Dear praying friends and family,

After being eight days on the "road" with this last survey trip it was so good to arrive back in Sentani to all the comforts of home. Carolyn and I are so thankful for the many people who pray for us during these times. We both feel your love and support. It means so much to us.

This trip to the Casuarina Coast Asmat language group was an exciting trip to be a part of. The Lord opened so many doors for us. Every village we came to was so warm and receptive. Every village we left added to the burden and urgency of praying for labors to be raised up to minister to these needy people.

Then there were other parts of the trip that were more exciting than I would have preferred. All of our traveling on this last trip was done in a small "speed boat" with a 15 hp motor on the back(top speed 17mph going downstream). As we were pulling away from one particular village our stomachs began to growl and we decided that we should eat lunch while enroute to the next village. We unpacked our picnic lunch of rice, fish, and fried eggs and then my father-in-law invited me to give thanks for the food.

We bowed our heads and began to pray when suddenly my prayer was rudely interrupted by the sounds of branches breaking, twigs snapping, metal screeching, and an engine's revving . . . . then silence. For those of you new to boat trips, these types of sounds should not be considered the norm. In fact these sounds should give cause to alarm. And they did!

My head jerked up from praying and I immediately knew something was wrong. We were missing the river. It was just gone, and in its place was the deep jungle. I looked at the "speedboat driver" and realized that he too sensed something was amiss. His eyes were wide and he had an amazed look on his face. He kept muttering over and over again "I didn't know. I didn't know."

That's when the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Our driver had obviously joined us in prayer, bowed his head just like us, and missed the next curve in the river. Bonard (my father-in-law) and I got to laughing so hard that we almost fell out of the boat - not that it would have mattered. It took the boat driver a little longer to see the humor in things. Eventually, he too began to laugh especially when he saw no one was hurt and the boat and motor were still without a scratch on them.

By the way, be praying for that boat driver. His name is Simson and he is one of the key believers in his village but he is feeling very much alone in his work there. He was so excited when we pulled up in the floatplane outside his village. He told us later that if someone would come and help him, that he would give his house up for them to stay in and he would move and build another house. He wants someone working with him that bad. His biggest prayer and dream is that one day someone would be able to translate the Bible into his language.

One day we arrived back to his village at a time when the ocean tide had gone out dropping the level of the river outside his village about 5 - 10 feet. We, with the help of about 20 very excited and enthusiastic kids wading through knee deep mud, had to pull the boat up onto the bank. We were quite muddy when it was all done. Simson pointed out a couple of rain barrels filled with water that we could use to clean ourselves up.

I didn't even have a chance to get my hands wet. Suddenly, I had all these little pairs of hands splashing water on my legs and scrubbing the mud off. When they were all done they all took a step back to admire their handiwork. I could tell by the glow on their faces that there was a sense of pride of a job well done. That was until . . . someone excitedly pointed out that there was still a lot of mud between my toes.

Now, there is no way to aptly describe the way it feels to have lots of tiny fingers wiggling and cleaning the mud out from between your toes all at the same time. There is nothing quite like it. It is kind of an "I'm honored, but embarrassed, not to mention ticklish" feeling all at the same time.

My mind immediately went to the verse in Romans 10:15 that says, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things." It definitely gave that verse new meaning -- at the very least conjured up a different picture for me than the usual.

Later that night, I was laying there under my mosquito net thinking about what those enthusiastic, fun-loving kids had done. Just remembering their laughs and shrieks brought a grin to my face and made me want to start laughing. Then it hit me! The image was so clear in my mind. I could just imagine the stir Jesus created when he wrapped the towel around his waist, knelt before his disciples -- and washed their feet. Jesus the King of Peace - the King of Kings, came to serve, not to be served. Here I was, so amazed with how "beautiful" my feet were that I let those kids go home with muddy feet.

I never got a chance to wash their feet in the literal sense of the word. But I hope that I never forget the lesson they taught me. Please continue to pray for many the places like this in Irian Jaya, where the need is great for a labors (servants) with beautiful feet to enter bearing the gospel of peace.

In closing, do you remember my opening comments about how Carolyn and I are (BOTH) appreciative of your prayers during these times? While I was away on the survey trip, someone entered our house for the second time and robbed us of some money we had in one of our dressers. This was a hard time for Carolyn with me being away. It's hard to feel safe with stuff like that going on in the neighborhood not to mention your own bedroom. The Lord really undertook for her -- and protected her. Thank you very much from the BOTH of us for your prayers. They mean so much to us.

Whoever did it, did it in the middle of the day while Carolyn was home. Quite bold if you ask me. We still feel relatively safe in the town where we are at. However, Indonesia is still going through some rough times. We are hoping that in a few days when the new president takes office that things can begin to mend and heal across the country.

Well, that's all for now. We love and appreciate you so much. Drop us a note -- we'd love to hear from you.

In Christ's love,

Stephen for Carolyn and the girls.