Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness…; make your way straight before me. Ps 5:8
Dear PRAYing family and friends,
Greetings in the first week of the New Year, 2024! We surely saw God’s faithfulness at every step last year and we are stepping into the New Year with a sense of His leading and guiding us and that He will continue to lead us in His plan and work. That’s one of the reasons that the Lord led me to pray the verse above, from Ps 5:8: “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness…make your way straight before me.” Thank you so much for your prayers throughout the past 12 months. God has been at work and continues that work also establishing His church in Asia-Pacific.
We were rejoicing last week with the Gerai church as their small congregation hosted the annual Christmas celebration for the surrounding churches in our area of West Kalimantan. Many have shared that the messages from God’s Word and the special music were a real blessing to them.
Charissa (granddaughter) says hi. She celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 16th of December. After the scary birth experienced two years ago, she has continued to develop normally and is constantly talking and getting into trouble. The Lord has been so faithful in the lives of her family. Her mom is doing well physically although she will probably have to keep testing her liver for active hepatitis virus for the rest of her life or until a cure has been developed.
Oke has finished drafting the book of Joshua. That is just the initial rough draft. There is still far to go on those verses before it can be printed. She and I also finished drafting the ending of the Balaam story in Numbers that we have been working on slowly for a few years now. Since she only does narrative drafting, the prose sections of the story were my part. We began doing comprehension testing on those chapters last month.
We enjoyed a quiet Christmas this year, keeping up our tradition of making gingerbread for our Christmas morning breakfast. We broke from tradition though in that dad’s usual horse and cowboy was without a cowboy this year and mom did not make her “angel.” It tasted just as good as normal though.
This year the internet signal is more readily available in the further most interior village of the Semandang tribe, Sungai Nibung. That has opened up more consistent communication with co-workers, kids and grandkids there. Rere, my oldest granddaughter (14), is now away at high school in the county seat. She lives in a church dormitory for young girls. Photo of Rere’s family minus her dad on left, Rere below.
Mom and dad continue to stay active in sharing what God is doing around the world in church planting and Bible Translation work and are regular members at the Hub, the senior community, sharing their faith in Christ to those around them and to those we keep in touch with on the other side of the globe. I finished off the year with some medical tests and treatments, doctor visits, etc. all with good results.
This week the Moi tribal church in Papua had their dedication of their newly printed New Testament. The Sekadau New Testament is being printed this month for our West Kalimantan province. We have much to praise the Lord for. The completion of these projects are miracles that can only be the result of many, many years of hard work and God’s faithfulness. So we end our first letter of 2024 with thankful hearts for what God has done and is continuing to do in building His church around the world! Amen!
Darcy Berglund (for Ron and Nita Berglund also)
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