale’s passport and should be getting it in about a week. Once we get it, we have to start the process for a visa (permission to live in Indonesia) for him. There are several steps in this process, and it all needs to be done by August 3 (our departure date to return to Indonesia.) Please pray that every step will go quickly so the process will be finished in time.

Thanks again,

DJ, Jennifer, Areli, Galilee, & Tyndale