Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

There is no greater truth, this is it, the Everything. I am struck anew this season (and Lord, let it be every season!) that the whole reason for our existence, the eternal peace of our future, and really every breath that I breathe is because of this truth in John 1:14 (above). Because we know the truths surrounding this one. He became human, took on our weaknesses and sin, to save us. The God-Man, Jesus, the Word, the Creator, did for us what we could not do for ourselves, but what we needed so desperately. And because of His ultimate sacrifice, not only is our future completely secure as believers, which is already far more than we deserve. But our daily lives burst with the potential for joy, peace, holiness; God lives His gloriousness through us when we are yielded to His Spirit! How truly amazing is His grace!

New Works! Since we returned from our summer trip to the States, some exciting things have been happening here on the field of PNG! A new team has moved in to their new homes among the Kuyu people to begin learning their language and culture with the ultimate goal of seeing a church born and established among this people group who have never heard the Truth that we celebrate! It was many weeks of separation for them as the men with work teams would chopper into this remote location for weeks at a time to build their houses, then come back out for a week or two to spend timer with their families, regroup and restock their building supplies. Then just a couple of weeks ago Jeremiah and I had the privilege of flying in to Kuyu to do their CLA kick-off (culture and language acquisition.) As a CLA consultant, Jeremiah will fly in every few months or so to evaluate their progress and help give them tools and practical methodology to help them attain their next goals. It was a joy to see these three families situated in their new homes, already establishing sweet relationships with their neighbors and eager to begin the long task of learning this unwritten language.

Dinangat In October we were able to spend some time in our own village home in Dinangat. Jeremiah worked as fast as he could to get as much translation checking done as possible. It was wonderful to be in there among the Dinangat church. Overall they are doing really well. The core group is meeting regularly to hear God’s Word and they love to talk about the things of the Lord. Also there is a small group of teenagers meeting at a couple’s house in the evenings to hear the Redemption story of God. Several of them have believed and want to get baptized!

Surveys One of the things our leadership team (which Jeremiah serves on) is working on is researching and surveying new people groups that still need the Gospel, and figuring out logistics for sending new missionary teams to these groups. We’d love to settle a new team in one of the language groups near Dinangat! The Dinangat church is very isolated in their mountain area and it would be such an encouragement for them to have another church nearby that they could meet with for mutual encouragement in the future. Please pray about this! There are several trips planned to survey this area for new places to work in.
 
Basa Lastly, would you please pray for our Dinangat friend, Basa? He’s been out of the village for over a year now due to a blocked prostate. He’s had to stay near the Lae hospital for weekly catheter changes, but had not found a doctor who could do the necessary surgery. We think we’ve found a trustworthy surgeon here in PNG, about 3 hours away from where we live, and he’s agreed to see Basa even though he is from outside of the province. We plan to bring Basa and his wife, Rowe, up from Lae by bus in January, and then Jeremiah and our coworker Ralf will drive with them up to Kudjip and stay with him for the surgery. We praise the Lord for this open door! Basa is one of our four Bible teachers, and his wife is our main women’s Bible study teacher. With both of them gone for so long, it’s left quite a hole in Dinangat. And we have heard that Basa has been heartsick to tears for fellowship with the Body of Christ that he’s left behind in the village. There is no Bible teaching church, and as far as we know, no believers, in the settlement where he’s been staying. Please pray for a successful surgery and that Basa and Rowe can at long last return home to their family and ministries in the village!

Praise the Lord with us!

• Jordan, Sarah and baby Jace made it to PNG to spend Christmas with us and do some of their own survey work of PNG as a potential location for future ministry! What an HUGE blessing they have been to have here!
• We found a surgeon willing to take an out-of-province patient, so he’ll see Basa in mid January
• Another people group, the Maliyali, have heard the Gospel in their language and there are new names written in the book of life!
• The Lord continues to build His kingdom in PNG! We praise Him that the Kuyu team are settled in and working full steam ahead to start to grasp that language and culture!

 
Please continue to pray!

• For steady progress on the Dinangat translation
• For our family: Alayna is in the middle of 10^th grade, Judah just finished his first semester at Liberty University, and Jordan and Sarah have one more official semester left of missionary training in MO. Pray that we all continue to look to the Lord as our Shepherd and Provider, and that we’d have hearts bent on knowing Him more and more each day
• Pray for a successful surgery for Basa and that he and his wife could be back to Dinangat as soon as possible
• Please pray for wisdom, grace and peace as we work with our leadership team as well as new missionaries looking to allocate into new works, that we’d be a source of encouragement for all those that we have the privilege of working with.

We praise the Lord for YOU, our support team! We are privileged to serve as your hands and feet in PNG! We don’t say it enough, but THANK YOU for standing with us through your encouragement and financial support! We couldn’t be here without you.