Jarretts Ministry

Dear Friends and Family:
We just received word that one of the two long-awaited containers [over 18 months in transit and customs] has arrived at Tenwek. We don’t know if our things are on this container or the other one, but please pray that the other container will arrive this week.

We also have an update on the Japan ministry team that should highlight the need for continued prayer. After the team’s flight took off from Dallas, one of the young men on our team, Steven Dick, suffered a collapsed lung; as I understand, it is from a condition called pneumothorax. This condition can occur spontaneously in young men, where an air sac in the lung bursts causing air to go out into the negative pressure space between the chest wall and the lung. The accumulating air causes the affected lung to collapse in addition to a fair amount of pain. It is necessary to put a large diameter tube through the skin and chest wall to release the trapped air and observe for cessation of its reaccumulation. Steven is in a hospital in Denver awaiting stabilization of the leak [if indeed, the reports that I'm getting are accurate], and will not be able to go on to Japan after his recovery. Please pray for his complete recovery from this unexpected problem. Steven is a vital member of the music ministry team, so someone else will need to “step up to the plate”, so to speak. The plane was required to make an emergency landing in Denver, return to Dallas to refuel, and then leave again for Tokyo. The team therefore missed their flight to Sapporo, so they spent the night in Tokyo and missed the first Sunday worship in Sapporo.

Marty, Debbye, and Becki converged on Harrisburg, PA by air today to spend the week with Beth as baseball groupies. Pray for their safety and a good time of family fellowship.

Amy, Laura, Rachel, and I will drive to Springfield, Illinois on Monday morning where ALL three girls will have their wisdom teeth removed. We had planned on A & L doing this, but Rachel’s dentist found that hers were impacted and needed to be removed before returning to Kenya. Dr. Russ Williams, a Tenwek oral surgeon volunteer, offered to do this for the girls, so we are taking advantage of his generous offer. Please pray that all 12 teeth come out without difficulty and the girls make a speedy recovery. Pray that Dad is a good dental nurse for the post-op care. Rachel’s surgery is Monday afternoon, and A & L will have surgery on Tuesday morning. We plan on coming back to Indiana on Thursday.
Thanks for your prayers on our behalf.
Paul, for the Jarretts in the USA

Dear Friends and Family:

I wanted to give you an update on Laura’s trip to Japan. Praise God that all of her requested funds have been received, and we have ordered her ticket for August 15, 2006. The support funds raised were to meet her estimated initial travel and living expenses. It is believed that she will earn enough money from teaching the conversational English lessons to cover additional living expenses, according to those who held the position this past year.
This morning, she took two packed bags of winter clothes to the airport to accompany the youth group ministry team from Castleview that is headed to Sapporo, Japan. They are going for nearly three weeks to the same church where Laura will be ministering for the next year. Please pray for safety and successful ministry as the team ministers in the name of Jesus. I’m going to pray that God will double the size of the churches where the teams focus on evangelism. Pray as God leads you.
Updates and specific prayer requests from the team can be obtained from the Castleview Baptist Church website.

The following is a prayer request dated April 29, 2006, from a Japanese pastor in a different area of Japan which highlights some or the spiritual warfare going on there:

From Shigeru Takiura, Pastor of RPCNA Japan Presbytery in Kobe city.
I again want to ask your favor of praying for the Christian freedom in Japan.
Please pray that our Christian primary school kids would not be forced to go to Ise Shrine as worship-visit in near future.
Please pray that Yasukuni Shrine’s (Shrine of war dead for the Emperor) historically and religiously dangerous character will be well understood by the Japanese public. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_Shrine)
Please pray that the freedom of living according to Christian faith may be established firmly in Japan.
Please pray that the recent move of reviving the National Shintoism maybe prevented and gone.
Please pray for Japanese Christian citizen to raise the voice against such a trend.
Please pray for the Japanese Church to speak clearly about the sin of such idol worship both in the past and present according to the scripture, and lead the prayer for the repentance of the nation to walk the righteous path before the Lord.
Please pray for our witness for the King Jesus Christ who is the medeatorial King over Japan.
Please pray for Japan’s repentance and salvation from its destruction as the punishment of the Lord.
Please appeal to your government officers to take effort against recent Japanese trend. Let them step forward to prevent Japanese revival of National Shintoistic regime. Let them know that Japanese Christians are really desiring their support against the trend of such revival.

One praise from Kenya comes from Mosop School and the Laura Children’s Home for orphans. I had assisted them in getting their application completed for funds for a dormitory. World Orphans has granted them $6,000 for a dormitory that will help greatly in the construction of a dormitory for the orphans who live year-round near the school.
We’re hopeful that Umoja Children’s Home will complete their application and obtain funds for a dormitory as well. Please pray for them and the Bemms who will be assisting them.
Again, thank you for your prayers. God is faithful to answer all of our prayers. We, as believers in the power of the God, need to pray specifically so that we know when He has answered.

Paul, for the Jarretts in Indiana

Dear Friends: The airline called late last night saying that the bag is located and will be delivered this am. My talk in WVA went well, and I’m driving back the 7 hours this morning. Should arrive early afternoon at home, Lord willing. Thanks for praying. Paul

Dear Family and Friends:
We have recovered all but one of the suitcases. The airline is currently saying that they don’t know where the bag is. [At one time they said that it was in London] It contains some favorite devotional materials, Debbye’s books for the start of her school year, as well as items like the chargers for my Palm Pilot, toothbrush, laptop fan, all our rechargeable batteries, and some recently purchased gifts. We keep saying where’s this or that, and the answer always come back to the missing bag. Please pray that it will be recovered soon.
I drive to West Virginia today for 2 lectures tomorrow [OBGYN in the Tropics and Malaria in pregnancy. I’ll return on Saturday. Please pray for safe travel. Jet lag is still a bit of an issue.
Paul, for the Jarretts

Dear Friends and Family:
This is just a quick note to say that we are back home again in Indiana safely. Our flight left Kenya over 3 hours late — we didn’t board until 2 am local time, so we were pretty tired. Our connection in London was therefore pretty tight. This is also where Becki went her separate way to Miami. They were waiting for her as she got off the airplane to take her to a different terminal for her connection. She and her bags made her flight. Our flight was boarding as we got through security, so we didn’t have any time at all in the London airport. Five of our bags were too tired to make the connection, but the other 7 did. We had an hour’s delay leaving Chicago because of weather in the area, but we are safe at home now, and wondering why it isn’t even thinking about getting dark at 7:45PM. It’s dark in Kenya by 7 pm, and it used to be time for sunset in Indiana except for the new daylight savings time. I guess that we’ll all get used to that together.
Paul, for the Jarretts together again in Indiana