Posted in Prayer Request on Nov 22nd, 2009 | Discuss This Post
The longer we are in this country, the more we realize how dependent we are on our FATHER! Your prayers are invaluable.
Some specific ways you can be praying:
1) For Melissa’s family. Her grandmother recently went home to be with the Lord, closely following her Grandfather. Pray for peace as everyone adjusts to not having the Grandparents next door and also for all the details involved following a death.
2) For our Christmas program. Melissa has had the joy of working with several MKs and Indonesian children in pulling together a special Christmas Drama. Even Andrew gets to be involved, playing the role of a cow. One will be done in English and another will be done in Indonesian. Pray for all the details of the dramas to fall into place and that God’s Truth would be proclaimed.
3) For health. Melissa’s infection is lingering. While she is no longer running a fever, she is having a hard time kicking this bug.
4) For teachers. One of our international schools here in Indonesia need TEACHERS. If any of you are interested, email us and we can get you in contact with the right people!
5) For fellow co-workers. These church planters will be entering a new tribal work early in January. Pray we can be a blessing to them as they prepare for this huge new adjustment and for prepared hearts for these tribal people.
6) For flights. Lots of flying will be done over the next two months due to training and getting our co-workers set up in the tribe. Pray for safety and reliability of the aircraft. Likewise pray for favor with the aviation department here in Indonesia.
7) For upcoming Christmas outreaches to our neighbors.
For opportunities to find rest in the Lord amid the business
Tags: prayer
Posted in Family on Nov 22nd, 2009 | Discuss This Post
October and November are special months in our family as our little ones turn one year older.
Andrew, now a big 3 boy, is indeed, all boy. He loves climbing, digging in dirt, riding his bike, racing cars, hanging out with his daddy and singing at the top of his lungs. Just tonight, as Bryan was reading a book about
Piglet being scared of the dark, they began discussing the fact that Andrew did not need to be scared because Jesus was always with him. This prompted Andrew’s little mind and he burst out singing Steve Green’s “When I am afraid I will trust in You…” Precious! He indeed is our special Drew boy and we often tell him that we will put a brick on his head because he is growing up too fast. Learning more Indonesian every day, we continue to pray that he will live up to his name and bring others to Jesus!
Mikayla celebrated her 1st birthday November 12th. In many ways, it was bittersweet knowing that our family back home has yet to meet this Princess, yet she has indeed lived up to her name as a GIFT from God with her contagious smile and body laugh! November 17th saw her take her FIRST steps and yet for the most part, she remains content crawling or riding in the wagon. She jabbers non-stop and loves dancing to music. Pulling on the dog’s tail, playing in the water with her brother, talking on her phone and EATING are a few other favorites. She is a blessing to our family and we pray her life will be a blessing to many others as well! 
Tags: blessing, growing, Kids
Posted in Ministry, Odds N Ends on Nov 22nd, 2009 | Discuss This Post
Have you ever wondered, “Why did I do that?” after you invested time into something seemingly inapplicable to your future life? There have certainly been moments throughout our journey when we have wondered that… such as when Bryan took his Indonesian tests only to find out that our organization is changing aircraft, thus making those tests unnecessary. Or why did Melissa get a degree in Spanish only to move to a non-Spanish speaking country?
Yet the Lord has shown us that nothing He leads us through is really wasted. For example, the tests Bryan took ARE NO LONGER NEEDED but enable him to get his add-on rating in 6 months rather than 2 years. HUGE! And Melissa learning Spanish really helped her master another language.
Besides these things, the Lord has shown us that nothing goes to waste. For example, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: God, lessons, Ministry, plans, trust
Posted in Recipe on Nov 22nd, 2009 | Discuss This Post
Introduction
Generally reserved for birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, the celebratory dish gets its vivid golden color from ground turmeric.
Ingredients
| |
2 |
cups rice |
| |
1½ |
cups water |
| |
1½ |
tsp. ground turmeric |
| |
1 |
cup unsweetened coconut milk |
| |
1 |
tsp. salt |
| |
2 |
thick stalks fresh lemongrass |
| |
3 |
whole fresh or thawed, frozen kaffir lime leaves, gently crumbled to release their essence (optional) |
Tags: birthday party, neighbors, Recipe
Posted in Ministry, Mission Aviation on Oct 9th, 2009 | Discuss This Post
A call came over the radio. A tribal man of 30 had been vomiting blood for over a week and was now to weak to even stand. Medical attention was needed now. Could we help?
First thing the next morning, the helicopter was ready for departure. I was asked to accompany to evaluate the patient and accompany him back to the hospital in our town. Bryan bravely volunteered to watch the kids so I could do this.
The one hour and half flight flew by quickly as I prepared my medical equipment and was briefed by the pilot on the procedures. As soon as we landed, I headed for the man’s home and assessed him. Very weak, he was at least able to eat now, but in significant pain. His abdomen was solid as a rock and I feared the worse – internal bleeding or liver complications. After ensuring he was stable, he was carried to the helicopter and straped to the stretcher. Throughout the flight back to town, I frequently assessed his condition – each evaluation brought the same result – stable, but really sick.
Upon arrival at the hanger, a fellow co-worker had his truck ready. Bryan and company loaded the man into the truck and we headed for the hospital. Upon admission, the doctor quickly assessed him. Afterwards he inquired as to where this man lived. Aware that this man’s village was over 4 days drive from this hospital, the doctor shook his head and simply said, “Had he tried to drive, he would not have made it.”
A routine and vital part of our flight ministry is medical evacuations such as these. Just as with this man, physical lives are often saved thanks to the condensed amount of travel time. Each life is precious, so when the seconds count, we thank the Lord for the tools of aviation and medicine which are available to save lives physically, and hopefully spiritually, as well!
Posted in Ministry, Mission Aviation on Oct 9th, 2009 | Discuss This Post
Drew playing with the Wana kiddoes
Last week, the kids and I had the opportunity to take a day trip out to one of our existing tribal works. Originally, I was not very excited as life had been a bit overwhelming with raising kids, piano lessons, hostessing, daily flight following, etc… but the flight was needed to bring our friend out anyway, so we “tagged” along.
After being dropped off, it was an eerie feeling as we stood amid the tribal people and watched the helicopter fly away. Definitely gave me a better understanding of what our tribal church planters and translators experience.
Kayla enjoying the river
From there, we received a tour of the tribe. Andrew loved running through the grass, climbing trees, playing in the river and laughing with the kids (that is the same in every language) and of course, Kayla was passed around like a doll. Yet as we walked around and I attempted to engage in conversation with these sweet people, there were but a few that were actually able to talk with me. The majority – old and young alike - only spoke their tribal language and I was reminded of why we do what we do. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Ministry, Odds N Ends, Prayer Request on Oct 9th, 2009 | Discuss This Post
After many months and lots of waiting, we praise the Lord for bringing Bryan’s tools, a few special house
items and
some toys all the way from America to Central Sulawesi. Everything looks to be in good order and Bryan is thrilled to be reunited with his tools. He is so thankful as he can now service our mission’s helicopter
with the proper tools.
Thanks to ALL of you who packed, repacked, sorted, mailed, built crates for, shipped and prayed for our things. It was like Christmas as we unloaded everything and we praise the Lord for His hand throughout this entire ordeal!
Tags: Answer to Prayer, Tools
Posted in Family, Ministry, Mission Aviation, Neighborhood Nook, Prayer Request on Oct 6th, 2009 | Discuss This Post
This past month has beeen a FULL one filled with special memories, cultural opportunities and LOTS of activities!
Our neighbor's family - Putri is the oldest of 6
Preparing baked goods for our neighbors
FOR ONE, this past month has been the month of fasting (Ramadan) for the predominant religion. They awake at 0400 to eat and pray before their long day of fasting. Not even allowed to drink or swallow their own spit, their fast is broken at 1800 with large meals and loud celebrating. As the only Christians in our neighborhood, we were very aware of these happenings.
Yet this past week just ended the fasting month and people broke their fasting with large parties. An important part of this was our cultural obligation to visit each of our neighbors. It was a real blessing to interact with our neighbors and friends- giving them their gifts and deeping our relationship with them.
Now we just continue to pray that their month long search for religious fulfillment will instead become a search for a relationship with the ONE TRUE GOD!
Anna and Chicken Feet
Yes, that is a whole fried fish, Brian
Decorating Kayla's room
Another highlight this month was having our friends – Brian and Anna – visit. We enjoyed showing them around and letting them experience the unique Indonesian cusine. We also appreciated all their help with painting (Anna, honestly, the kids rooms would never have been decorated without you!) hanging shelves, watching the kids so we could actually go on a date and just giving us a break for the daily grind. They were real troopers as they endured all the stares while visiting our neighbors, butchered some chickens for Melissa and helped with the monotonous task of sorting thousands of parts with Bryan at the hanger. We all had a blast and were sad to see them go!
Heli returning to the hanger after a long week of flying
LASTLY, this month has been and continues to be filled with flights. Beginning with a medical evacuation (check out the related story!!!) and flying in a volunteer carpenter into the tribe to repair a church planter’s house, it continued with flights for a week long tribal Bible Conference and taking various translators and church planters interior to evaluate the tribal churches which were planted several years ago. Hoping to reopen and continue these works, as well as open new ones, leadership is using these evaluation flights to determine the next steps. It has been exciting getting to support these activities. Please continue to pray for safety and wisdom as decisions are being made and lots of flying is being done!
For more pictures of this past month, click here!
Tags: Blessings, Family, Flight Following, Indonesia, Neighborhood, relationships
Posted in Family on Sep 1st, 2009 | Discuss This Post
Our little princess is growing so fast. Now weighing in at 22lbs, crawling all over the place, enjoying lots of yummy foods and pulling herself up, we never cease to be amazed at our precious bundle of smiles.
Tags: Family, First Word, Language, Mikayla
Posted in Ministry, Neighborhood Nook, News Article on Aug 21st, 2009 | Discuss This Post
Cutting down banana trees with our neighbor
We have a concrete ditch in front of our fence. Ditches are used throughout this area for dumping and burning trash among other things. When we moved in our house our ditch was almost completely full and I had no idea what to do about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Actions, Bryan, Funny Story, Language, Neighborhood, relationships, Trash
Bryan and Melissa Abbott Using Aviation to Make HIM known in Indonesia 
