Update from The Stubb’s
Dear friends and family
Life is fragile! We are only a few grace filled feet, at all times, from being dust. These last weeks have been full of this knowledge for us.
~~~The volume of natural disasters our country bears hardly make the international news anymore. A spewing angry volcano is taking precious lives on another island in our country. Earthquakes are frequent and a tsunami shook and swept clear yet another portion of another island…the events remind us…we are just a few grace filled feet from dust.
~~~Our “world” is dusty, as the dry season is supposed to be over…and the rains have not yet come. Everything has a coating of dry dust on it. Many neighbor’s wells are dry…ours could dry up at any time, just a few grace filled feet from dust.
~~~Just when progress was being made on securing a spot to possibly build our home…the landowner was brutally attacked by four men from a neighboring people group, hard to fathom this in what fills like such an “advanced frontier town”….he was operated on in a local hospital on our island, to repair a stab wound that punctured his lung. His son bears machete wounds on his head that he received while trying to pull his bleeding father to safety…..
On the way to be operated on, to have his blood filled lung drained…he murmured pleas for his children to NOT TAKE REVENGE…..his body struggling just a few grace filled feet from dust.
~~~Brian has spent the last few weeks deep in the learning seat of a new airplane. What a gift it is for him to be able to fly this plane. He came home last week overwhelmed at God’s amazing provision to our group by providing this plane. We are finally able to serve the “fellow workers” on our island like we had always hoped; with absurdly minimal cost, with tremendous safety and speed. Soon Brian will be able to fly medical evacuations from our island in a matter of hours. Our airplanes clock HOURS of time over the jungle, carrying precious cargo….every landing, every take off…just a few grace filled feet from dust.
~~~For the last 24 hours straight the mosques have been crying out a somber tune, filled full of followers, heads bowed to the dust, while outside tied goats and cows moan along…waiting to have their blood poured out as sacrifice on this “Idul Adha” holiday. Creeping by the full mosques in the early morning the song “Amazing Grace” caught in my throat…Jesus…have I told you thank you lately?
When God bent close to create mankind He did not take “the stuff of heaven” out of His pocket and begin fashioning “us-kind”…not at all…God formed man of the dust of the ground” …but He did not leave us there….He raised us a few GRACE FILLED FEET above it and saved His best for last…”HE BREATHED INTO HIS (man’s) NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE”.
Every centimeter of you is “God breathed”. Every centimeter of me is “God breathed”.
Please breathe on us a-fresh God…..
Thank you for praying for our family,
Until He comes and because He will,
Brian and Susan, Ben, Luke, Bryce and Adam
