We hope you are doing well. We mentioned in our last update how in the wake of COVID-19 our support raising has been affected and our plans have been thrown into the hands of shutdown governments. The United States stopped processing passport applications a week after we submitted for Hosanna’s passport and Papua New Guinea stopped issuing work visas before Ethnos360 could submit our applications. Additionally it’s no easier to raise support when businesses are closed and people are confined to their homes. To be honest, it has been tough as we enter our 18th month of support raising to try and look for a finish line and only see fog.
In spite of all this we have been reminded of the faithfulness of God several times over the last month. The first is that our support is now up to 69%! God has brought several new donors to us over the past month in ways that only He can do. So while we still have more to raise, we know that God is faithful to provide for what we need. Please continue to pray that God will provide for us to be fully funded. Once we reach 75% we will officially be approved to move over to Papua New Guinea this fall.
The second way we’ve been reminded of God’s faithfulness is by seeing what He is doing in Papua New Guinea. In the last few months a church planting team has begun milling wood for their houses to live among the Lembena; a team has finally begun teaching in Genesis 1 to the Wantakia; baptisms were performed in the Menya; and the New Testament translation was completed in the Simbari language. All of these milestones, that we hope to one day see, represent a timeline of years and years of hard work and God’s faithfulness. Friends, what we are embarking on together is not a task of speed but of God’s faithfulness to help us do the impossible. There are times coming when we will only see fog ahead of learning a language or of translating the Bible, but there in those moments we will find God still faithful with the grace needed to move forward one day at a time.
Yesterday we finally received Hosanna’s passport; but we are still waiting for the PNG government to process our work permits after which we will be able to apply for our visas. With everything just starting to open up again, we don’t know how long that will take, but we are praying that it can happen quickly. Thank you to all of you who are entering into this marathon of God’s faithfulness with us. You are very much needed as God builds His church in Papua New Guinea through your prayers and support! Pray that we will fight to be good stewards of this time and that we will rest in God’s faithfulness.
Grace and Peace,
Anthony and Kara Linn Haskins
