I met with Anis, one of our Indonesian staff, and reminded him that he has an important job. He is in charge of finding the lepers and bringing them to our base for treatment. I also told him he is like the servant of King David who was sent to find the lame boy named Mephiboseth. King David’s servant was Ziba. He went to a very remote place to find this lame boy hoping to bring him back to meet King David. When the boy met the King he got on...

It is the longest day of the year. No it was not 25 hours long–but it is the summer solstice. The sun is above the horizon longer than any other day in the year. The Midnight Sun Festival is here in Fairbanks– it is literally light at midnight. There were some 30,000 people attending this Festival.IFC had a booth at the Midnight Sun Festival where we spoke to hundreds of visitors and many Alaskans about our efforts in Indonesia. We...

I have a heavy heart at the accidental death of a young friend of mine. Jeremy Earnshaw was on staff at the YWAM base in Newcastle, Australia. He and three friends went to spend the day at the beach after he called his father, Darryl, wishing him a happy Father’s Day. He and his friends were enjoying the day as they were walking near some rock outcroppings when a freak wave swept over Jeremy and one of his friends–they were pulled...

Imagine riding in a vehicle that you can see the road under your feet. The cars we had on our base were just a bucket of bolts. Rotted floorboards were the least of their troubles. They all broke down regularly and were on life support more than on the road. Riding down jungle roads in marginal vehicles was always a security concern. We just did not have the money to buy new transportation. We put our limited funds into medicines or building...

Where would we be without email, blogs, and the Internet? I know there are negative and positive realities about the Internet. What if you are miles from the nearest cell phone tower and the Internet is not even in the region. That is the challenge of working at the end of the earth.IFC has solved that with a modest Internet satellite system. It connects the base with the rest of the world. This is an amazing system because it can find a...

I do not know if you will see this the way I do—but when 1,100 fruiting trees were planted around three years ago on the base property I could see a change coming. It would take some time but it was coming. It is like the tide changing. These trees will turn a tide in providing some of the food needs we have had and even provide some income in the sale of the surplus.The bananas (eating and cooking), rambutan, pineapple, papaya, sirsak, mango,...

I just got home from a time in Idaho. It was a great time of sharing the work of IFC in Indonesia. It was also a time of stepping into the past. I spoke to a group and a woman came to me and said she had a picture of me from my college days. My wife and I went to a small private college in southern Idaho. I worked in the food service my entire time at school. My first job was to wash dishes and later I was given a job making cookies. I really...

I am in Idaho this week. IFC has some good friends and supporters here in the famous potatoes state. I spent yesterday with Ray and Lorraine who are choice leaders and have supported the work in Indoneisia since we began in early 2001. We has a wonderful time and caught up on the time since our last meeting. They are so positive and encouraging.I will be here in Idaho for this week–meeting with partners and finding new partners. I began...

The doors to our hospital are scheduled to open in about two months. This will be a great day when the sick can get long-term care at this facility. The hospital is small (compared to Western facilities) but it is a place where the poorest of the poor will get free medical treatment. We already see over 10,000 a year at our clinic just a hundred feet from the door of the hospital. We will have an out-patient facility and an in-patient facility...

I have been reflecting recently of the hundreds of partners we have in our work. We have over 80 full-time workers at our base in Indonesia but there are hundreds of others who are standing with us.I have friends, Dona and Craig, who have been supporting our efforts from the first day we began to work with refugees. I am blessed and amazed at their heart and faithfulness. They have never been to Indonesia but they are so important to Indonesia....