Susan Hoover

The light from the sun shone on the waving ocean, a beautiful sunrise to start our day as we travelled from one island to the next. I looked at my surroundings as we passed by fishing huts built on stilts in the water, not far from the exotic looking islands overfilling with palm trees and mountain ranges bursting through their tops. It looked like scenes out of “Lost” or “Jurassic Park”.. nothing like you would ever expect to experience with your own eyes. We passed by island after island searching for our destination.. a small village of people from the ‘suku laut’ (the ocean tribe) part of the Melayu people. A whole tribe of people unreached by the gospel. I was amazed that this was real… this is my life. As I tried to curl up with the bags in the bottom of our boat to catch a little rest I felt like I had gone back 100 years.. like the first missionaries coming to uncivilized world.

Our time in the village of Mentengah was an amazing experience. Just learning how to walk on the small, shaky planks to get from one house to the other was a real learning experience. If you want to learn how much of a wimp you truly are.. just go to a place like this! (it worked for me!! Haha)

Sarah and I decided to focus our time in the village on a few people. So every morning we would go to visit Ibu Ahoi. On our last day there we sat outside of her house and shared the wonderful, beautiful good news of Jesus with her. She looked at me so sincerely and said..”I want to believe but my husband and I are from a different religion…” And as I explained that Jesus is for all people..and it wasn’t about the name of her religion, but if she believed with her heart Jesus would come to be with her.. a smile grew on her face and she decided right there she wanted to pray to receive Jesus. It was a beautiful moment. Truly beautiful…

The morning we wanted to travel home from mentengah I knew in my spirit it would not be calm weather, but that God was with us. However, I never expected to be in a boat a little larger than a canoe, with 10 people, half of which couldn’t swim, in the middle of the ocean totally thrown around by huge waves.. to the point of being completely sideways with water coming in the boat (again and again) over crocodile infested water. Nope. Didn’t expect that.

But what I also never expected was to be completely at peace in a situation like that! I knew Jesus was with us. I knew we were safe. We would not die. I remembered him sleeping through the storm, completely at peace, and I knew I could be the same way. So instead of listening to the hysterical screams around me I started to sing at the top of my lungs.. and what should have been a terrifying experience turned into something fun.. and a real testimony to me about how peaceful and safe it is to be with Jesus.

Yes, I came home exhausted from unsuccessful sleeping on the floor, itchy from the amount of bug bites, tired from hiking, sore from an extreme sunburn, nauseous from the sea, and suffering from an unhappy stomach. But none of it compared to the joy..

the joy of being able to reach the unreached with the beautiful, good news of the gospel..
and the joy of just being alive… ah….. it’s so good to just be alive!

William Carey once said:

“I will go down, If You will hold the rope.”

I am happy to be able to trips like this.. to go into the depths of the jungle. To find the lost.
I am willing… but I can’t do it alone..
If you will hold on with me… with your prayers and support.. you lower us down into these places.. to bring hope to the hopeless!

Thank you for holding the rope.. I could not do it without your strength behind this!!

Blessings,

Susan joy

Lots of pictures… the beauty of the surroundings, the children’s event we did, visiting the families, learning how to walk on thing that shouldn’t be walked on, the things you find in the jungle, and everything else! 

(this update only included news of the first 10 day trip to mentengah. Some of these pictures are of the second trip to the province above us)