Greetings in the New Year of 2023! How did that happen? It seemed like we blinked and now we are already well into 2023. I am hoping to get this update to you before the 16th of this month because that is the day of departure for the 4th year students at our missionary training center in North Sulawesi. They will be spending 2 months in the Taliabo tribe using newly acquired skills for learning a language and developing an alphabet. Please pray for Aprian and his classmates as they do all of this and develop good relationships with the tribal people there.
At another missionary training center, located in West Kalimantan, Oke, my Semandang co-translator, was able to help a couple of other teachers lead a class on literacy in November. Please pray for Oke and her niece, Grace as they have been sick with coughing and colds recently.
Rina and James’ wedding in Nanga Nyabau on the 22nd of December was a very God-honoring occasion. They traveled back to North Sulawesi January 6th along with her parents. This week they had a reception for James’ side of the family. It was so nice that the Lord worked it out for her parents to be able to be there.
We received many special Christmas greetings from the churches that we are working (and have worked) with in West Kalimantan. It sure did make us homesick, but we rejoice to see that God continues his work keeping His people thriving and growing. Our Kuala Randau congregation hosted the Semandang Christmas program this year with around 1,000 guests from villages around!
The Lord provided for a “book” cupboard for the Embaloh church, a place to keep their printed materials, like songbooks, literacy books, and the newly printed Bibles when they arrive. The Bible printing process is finished but binding and packing are still to be done. We pray they will be finished and ready to be shipped soon.
We were delighted how the Lord worked it out to have my sister and her two daughters, and their friend, be able to make the long trip to Wyoming from California to celebrate the New Year with us! This made our New Year very special. Winter weather brought some change of plans, and we were blessed with a couple extra days. One of the highlights was reading together through old letters from 1976-1977.
Praise & Prayer:
- Pray for the continuing growth of the churches in Asia Pacific during 2023.
- Pray that the Embaloh Bible will be ready for shipping soon.
- Pray for the training program for our national missionaries.
- Pray that our hearts will be focused on serving those around us in 2023.
Maybe this will be the year of our Lord’s return!
With our thoughts and prayers,
Darcy, Ron and Nita Berglund
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