The stillness of the peaceful, sunny day was suddenly broken by loud wailing coming from a house in the village – the unmistakable sign that someone had died. Death is a reality here in Amdu like it is everywhere else in the world. But the longer we are here and the more we get to know these people, the harder it is to see one of them die.
Things like this remind us (and the other two families on our team) of the absolute importance of what we have come to do. We are all in our first year of learning this tribal language and we still have a long ways to go before we can communicate on more than a surface level. Please pray for us as we work hard to learn this complicated language so that we can share God’s message with the Amdu people.
In just two days our family will fly out of Amdu to attend our regional NTM conference and then begin to make our way back to the U.S. for about 10 months of Home Assignment/Furlough. While we are excited to see our family and we feel very much in need of rest, it is also very hard to leave. Our Amdu friends wonder if we will be coming back. It is very possible (very probable actually) that more of the people we have come to know and think of as friends may die while we are gone. It seems like there is never a good place in the timeline of the work here to leave. But after considering all sides of the issue, now IS a good time for us to take our Home Assignment. When we explain to our Amdu friends that Bart’s parents have never met Caleb or Micah and Emily’s parents have only briefly seen them, they are sad for our family and seem to understand why we are going home. We assure them that we are coming back!!
Please pray for us as we say goodbye to our Amdu friends and head back to civilization. We don’t really know what this transition will be like for our family, but we know the Lord is always with us. We look forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.
Thank you for your part in reaching the people of the Amdu tribe! Please keep praying!