Kementian News. 03-16-08 Edition

 

Howdy folks!

Thank you so very much for your prayers regarding Turni and the demon possession. There was marked improvement of his condition as last week continued on.

On Thursday around noon, Turni and his father went back to their village. We don't feel that Turni is free of the demon, but he had made up his mind that he was better and wanted to go home. His dad was in agreement that he was better and was ready to go home as well. As it was, we were amazed that he had stayed around as long as he had. He'd been talking about going home almost since he got here.

We are continuing to pray for him and how this will be to God's glory.

There is much opportunity to witness through this experience as Turni's father, Mami (pronounced Mommy) is one of the head men of this part of the mountain. He's also one of the biggest witch doctors. The change that has happened in Mami over the duration of this project has been amazing. I'm told that when the George's arrived, Mami was one of the most adamant that the Palawano's should stay away from the clinic, and the school, and everything that had to do with the George's and this project.

A few months ago Mami asked that someone come up to his village to give Bible studies and then when his son became possessed with a demon, he specifically asked for Pastor George to come and help.

Its clear that the Holy Spirit is working on Mami's heart and that is beginning to bear fruits.

Please keep Turni, Mami, and the people of Nerahungan in your prayers. The devil doesn't want to let go of that village nor its people.

As for me, things have been going good. A mix of staying busy and having nothing to do. There's several projects that need to be finished before I leave in just over six weeks, but they aren't quite ready to be started just yet.

Still waiting on the box that the folks sent back in January to arrive. I'm told that its supposed to arrive sometime around the 25^th of March. I know that box is loaded up with goodies, so I guess we'll be living pretty high on the hog for the three weeks or so that I'll have left when it arrives.

Also in the box is an HF antenna so generously donated by my friends on Two Wheeled Texans <http://www.twtex.com> and a high-amp alternator to nearly triple the power output of our hydro generator. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get both of those up and fully functional before I leave.

If any of you were planning on sending me anything, you best send it quick as it takes a long time to arrive. (no, thats not a hint for y'all to send me anything, just a statement if you were planning on it)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

God bless and y'all take care

Nathan

Kementian News. 03-09-08 Edition

 

Howdy everybody,

This email is specifically a request for prayer.

Starting last Sunday we've been hearing many reports of demon possession and demonic disturbances from several villages in the surrounding area.

Thursday afternoon we were requested to go up to a village to help with Turni, one of the students from our school, who was demon possessed. David. Dwayne, and Rinal went up there that evening.

Friday morning we flew him down here to Kementian to get him into an environment where God was primary focus.

Its now Sunday and the improvement in Turni has been dramatic. He's not free of the demon just yet, and for this I request your prayers.

I also want to praise God for the protection that He has laid out on us. Satan has incredible powers, but none of them have been able to harm us because we are God's children.

I'm sure some will be asking "can't you cast a demon out instantly?" because I asked the same question.

Had that happened in this case, there's several lessons that we would not have learned. Again, another instance where we can't trust in our own thoughts and feelings but rely only on God's wisdom and timing.

I ask that you will continue to pray for this project and add a special prayer for protection from satan and his angels.

Thank you for your prayers!

Take care and God bless

Nathan

Kementian News. 03-02-08 Edition

 

Howdy everybody!

Several months ago, the generator literally shook it self apart and in the process of taking it apart to tighten it all back up, the armature took a fair bit of abuse. When going back together with it, we found that the coil had been cracked in the process as well. We finally got a replacement coil and found that the generator doesn't work. Runs fine, but doesn't generate anything but noise (the muffler is long gone).

Worked on the Sthil 070 chain saw and narrowed it down to a bad spark plug. This chain saw is quite large, in fact it has a compression release so that you can even crank it over. I was unaware of this compression release and proceeded to yank quite hard on the rope. What I did was pick the saw up. As soon as I realized what was happening I stopped pulling which allowed my other hand, pressing down on the grab handle, to force the saw into the 2^nd toe on my left foot. This resulted in a pretty fair bit of damage to the top of the distal knuckle and cracked my toenail all the way across from left to right. After a day or two it started turning pretty colors. Fortunately the chainsaw was not running or I'd be quite a few toes down from whats supposed to be on my left foot. For once, I'm thankful the beast didn't start on the first pull.

And yes, I did take pictures of it. Don't expect to see them prior to my return though.

After getting the toe taken care of, I went back down and was able to get the chainsaw running. Found it was missing a vent hose and couldn't use it. Got the vent hose and found that the spark plug failed when under load due to a cracked insulator. So now we're waiting on a replacement to be sent in.

After that much fun, I started working on editing sermons that we've recorded since October of last year to be placed on some media players for the local people to listen to.

Sadly the computer I'm working on is, well, we'll just say its seen its better days. It runs poorly even after a fresh install.

The audio software I'm using to do the editing (Audacity, for anyone that cares) is great for its price (Free!) but its nothing like some of the commercial software thats available. This is resulting in some of the sermons being unusable due to the inability to remove background noise, white noise, and other things we don't want there.

Ideally, I'd love to see a new computer and nice software to produce good quality audio for the people to listen to. Sadly the budget just doesn't allow for this right now.

Received word from home that someone was kind enough to "borrow" a wheel and tire off of my 4Runner thats sitting at my parents. While its really of no importance in the grand scheme of things, its annoying that someone would do that. Fortunately, the wheel itself was just what was available so nothing special. The tire on the other hand was pretty nice and had at least 90% of its tread-life remaining.

Oh well, I hope the person that borrowed it is blessed by the tire.

On a lighter note, I experience God's amazing workings just recently. When I left I called Verizon and had my service suspended till I returned. Unfortunately, something got mixed up and they reactivated my service back in December. This of course resulted in a bill which I wasn't expecting as I thought it was suspended. Since I was in Manila at the time I found this, I called Verizon and tried to straighten it out. At some point in the last 5yrs of service I've had with them I added a verbal password to my account and then promptly forgot it. So when I called I wasn't able to get around this password. This was the first time that I'd had that happen as on prior calls I'd been able to answer a series of questions and bypass the security question. This time that didn't happen. As a result I wasn't able to get anything done. I sent mom and email asking her to call from my phone (left in the states) and see if she could get anywhere. Nothing else I could do, so I prayed about it and let it be.

about a week later I receive an email from mom thanking me for adding her to the account and enabling her to get things worked out. Since I wasn't able to get past the security question, I wasn't able to do anything of the sort.

To top it off, the late fees, and many of the other fees were able to be removed from the bill thus reducing it immensely.

Again, God steps in and intervenes in the lives of His children. And to think that I have the audacity to doubt Him!

Somethings come up dealing with this project and I ask that you keep it in prayer. I feel its best to not expound upon the details at this time, I will say that it is at its base a differing of opinions and prayer is the only solution. If you could please keep it in prayer, I'd be very thankful.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, its much appreciated.

Take care and God bless y'all!

Nathan