| Bob
and Sela Buster
Tonga
Click Image To Enlarge
Sending Church: Emmanuel Independent Baptist Church
- Postal Address of the Church is:
- PO Box 4710 Higgins. ACT 2615. AUSTRALIA
- Callers Within Australia Phone Pastor Ian Stevens on:
- (02)6255-1660
- International Callers:
- on: 61 2 6255-1660
- Fax 61 2 6255 3692
- Mobile (Cell) [Aus:] 042 1174 808
- Intrntnl Callers:61 2 421174 808
Click The Busters - A Recent photo
Friday, 23rd March, 2012
Subject: The Passing of a King
- Note from Geoff, the Web Site Admin:
- We have already sent this around the Prayer Letter mailing list, and we now present it here on the Buster's Page
Greetings Dear praying Friends,
We have received over the past few day quite a few emails of folks concerned over our well being since the death of the king of Tonga and
will this event spark civil unrest in Tonga.
- I was only, last Monday, able to retrieve all my email addresses from my laptop which ceased to
work after so many attempts to get into the hard drive so I am now able to
send out this general email.
- To those of you who are not aware, and to those who have emailed, we
thank you for your concern, all is well here in Tonga with us.
- Yes,
the King of Tonga passed away in Hong Kong last Sunday afternoon (March 18th) and the
official notice of his death was released yesterday by the Prime
Minister's office.
- His body will be returned back to Tonga on Monday
of next week and he will be buried on Wednesday.
- There will be an
official 100 day mourning period which will greatly restrict the
activities that people are able to do and from what I understand we
will not be able to have a game time during our youth night on Fridays
as it will make too much noise, as a matter of fact the the noise created
by having a gathering may not be allowed other than regular Church
services.
We, as a family, had all planned to go to the main island on Monday of
next week to have our medicals done, get our Police reports and prepare and lodge our applications for our Visa extensions and
Citizenship papers. But I have been advised by the main island that all, if not most of the Govt Depts will be shut down and it will be
impossible to get things done. We now will not be able to go till the week after Easter and will cut it a bit fine in getting our Visa'a
approved for the end of May, but we will leave it with the Lord as we always have done in the past.
It usually takes about two months for approvals to be done but they won't allow applications to be lodged
too early.
They have been been known to lose applications.
The name of the new King who is currently the Crown Prince was
announced yesterday as well.
He will be known as King Tupou VI.
- He has resided in Canberra (Australia's seat of Government)for many years and is Tonga's Official
Representative to Australia.
- Sela's brother who lives in Canberra
knows him very well as he has taken part in many of the Tongan community activities in Canberra.
- We will have to wait till he is
crowned King to have our Citizenship applicationslooked at, but it has
not been announced when the Coronation will take place.
- The King is
the only one who can give approval for all Citizenships and if, and
when they are approved - it will mean we will have dual citizenship.
- This
will also mean, if approved we will no longer have to apply for Visa extensions every two years - which, I for one, will rejoice over; as it
takes a good week out of your life running around getting everything
done for the family and then lodging the applications and waiting.
We appreciate your prayers for Tonga, we don't expect any problems
here as things have been fairly calm over the past few years. - Pray
that, at this time, it will give us greater opportunities to witness and
challenge people about their eternal destiny.
- We would also ask for
your prayers for Havea, the 24 year old son of one of our families, who
is awaiting approval from NZ to go and have surgery for a suspected
brain tumour and heart condition.
Your missionaries to Tonga,
Bro. Bob, Sela, Mark, Jeremy and Jacob.
Prayer Letter, January, 2012
Dear Pastor and Church,
Greetings and blessing for this New Year.
Wow, a lot has happened here in the past few months and time
ticks away so quickly.
First of all we would like to thank all those that have supported the Lord’s ministry
here in Tonga during this past year of 2011; in prayers, encouragements, materially and financially.
The end of the year programs were a great blessing and we held our annual
Carols by Candlelight and had around 80 people attend some who had come
for the first time to any of our services. - About a third had never experienced
anything like this and we had our Youth do a drama on the night.
- A follow
up of the "first timers" has seen the Billa family all start attending our services.
Click Six Men to preach most for first time
Then on New Year ’s Eve I asked six of our men if they would speak. For five of
them it was the first time they had preached in the Church. They all "filled, or
slightly went over" - the 10 minute allotted time.
Click Combined Camp
The first event of our 2012 Church programme was our Combined Family Camp with the Church on the main island; and was held from
the 3rd to the 7th Jan here on ‘Eua.
Pastor Stewart from Sherwood Hills Baptist Church (South Western Sydney) was our
speaker and although it rained most of the 5 days, the general consensus was, that it
was a great camp. - I believe many hearts were stirred and challenged by the Word during the Camp and also on the Sunday following.
- Unfortunately
it all had to come to an end, and the folks from the main island went back
by ferry early on the Monday morning.
The week following the camp the adopted daughter of Sefo and Josie accepted Christ as her Saviour and
following our evening service on the 22nd she was baptised as our first member for the year and the first to
be baptised in our church building.
- Sefo will be leaving on the 24th Jan for NZ as he has an appointment with the heart surgeon on the 26th
to have the battery on his pacemaker replaced.
- Thank you for all those who have prayed for this all to be worked out, it has been a long time in the planning; and now it is finally
going to happen.
- Please continue to pray that all his needs will be met especially for the medical procedure.
Our family are all well; yet tired, but WE
have thoroughly enjoyed all the visitors we’ve had over the past month.
Jeremy has finally completed his year 12 in Nov and has been kept busy helping Mark around the
property. Jacob has forgotten what his school desk looks like and is relishing the break from school.
Sela as always is keeping very busy and we both have planned a short break for the end of January.
Please pray:
- For two of Langi and Luva’s sons. Havea was diagnosed with a hole in the heart the week before
Christmas and a suspected brain tumor and urgently needs treatment in NZ but they are waiting
for Ministry of Health to assist with getting him there.
- I just learned today that Talo their middle
son has cancer in the mouth and was to have his tongue removed today but it has been delayed.
-
Sefo’s trip to NZ for his pacemaker battery replacement.
-
For the family and the challenges we’ll be facing this year.
-
Our outreach ministry for this year through all the villages here on the island.
Praise: - Toalisi who has been struggling with his salvation for the past couple of years has returned to the
church and told me last week that he has accepted Jesus Christ and wants to be discipled for baptism.
We appreciate and want to thank you all for your faithfulness in your continued prayers and support for
Lord’s work here in Tonga. We pray that the LORD will bless each one of you as you faithfully serve Him
this year of 2012.
Your Missionaries to Tonga,
Bro. Bob, Sela, Mark, Jeremy and Jacob
|
Missionaries 