From:
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 8:58 PM
To: '
Subject: Prayer Update 6/20/06 Back to the home fields
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Dear Family
and Friends,
When our family left for Mongolia in June of 2005, just one year ago, we were
filled with excitement and an eager anticipation of what the Lord might do in
and through our lives by this season of service together as a family. How
little did we imagine the depth of the lessons that God had for us, or the
riches of His grace that we would experience.
Arriving at the family farm in
The approaching departure date of our family on May 22nd added an additional
pressure to finish some projects that our family was involved in. Among these
was the printing of a set of A4 sized character posters for the first series of
nine character qualities. Creating the template for these posters had been one
of Isaac’s final desktop publishing projects in
This project is also a good example of some of the challenges that we often
face overseas. In the States, you would typically finish your master copy, bring it to the printer, then pick up the final
product, completed to your satisfaction. In
After finishing the first four posters, I made several trips to the printing
company with our translators, trying to make sure I had covered every possible
detail about what we were needing for this job.
Understanding that we were proposing a several hundred-dollar job, with the
prospect of future work, the company president was quite happy to concede to
our unusually high quality requirements.
Receiving the call a few days later that the job was ready, Ideree and I went
over to take a look. Another missionary had told me that every
job his organization prints locally seems to have some type of quality
problem, but I was pleasantly surprised as I reviewed the first set of posters.
Other than some smaller blemishes and ink splatters, they seemed reasonable for
the equipment that they were printed on.
The second set of 4 posters printed later was another story. More and larger
ink splatters, and a heavy yellow cast to the animal pictures left me pondering
how to better communicate what we were needing. It was
only after writing and translating a detailed seven-page contract describing
our quality requirements that the manager seemed to grasp what we were looking
for.
Although they felt that the contract was too strict for them to sign, it seemed
to have the desired result, and they assured us that we would be satisfied with
the job. They reprinted the worst of the posters, and this time the color was
really good. It wasn’t till we started making sets of posters back at our
office that we discovered that they had been trimmed 3/8 inch smaller than the
previous job. :-)
I share this story not because I thought you had a great interest in the
details of how to print posters in
Often the greater testimony is not the work you do, but the character you
demonstrate while doing it. I was so grateful for the Lord’s timing in
some encouraging comments that were shared with my parents before we left. It
was not the work that we did for CTI that impressed these friends, but our
family simply being in
Visible evidences of the Lord’s work through you are encouraging moments,
but I don’t believe the Lord lets us see too many of these, lest we be
lifted up in pride. As our family made preparations for leaving
Walking down to the open market on the Saturday before we left, I had a neat
talk with Chinggis, one of our Mongolian staff. He was coming to help me buy a
traditional Mongolian “
I have long admired the maturity and Godly example that Chinggis has
demonstrated as our finance manager for CTI, but I had felt inadequate to
express this in simple English, so I regret to say that most of our conversations
had been on more of a business level.
Just to give you an idea of the heart of this young man, the day after I
purchased my
Perhaps one of the most touching goodbyes for our family was at the Sunday
service at
God’s hand of guidance and care was clearly upon us as we made
preparations to leave. We learned that because of a technical detail with the
way we had booked our tickets, and some changes in the airline regulations,
although we had carried about 140lbs of checked baggage per person on our
initial flight to
Making a number of calls to our travel agent, my Dad tried to see if we could
work something out, but as the days and hours ticked away, it became apparent
that we would have to just do the best we could, pray, and trust that the Lord
would work things out on the day of the flight. We were at the mercy of the
airline agents.
Friends offered the use of their vans for the early morning drive, and soon we
were weighing our bags at the counter. We had packed our carry-on bags as
heavily as we could, but the final count left us 410 pounds overweight in our
checked baggage. Asking to speak to the supervisor, Dad explained our
situation.
After some further discussion, the supervisor made a final decision on the
baggage. Hearing the news, I calmly walked over to the window, where our
staff were anxiously watching from outside to see how we would fare. With
a joy that I dared not express, I slowly unfolded a paper where I had written
the message, “No overweight charges. P.T.L!”
Returning to the States, probably the biggest shock for me was to see all the
lush greenery around us. A Mongolian winter gives you a new appreciation for
the few blades of green grass poking through the gravel by the sidewalk. The
months of gray and brown in
Our family was again graciously hosted at the IBLP headquarters in
Stopping in
The annual ATI Regional Training Conference in
At the close of the session, our family was given the opportunity to share a
little of what the Lord has been doing in Mongolia. Dad shared some truths that
have guided our family, and some verses that have been especially meaningful to
us through the time of Isaac's Homegoing. The four
oldest of us children were also given the opportunity to share for a few
minutes, and then we finished by singing the Mongolian translation of
"This Little Light of Mine".
Many people came up to us through the week, some of whom we had never met, and
told us that they have been praying for our family. Others shared of special
memories that they had of Isaac. It was encouraging to be able to share of the
Lord's faithfulness and grace to our family, and to be challenged and blessed
by the speakers and messages at the conference.
Following the conference we joined our extended family on my Mother's side for
a family reunion in
Driving back up to
Although not quite as closely related as some, (my Dad's mother was a cousin to
Clarice Olson) we have enjoyed the rich spiritual heritage of this branch of my
Dad's family. The falling rain and cold weather confined us to the large
machine shed at the farm where the family reunion was held that Saturday. It
was quite a sight to see the colorful spreads of food, and rows of chairs
winding around the huge tractors and farm implements.
Finding another more empty machine shed, David and I
managed to stretch a rope across the middle, and soon we had a lively game of
volleyball going with the younger generation as the others visited. Of course
the happy players got dust in their teeth, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.
On Sunday morning we arranged a large circle of folding chairs in an empty
garage, and held our own church service together. It made me think of an
underground church service, such as might be held in
Returning to our farm I was again reminded of the truth that moth and rust doth
corrupt. Finding a forgotten bag of candy in my room, I made a fascinating
discovery. Moths like the white chocolate, while the mice prefer the dark
chocolate! Needless to say, we have been doing a lot of cleaning and
organizing. It has been a year since we have spent much time at home, and
spending some time on the mission field has a way of changing your perspective
about the things are really important in life.
Plans for the summer seem to be taking shape before us. Dad is continuing his
Engineering work, while taking time for various work projects around
the house and farm. I was offered some computer programming work that I
can do from home, so I plan to spend some time on that over the next few
months.
The main farmer in the family, Derrick is keeping busy in the fields while
Rachelle spearheads some cleaning and home improvement projects on the
home front. David is assisting with a Bible Club training program and some
curriculum development projects. Sarah and the younger ones are very excited to
be back at the farm, and enjoying a farmyard with acres of areas to play, and
endless possibilities for creative projects.
Many have asked us if we are planning to go back to
Praise
Points:
- We are so grateful for the Lord's blessing in our
travel as we returned from
- In our travels down to Nashville, David's laptop, (our
only portable computer) picked up a virus that left the computer almost
unusable for a week before I had time to work on it. Using my Uncle's
computer, I found some software to assist in the recovery, and we were
back up and running with no data loss.
- Last weekend our family was invited to share at a
Christian campers club in
Prayer
Requests:
- Please continue to pray for our team in
- The Lord continues to give our family opportunities to
share testimonies of what the Lord has been doing in our family, and in
our lives personally. Pray that God would use these times to deepen
our message, and bring forth lasting fruit.
Pictures:
The green
grass and trees seemed so vivid when
contrasted
with the Mongolian landscape below,
where our
staff had joined some Christian students and
professors
from MIU for a holiday outside the city.
The Blom generations. (My Mother's family) In the pink
and gray
are my grandparents. (The yellow shirts designate
Wallers,
as you probably already noticed.)
Finally
home. I climbed the silo to get this picture of our
house as
we worked to unpack our things and dry out
tent and
camper.
baby
rabbits in our front yard.
You can
see many more new pictures on the
Prayer Update section our family website.
Interesting
Fact:
The
original part of our home in
Thank you
for your prayers for our family! God's grace has truly carried us, and
continues to carry us through each day.
In Christ,
- Adam
Family
Website ~ http://cadlinx.com/wallerfamily
"And
let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not." - Galatians 6:9
If for any
reason you would prefer not to receive these e-mails, just reply with
"unsubscribe" in the subject line. If this e-mail is being forwarded
to you, just let me know and I can put you on the regular list. - Adam