THE MOSTELLER STORY
INSTALMENT #13
Thank you again for all the love you have poured out to us -- this time through cards and gifts for my 97th birthday.
You make me want all the more to make it to 100! Glory! And now as we celebrate our nation's Independence Day, we thank God for the freedom we enjoy--here and in Him! What a price our founding fathers paid for us, but so much greater yet was the price He paid to give us glorious freedom--and that for eternity! Again I say, Glory!
Well, to share another tidbit from our years in the Cape Verde Islands:
Humberto Pires Ferreira was won to the Lord by Francisco Xavier Ferreira, a pastor who later became our first national District Superintendent. Humberto's wife thought him to be unfaithful to her and left him, taking their little daughter with her from Praia, the capital city of the islands, 240 miles north to Mindelo, on the island of Sao Vicente, where she became a spiritualist medium.
Humberto was very competent, deeply dedicated to the Lord, and extremely helpful in our church work. Besides being the secretary of City Hall in Praia, he was one of two Nazarenes honored by the President of the Portuguese government and made one of the top officials of the island of Brava.
Everything he did was done with perfection. In fact, I feel that he even made a name for me. Every night he and several others had prayer together in the tower of the Maude Chapman Memorial Church.
When we were transferred to Mindelo, his desire was for us to hunt up his wife and assure her that he was faithful to her. This we knew to be true, because he spent every night with us. He wrote tracts, Sunday School lessons, a district paper, etc.; translated every song found in a large hymnal (he was our Portuguese Haldor Lillenas); and did so much more.
There came a time when he said that there was no future in working for the government as compared with working for the Lord; and he appeared, without promise of remuneration, in Mindelo, where among many other accomplishments, he founded the Nazarene print shop and drew blueprints for our large church and chapels. He needed some kind of remuneration, so we offered him one half of what the government had paid him.
We did succeed in convincing his wife, Idalina, that her husband had been faithful to her, and missionary Mrs. Ernest Eades was able to lead her to the Lord. Humberto and Idalina were gloriously reunited. Their daughter, Celeste, was our daughter Kathy's bosom friend and went on to become a pastor's wife who later served with us in Portugal.
People in great number were at the pier to bid us farewell when we boarded the ocean liner SS Uige for the ten-day trip to Brazil, the new field we were asked to open in 1958, but Humberto never showed up to see us off. He didn't think that he could face our separation. I understood, for our love for each other was like that that existed between David and Jonathan.
In Christ's love,
Earl E. Mosteller
You make me want all the more to make it to 100! Glory! And now as we celebrate our nation's Independence Day, we thank God for the freedom we enjoy--here and in Him! What a price our founding fathers paid for us, but so much greater yet was the price He paid to give us glorious freedom--and that for eternity! Again I say, Glory!
Well, to share another tidbit from our years in the Cape Verde Islands:
Humberto Pires Ferreira was won to the Lord by Francisco Xavier Ferreira, a pastor who later became our first national District Superintendent. Humberto's wife thought him to be unfaithful to her and left him, taking their little daughter with her from Praia, the capital city of the islands, 240 miles north to Mindelo, on the island of Sao Vicente, where she became a spiritualist medium.
Humberto was very competent, deeply dedicated to the Lord, and extremely helpful in our church work. Besides being the secretary of City Hall in Praia, he was one of two Nazarenes honored by the President of the Portuguese government and made one of the top officials of the island of Brava.
Everything he did was done with perfection. In fact, I feel that he even made a name for me. Every night he and several others had prayer together in the tower of the Maude Chapman Memorial Church.
When we were transferred to Mindelo, his desire was for us to hunt up his wife and assure her that he was faithful to her. This we knew to be true, because he spent every night with us. He wrote tracts, Sunday School lessons, a district paper, etc.; translated every song found in a large hymnal (he was our Portuguese Haldor Lillenas); and did so much more.
There came a time when he said that there was no future in working for the government as compared with working for the Lord; and he appeared, without promise of remuneration, in Mindelo, where among many other accomplishments, he founded the Nazarene print shop and drew blueprints for our large church and chapels. He needed some kind of remuneration, so we offered him one half of what the government had paid him.
We did succeed in convincing his wife, Idalina, that her husband had been faithful to her, and missionary Mrs. Ernest Eades was able to lead her to the Lord. Humberto and Idalina were gloriously reunited. Their daughter, Celeste, was our daughter Kathy's bosom friend and went on to become a pastor's wife who later served with us in Portugal.
People in great number were at the pier to bid us farewell when we boarded the ocean liner SS Uige for the ten-day trip to Brazil, the new field we were asked to open in 1958, but Humberto never showed up to see us off. He didn't think that he could face our separation. I understood, for our love for each other was like that that existed between David and Jonathan.
In Christ's love,
Earl E. Mosteller
P.S. From daughter Ginny:
June was a month of celebrations for the Mostellers: their 74th anniversary, Father's Day, and Dad's 97th birthday.
Unfortunately Dad squeezed in a little trip to the emergency room as well, but he is back in his apartment trying to get stronger each day.
When I took Mom back to her room after the anniversary celebration at Callahan Village, she, with pure delight and a happy expression, shared with one of her caregivers about being at "the remembering of our wedding--with LOTS of people." That really touched both the caregiver's heart--and mine!
Getting a ride in a wheelchair van, Dad was able to enjoy a birthday lunch at his favorite buffet in town, where the servers outdid themselves to make his celebration special, even presenting him with an enormous banana split (as in five bananas!) and having everyone join in singing "Happy Birthday" to him.
June was a month of celebrations for the Mostellers: their 74th anniversary, Father's Day, and Dad's 97th birthday.
Unfortunately Dad squeezed in a little trip to the emergency room as well, but he is back in his apartment trying to get stronger each day.
When I took Mom back to her room after the anniversary celebration at Callahan Village, she, with pure delight and a happy expression, shared with one of her caregivers about being at "the remembering of our wedding--with LOTS of people." That really touched both the caregiver's heart--and mine!
Getting a ride in a wheelchair van, Dad was able to enjoy a birthday lunch at his favorite buffet in town, where the servers outdid themselves to make his celebration special, even presenting him with an enormous banana split (as in five bananas!) and having everyone join in singing "Happy Birthday" to him.
Link to INSTALMENT #14 >>> (coming soon)
