follow up to faithful women

Saturday's ladies' meeting was in Mibu and I was shocked upon my arrival to see 15 ladies as well as a few younger girls in attendance. That was 11 more than last week and 5 from last week weren't even there today! If you remember a prayer request of my friend Mangaveng last week was that her husband's 2nd wife would have the desire to attend these meetings. Well, as I walked into the house where they were meeting she was sitting on the front porch!! Praise God! I'm not sure how much she was able to get from the meeting since she was outside but just being there was a big step in the right direction. Thank you to those of you who may have prayed for her.

As much as I love being able to attend these ladies meetings and be with these faithful women I would love it so much more if I could understand more of what they are saying and be able to encourage them. I have seen much of my language ability returning slowly but please pray that I would be able to find time to progress even further in that area.

In addition to the women I mentioned last week these are some more women who were in attendance today:
Tasem (ta-same), Jongetape (jo-ngay-tah-pay), Noonoye (noo-no-yay), Jepit (jay-peet), Tooma (this is the woman Mangaveng prayed for), Ti (tee), Ketoola (kay-too-la), Keteng's wife (I can't remember her name), Nenang (nay-nang), Maiya (my-yah), and Eson (ay-sone). One thing you can pray for is that when there are meetings in Mibu most of the women from Beng don't show and vice versa. Pray that they would see the importance of meeting every week and be willing to make the 20 minute hike back and forth.

One thing that has come up since we got back here is that a man from another village (not a Mibu village) is wanting to marry one of the young girls from Mibu. He is an unbeliever and already has one wife so the Mibu people have said no, he may not marry her. This really upset him and he went on a rampage chopping houses belonging to some of the people who are family of this girl and even killed a small pig and ate some of it and let the rest go to waste (a pretty big deal in these parts). He is threatening harm to many of the people involved and they are terrified of him to the point that some of the families are living with other families and they don't walk around alone, or if they do they carry bush knives or bows and arrows for protection. In the past they would have wanted to get revenge for the damage being done by beating this man or even killing him, but as believers they have said they aren't seeking that in this case but just want this man to go back to his village. I was walking up the trail today with my friend, Eson, whose family is the main recipient of the vandalism and she related some really encouraging things to me. She mentioned that this man went to their home with an axe and was threatening her husband. Her husband was terrified and started praying for protection. He then stood up and asked this man why he is making so much trouble. The man dropped his axe and just said "go get the girl and bring her to me" and then left. Eson's husband told her later that he wasn't afraid of dying because that would be a good thing but God had spared him anyway. It is so encouraging to see the Mibu people looking to God to solve their problems instead of trying to do it in their own strength or by resorting to their old ways. Supposedly the man who is causing all the trouble has a brother who is a teacher in town and we are currently trying to get a hold of him so he can work something out to get this brother back in his village and stop harassing the Mibu people. Please pray that this situation would resolve peacefully and soon.

Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for us and the Mibu people,
Shannon

Faithful women of Mibu

One of the things I've been looking forward to upon our return to Mibu was sitting in on some of the ladies meetings. Several months ago our co-worker, Brooke Tartaglia, starting meeting with the ladies on Saturday mornings to share a short lesson and pray together. I had been hearing about the growth of the women and their desire to meet together and pray and was anxious to see it for myself.

This last Saturday they were meeting in the village of Beng and as eager as I was to go I was tempted to skip this one because the hike to Beng is much more difficult than the hike to Mibu and my knees and pelvis had been giving me trouble. But my wonderful husband knew how much I needed a break and strongly encouraged me to go down. He offered to watch the kids and even made me my own walking stick to aid in the hike. I was really thankful that I was able to get out and the hour plus hike gave me some much needed quiet time with the Lord that has been lacking lately.

Once there I could see that the women were happy that I had gone and I was excited to be there and see firsthand what a Mibu women's prayer meeting looked like. 12 women plus myself ended up gathering in the small schoolhouse in Beng. My dear friend Wunjo led the time together. She shared 10 prayer requests from the previous week and they each took turns praying for those items - anything from sicknesses to outreaches. It was so neat to see their concern for others in the community and the need to see God's word continue to go out to further villages. The prayer request that stood out to me the most was from my friend and work helper, Mangaveng. Her husband has another wife and she is not interested in attending the Saturday meetings. Mangaveng was praying that she would have a change of heart and start going. I kept thinking how if my husband took on another wife I would have a lot of animosity toward her and be tempted to not think of her or pray for her. I was very encouraged to see that she cares for this other young woman and for her spiritual growth!!

Would you please continue to pray for these women. That their time together would be fruitful, that they would see God's faithfulness in answering prayers, that they would be an encouragement and testimony to their husbands and the other women in the community and that they would grow in their love for the Lord. If you would like to prayer for them by name the ladies that met last Saturday were Wunjo, Mangaveng (mang-uh-veng), Nema (nay-ma), Gipain (ghee-pine), Daiyel (die-el), Mangge (mang-gay), Laoo, Biop (bee-ope), Wep, Nimoke (nee-mo-kay), Nansi, and Joonumeng (jew-nuh, mang). Also, I just found out today that Nimoke's husband is against her attending these meetings as well as the literacy class she has been going to. He thinks it will give her bad thinking (if I understood her correctly) and has forbidden her to go. She is going to take two weeks off in hopes that during that time he will change his mind. Please pray that he will have a change of heart and allow her to continue attending both of these meetings. Wunjo also told me that when they meet in Mibu (every other week) the women from Beng don't usually go so that would be another prayer request.

Some additional prayer requests for our family would be:

1) We are fairly certain that Geoff broke a rib when he slipped on the trail yesterday. Please pray for quick healing for him.

2) We have only had 2 or 3 full nights of sleep (until 5 or 6am) without Maddie and Abby waking up 2-4 times each night since we got here. We are exhausted and would love to be able to sleep through the night again. Last night was a record... over 10 times awakened by one thing or the other.

3) Pray that I would be able to find some time to keep learning the language here. We have stopped nap time for the girls to help with the night time waking and I am homeschooling now so my schedule is very full with hardly any time to do anything other than take care of the kids.

Thank you for your prayers!!

The Husas

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Update on Shannon's health

Thank you all for your prayers. We're so thankful that God answered the way he did. Shannon's pain began to subside last night about 6.30 and she was able to sleep through the night. Her pain and her fever are gone this morning. She's just a little bit achy still, but a HUGE improvement over yesterday. She said it was the worst pain she's ever experienced! Still not sure exactly what it was, but we're still thinking kidney stones accompanied by an infection. We're so glad to see her up and smiling this morning.

Haven't heard for sure from the doctor, but we're guessing that there will not be a medevac today. Seems safe to give it another day since we already have the helicopter scheduled for tomorrow to take my brother and sister (Lauren and Neal) out to town.

Thank you all for your prayers. We'll let you know if anything changes.

Geoff

urgent prayer request

Please be praying for Shannon's health. She's got a lot of symptoms that seem like she might be passing a kidney stone, but other symptoms (ie. fever) that are concerning the doctor enough that he's talking a medevac in the morning. He's had us change antibiotics and wants us to update him via email in the morning. Unless there's significant improvement he'll be ordering a medevac in the morning.

To compound the difficulty of the situation our radio is not working for talking to other people. We don't have internet or phones out here in the bush. A working radio is a very key component in handling big-deal stuff like this so we're having to handle all this over email on our HF radio. We're extremely thankful that even though we have this limitation on our communication we were still able to get a hold of the doctor quickly.

Meanwhile, Shannon is in a great deal of pain. We would appreciate your prayers tonight as we try to get through till the morning. We'll keep you posted as we have opportunity.

Thanks!

Geoff

Husa update

Sorry for the lack of communication so far but we have been having a lot of trouble getting our e-mail to work.

Well, we arrived in Mibu on Tuesday morning just as planned. There were only 2 Mibu people up to greet us because no one knew what day we would be returning. After hearing the helicopter several more came up to greet us though. It was so great to see some of our dear Mibu friends again.

We got right to work putting food supplies away which took a couple of hours and then we started to unpack our clothes, both from our suitcases and things that we had in storage. We felt like we really made good progress until the evening came and we discovered that there was a huge ant nest in a trunk of clothes and that Geoff's chocolate protein powder that he brought from the states had exploded all over EVERYTHING in our suitcase! It took a while to clean those messes up and a huge pile of laundry started to pile up. In addition to all the bedding left by visitors and all the clothes that smell of mold and mildew. We have hardly had any sun since arriving so we have been very limited as to how much laundry we can do. Also, some rope that we use to hang clothes under the house in rainy weather is missing so we are limited as to how much we can hang up and have had clothes hanging from the railing on our porch and loft. Wednesday felt like we didn't get a whole lot accomplished. Probably because we were all so tired from the day before. We did get a little bit done though, but with the house such a wreck and so much more work to do the stress was mounting. Thursday Lauren and I finally got started painting the girls new room and were able to get it completely finished. Yesterday was Maddie's 3rd birthday so a lot of time was spent preparing for that as well as trying to work on different projects around the house. We did manage to have a fun celebration though amidst the chaos. After the girls' naps we had cake and opened presents in their new room and then we ate pizza and watched a movie. The girls were so thrilled that they got to eat cake on the floor and pizza in the living room. It's the little things:) Yesterday was also a very rough day for me as I discovered I have a very serious bladder infection. Luckily we are armed with the necessary medicines and I was able to start treatment since I was having bad pains in my kidney and stomach. This morning I was feeling feverish and achy and still having some pain but I am feeling much better now so hopefully I will still be able to hike down to Mibu tomorrow. Upon arriving we discovered that our radio is not working so we have not been able to communicate with anyone out in town which is pretty frustrating. We can hear them, but they can't hear us... for some reason when we talk it's not transmitting. We are just praying that nothing serious comes up before we can get it fixed. We have arranged to get a loaner radio in here on Wednesday and send ours out to be fixed.

Although, there has been much chaos and it seems like every day is one step forward and two steps back things are starting to look up. The main house looks a bit better every day, the girls' new room is finished and ready to move into now and Geoff and Neal have made a lot of progress on the new storage closet in the new addition. We are really hoping to get a lot more done before they leave in 4 days though. We must have told Geoff's brother and sister about 100 times how glad we are that they were able to come back with us and help us out.

The kids have adjusted fairly well. They love being back here and running around outside, especially in the rain. Maddie is very afraid of the people though and both Maddie and Abby have been waking up several times a night. I'm sure it is just jet lag and the complete darkness here so hopefully they will fully adjust soon. They are also very deprived of mommy and daddy attention since we have been so busy so I'm sure that plays into it as well. It will be so nice to get our house in order and start a normal routine.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our family. We appreciate it very much as we adjust to being back in Mibu and the changes and sacrifices that come with that.

Love,
Shannon for the Husas