Dear Praying friends and family,
Through death comes life! I have mentioned before that one of the projects we are working on is a history of the 50 years that Ethnos360 (previously known as New Tribes Mission) has been working in Asia Pacific. This week we’ve advanced into reading letters, articles, etc from 1974, a year of great tragedy and many difficulties. Our dear friends and co-workers lost their 3-year-old daughter, Mary. In addition to that, several other missionary children were extremely ill and two more beloved little ones would die tragic deaths before another year passed. The Lord was quickly adding to our numbers in West Kalimantan as we welcomed new families and some new babies as well. We were beginning to branch out into Sulawesi with the first two families heading over there to do survey work. After a couple years of requests from another mission agency in West Kalimantan, an initial aerial survey and then a more extensive boat trip was made in June 1974 to the headwaters of the large river that runs through the island, up many of its tributaries, to visit villages among 5 different tribal groups: Punan, Bukat, Taman, Embaloh and Mandai. At that time, the area was steeped in worship of evil spirits and there was not even a flicker of the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the first day of the survey there was a terrible tragedy when the boat Dwight Sharp and Ted Spivey were on was involved in an accident, hitting a submerged log and capsizing, resulting in the death of a small child. The following article was written up about the trip:
Would you believe the day after reading these articles we received Rina’s (our own dear co-worker that you’ve often read about in our letters) update telling what the Lord has accomplish in the very area this survey took place almost exactly 48 years ago to the day! I just had to get her permission to include it here for you to read:
Just as our precious Lord became sin for us and gave His life that we could have forgiveness of sin and life in Him, so there is life now in that dark jungle of souls. And many there are giving their lives in order to bring many more sons & daughters into the family of God! Please pray that many young people in those tribal churches mentioned above would be willing to give their lives for the Gospel’s sake.
Praise & Prayer Requests:
- Pray for Greg’s trip back to Asia Pacific next week and for his visa extension.
- Pray for Doug’s upcoming trip to South America for leadership meetings.
- Pray for the Embaloh Bible currently at Snowfall press.
- Pray for the three of us to be salt and light in our neighborhood and across the globe.
Thank you for your faithful prayers,
Darcy, Ron, and Nita Berglund
Below are our phone numbers. We would love to hear from you!
Darcy 307-461-2733 Ron: 307-461-0627 Nita: 307-431-2339
Home address:
991 Pinyon Pl
Sheridan, WY 82801
Business address:
Ethnos360
312 W First St
Sanford, FL 32771-1231
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