Ake’ (Grandpa of) Cintya is a believer, a hard worker and a good provider for his family. However, he could use your prayers, his walk with the Lord is not as strong as it could be. Please pray for Him to be sensitive to the Spirit’s working in his life.

Ine’ (Grandma of) Cintya is one of my closest friends here in the village. She feels like a cross between a sister, an aunt and a best friend. You wouldn’t know it by her serious “I’m being photographed” expression in the family pic, but she is full of life and loves a good laugh. She was one of our favorite Language Helpers during language study because she is patient but also bold enough to make corrections when needed. Despite her busy and tiring schedule she makes time to help with comprehension checking in the Bible Translation process. Please pray for her, for her walk with the Lord and for continued health and wisdom in raising her family.

The girls, Temi and Bodot are believers and the youngest kids attend Sunday School and understand about God, but you can pray that they will clearly understand the gospel and fully put their faith in Christ!
Thank you for taking a moment to pray for this dear family!

Yesterday I left Wisconsin and began my journey back to Indonesia. Many have asked, “Are you excited?!!!”, and I have to honestly say, no, I am not excited. Leaving, parting, separating from what I know and love is never easy. However, I will tell you that our incredible God has followed through on His promises to give peace and joy! Though “excitement” is lacking, there is a definite readiness to get back to the Sekadau tribe. There is an assurance that this is what God wants me to be doing during this season of my life and an anticipation for all that He will do during these next two years in Indonesia. Your prayers are invaluable during this transitional time!

The village we were heading to is only about 30 minutes away. The folks that live there practice a mixture of animism mixed with folk religion. They attend formal church and profess to believe in God, but have retained their traditional animistic beliefs, blending old and new religions together. Numerous taboos and rules regarding food, gardening and other work still have to be strictly followed. If someone breaks a taboo they fear the offended spirits will then “eat your soul”, which means cause harm, sickness or even death. Offend the spirits: risk your life. Please the spirits and there is hope for health and happiness. This fear of the spirits permeates almost every aspect of their lives.

When we told them the story of nearly stepping on the snake their first and only response was, “Oh yeah, if you haven’t offended the spirits, snakes won’t bite you.”

Pray with me for our neighbors still living in darkness! Pray that they’d be curious about our light- filled village here, only a 30 minute walk away. Pray that the light carriers here in this village will boldly share the hope they’ve found through trusting Christ!

Picture this- we hiked through rutted, muddy roads to a nearby (45 min away) village to spend the night at a friend’s house. The occasion was their house dedication ceremony. When a new house is finished it is typical for the family to kill a pig, cook vast amounts of rice and veggies and celebrate with their friends and family. We were certainly excited to be invited to this event! It was especially neat because though it was in a neighboring village, many of our friends from our own village were there, so it was very easy to feel comfortable and “at home”.

We arrived on Sunday night. After eating dinner (rice and eggplant) on the floor and bathing in the river we all, about 14 of us, got ready for bed. Our “beds” were flat woven grass mats laid on the hard wooden floor (only the married couple of the house had an actual bed, though their parents had the luxury of a padded cushion). In our “bedroom” which really was the dining room, the overpowering sound of the generator blasting just yards away kept things interesting, in addition, the dining room light bulb was kept blazing till the wee hours of the morning! To say we slept would be a sweet exaggeration, more like we pillowed our heads on backpacks or rolled up clothes and tried in vain to find a position in which our bones would not ache and our muscles would not immediately go numb.

Around 1am all the men got up to kill the party pig, truly, this is how they do it! They brought the raw parts into our room and started chopping away! Ahh! Pig flesh flying and our “sleep” disturbed, we took the suggestion to move to the next room and sleep there. At 2am we woke up again with everyone to eat special bits of fire-roasted piggy yumminess then rolled over and again attempted sleep as we snuggled into the painful-on-the-bones hard floor. Our restless, sleep-less night ended when the household got up at the crack of dawn (around 5:30am).

We then alternated with “helping” cook and sitting around visiting with our friends. My favorite part is making “pulut”- sticky rice mixed with pig fat, stuffed in tubes of bamboo and then cooked over an open fire. Oh the deliciousness! Around 11am we had a little worship service, thanking God for the house and for His blessings and then we ate rice and pig and heart of palm and pulut.

Our “sleepover” ended with a sweaty hike home in the heat of the day. We arrived to our comfortable cozy home sweet home, showered and collapsed onto our soft beds. It was a fun, rewarding time, exhausting, yes, but we clocked 21 hours of language/ culture study… yeah baby!

Today, however, Cori and I understood what all was going on and what was expected of us. We joined not just acquaintances but friends in helping to powder the rice that will soon be made into fried rice cakes and served at the wedding feast. We were able to laugh at jokes, make our own, and just enjoy sharing life! And the help that we offer is no longer just play, we worked, we sweated and there are blisters to prove it! Tonight as the marriage festivities continue, Cori and I will not only be attending the wedding, but will be acting as make-up and hair artists for the bride, groom and party. Who knew these talents of ours would come in handy?!

I am so grateful to look back and see all that God has done! It is truly a blessing to be here, a privilege to serve and be a part of the Sekadau people’s lives. Knowing them personally inspires me all the more to finish language study in a timely way and be able to join the translation effort here. I simply cannot wait for them to posses the Bible in their own language! Thank you for joining me in prayer with all of these things in mind!

How good it is to be among these dear folks again, laughing and catching up on all the news. And I’m so grateful I can still understand this language!

Thank you for your prayers as I begin full time Language and Culture study again. Pray also for relationships to be deepened and Christ to be glorified in it all!

Thanks so much for your prayers! I caught all of my connections, had uneventful flights and my baggage (all 141 pounds) arrived without a glitch!
Needless to say I’m very happy to be sitting here at the Mission Home in West Kalimantan, and happier still at the prospect of not having to get up and travel tomorrow! I’ll be staying here in the city for about two weeks, readjusting to life here and gathering supplies to bring back interior. I’ll be keeping in touch with you all! Thanks so much for praying!

It’s a strange thing to be a person that lives in two countries… I feel at home in Indonesia, and have a whole life there, and then when I come back to WI I have a home here too! Don’t how to describe how I feel, but it’s definitely different! Learning in new ways to trust Jesus, my ROCK.

Cori and Bella have recently translated a few traditional Easter Hymns into the Sekadau language. This past weekend we sang and taught them to the congregation here during the various worship services. What a blessing to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ and sing of our Lord’s resurrection!

As is typical, after the service the congregation (about 60 adults plus kids) sat down to enjoy a spread of rice based treats the ladies had made on Sat. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and visiting with neighbors.

Praising the Lord for the LIFE He gives, to you, to me and to our Sekadau family in Christ.

On the plus side we learned the name of the snake: somu’ rirang. And we also… nope, I think that is the only plus side!

Thankful for God watching over us and sending a man to help in time of need!