This week I have the opportunity of participating in a VBS (Vacation Bible School) for one of my supporting churches - Dryden Baptist in Dryden, New York. I'll be with them every evening from tonight through Friday night, interacting with the kids, talking about my ministry and about Africa, and helping out generally wherever I can. Please pray for the Lord to work in the lives of the kids who attend, and pray for me and all the workers as we seek to minister to them and share Christ with them.
This past week was a very encouraging one for my support. While some of you were praying for me at your midweek prayer services on Wednesday night, the Lord was answering your prayers even as you were praying. A church that I visited a couple of years ago voted on Wednesday to take me on for support as one of their newest missionaries, and a supporting church voted to double the monthly support that they had been giving. This brings me up to 84%! Please continue to pray in the other 16%!
Going to Chad again!
I'm excited to be able to announce that I have plane tickets in hand for another trip to Chad this year! This time it will not be primarily a survey trip (though I am looking forward to seeing the country again and learning more about the culture); I'll be going to attend a translator training workshop.
Our national translators in various countries and language groups have one of the toughest jobs around: translating the Bible clearly and accurately into their own language. As a translation consultant, one of my tasks will be to help give translators the specialized training they need in order to do their job effectively. This trip will give me my first opportunity to observe this aspect of a consultant's work firsthand, so that I can someday do the training myself. In this case, the translators who attend will be from language groups that have already been working on translating for some years, so they will receive advanced translator training.
The trip takes place right after Bibles International's annual retreat and consultant seminar in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's neat how the Lord has worked it out so I will be able to attend the retreat and seminar as well as going to Chad for two weeks. Thanks to all the trips I've made in the past year or two, I've collected enough frequent flyer miles to fly from Pennsylvania to Michigan for free! After the consultant seminar, I'll fly to Chad for the training workshop, then in September I'll fly back to Pennsylvania to continue deputation. Please pray for safety as I fly out and that the training time will be profitable for all who attend.
Below are my flight itineraries for August and September. All times listed are according to local zones. As you can see, I'm taking a different route this time - I'll be flying to Chad on Ethiopian Airlines instead of Air France. It should make for an interesting trip!
August 15:
Our national translators in various countries and language groups have one of the toughest jobs around: translating the Bible clearly and accurately into their own language. As a translation consultant, one of my tasks will be to help give translators the specialized training they need in order to do their job effectively. This trip will give me my first opportunity to observe this aspect of a consultant's work firsthand, so that I can someday do the training myself. In this case, the translators who attend will be from language groups that have already been working on translating for some years, so they will receive advanced translator training.
The trip takes place right after Bibles International's annual retreat and consultant seminar in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's neat how the Lord has worked it out so I will be able to attend the retreat and seminar as well as going to Chad for two weeks. Thanks to all the trips I've made in the past year or two, I've collected enough frequent flyer miles to fly from Pennsylvania to Michigan for free! After the consultant seminar, I'll fly to Chad for the training workshop, then in September I'll fly back to Pennsylvania to continue deputation. Please pray for safety as I fly out and that the training time will be profitable for all who attend.
Below are my flight itineraries for August and September. All times listed are according to local zones. As you can see, I'm taking a different route this time - I'll be flying to Chad on Ethiopian Airlines instead of Air France. It should make for an interesting trip!
August 15:
- Depart Harrisburg 9:38am. Fly 1 hour, 52 minutes. Arrive Chicago 10:30am.
- Depart Chicago 2:08pm. Fly 47 minutes. Arrive Grand Rapids 3:55pm.
- BI's retreat is Aug 16-18 and the consultant seminar is Aug 19-26.
- Depart Grand Rapids 7:44am, Aug 28. Fly 58 minutes. Arrive Chicago 7:42am.
- Depart Chicago 8:50am. Fly 1 hour, 45 minutes. Arrive Washington DC 11:35am.
- Stay overnight in a hotel (Aussies, that's a motel!) near the airport.
- Depart Washington DC 11:45am, Aug 29. Fly 13 hours. Arrive Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) 7:45am, Aug 30.
- Depart Addis Ababa 10:30am. Fly 4 hours, 5 minutes. Arrive N'djamena (Chad) 12:35pm.
- Probably take an MAF plane to and from Sarh in southern Chad.
- Depart N'djamena 2:30pm, Sep 13. Fly 3 hours, 45 minutes. Arrive Addis Ababa 8:15pm.
- Depart Addis Ababa 10:15 pm. Fly 17 hours, 25 minutes, with one stop in Rome. Arrive Washington DC 8:40am, Sep 14.
- Depart Washington DC 12:20pm. Fly 45 minutes. Arrive Harrisburg 1:05pm.
Technology Troubles
For several months, my computer had been struggling to boot up correctly, frequently crashing before it could finish the start-up process. As my computer is nearly 4 years old, I intend to purchase a new computer shortly before I leave for my first term of missionary service, so that it will (Lord willing) last for a whole 4-year term (there are no computer shops in southern Chad!). However, I'm not ready to do that yet, so I coaxed my computer along for a while, hoping it would not suffer any fatal problems for at least a few more months. But last Monday, the hard drive finally gave out completely and the computer would not start up at all. Oh well, I thought, time to get it fixed!
Getting equipment repaired while on the road can be challenging, since it's hard to know which businesses are reliable in an unfamiliar area. Praise the Lord for my supporting church here in Cincinnatus, New York! One of the church members knew of a good computer repair shop not far away, and they really went "above and beyond the call of duty" by taking my computer in themselves, and loaning me one of their cell phones so I could communicate with the repair shop (my cell phone company doesn't get any reception in Cincinnatus).
Last time I had to replace my hard drive - over 2 years ago - it took a month to get it fixed, though that was mostly because of having to order the restoration disks all the way from Australia. I wondered how long it would take this time, but thankfully it wasn't very long: I had my computer back on Thursday evening, just 4 days later! After a couple of busy days of reloading files and programs, my computer was almost back to normal and ready for a busy day of deputation meetings on Sunday.
Although it was frustrating to be without my computer for several days, the Lord did provide several blessings through it: I now have a properly working computer (no more start up troubles), I made some new friends at my supporting church, and during those 4 days of waiting I got a lot of good reading done - almost as much as I'd expected to do in a whole quarter!
So, I am thanking the Lord after all, now that it's all over. Well, maybe it isn't all over, after all. On the very day I got my computer back - before I even got back home from picking up my computer - my phone battery suddenly died. I immediately stopped at a cell phone store to get a new battery, only to find out that the company no longer makes batteries for my very old (?!) 3-year-old phone. I was soon able to order the right kind of battery from the internet, and it hopefully will arrive this weekend or early next week. I'm glad for how the Lord worked out the timing, too, because if my phone had to be out of commission for a while, better that it be now when I'm in an area without reception so can't use it much anyway. But I wonder what piece of equipment will be next to fail! Or will everything else survive until I'm ready to leave the country? Well, at least I can take comfort in the knowledge that my technological equipment, just like everything else, is in the Lord's hands.
Getting equipment repaired while on the road can be challenging, since it's hard to know which businesses are reliable in an unfamiliar area. Praise the Lord for my supporting church here in Cincinnatus, New York! One of the church members knew of a good computer repair shop not far away, and they really went "above and beyond the call of duty" by taking my computer in themselves, and loaning me one of their cell phones so I could communicate with the repair shop (my cell phone company doesn't get any reception in Cincinnatus).
Last time I had to replace my hard drive - over 2 years ago - it took a month to get it fixed, though that was mostly because of having to order the restoration disks all the way from Australia. I wondered how long it would take this time, but thankfully it wasn't very long: I had my computer back on Thursday evening, just 4 days later! After a couple of busy days of reloading files and programs, my computer was almost back to normal and ready for a busy day of deputation meetings on Sunday.
Although it was frustrating to be without my computer for several days, the Lord did provide several blessings through it: I now have a properly working computer (no more start up troubles), I made some new friends at my supporting church, and during those 4 days of waiting I got a lot of good reading done - almost as much as I'd expected to do in a whole quarter!
So, I am thanking the Lord after all, now that it's all over. Well, maybe it isn't all over, after all. On the very day I got my computer back - before I even got back home from picking up my computer - my phone battery suddenly died. I immediately stopped at a cell phone store to get a new battery, only to find out that the company no longer makes batteries for my very old (?!) 3-year-old phone. I was soon able to order the right kind of battery from the internet, and it hopefully will arrive this weekend or early next week. I'm glad for how the Lord worked out the timing, too, because if my phone had to be out of commission for a while, better that it be now when I'm in an area without reception so can't use it much anyway. But I wonder what piece of equipment will be next to fail! Or will everything else survive until I'm ready to leave the country? Well, at least I can take comfort in the knowledge that my technological equipment, just like everything else, is in the Lord's hands.
News from New York
This past weekend, I left my little apartment in Indiana once again, and began working my way northeast. My first stop was at Faith Baptist Church in Kenton, Ohio. My Sunday presentations went very smoothly, even the technology cooperated perfectly. I enjoyed staying a couple of days with a widow who lives a mile or two from the church, and we discovered a common interest in puzzle books and in playing Scrabble on the computer.
On Monday, I continued my travels northeast to Cincinnatus, New York, where I'll be staying for several weeks at a guest house owned by one of my supporting churches. This is a very pretty, hilly area, and Cincinnatus is a quiet rural town, so that this guest house is a real pleasure to stay in.
Last night I presented my ministry at First Baptist Church in Memphis, New York. This church has had some interesting adventures in the past few months, when the roof over their auditorium collapsed last winter under the weight of the season's snow. By the time I visited them, what was left of the building had been torn down and they had moved their meetings back into their older 19th-century facility, which they had previously been using as a gymnasium. I thank the Lord that although they have much on their minds as they rebuild the church facilities they need, they have not lost their interest in missions and were willing to have me come anyway.
Setting up all the technology was an exercise in missionary flexibility and creativity, as we tried to find a way to make my DVD so that it could be heard in the gym, where all sound seems to disappear somewhere in the high ceiling, and the echoes and electric fans combine to make it difficult to hear voices clearly, even with a microphone. But we were finally able to come up with something that worked, and I think most people could hear the DVD reasonably well. The warm weather made us all a little sleepy, but in spite of that, the evening went well and people seemed interested in hearing about my ministry.
My meeting that was originally planned for this Sunday was canceled, so I'm looking forward to visiting my two supporting churches in the area. Next Sunday I will be speaking at two different churches, so it will be quite busy.
On Monday, I continued my travels northeast to Cincinnatus, New York, where I'll be staying for several weeks at a guest house owned by one of my supporting churches. This is a very pretty, hilly area, and Cincinnatus is a quiet rural town, so that this guest house is a real pleasure to stay in.
Last night I presented my ministry at First Baptist Church in Memphis, New York. This church has had some interesting adventures in the past few months, when the roof over their auditorium collapsed last winter under the weight of the season's snow. By the time I visited them, what was left of the building had been torn down and they had moved their meetings back into their older 19th-century facility, which they had previously been using as a gymnasium. I thank the Lord that although they have much on their minds as they rebuild the church facilities they need, they have not lost their interest in missions and were willing to have me come anyway.
Setting up all the technology was an exercise in missionary flexibility and creativity, as we tried to find a way to make my DVD so that it could be heard in the gym, where all sound seems to disappear somewhere in the high ceiling, and the echoes and electric fans combine to make it difficult to hear voices clearly, even with a microphone. But we were finally able to come up with something that worked, and I think most people could hear the DVD reasonably well. The warm weather made us all a little sleepy, but in spite of that, the evening went well and people seemed interested in hearing about my ministry.
My meeting that was originally planned for this Sunday was canceled, so I'm looking forward to visiting my two supporting churches in the area. Next Sunday I will be speaking at two different churches, so it will be quite busy.
June Prayer Letter
Dear Prayer Supporters,
If you have been receiving my letter by email for a while, you’ll notice a big change in the format of this letter (those of you getting paper copies will not see any change). With nearly 700 addresses on my email distribution list, it can be quite a challenge to keep the list up to date. Hopefully this new method will help me to keep the list current, and help you to keep receiving the letters. However, I’m not sure how it will come through on your various email servers, so please let me know if you have any trouble viewing it. Thanks for bearing with me as I try something new!
REFRESHED IN OHIO AND AT HOME
I spent most of the month of May and early June in northern Ohio. The Lord gave me a full schedule of meetings so that I was in a different church almost every Sunday and Wednesday. Yet, in spite of that, it was not a stressful time at all. I had a comfortable guest apartment to stay in, and the churches were all within a reasonable driving distance. As always, each church was a special blessing. In the latter part of June, I had several weeks without meetings, so I was able to go home and enjoy my own bed and apartment for a while. I was even able to take a two-week vacation (which, in my case, mostly meant relaxing in my own home for a change!) and came away from it feeling refreshed and ready to get back to the important task of preparing to leave for my first term on the field.
WHAT’S AHEAD
This Saturday (July 2), I’ll be heading out again on what I’m praying will be the final leg of my deputation ministry. My next few months will be mainly in Pennsylvania and New York State. Please keep praying for the Lord’s strength and blessing at each church and with each individual that He brings across my path.
Although it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be able to leave for language school by my earlier goal of September, the conclusion of deputation is not far away. Praise the Lord that I’m now at 79% and hope to be into the 80’s soon. I only need 7 or 8 more supporters to reach full support! My outfit and passage fund now stands at 64%. Please pray that the Lord will provide for me to leave before the end of the year, if that is His timing. My target departure date now is mid-December, if not sooner. Lord willing, I will officially begin my language studies in January.
One of the blessings of deputation is to watch the Lord provide my needs in various ways. In recent months, the Lord has been providing through a special opportunity: a missionary family who served in Chad for some years is preparing to move to another area of ministry, but won’t be able to take many of their belongings from Chad to their new home. They graciously gave me the first choice of purchasing many of their belongings, which includes all sorts of useful items, from furniture to a stove to dishes and silverware. All of this is already stored for me in a container in Balimba, Chad, where BI’s Translation Center is located – no shipping required! What a neat provision of the Lord! All that’s needed now is the presence of their new owner, and four walls in which to put them! Thank you for your continued prayers!
In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell
Home for Vacation
These last few weeks of deputation in Ohio have been great. The churches where I presented were all under a 2-hour drive from where I was staying, so although I had meetings every Sunday and some Wednesdays, I didn't find my time in Ohio to be stressful. It's also been a profitable time for my support: since last Friday, I've learned of one new supporting church and increases from two current supporters, bringing my support level to 79%. I only need 7 or 8 more supporters to bring me to full support! Thanks for praising the Lord with me for His provision!
Although the last few months of deputation have been great, I was really grateful to pull back into my own driveway in Indiana yesterday and see my own little apartment again. It's been over 3 months since I was last here! Apparently some wasps decided that my apartment was vacant - there were two wasp nests between my screen door and front door, with a big wasp happily buzzing in and out. But, thanks to a neighbor's Raid can, soon there was one less wasp in Indiana! :-)
I now have three weeks at home with no scheduled deputation meetings, so I'll be spending the next couple weeks taking time off for a rather overdue two-week vacation. No, I'm not planning to go anywhere! When you've been on the road for a few months, it really does feel like a vacation just to be at home again! I may take some day trips to do a little sight-seeing, but I plan to sleep every night in my own bed! I start up meetings again on the first Sunday in July.
Although the last few months of deputation have been great, I was really grateful to pull back into my own driveway in Indiana yesterday and see my own little apartment again. It's been over 3 months since I was last here! Apparently some wasps decided that my apartment was vacant - there were two wasp nests between my screen door and front door, with a big wasp happily buzzing in and out. But, thanks to a neighbor's Raid can, soon there was one less wasp in Indiana! :-)
I now have three weeks at home with no scheduled deputation meetings, so I'll be spending the next couple weeks taking time off for a rather overdue two-week vacation. No, I'm not planning to go anywhere! When you've been on the road for a few months, it really does feel like a vacation just to be at home again! I may take some day trips to do a little sight-seeing, but I plan to sleep every night in my own bed! I start up meetings again on the first Sunday in July.
Answer to prayer - and keep praying for Ross
Thanks for praying for my coworker, Ross, in his battle with cancer. Yesterday he had his first appointment with the oncologist. Here's what his daughter said:
Now here's the long version, again coming from Ross's daughter:
Dad is in Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer BUT it's not the death sentence it used to be. Hormone therapy has proven very effective even on the bone lesions. The short version is they expect the hormone therapy to kill about 99% of the cancer cells and that as they die the bones will repair themselves. The oncologist even said in time he should be able to travel again! We are just praising God for this time He has given us.She went on to explain that while the doctor expects Ross to go into near remission, the few remaining resistant cancer cells will eventually multiply and require more aggressive treatment. But it seems the Lord is going to let Ross stay and minister for a while longer. Please keep praying for Ross and his family - their trials are not over yet.
Now here's the long version, again coming from Ross's daughter:
The appointment started with the oncologist sort of confirming our worst fears. He said he didn't need the biopsy to know this was metastasized prostate cancer because different cancers have different kinds of bone lesion patterns and his was clearly prostate cancer (which is good because the biopsy still hasn't come back). He showed us the scans of the lesions and as dad said, "he was lit up like a Christmas tree." He has lesions not just on his spine and skull but all over his pelvis area, on his ribs and femurs. But the Dr. was telling us all this in a very pleasant, happy tone which was very confusing. He started talking about hormone therapy killing the cancer cells, etc. I kept expecting him to then say, so that's all we can do so he's got XX amount of time, but he didn't. Gradually as he went into possible things that might be needed in addition to the hormones it began to sink it that he wasn't meaning hormone therapy because that was all he could do but because it was all they needed to do.
Immediate prognosis: Hormone therapy has an incredible success rate for prostate cancer patients even when it has metastasized. It used to be that once the cancer had spread past the prostate there were no life saving measures that could be done, it was mostly about controlling the pain. But the hormone therapy kills about 99+% of the cancer cells and the bone should begin to regrow even in the disks in his spine that are completely white with cancer lesions. The pain he is experiencing is because of the pressure that is being placed on the nerves that go through that area as the disks have gotten soft and began to put pressure on the nerves. As the bones begin to heal that should decrease and go away completely.
Treatment: He gets another hormone injection in 2 months (he'll get them every 3 months from now on). At that time they will do another full scan to see how he has responded to the initial injection. The oncologist fully expects his pain to be gone by that time. He also expects that there will be lessening of the lesions and regrowth of the bone. If the bone does not regrow as anticipated they can give him medication to help. If he does not respond as quickly to the hormone injections as they anticipate they can give him pills in between the injections to encourage the process. If a particular area of lesions does not seem to be responding they can treat that area with radiation but that is rarely necessary.
Long Term prognosis: He should go into something very similar to remission as far as physical symptoms (we don't know how long this will take to achieve until we see how he responds to the hormone therapy). It is not considered an actual remission because the hormones can not kill 100% of the cancer cells. There is always a small part of a percent of them that are resistant to the hormones. But the doctor said he should be able to take Rowan & Warren fishing this summer (Warren prayed last night that grandpa would be able to take them fishing). Right now his bones are brittle and he needs to be very careful not to break any or they will heal incorrectly. Once his bones begin to heal (hopefully by his next appointment) then he's cleared to wrestle with the boys again (another thing all 3 of them have really missed). There's no telling how long this remission phase will last. The doctor said it could be 2, 4, 6, 8 or more years, there's no way to know. Eventually the resistant cancer cells will begin to multiply and he will have cancer growing again, then it will not be treatable by hormones. He will face more traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and it will probably be aggressive. But God may come before that or mom & dad may die on the field together, their choice as to how they would like to meet their Lord.
PRAY: Dad has lost 30 lbs over the past two months. At 6'2" and 145 lbs he is pretty skeletal. The doctor says this is why he feels so weak. He has gained 3 lbs since going off the Vicodin Friday, which is a huge PRAISE. He still has a lot of weight to regain. Also he has been in bed pretty much all of the past 2 months so he has a lot of muscle strength to regain. PRAY he regains the weight and strength he lost. PRAY he does not break any bones. PRAY he gets the desire of his heart and is able to go overseas again. The only tears that were shed during the appointment were shed by my dad when the oncologist said he should be able to work and travel again - and those were tears of joy. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!
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