12/5/2006 –

Dear Friends and Supporters,

It has been a while since we last wrote you, and some of you may be wondering what has happened to us! Well, we want you to know that we're all still here. We also want you to know how grateful we are for all your prayers for us during the last six months. Your prayers are what have sustained us throughout this time.

By now most of you know that our family is back in the States for the year. What you do not know about are some of the reasons for this move. Until now, we ourselves have not been in a position to share about our decision to suddenly relocate stateside. Now however, Nangsar and I feel the time is right to share with you about what has been going on in our lives.

One of the main reasons for our taking a "sabbatical" at this point in time concerns the need for our family to re-constitute itself. Over the years, our home and ministry situation had become such that "normal" family time had simply evaporated! I (Joni) know for sure that I have spent more time "out there" in ministry than with my own family. In addition to all this self-imposed workload and work style, for as long as we can remember, we have always had at least half a dozen other people living at home with us at any given time.

The accumulated effect of this situation has contributed to the emergence of a certain degree of alienation within our family. Again, I (Joni) had allowed my responsibilities at home and over the family to get neglected. We had been burning the candle on both ends for too long. Clearly, we had to address these issues, and make some long overdue corrections to our life plan if we wanted healing and restoration to take place.

The thing that brought all this to a head for us however, was a phone call that Nangsar received from the States informing her that our second son Benjamin (19) had gotten in trouble with the authorities concerning substance abuse. At the time I was up in a remote village overseeing work on two separate projects. It took two more days before word of this could be patched to me in the village. We were told that Benjamin's life was in immediate danger from the people with whom he had gotten himself involved. This was the primary reason we were advised not to talk to anyone about his situation. Needless to say, we were devastated by this unwelcome news.

We soon realized that although Benjamin had made some bad choices, we nevertheless had a lot of issues that we would have to deal with as a family if we wanted to take back what the enemy was trying to take away from us. There definitely were things in our own family dynamics, as well as the ministry context that we were in which had some bearing on Benjamin's life situation.

To make a long story short, Eastside's Mission Council offered to bring our family back so that we could have the opportunity to regroup, rethink, and seek help. They arranged a house for us to live in, along with transportation, Katherine's school tuition, as well as a program of counseling for our family. Without their direct help and intervention, we wouldn't be where we are at this moment. The past few months have not been easy, as we have tried to deal with the multi-layers of "stuff" that had accumulated over 28 years.

In spite of the turmoil we have gone through during the past few months, we can finally say that by God's grace, and because of the faithful prayers of all our friends and loved ones, we are now moving out of harm's immediate way. God has rescued our family, and He is in the process of restoring us to each other. We now have a greater understanding of our situation, and have a better appreciation of what God wants to do in our lives. And for this, we will be eternally grateful to God, and to you our supporters. Thank you for standing with us in this time of our greatest need. Now that we're partially out of the woods, we want to resume our communication with you. We will try to keep you better posted, so that you can pray for us with more accuracy.

Benjamin has stepped back from the brink, and is now safe and at home with us. After a long time of separation, all six of us are once again under one roof. Anthony (26) has finished his course work at Emmanuel School of Religion, and is now here with us while working on his thesis. Rebecca (23) continues to study at Cal State while working full time. She will be graduating in the spring. Katherine (11) is attending 6th grade and is enjoying her school experience at Eastside very much.

During our absence the work continues in the capable hands of the national workers. We have been able to keep in touch with our team members on the field and are very encouraged with the progress of the work.

Well, I better get this sent off to everyone before any more time flies by.