Welcome Abigail Marie Husa

A special welcome to the new addition to the Husa family, Abigail Marie. She was born 5/11 at 11.51am, weighed in at a paltry 7lbs 13oz and is 21 inches in length.

The delivery, via c-section, went very smoothly... the best delivery we've experienced yet!

We'll likely be here at Banner Desert till Friday morning. Visitors are welcome. We're in 219c. Shannon's cell# is (602)618-9370.

Mibu ministry partnership development

Here we are, at about the half-way mark of our year long home assignment before returning back to Mibu! Wow, our time home with you all is going by fast! We're working on a short update about our time home so far. Hopefully that will be going out in the next few days.

But here's what this email is about...

As many of you know, we have the pleasure of being a part of a much larger team than just us who are serving on the field. People like you have graciously given to us over the years so that we can continue to live and serve in Mibu. One of the things we're hoping to do while home is expand the base of people who partner with us financially. We're focusing our efforts on this task over the next month here.

We have prepared some information about our needs as a family and how you can be part of the exciting things that God is doing through the Mibu ministry. But we want to make sure we have your correct mailing address. If you've not already taken the opportunity to partner with us financially and would like us to send you some information about that, could you please reply and make sure we have your current address.

Blessings,

Geoff and Shannon Husa

Weng's song + cucumbers (From the Tartaglias)

Here's the latest from our co-workers, the Tartaglias in Mibu. Cool stuff!

"Weng invited me over to hear the chapter summaries he's been working on as
he reads thru the Bible this year. We had just settled onto the bamboo floor
in his house when his mother turned and offered me a cucumber. I was kinda
surprised when she handed me a knife to peel it as well. It's been years
since anyone let me peel cucumbers, sweet potatoes, or any edible vegetation
for that matter. I guess it pains them too much to watch me try, yet remove
too much of the edible part along with the peel.

I thanked her and took the cucumber, then sat there listening to Weng
continue to read me his chapter summaries, trying to savor Weng's words and
this new chance I had been given at food preparation. I waited till Weng had
made it into the life of Abraham before I began peeling. The background
family noises quickly faded away, till there was only silence. I looked up
to find every eye in the house on me. Weng's mother quickly stepped over and
took it back, graciously telling me that she would not mind doing it for me.
Oh, well, maybe next time....

The highlight of my visit, though, was even after the wonderful chapter
headings and summaries. It was the song Weng shared with me before I left, a
song he had written himself last week.

"When Jesus comes back
He will judge the world
But according to God's pleasure
He regards us as His very own people
We will not be brought to trial."

Alleluia and Amen!"

Thanks for tuning in!

Geoff and Shannon

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Latest Mibu ministry news

Here’s the latest from our co-workers in Mibu...

“After the church service, when many of the people had
dispersed, Parenoowe grabbed my skirt as I walked by pulling me down on the
rough bench next to her. Her face was drawn and tight, eyes still shining
with tears carefully held in check. She leaned her face very close to mine,
and with great emotion asked if we could talk about her daughter. It has
been less than three weeks since her 9 year old, Joonoomeng, had run down
ahead of her friends to the river, and whose body been found days later
washed up on the shore a few miles down the steep river ravine. Parenoowe 's
searing pain showed in her eyes, her voice, and the tight grip she held on
my hand. Her questions are the same that anyone would wrestle with... "Why
did this happen? Did I do something wrong that God allowed this? Where is
she now? Will I see her again?"
 
               I wish I had something to say to Parenoowe that didn't sound
trite. "My friend, God is not angry with you, He is not punishing you. You
know this, don't you. He loves you and He loves your children. We all die.
We do not know when—today, tomorrow, when we are young or when we are very
old. Only God knows all of this. We cannot know. But we do know that we can
trust God with this. We will have to leave it with Him." I paused, thinking.
"What does Weng tell you?" I whispered, her face still very close to mine.
Parenoowe 's oldest, married son, Weng, has carried the family through this
time. He has been a Bible teacher and helped teach through the Bible to
other villages, and has a very evident love for the Lord and His Word."Yes,
this is what Weng tells me," she quietly answered.

               Even while they were still searching for little Joonoomeng's
body, our family had hiked over to their village to see what we could do,
and be there with them as they waited for news. In the past, we would have been
needed at the forefront, reassuring and reminding everyone of God's love for
His children. Instead, when what we found were other brothers and sisters in
Christ ministering to the family, and to Joonoomeng's mother in particular.
And when Weng's faith was brought to the test, his little sister missing and
feared dead, his faith was steady and shone through brightly.”

Hope this is as encouraging for you as it was for us when we received it!

Geoff and Shannon Husa

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Just posted - Vestiges of Mibu

We just posted a photojournal we've been working on over this last year. It's called "Vestiges of Mibu" and is available to look at and purchase at www.blurb.com. Check it out!

If you're interested in purchasing, please know that ALL the profit for the book ($10 per copy) goes toward funding the printing of portions of the Bible that have been translated so far into one single book. You can help get God's word into a more useful format and into the hands of the Mibu people.

It's a book release, and you're invited -- check out my new book at Blurb:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/602546/25ac53accc9ab1ba5235c0ea30989d71

Thank you,
geoff_husa@ntm.org

Back home safely

Hello all,

 

Just a quick update to let you know that we all made it back to Arizona safely last Thursday evening without any further mishaps in our itinerary. We were so tremendously blessed by a house stocked with food and many of the little things that we needed for our daughters having already been taken care of. I think our church loves us J Thank you so much to all who contributed to that!

 

We’re super excited about the year that lays ahead here back in AZ and can’t wait to see you. We’re getting caught up in our sleep and getting over jet-lag here still. We’ve got Skyler enrolled in preschool classes, which she started today, and already have Geoff scheduled for some Lasik surgery this Friday morning to fix his eyes!

 

Sorry for the long delay in getting this initial update out, but we were having problems sending emails until just last night!

 

Looking forward to seeing you soon! Give us a call.

 

Geoff and Shannon and the girls

 

Geoff’s cell: (602)618-9356

Shannon’s cell: (602)618-9370

Our travels so far

They don’t call PNG “the land of the unexpected” for nothing.  We arrived at the airport in Madang around 6am and checked in and waited for about 1 hour before they told us that lightning had hit the runway and cracked it and we wouldn’t be leaving that morning.  They told us to come back at 1pm so we headed back to our NTM center where everyone was confused to see us J  We realized that this setback was going to have us missing our international flight the next day in Australia so Geoff made lots of phone calls to work things out.  Several hours later and a whopping additional $3400 poorer, we had all our connections changed, bringing this one way ticket home to an unheard of grand total of $7900 (our family can usually fly round trip for that much)!  Geoff then called the airline again around 11:30 to see if our flight was going to be finally leaving Madang and they said to come on down around 1pm.  We arrived only to find out it wasn’t going to happen but they assured us that they could get us on a flight in the morning and would put us up at the hotel for the night including meals.  So we accepted that offer and headed to the hotel.  We ate lunch and put the girls down for their naps and enjoyed the air conditioning for about 2 hours, actually dozing off a bit ourselves, when the airline called and said the flight was going to be leaving after all and we needed to get down there right away. They said that they were holding the plane for us! We had already cancelled our hotel in Port Moresby so we asked if we could still just leave in the morning per the second original plan. The lady checked with her boss and said they really wanted us to be on the afternoon flight and that they would pay for our hotel in POM.  So we woke the girls up and raced back to the airport.  This time we actually made it on our flight but we were rerouted to Wewak (another city in PNG) which we didn’t actually know until we were descending.  As we flew over Skyler said “we should call the water God because it’s everywhere!!”  Too cute.  So after a short sit on the plane in Wewak we were finally on our way to POM and then arrived around 7pm.  One of NTM’s government reps met us at the airport with our passports and helped us figure out the hotel situation.  It took almost 1 hour to sort it out but they put us up at a hotel with meals included.  All of the nicer hotels were totally booked so we weren’t sure what to expect.  On arriving at the hotel we were shown to a room about 7 feet x 12 feet with one single bed.  The security guard quickly realized that was not going to work for us and arranged for us to have a larger room (here, the security guards help out with some of the work in the places they protect… so at the hotels they’ll often help with luggage and stuff and at stores they’ll actually help you find things you’re looking for) So anyway they moved us across the hall to a room with a double bed and a single bed which was much bigger.  This hotel was a much bigger step down than what we’re used to… A MUCH bigger step J  We were happy to have a place to sleep though and were able to sleep okay and were off to the airport early in the morning.  We made our flight to Brisbane, Australia without any further delays and the girls were really well behaved on the flight.  Maddie slept almost the entire way and Skyler just loved everything about the plane.  So we are now in Brisbane where we will be until tomorrow morning (Thursday our time) and enjoying comfortable beds and fast food again J  The plan now is that we will arrive in Phoenix around 7pm on Thursday so we hope to see some of you then and the rest of you not long after.  Please pray that the rest of our flights go smoother than the first, for more good behavior from the girls and a safe arrival in Phoenix in 2 days.

 

Thank you all for your prayers for us!

The Husas