Clay Pots ~ 48 Hours and 1%

The kids favorite thing to do on break while in town is ride their bikes!!

We had a nice break… a time to relax and enjoy the ocean and some good food. Thank you for your prayers. Well, we have been back in the tribe for 48 Hours. In that little amount of time we have had….

~ A man come to our house yesterday morning accusing Jason of starting rumors and lies about a plane coming in (seeing how we just stepped off the plane ourselves we were kind of amused that they could think of something to accuse Jason of so fast!).
~Last night we received a letter from some unbelievers in the surrounding area saying that they made a resolution that we need to stop our work here. (don’t worry we aren’t going toJ).
~This morning, a plane landed with the dead body of a young girl who had died out in town. We had sent her out a few months ago in hopes of getting her some more advanced medical treatment as our Dr. was gone at the time. She never received the needed treatment. So today, outside our house on the airstrip, there was loud wailing by hundreds of people… all of them without hope of eternal life. That is a sound you will never forget. The community is split in thinking that she died because a man worked poison on her or because of a sin in her life. So there will be a court held all day today with police from other villages to decide the reason. One of the believers (the Dr.) is being accused of wrong doing, but he was gone when it all happened.

So much for “welcome back.”

For your information. Out of the entire Tobo tribe, only about 1% of them have believed in Christ’s finished work on the cross. That would leave the rest of the community either apathetic or opposed to the believers. Some of the unbelievers even try to persuade the community that we are all just a bunch of liars trying to steal things from them. Satan has used the Cargo Cult to blind them to the truth.

~Could you be praying for the 1% that they will stay strong in the midst of daily persecution and shaming.
~Pray for the 99% that they will see and hear the testimony of the believers and desire the joy and freedom in Christ.
~Pray for us, we are outsiders and it is hard enough living here without the majority against us. We have 7 weeks until we fly home, pray that we will finish well and still have a smile leftJ!

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi

Clay Pots ~ Micah

The last couple weeks have been a bit “interesting” for our family. About 2 weeks ago Micah was running on the airstrip, slipped on some moss, and fell on his knee. His knee took the full impact of his fall on a sharp rock and was split open. We took care of it the best we knew how, but when a part of his skin was still lying on the airstrip it was a little hard to “butterfly” back together! After 4 days, Micah’s knee was very swollen and he had very little movement, so we started to wonder if he sustained any trauma to the area. Also, despite the antibiotics we had given him to ward off infection, the knee was infected and he needed some stronger medicine. Also, during this same time Micah had a double ear infection (that he never complained about) and there was blood coming out of his ear.

So on Tuesday we packed up our family, handed over Jason’s responsibilities to our partner and some men in the church, and flew out to town to take Micah to the doctor. After some local anesthetics, a whole lot of needles, syringes, gauze, x-rays, and medicine, Micah is on his way to full recovery. He will have a “war wound” to brag about for the rest of his life but he doesn’t seem to mind too much and thankfully it is on his knee and not face!

We will be out in town for another week or so in order to recoup from more stress and fatigue that we realized we were under. So we apologize for not returning personal e-mails lately…we just needed some time to catch our breath. We really appreciate your prayers for us as a family during this time. It seems that the last few weeks and months before furlough are some of the more stressful.