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Quarterly update on the ministry of Mr.& Mrs. Robert Nosker to the Pemon Indian nation of Southeastern Venezuela
"Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God, And the Holy One of Israel;" (Isa 55:5a)NKJV
The Hiawatha Bible Church, PO Box 67, Hamburg, MI 48139
___________________________________________________________________________
Dear Prayer Partners: Winter 2009
For those of you who have not yet heard, we arrived safe though weary in La Paragua on the evening of Nov. 24th.
We spent the next few days trying to breathe and acclimate to 90 degrees inside the house with 80% humidity, not enough electricity to run air conditioners and bathing with a bucket because water pressure exists only in our imagination or extremely sporadically here. We were greeted with kitchen sink drains that had rusted away and mechanical parts in the toilet that also decided to give up the ghost. Only in a 3rd world country does it take you two whole days to buy the parts and fix these small problems, of course part of that includes walking into town 5 times to search for needed items.
We finally have internet again on base after a year without it but it is slower than dial up. I would not have thought that even possible but this place never ceases to amaze me. Also, for some reason it only works on Pedro's computer. It will not work on American built computers, but I should have seen that coming, some bios problem I suppose. So, if you write us please no pix and only short notes otherwise we fall asleep waiting for stuff to download.
Malaria and Dengue Fever are rampant here again and if those don't get you there are 300 murders country wide each week, no one even counts bank, store and personal robberies any more and the country is on track for over 2500 kidnappings this year.
Did I mention that we're glad to be back? We really are, this is just life here in this part of the world. If any of you think of us as though we are on a type of vacation please don't. This is a sad and dangerous place. Hope for a better life dwindles as just surviving takes precedence. Aside from cell phones, computers and flat screen TV's to titillate the senses, life hasn't changed much in the 35 years we have been here.
Signs of what the world calls Christmas are emerging on the streets and in the stores as they are where you are but here it is even more commercial and material if you can imagine that. This world runs its course even as it did on the night Jesus was born so long ago. The power grabbers and the money grubbers exist in abundance while poverty and injustice cry out on every hand. In the midst of all this Patty and I have come to give of ourselves so that at least the Pemon Nation can have a chance at a meaningful life with purpose and true hope.
We hope that you too have similar desires to give of yourselves so that others may know Christ as you do. This is the believers' reasonable service (Rom. 12:1) but in order to accomplish this we all will have to be intentional and purposeful or life just moves on, another year comes and goes and we just move along with it letting it dictate to us instead of living out the worldview that we say we really believe. May you be able to express your faith well not only during the coming days when we remember the true meaning of Christ's birth, but all through the coming New Year.
We covet your prayers for safety, freedom from sicknesses that would frustrate what we hope to accomplish here and profitable service for the kingdom.
Sometime this next week after we have settled in a little better Pino and I will begin the final clean up of Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon in preparation for the consultant from Bibles International to come and check our work. We also need to take our electric generator to town and have it repaired as it has been inoperative for several months. Thank you for your prayers and gifts so that our part in this work can not only continue but hopefully have a conclusion at some point in the not too distant future.
In His Service till He comes, Robert and Patty
PS Please remember to keep us up to date with your email address changes. Also, if any of you have a slower internet and thus want a plain text only (that is without pix or logos) style prayer letter please let us know as we aim to please
____________________________________________________
"Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God, And the Holy One of Israel;" (Isa 55:5a)NKJV
The Hiawatha Bible Church, PO Box 67, Hamburg, MI 48139
___________________________________________________________________________
Dear Prayer Partners: Winter 2009
For those of you who have not yet heard, we arrived safe though weary in La Paragua on the evening of Nov. 24th.
We spent the next few days trying to breathe and acclimate to 90 degrees inside the house with 80% humidity, not enough electricity to run air conditioners and bathing with a bucket because water pressure exists only in our imagination or extremely sporadically here. We were greeted with kitchen sink drains that had rusted away and mechanical parts in the toilet that also decided to give up the ghost. Only in a 3rd world country does it take you two whole days to buy the parts and fix these small problems, of course part of that includes walking into town 5 times to search for needed items.
We finally have internet again on base after a year without it but it is slower than dial up. I would not have thought that even possible but this place never ceases to amaze me. Also, for some reason it only works on Pedro's computer. It will not work on American built computers, but I should have seen that coming, some bios problem I suppose. So, if you write us please no pix and only short notes otherwise we fall asleep waiting for stuff to download.
Malaria and Dengue Fever are rampant here again and if those don't get you there are 300 murders country wide each week, no one even counts bank, store and personal robberies any more and the country is on track for over 2500 kidnappings this year.
Did I mention that we're glad to be back? We really are, this is just life here in this part of the world. If any of you think of us as though we are on a type of vacation please don't. This is a sad and dangerous place. Hope for a better life dwindles as just surviving takes precedence. Aside from cell phones, computers and flat screen TV's to titillate the senses, life hasn't changed much in the 35 years we have been here.
Signs of what the world calls Christmas are emerging on the streets and in the stores as they are where you are but here it is even more commercial and material if you can imagine that. This world runs its course even as it did on the night Jesus was born so long ago. The power grabbers and the money grubbers exist in abundance while poverty and injustice cry out on every hand. In the midst of all this Patty and I have come to give of ourselves so that at least the Pemon Nation can have a chance at a meaningful life with purpose and true hope.
We hope that you too have similar desires to give of yourselves so that others may know Christ as you do. This is the believers' reasonable service (Rom. 12:1) but in order to accomplish this we all will have to be intentional and purposeful or life just moves on, another year comes and goes and we just move along with it letting it dictate to us instead of living out the worldview that we say we really believe. May you be able to express your faith well not only during the coming days when we remember the true meaning of Christ's birth, but all through the coming New Year.
We covet your prayers for safety, freedom from sicknesses that would frustrate what we hope to accomplish here and profitable service for the kingdom.
Sometime this next week after we have settled in a little better Pino and I will begin the final clean up of Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon in preparation for the consultant from Bibles International to come and check our work. We also need to take our electric generator to town and have it repaired as it has been inoperative for several months. Thank you for your prayers and gifts so that our part in this work can not only continue but hopefully have a conclusion at some point in the not too distant future.
In His Service till He comes, Robert and Patty
PS Please remember to keep us up to date with your email address changes. Also, if any of you have a slower internet and thus want a plain text only (that is without pix or logos) style prayer letter please let us know as we aim to please
____________________________________________________
Although the Nosker's are not aided in their funding by Lickley's Corners Baptist Church their recent report received by Donna Poole is a vibrant testimony of what many serving in foreign lands experience and endure.
Venezuela's President is the anti-American communist, Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela's President is the anti-American communist, Hugo Chavez.
