God Holds All Things Together

We are thankful today that God’s Word says the He holds all things together! We don’t need to do it! “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17

Each day here in the Sepik seems to hold many unexpected things so if we try to figure out what is going to happen and how we are going to make it all work… we will fail and be miserable. God has a plan and He is orchestrating everything for His good. We get to be a part of that plan! But His plan is not dependent on us. It is so comforting to know that we don’t have to control things… God has it all figured out and we just need to walk every day, looking to see what He has planned and watch to see how He enables us to fit into that plan and enjoy each day! Of course sometimes we can’t see any good in a part of His plan, but He is God and knows better, loves us better and takes care of us better than we know how! So we can trust Him! Please pray that we will remember this daily! 🙂

We have finally started to settle into life back in the Sepik after unpacking and cleaning our storage items for 2 months, Sepik Conference and a trip to Brisbane for Naomi’s health. Jacob has been working on all kinds of different projects in the last month… repairing a porch that was about to fall down, loading airplanes with missionary cargo, removing the rust and refinishing our large truck’s bed, planning a house gutting and rebuilding project, picking up cash from the bank to supply all our missionaries and workers, building lockers, and fixing everything that breaks! He comes home each day very tired after working in the heat…. But so thankful that we can be here and be a part of what God is doing. Next week two new families will move into their new houses in the bush to start learning the Language and Culture with the goal of establishing a church!

We are now dealing with a small invasion of our house, an invasion of rats, mice, ants and cockroaches. We would appreciate prayers for patience and wisdom to deal with the little things like this… a rat chewing through a milk cartoon which poured it all over the shelves in the pantry…. Ants finding their way into Naomi’s diaper as she was sleeping… and mice in our dresser… plus a rat running over Beth’s foot while putting Naomi down to sleep in the middle of the night. Yuk! These were some of the times where we didn’t appreciate God’s plan and didn’t “keep it together” so we were grateful that God tells us He is keeping things together for us!

Praises!
-Our co-workers, and new neighbors, just had a baby!! (in Australia) Sadie Gail Buser
-Naomi, at 7 ½ months, is healthy and growing like a weed.. sitting up herself, eating pumpkin, zucchini, sweet potato, carrots and papaya and almost about to crawl!
-Jonathan and Naomi seem to love being together… and we love to see them laugh together!
-Naomi is starting to settle into a schedule!
-Little things that encourage us daily, packages, beauty of God’s creation here, homemade peanut butter, a ‘cold’ rainy day of 76 degrees F, talking with family back home and apples found at the grocery store!
-And before we had a chance to send out our update… we found our pest.. the rat, dead, in our pantry!
-We figured out the most practical and cheapest method of using the internet here, especially Facebook and updating our blog… using a new phone… thankful for this provision!
-A God who sent His Son to die for our sins and rose him up so that we could have daily life abundantly and REST in Him!
-God’s continued provision for our needs moment by moment!
-Mueller and Rimestad families move into the the bush on June 16th! They will soon start learning their language and culture in order to teach God’s Word and establish a church!

Prayer requests:
-Mueller and Rimestad families as they finish up the last of the packing and move into the bush next week!
-Jonathan, as all his friends next door are heading to the bush, and we will be the only family on this center until the Buser’s come back with their new little baby girl.
-Buser family as they obtain Sadie Gail’s passport and visa for PNG… that it would be quick so they can return soon!
-Chen family, co-workers, as they recently found out that Gail Chen’s cancer has returned and it is worse this time.
-Jacob and Bill as they work together to finish up bigger projects before Bill goes on Home Assignment in a couple months.
-Naomi would continue to settle into her schedule and want to take all her naps, not just some of them. 🙂
-Rest in God as we enjoy being parents of two children!
-God would continue to raise up more missionaries to come to the Sepik and bring the Gospel to those who have never heard it their own heart language.
-More laborers to minister to the Bena people.