Wednesday, February 04, 2009

We're back home (Island of Java) safe and sound!

We got back from our trip of visiting the Taliabo tribe late two nights ago. We're sorry we couldn't tell you where we were going before because of contingency reasons. All in all we praise the Lord for the opportunity He gave us for this awesome/amazing trip! We'll save you from all the details right now in that we hope to be able to see you and tell you all about it when we get back to the States soon! As for now, know that we are safe & sound and very busy selling and packing up our whole house here and getting ready to move yet again to visit with you & spend time with Ruth's family in New Hampshire.

......We can't completely hold back from our trip so here's some highlight photo's!

This is a picture of us in the long boat (about 40 ft. long) that we took to the island after ridding on the big boat that had a cabin for us to sleep in. Even though we spent about 50hrs total on the ocean going there and back it wasn't all that bad!

One of the coolest things was when we finished the 2 hr hike into the village the tribal people decided to meet us with a traditional tribal welcome by meeting us at the opening of the village and then singing to us! It was breath taking....


After they finished singing they wanted to shake our hands. We're pretty sure we had shaken over a hundred hands!

One of the best things for us to see was how well our girls did with other tribal kids. It seemed a lot of the tribal kids were well behaved (or awe struck) and just really enjoyed playing with our girls.

We were at a tribal dinner and Chloe & Gwen again had a lot of fun with the other kids! :)

If you've ever seen the NTM Taliabo movie then you'll remember this women. She is the leper from the movie. Yes, she is still alive and loving the Lord!

Sometimes we feel our girls are becoming more and more 'tribal' every day! :)


**Sure hope we get to see you when we get to the States. We would love to tell you all about our trip and catch up on life together. Please also be praying with us for the Taliabo people. It's an unfinished tribal work and this body of believers still needs literacy, translation, teaching lessons & much discipleship to become a mature church/finished work.

In this together,
Ben & Ruth

3 comments:

Glidewell Family said...

Did you almost feel like you have arrived? I almost teared up just looking at your family actually with tribal people. So close and yet so far away. Glad to hear you are coming home and that your trip was safe.

Anonymous said...

Oh what a story, you all look great we can't wait to hear the rest of the story...in person very soon!
Love Dad and Mom

Rob Foster said...

Wow, it must have been a great feeling to be out amongst the people as a family! Thanks for this post and we'll look forward to hearing ALL the details when you are in Temecula!