The little fan’s big blades blew in vain on my sweat drenched body as the nurse matter of factly said the words that sounded somewhat like a suitcase zipping up…”your blood work shows that you have Dengue Fever”….

The last three months of our lives have been like a swollen swiftly moving river. It has left us speechless and overwhelmed with joy at times, and sometimes weak and full of fever. Through every day of it as we come up for air and we search for how any of it matters, how ANY of it is really making any difference for HIS KINGDOM. After all, that is supposed to be our full time job, that is what many of you are giving financially to, praying for, encouraging us towards. No matter how hard I tried….I could find nothing to put in the “center of the picture” to write home about.

In December, Brian traveled to the U.S. to be “officially” trained in a new airplane that our team is using here. It has increased our groups ability to help Bible translation exponentially, I was going to write about that…then life’s river grabbed my ankles and pulled me under with a case of typhoid fever. Christmas break I spent in bed, Luke on crutches with a broken ankle…Brian eeking out flights in between nursing his family along. Celebrating “EMMANUEL…GOD WITH US”.

January found us receiving  soul bursting news that  we were free to draw up plans for a house to build on the land that we were given to use. Generous, crazy friends in the U.S had been given the go ahead by God to help us out. Though we do not know how much money we will actually need to complete this …His answer to our need for a place to live seems to be BUILD IT!!! We plotted and planned, measured and prayed.

February brought Bryce and Adam malaria, Adam’s was scary, stubborn and cerebral, and you prayed, and God healed. We washed the sheets from sweat and stowed away the precious Ibuprofen. More flight hours were logged in aiding Bible translation and then we groaned silent groans when Susan broke her 8 month malaria free record and ended up with malaria too. We treated it…. but it never really seemed to go away.

We filled the hours in between with loving, talking to who He put in our paths, trying to slow down to SEE His ways, flying, cooking to fill bellies, studying, and then doing it all again the next day. The stories Brian brought home from his days flying  buoyed us, the stories our co-workers told of the Good News reaching formerly unreached spots on this thick jungle island spurred us on. Through it all, I searched for something “larger” to write to you about. I wanted a story to “catch” you, to validate our being here, maybe my American little mind wanted you to feel we were worth your support, and the prayers that you had invested…(pretty non-missionary-ish to say…but it’s the truth) and just when I had gathered enough stories to think it was worth writing about… my malaria came back stronger.

My fever hit hard and heavy, I started the treatment but this malaria felt like a heavy blanket. I finished the treatment, my blood showed no more malaria parasites and we waited for the fever and ache to fade away…but it never did. Wide eyed on the bed Brian and I whispered out our deepest fears….maybe our “world’s best” medications did not work on malaria anymore? Blood work at the local hospital explained it…and the Nurse’s words confirmed it…my malaria was finished…and I now had Dengue Fever.

Of course, queen of multi-tasking that I am, my body decided to do two things at once, malaria and dengue fever. How efficient! How defeating! How can we do this? The car ride home seemed even quieter. I climbed back on my mattress that had a big rut in it and cried hard. There was nothing good to report…there is no good news. I tossed over the events of the last months in my mind…..what were these events…..how can this be HIS work…how is this HIS GLORY and HIS KINGDOM being established.

Then a letter from a new friend crashed in over me…the very day I commit to not write another update ever…I read hers.

She lives “on her own”  in Sudan’s dust, mothering over 100 orphans, she was born with only one hip and one leg.  She blogged that very day from her dusty desk in Africa, crutches propped up nearby….

“Could the very thing the enemy means to disable and destroy become that which frames the greatest release of God’s glory in our lives?  Limitations, when they are submitted to Jesus, become the very things that frame the greatest displays of His goodness in life.”

I suddenly knew I had everything I needed to make a frame.

I grabbed the heavy black beam of typhoid fever. Dark and etched with hours of fever and pain I put it across the top.

Then I pushed my Dengue fever…still burning through my body, along the bottom part, dark and etched like the top, the etching seems even deeper on this part, it has small vines of despair and depression woven in, the words “you are not fit for this” are strangled out by creeper vines of Morning Glory…all subtle.

Then I took my two cases of malaria and propped them up…the two side pieces of the “frame”. Again, the words   “failure” ran up along one side, and “not enough faith” ran down along the other. All the words of condemnation on the frame were washed over in a red so dark it was black….a Savior’s blood so deep it still covers.

So now…. I have a frame.

What the enemy meant for our destruction, we will craft into the very frame that shows HIS GLORY.

I have been writing newsletters for over 20 years now! At times I look at our lives and wonder what on earth there is to possibly write about… the new believer count is zero and the rice is burned and the fever is back.  But I am a “frame”…and maybe I am the only one you know who can send you a picture of Him in Indonesia…so I will…framed this time in the frailty of earth’s nasty jungle diseases.

He is the only one in the picture.…holding our hearts safe in His grip.

As it turns out, we will never be “worth your support”…I had the wrong thing in the center of the picture. But HE is worth your support. He is worth surrendering to.

And I can frame HIM. All of us can frame Him.

I echo what my new friend cries out from her dusty desk in Sudan. I sing it from my Dengue soaked sheets in Indonesia. Hand Him your defeats, delays and depression. He can use it ALL to frame His glory.

Until He comes and because He will!
Susan for us all!

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

http://kennedy5.wordpress.com/

They just arrived in Scotland!

Here is their first update letter and some Q and A’s for their ministry

Here is the blog address of the 2010 team

http://10haiti.wordpress.com

I thought I had a lot of time to get to know Okanban, to get him to talk openly, to feed him food, to find him some good shoes, to make sure he knew he was “loved to death” by His Father…..but time isn’t solid like that. Two weeks ago Okanban fell out of a tree while searching for mangos in another yard….just two days later he died from his injuries.

If I had only known that our lives would cross for a very short few weeks…what would I have done differently?

A few days ago I stumbled over Okanban’s shoes that he had left in my yard. Just seeing them made me vow to “determinedly” love the next person I laid eyes on, to make sure those in my path know that they are loved enough to die for.

THIS LAST WEEK:
—Brian’s precious grandma passed away in CA, leaving us feeling galaxies away from family…
—a dear friend here miraculously survived a tragic accident when the old truck her husband was driving lost its brakes and ran over her as her two small children watched. Her femur is broken, but she is miraculously alive. PLEASE pray for recovery for Heidi and safety on the roads for those serving here.
—an earthquake shook us out of bed a few days ago….reminding us yet again of just who fragile we are.
—Brian spent many hours checking out our new pilots and flying in the jungles helping the local people. This week many of the planes are in the shop for maintenance. Pray for safety and clear thinking for our pilots and mechanics working to spread the news among the isolated villages of Papua.
—I am malaria free…going on two months now. His grace is DEEP.

Serving together…until He comes and because He will
Brian, Susan, Ben, Luke, Bryce and Adam

Read their newsletter, hear what is going on with the Fasts and continue to pray for them and their worldwide ministry

Aug_2010_Newsletter