missionaries

Missionary Plane Down

This happened on September 22:

YAJASI Plane Crashes; Three Killed | JAARS

A Pilatus PC-6 crashed today in Indonesia; pilot Paul Westlund and the two Indonesian passengers died in the accident. The plane—flown by our partner YAJASI—was traveling in a remote, mountainous area. The cause is still unknown, and an investigation is pending.

Paul had flown in Indonesia for nearly 25 years; he’s survived by his wife and two children. Please pray along with us for the families, YAJASI, and everyone else involved.

May God bless and comfort the families and colleagues of these three. (My Web searching so far has failed to yield the names of the two Indonesians.)

Here are three other posts I came across:

Timo Miller Update

Here are some excerpts from the first page of an Associated Press piece I read a few minutes ago:

Now, what started as a custody battle over little Isabella Miller-Jenkins has turned into a global manhunt, with indications that Mennonite pastors and other faith-based supporters may have helped hide the two in Nicaragua and are now coming to the aid of one who the FBI says helped Miller.

Eager to keep the girl away from Jenkins and what they consider a dangerous and immoral lifestyle, they liken their roles to that of underground helpers aiding runaway slaves.

“God’s Holy Law never recognizes a gay marriage,” said Pablo Yoder, a Mennonite pastor in Nicaragua, in an email message to The Associated Press. “Thus, the Nicaraguan Brotherhood felt it right and good to help Lisa not only free herself from the so called civil marriage and lesbian lifestyle, but especially to protect her nine year old daughter from being abducted and handed over to an active lesbian and a whole-hearted activist.”

[…]

In 2009, two months before the judge ordered the custody change, [Lisa] Miller and the girl flew to Central America and took up residence for an unknown amount of time in Nicaragua before vanishing again.

So says the FBI, which revealed in April that it had arrested Nicaraguan missionary Timothy David “Timo” Miller and charged him with abetting an international kidnapping by helping arrange travel and lodging for the two. He is awaiting trial.

[…]

Timo Miller has pleaded not guilty and is free on $25,000 bail, awaiting trial.

[…]

Yoder, who works the remote village of Waslala, 161 miles from Managua, told The Associated Press she celebrated her daughter’s birthday in his house last year. He wouldn’t say more.

Read the two-page story here A fight over a girl, and God’s law.

At this point, I have no further comments to add to those I’ve already made here.

Missionary Threat

The title of the story seized my attention immediately: Existence of 200 ‘uncontacted’ tribal people in Brazilian rainforest confirmed.

I clicked the link and started reading:

The Brazilian government has confirmed the existence of about 200 unidentified tribal people in the Amazon rainforest.

Satellite pictures in January revealed this community was living near the border with Peru. A flight expedition over the area in April confirmed that they are about 200 in numbers.

Along with Survival International Funai, an organization working for tribal people’s rights worldwide, Brazilian authorities found that these people are living in three clearings in the Javari Valley in the western Amazon.

According to Fabricio Amorim, who led Funai’s overflight expedition, illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions, drug trafficking and oil exploration on the Peru-Brazil border area are the main threats to the well-being of this community and their dwellings.

Brazil follows a policy not to contact these people, instead monitor their land so that they can live without any risk.

The community and its four straw-roofed huts were spotted in the Javari Valley, which is believed to be hiding around 2000 uncontacted tribes in the world.

Eh?! What?!

Missionaries, right there among ranchers and drug traffickers, threaten the well-being of these people. 😯

Threaten, mind you! 🙄

As a former MK (missionary kid) and a former missionary and a current mission board member, I hope missionaries get the Gospel to these folks soon.

Well, to see some aerial photos of the community, click the above link.

Then, for a personal challenge, see if you can locate those tribal people using publicly-available satellite imagery on the Web. 🙂

Timothy Miller Update

Yesterday I was informed:

As of Friday evening Joanna does not have to appear in court on Thursday May 5th, as she was originally told. She may have to in the future, we just don’t know. She claimed her rights as a spouse. But now they are talking about maybe seeing her in court with charges against her…

Now within the last hour I learned of a site set up to provide information on Timothy Miller and the court action against him.

Here are some excerpts from across the site:

Lisa left the US before the order was issued by the Vermont Court transferring primary custody of Isabella from Lisa her biological mother to Janet Jenkins her former lesbian partner.

And if you were Timo, a pastor who has dedicated his entire life to helping others, and you were faced with a desperate call for help from someone you didn’t know, would you respond?

When Timo received that plea for help, he didn’t know that it could be illegal to assist with arranging travel, as Lisa was the sole legal guardian of her child and there were no travel restrictions. But even if he had, should have he responded differently?

Source: The Timothy Miller Support Network

The site has a page dedicated to facilitating donations to the family and the defense fund.

They also have a subscription link for a GoogleGroup dedicated to providing updates and prayer requests.

Oh, and I doubt the site is official in any sense. (According to Network Solutions, it was created on May 1, so it’s brand new.)

Tim Miller Case Corrections

Reports have it that Timo Miller (aka, Timothy David Miller) got involved in the Lisa and Isabella Miller case because Lisa attended the church he pastors in the US. As I understand it, that is not true.

  • Tim has never pastored a church in the United States. He pastors a small congregation in Nicaragua.
  • Lisa attended a Baptist church. Timo is not Baptist; rather, he is Beachy (also variously known — I guess — as Amish-Mennonite and Beachy-Amish).

I’ve also seen it reported that Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) was involved in this case. I understand that to be a false report as well. CAM has made it very clear they were not involved with Lisa and Isabella.

Now a few excerpts from some notes by Loyal Martin (Philadelphia, NY) after Timo’s court hearing Monday morning:

  • Tim, Joanna, and the family came in (and departed) with the appointed attorney to help avoid entanglements with the press. They appeared calm and respectful.
  • The courtroom was filled to capacity with support from 3 NY churches, 2 VT churches, and several families from PA.
  • A family support fund is being set up in PA.
  • Charges are being considered against Joanna and her mother as well.

I had this post mostly ready to post late last night, but I held off, awaiting confirmations and clarifications of some details.

This morning I read a piece that says Timo is in prison. No, he isn’t. He’s free on bail.

Above all, love God!
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