Hope for Tariknan

Tariknan was the very first place the Mibu church decided to start an outreach back in 2006. The teaching went well with a great response to the gospel message. Like Mibu most of the village who heard the gospel message came to believe that Jesus paid the price of death for their sin, thus restoring a broken relationship between them and their creator.

But relatively soon after that, as the bible teaching began to progress toward the growth and maturity of these new believers, something happened that has been a heavy burden on the heart of the church in Mibu ever since. Several key influential people there joined the opposition that came from the predominant religious system in that area. These influential people made it difficult for the teaching to continue, even frightening much of the rest of their community away from continuing to hear God's word. As a result, the teaching in Tariknan fizzled out with no one left to continue it.

Since then, over the years, there have been a number of folks in Tariknan who have said that they want the teaching to come back despite the opposition. The church here in Mibu has shared this burden with them and has tried to find a way to get the teaching jump started again in Tariknan. But each time the church found that they just didn't have the people in place to send. But this didn't stop them from revisiting the idea again recently. A couple months ago an exploratory visit to Tariknan was made by a small delegation from the church here in Mibu. They wanted to assess whether or not, after all this time, there might be some way to bring the teaching back. They needed first to find out who all is interested and where the teaching might be able to happen. What they found there was amazing! Publicly, a huge number of the people of Tariknan were asking for the teaching to come back. This includes those influential folks who originally led people away from the truth in the beginning. In fact, the one person who exerted the most negative influence back then publicly admitted that he was wrong for doing so and that he too wanted the teaching to come back. The people there said that they know they heard God's truth, but pulled away from it. Over time, they realized that their continued commitment to that other religious system was a mistake, and they thought they might not ever have the chance again to hear God's word. The overall sentiment was of great gratitude for God not having given up on them and continuing to pursue them through the efforts of the Mibu church!

The problem still remained though. Who would the church send to continue teaching in Tariknan? The solution; The church in Mibu has begun a new round of teacher-training. About 10 guys are being trained and discipled in their desire to be a part of the ongoing teaching needs both here and in Tariknan (and possibly other areas someday). Please be in prayer for these gentlemen as they are groomed for service by the church here in Mibu. Pray for their ongoing persistence in being faithful with the task that is being entrusted to them.

Quick update on Geoff's illness: Geoff returned yesterday (wed) to Mibu since being medevac'd last week. He seems to be completely recovered and we're not expecting any more complications. We're all super glad to be back together as a family! Thank you all so much for your prayers for us during this last week!

Slight medical scare

You may have heard through our family that I (Geoff) was medevac'd out
of Mibu early Tuesday morning with symptoms that were consistent with
meningitis. Since all this happened so very rapidly we really only
managed to keep in contact with our family and pastor John. We know that
you may have already been informed of these details and have been
praying for me. For that I want to extend a huge thanks! What a blessing
to have such a wonderful group willing to maneuver their already busy
lives in such a way as to come together out of concern for us and to
pray! But just in case you may not have gotten the information and now
that things have settled a bit I'm wanting to update you on what happened.

Monday morning I woke up with a really bad headache that continued to
get worse through the day. Later that afternoon, the pain was much much
worse and also accompanied by fever and a stiff neck, typical signs of
meningitis. We contacted our doctor on the radio and asked what he
thought. After asking us more detailed questions he said that I needed
to get out to the clinic as soon as possible. He had Shannon give me a
number of injections and other medicines (which we were thankful to
actually have in stock in our little 'Husa Medical Cabinet'). We were
going to have to do what we could to get through the night when the
helicopter could come get me.

The next morning the helicopter flew me to Lapilo where our clinic is
located. By then I was starting to show some signs of improvement. But I
guess you don't mess with meningitis. The medical staff worked rapidly
to narrow down the possibilities. Everything continued to point to
meningitis. A spinal tap sealed the deal, showing that it was a viral
meningitis (rather than the much more dangerous bacterial meningitis).
That's what we really needed to rule out was the bacterial kind. So,
though I've still got a few more days of discomfort left, things are
looking like they'll continue to improve on their own and there's no
significant danger. Whew!

We're always amazed to see how things can come together during scary
moments like these with logistics and the skills necessary to discern
what's going on and people praying... even though we weren't able to
keep up with our normal means of communicating with you! We see this
fine tuned machine all come together and make it happen and you can just
see that God has all the right people in the right places! Awesome. Body
life!

At this point, Shannon and the girls are super thankful to have the
Osborns with them in Mibu (don't know how we'd do it without you,
Osborns!) and they're looking forward to my return hopefully in the next
3 or 4 days. For now, the doc wants to see things continuing to get
better and make sure we're in the clear. I'm still getting frequent
headaches through the day, but overall they seem to be getting better
and better; it kind of cycles though.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers during this! You can especially
pray for Shannon, the pregnant mom, taking care of 3 energetic little girls!

Geoff for the Husas

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Husas in Mibu