Wow, January is gone already in this new year! January 17th marked 33 years since the day we landed in PNG as a newlywed couple, excited to spend our lives together serving the Lord overseas. 33 years of joy and sorrows, trials and victories. The Lord’s grace has brought us this far and will see us to the end (2 Timothy 4:7).
We have been on home assignment (aka furlough) for 8 months now and it’s has truly been a blessing to see so many of our friends and family during this time. In addition we have our daughter, Heather staying with us and that is a blessing beyond measure. We also have been able to concentrate on getting the Dom New Testament ready for printing. We have sent off the last proof that we read through before the actual printing in order to find and correct any spelling mistakes. But the end is in sight. The provisional printing of the Dom New Testament will be soon.
Another development is that we have extended our home assignment another four months. We will be heading back to PNG in October instead of June as originally planned. We have family matters to attend to before we return to the field.
We sorely miss our coworkers, Gerolf and Mailis Wuest. They are there alone right now. Gerolf continues to work at culture and language study. Sadly they will not be there when we return. They have been blessed with a second child who is due in July so they will be returning to Germany for an early Home Assignment, leaving the tribe toward the end of April. Please pray for the Wuests during this time.
Our son, Darren, has recently moved to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY to continue his Masters which he has been doing online. Our daughter, Heather plans to join him later this year. Brian is holding his own in Twin Falls, ID staying busy and working as employment becomes available. Ilai is in Up State New York and we hope to see him in May.
This news has come from our coworkers. Gena continues to teach the believers at the one outreach three times a week. Kapia Joseph comes over from his village once a month to help Gena teach on the other Sunday so that Gena can teach at our local village church. Gena got an invitation to teach the same Bible course in yet another village much further away. It is wonderful to see people being hungry for clear teaching from the Word of God. Most of the Dom people have some Bible knowledge, but it is not complete and often mixed with superstition. In Anma it will take another month or so to finish the course. Please do pray for the salvation of the participants, for the new believers in Buala Maule and also for Gena who has a very full plate right now. He is also the chairman of the committee for the Fellowship of National Bible Churches FNBC, the local churches that have been started trough the ministry of New Tribes Mission in Papua New Guinea) in Simbu Province. He has a family to take care of and also helps with different things in the church in our village.
Please continue to pray for the Dom churches. They are growing howbeit slowly. The leadership there is challenged with many issues. They are right in the middle of Ephesians 6:12, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against..the darkness the spiritual darkness of this word..”. This is truly where the Dom Christians live. Thank you for praying for them.
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