Monday, August 31, 2009

Smoky Season in Indonesia

My brother, Steve, his wife, Laura, and their precious daughters, Julia and Katie Joy, are missionaries with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Indonesia. This is a picture of the conditions that they have been living in for the past month. This is the time of year when all the farmers burn off their fields, and that combined with peat moss burning in the jungle and an unusual lack of rain has led to extremely smoky conditions. He is unable to fly because of the smoke and because the rivers have gotten too low for him to take off and land on, so they are evacuating to another area of Indonesia, which is where they used to live before he began flying float planes. They are concerned about Julia and Katie breathing any more of this stuff. It's been a difficult decision to come to, because they worry about how it is perceived among the locals with whom they have built relationships that they can just up and leave, yet the locals have to remain in the smoke. They will be flying out at 2:00 a.m. their time today (2:00 p.m. our time), so please pray for safety and for God's will to be done in this situation.

1 comment:

Lori Harper said...

Will be lifting them up in prayer today!!!