John and Anna Weeks YOUR link to tribal missions 
Dear praying friends and family and churches,
We’ve just experienced living “Off-the-Grid” for the past 44 days and want to apologize for any adverse effects this has caused! I know that “Off-the-Grid” can have negative connotations such as when David and his mighty men and their families disappeared or “moved ‘off the grid’” to Ziklag in the Land of the Phillistines, most likely out of God’s will. Going “Off-the-Grid” can also be a positive thing such as Moses moving into the desert for 40 years to be trained by God or Jesus disappearing into the wilderness to spend time with his Father and in keeping with His will. Although unintentional on our part, we trust that our being off the grid was all part of God’s plan.
Why were we “Off-the-Grid?” Well, it started with moving to the States from Indonesia which was an “experience” in and of itself, but also involved misplacing an external hard drive and losing all of our email addresses, something we had not experienced before this time! Well, despite all of our short-comings and mistakes, we know this hasn’t hindered many of you from praying for us and we want to give a hearty “THANK YOU” to all who have remembered us in prayer. In what way were your prayers heard? I’d like to summarize our past 44 days “Off-the-Grid” somewhat below.
After our March trip to Thailand and through much prayer and leadership advice, we decided to take our One-Year furlough time one year earlier than previously planned. At this time we are currently due almost a year’s furlough because we have served in Indonesia almost 6 years and only taken 6 months of leave. 
Last time we left Indonesia, we threw a big party for our neighbors with a live band and the works, but this time we just said goodbye to friends and “slipped” away.
Through much prayer, we decided to relocate in Missouri rather than California mainly for these three reasons: a. Missouri is more “home” to our children than California, b. Missouri is cheaper for housing than California, and c. proximity to our Missionary Training Center (MTC). If we need to be Stateside for longer than our year furlough, we can Lord-willing plug back into the MTC to continue ministry with NTM before heading back to Indonesia. Because of our uncertain economy and not wanting to continue renting as we’ve done in our 19 years of marriage, as well as government incentives and a strong buyer’s market, Anna and I before the Lord decided to purchase our first home. This seemed the best investment as we look to be good stewards of the Lord’s money. The Lord went before us in every way possible and we were able to close in less than a month’s time after deciding on a home! There are many more details of how the Lord went before us in this home purchase, but we will write about that another time! Our new address is 188 Ginny Drive, Linn Creek, MO 65052 with home phone number 573-873-2150. We just moved in this past Friday! We are only 7 minutes from Camdenton schools and 18 minutes from the MTC. We are also only 3 hours from Anna’s folks in the St. Louis area and 1 1/2 hours away from her brother Tony who lives in Columbia, Missouri.
We had a busy last month in Indonesia including sorting, yard sales (Anna can write about this some time as it was quite the adventure!), packing and bidding farewell to many friends. Our two older girls gave us a scare going out all night with Indonesian friends, the night before we were to depart at 5:30 a.m.! We even had our local police friends looking for them and putting several back-up plans in place in case they didn’t show up! They did show up, PTL, and their crazy Indonesian friends followed us in their car our whole hour-long ride to the airport zipping in and out of traffic! We made it on the plane, all 6 of us, and what a sigh of relief Anna and I sighed! The airlines put us up one night in Singapore where Katie and I were able to get eye check-ups and I was able to get several months of eye medication for my Uveitis which is “quiet” praise the Lord! We also all enjoyed eating supper at our favorite Indian restaurant in the Little India quarters. Looking at our tickets we realized that we wouldn’t have enough time to make the connection from Detroit to St. Louis, but the airlines guaranteed us that if we missed it, they’d pay for our connections. We were right, we did miss the connection, but Northwest was really quick at stepping in and arranging our next flights. The 5 hour wait was a “blessing in disguise” and we enjoyed cleaning up at the airport, eating at Chilis compliments of Northwest and walking around the airport. We arrived in St. Louis on June 19th where Anna’s folks met us along with friend Eric Wheeler. Anna, rode with her dad and the luggage and Kurt, while the rest of us took the light rail with Anna’s mom and Eric which was basically an hour-long commute to Anna’s parent’s house in Belleville, IL, just across the river from St. Louis. Taking an 11:00 p.m. commuter train is not what I would chose for our first-experience back in America especially after 24 hours of flying, but that’s what the Lord had for us and it was fine!
The following night Kurt and I went along with our friend Eric to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium. That was a real treat as we sat up in the nose-bleed section and enjoyed the breeze at the top of the stadium. After an enjoyable visit with Anna’s folks Ernie and Gail for 4 or 5 days, we headed to the Lake of the Ozarks where we stayed at the MTC, New Tribes Missionary Training Center. We met up with our realtor and began looking at homes. For 2 ½ weeks we looked at homes, chose a home, and began paperwork that would move us towards closing. After coming to agreement on closing, we took a whirlwind trip to Eureka, California where we stayed with my mom, visited family and church friends, and sorted and packed everything we had stored at my mom’s house to get rid of or bring back with us in our rented U-Haul trailer. The visit was too quick, but we were able to accomplish the sorting and packing, and made the 44-hour drive pulling the trailer with only one motel visit in Denver, Colorado! The first leg of the trip was crazy as we left Eureka at 3 p.m. after a nice Chinese lunch with my mom, driving out Hwy. 299 through Redding and then Hwy 44 to Susanville, up over the Sierra’s to Reno, then across Nevada through the night. We drove through Utah during the following day, but then hit terrible traffic in Colorado just 3 hours short of Denver. We were in stop-and-go traffic for 4 hours until arriving in Denver at 2 a.m. 34 hours after leaving Eureka! We slept ‘till noon then drove through the following night arriving in Missouri at 5 a.m.! The Lord was good to us in our travels.
We moved into our new home Friday, July 31st and have begun getting the kids registered for school which begins August 19th. Please pray for us and the Lord’s wisdom as we are finding trouble getting the high school to accept home-schooling credits! It’s also difficult for our older two, 16 and 18, not being able to drive and having to wait at least 6 months until they can! In Indonesia they had licenses and rode their dirt bike all over town and outside of town! Please keep praying for their transition and that they would be happy to be in the States. I will also be looking for part-time employment for this next year and also working on ministry-related tasks. Please pray for us as we look for a nearby church to fellowship at as well as for the kids as they transition back to life in the U.S. We’re really praying for a good youth group for the kids and for the older two to find good friends and a part-time job for Katie. Please pray that each of our kids will want to live for the Lord and make right decisions. Please pray for Anna and me as we guide the children in these decisions.
Thanks so much for your prayers and interest in our ministry. We will send along more pertinent prayer requests and praises soon as I’ve written enough here to update you on our past 44 days since our last email!
We love you and appreciate each of you who have stood and knelt with us in prayer through our past 6 years in Indonesia and 15 years with New Tribes Mission.
We want to update our website soon with pictures and posts, but the whole format will be changing this next week! Please note that in a few days when you log onto our NTM website at ntm.org/john_weeks, the format will be different and more of a “blog,” whatever that is!
In this together and grateful for each of you,
John, Anna Marie, Katie, Grace, Paula and Kurt
