Additional Missionary Updates and Prayer Requests Additional Missionary Updates and Prayer Requests Dale and Sarah Lusk Chile Update #2 from Merge "Merge family. Thank you for your prayers. God has been great and merciful with my family. He has taken care of my family through the worst of the destruction and chaos. Many areas were affected by the earthquake, but especially ours. Dichato, which lies only ten minutes from our home, was destroyed. We haven't had electricity or water for a week. We have had over 200 aftershocks since the quake, the strongest being a 7.0 quake Friday morning. We haven't slept or bathed in many days. The supermarkets are empty, because people stole everything in them. There is no food and houses are now being robbed. This has been so difficult. I have been very nervous, and with the baby (Isabel is 2-months old) it has been difficult to run outside with every aftershock. The problem is we are not sure of the stability of our home, and are unsure each time whether the home will fall or not. With my husband, Miguel, we have decided to allow the Mexican government (Alejandra is a Mexican national) to purchase plane tickets for us (Alejandra and Isabel), along with my mother and sister, to travel to Mexico where it is better for us to wait until the worst is over. The seismologists have not been able to assure us whether there will be further large earthquakes in the region, and because of my little Isabel, we need to be in a place that is safe. By the hand of God we have been taken care of. Miguel will not be traveling with us, because we can't afford his flight (he is a Chilean national). Please pray, because it will be very difficult to leave my husband at this time. Thank you for all of your prayers. We have felt them very much." David and Wendy Mark, the Latin American regional coordinators, are heading to Chile in early April to assess what happened to the Chilean Covenant community. Alejandra had no information about Penco, which has a Covenant church and was hit hard by the Tsunami, and Coelemu, which is was near the epicenter as well. Both had Covenant church buildings and I don't know the status of those. The Covenant congregation in Concepcion fared the best apparently. The Merge mission team that left Chile, four hours before the quake, is going to try to raise $200,000 to help the Covenant churches and families in this region. Many Covenant churches have told me they are interested in going down to help with reconstruction. We will wait until after the assessment by David and Wendy what our next step will be. Winter is coming to Chile, so probably later in the year will be better for this (the area is very cold and wet in the winter). I will keep everyone infomed as best as possible. Dale ******************************************************* Chile Update #1 from Merge Luciano Silva, the pastor of the Covenant Church in Tome, sent a message through a friend saying they were okay. He has not answered any phone calls we have made. Marcus Sobarzo, the pastor for the Covenant Church in Concepcion, and the president of the Covenant churches in Chile, is okay and said his apartment actually had little damage. We have no info on Alejandra Ibarra, the Merge Trip Facilitator for Chile, and her family who lives in Tome. We have no info on the pastors, churches and people in Penco or Coelemu at this time. I will send updated info when I have it. The entire Merge staff has been trying to contact Alejandra constantly since hours after the earthquake in various ways. We will continue until we have contacted her in some way. We will send everyone an assesment of the damage to property both with churches, camps, and the members of the congregations. We thank those of you who have said they are willing to get teams together to go down to help with reconstruction. Those possible options will be outlined in the future. Rev. Dale Lusk _________________________________________________ Love Update A LOVE NOTE October 9, 2009 Dear, Dear Family and Friends, They say everyone needs 7 hugs a day. Count this as one "no, two, because it s a real tight one! Honest folk "including our cousin Loren Jones "have made an obviously true observation: I never hear from Vicky. Actually, sometimes Jerry hardly hears from Vicky! Our disappearance began in January of last year when, after 34+ years away from our native land, we headed into retirement and back to being U.S. natives again. The first 8 months we were engaged in a Tur de Gracias "touching base with many of the churches and groups who have kept us alive and well on planet earth while carrying out the mission the Lord had for us "first in Europe, and then in Mexico. There are no words to capture the significance of so many people committed to the Lord and to us during these years, allowing Him to launch through us five churches in three of the largest Metropolitan areas of Mexico and, actually, the world. We were returning, however, to what and where? During those days, that was our big prayer concern. Without children or grandchildren to spark any other thought, we returned to Portland, Oregon. Vicky s mother, Edna Lytner, and widowed brother, Larry Hunnewell, as well as Jerry s brother and sister-in-law, Nathan and Judy, and sister and brother-in-law, Charla and Rob Wilcox, and widowed sister, Ruth Froust (who passed into the Lord s presence three months later), and our wonderful sobrinos (nieces and nephews) all lived in this area. They "and many others! "have helped us re-nest. During this transition we feel almost overwhelmed by the gracious provision and timing of the Lord. Just because our birthdays indicated it was retirement time from the mission, how did that fit in with His long-obedience-in-the-same-direction plans? Vicky had been feeling a stirring to investigate returning to teaching, if it were possible. In between travel commitments, she began to squeeze in studies at Portland State U. With one day to spare before the school year began last year, she was hired as a third grade Dual language teacher in Woodburn, Oregon. So, she began to teach once again "in Spanish! But that meant she had to complete the professional requirements for the position "fast. During these months she has taken 30 graduate hours. She is presently involved in her final challenge "a term of being observed by a supervising teacher from PSU "and submitting culminating academic work. If she makes it through this final hoop, the university will recommend to the Oregon teacher s licensing body her receiving English as a Second Language with Bilingual/Spanish endorsement. As it happens , just as we were in re-entry, Powell Valley Covenant Church, in Gresham, was between pastors. Since we have had a 3-decade relationship with this wonderful, 120-year-old congregation, there developed a natural bridge which led to their issuing Jerry a call as interim pastor with a half-time commitment. He began his new ministry in a seamless transition from serving the national church to this local congregation. We really love them! These open doors brought us face-to-face with needing to look for another door "to a home. From our little apartment across from Vicky s mom s place, we began to search the web, the map, and myriads of leads to find a place somewhere between our two jobs which were an hour and 15 minutes apart. We needed a single-level place without steps, with three bedrooms and a two-car garage, without a large yard, and without a price tag that would have weighed down Minnie Pearl s famous hat! Rob (an appraiser) and Charla (a mortgage loan agent) dedicated time to help us in the hunt. In December we signed the papers on a cheery little yellow house on a corner lot of a cul-de-sac in a great area of Clackamas, a mile off I205 highway. What we hadn t foreseen is that we would be moving into it during a Big Blizzard during Christmas! So, at long last, we are waiting for you whenever you want to show up at Love Inn: 13693 S.E. 123rd Avenue Clackamas, OR 97015 Home: (503) 855-4212; Jerry s cell: (503) 206-1006 We wanted to fill in all of the chinks of missing information, even though some of you have been tracking "not due to our intense correspondence! "with us during these months. We wanted to be sure to get in touch with you during these days to share another major happening in our lives. All her life Vicky s has been blessed by having an older brother, Larry. Actually, the year we left for Europe, he lived with us and went through that significant transition with us. He later lived and worked in Alaska "first as the Assistant to the State Bank Examiner, and later, on the Alaskan pipeline "before settling down back in this, his home state. He has been especially kind to us since we returned "passing on some furniture, kitchen and office supplies and some of Vicky s childhood treasures that he had been storing, and playing pinochle with us and Edna. Last week, totally unexpectedly, he evidently experienced a stroke or heart attack while on an afternoon drive along a service road out of Troutdale "maybe while looking for 3 elk that he had recently spotted. His car drifted across the road, according to a witness, and went down a steep embankment, striking a tree before reaching a river. The impact caused his demise. During the intervening days, we have been accompanying Vicky s mother to tend to the immediate necessary details. Larry had the foresight to leave a will which names her as executor to carry out his wishes. So, it leaves a great load of responsibility on her shoulders to put in order all of the paperwork and multitudinous details of the estate. She will need much prayer to work through all of the demands. This Sunday, October 11, we will be celebrating Larry s life with a brief time of remembrance at 12:30 p.m., at the close of the second service of Powell Valley Covenant Church, 1335 S.E. 282nd Avenue, Gresham, OR 97080, followed by a light lunch. Then, at 3:00 there will be a Memorial moment at the Willamette National Cemetery where his urn will be placed, along with that of his wife, Freddie, in the same crypt. Life always seems much too short. We thank the Lord for being able to share what we could of theirs. Friends and family right now take on an augmented value in our eyes. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11 Gods continued blessing on and through each of you, Updates from Bob & Nancy Sabean Click on the links below to read letters.