20080903 Our August Newsletter

Dear family and friends:

 

What a month.  We continue to meet new friends (see picture).  Victor continues to preach and teach (see picture).  Alex continues to be Alex which is a wonderful thing (see picture).

 

Unexpected things always happen. An example of this is last night about 9pm we heard a knock on our door.  A bush family we know brought their 12 year old son Jonathan to our house. Two hours earlier, he had been sitting in his house when a large sharp rock  flew in through the open widow and hit him on his upper abdomen.  He was in obvious fear, distress, and pain. The Momma and Papa, who speak little English or even Pidgin were very upset.  They also had a younger son in tow who had a raging eye infection in both eyes and couldn’t stop rubbing them.  So, we all sat down and between simple English, Pidgin and their own tok ples (village language) we got the whole story straight. Victor did a physical exam to rule out internal hemorrhaging and a spleen check.  Then, we  laid hands on both sons and prayed for God to completely heal them and remove any fear.  Within a few minutes the whole atmosphere of the room had changed.  Where there was fear – now it was peaceful. Jonathan and his parents visibly relaxed their muscles and started breathing normally.  After a small snack, we gave the boys their medicine and Momma and the family shook our hands and  looked into our eyes  with quiet smiles and thanked us.  Their return trip home was about 6 miles away.  Outside as they left, a tropical bird was singing in the darkness. 

 

A couple weeks ago we went to a Foursquare Service just outside of Rabaul Town that was a combination of two churches that serve people behind the gray curtain of the volcano ash.  They can’t garden or secure water because of the heavy ash fall so we brought a small amount of fresh water for the family. The Pastor said that the water  would last a month for his family of 5 – that’s right, a month.  Our family of 3 would be through that in 2-3 days.  I couldn’t believe it.  The tin sheets on the roof of the church, which were brand new a year ago, were corroded and rusted and had huge holes in them from the sulfur and ash fall. I shared a little on going after God with all your heart and Victor preached on Psalm 1.  Then a large number of people came forward and we prayed over them.  I am humbled by the difficulties these pastors and leaders go through  - how they worship and praise God.  If you could just see what it is like.  All the vegetation is just covered (see picture) with a veil of gray ash and is burning and dying.  We had to use our windshield wipers just to be able to see the road as the ash falls like snow and the road is only wheel marks of gray.

 

Due to  Pastor Jonah’s recent death a new Regional Foursquare Supervisor has been appointed and a large regional Pastor’s/Leader’s weeklong conference was held here in Kokopo (see the picture of our pastors).  The new Kokopo Town church was officially dedicated.  So in between meetings and teachings are the important “informal” meetings where you “story” and develop relationships.  We had many meetings with Pastors from all over the islands area. All the pastors here have heard about the medical/evangelistic outreaches we do and want to arrange a time for us to come and stay in their area.  We had some very sweet meetings with many of the Pastors and we were able to do medical exams on them and pray over them.  It was very powerful.  I think it encouraged us as much as it did them. It seems that we are being woven closer to the Pastors and their families. We are very thankful for your prayers in this area.

 

Finally, we just received word that our sending church has financed a boat, motor, and trailer for us. We and the pastors are very thankful for Northwest Church’s generous giving. We are looking forward to using the boat right away. We are already planning outreaches to Feni Island (which is on the other [east] side of New Ireland) and the Duke of York Islands in the very near future. We will also use the boat to do community entry visits before our outreaches and do the all-important follow-up visits after the outreaches as well.

 

Please pray for our continued protection here as we often sail long distances for our outreaches. Please pray also for the upcoming Northwest Church team visit in October. We recently found out that the team applied for medication and supplies and received a positive response. As a result, they will be bringing us many medications and supplies on the trip. We believe that the Lord is already anointing the team for this visit – in a mighty way like only He can.

 

 

Blessings,

 

Victor, Lori, and Alexander Obregon

    Attempt Great Things For God.

         Expect Great Things From God.

                 William Carey