July 4th has come and gone. Other than seeing things on FB we do not really think about it. We continue to be encouraged by our Dom brothers and sisters in Christ as they grow in grace and love. We believe whole heartedly that the Word of God in their mother tongue has made a great difference here. The Dom church has its struggles and shortcomings but they are growing in the Lord. We have heard reports that others are noticing the change in this community. Please pray that this spiritual growth continues.
Judy is about to start a new literacy class on the 11th of July. She has worked very hard on revamping the materials as per the improvements in the orthography. These improvements were made for the printing of the Dom New Testament and people are finding it much easier to learn to read Dom. Please pray that many will attend literacy classes and stay with it. Pray for strength for Judy. Teaching literacy is nearly a fulltime effort. She does have two Dom Christian helpers who should be able to take over after this. Already we can see that this class will be divided into fast and slow.
Judy will also be teaching four women who went through the teacher’s training and then they will teach part of a lesson the following week to the women during our women’s weekly Bible Study. We will be going through Philippians. Please pray for these four women as they begin teaching. They have a heart for teaching, but already we see Satan testing them. Pray for our landowner and his wife (both are teacher’s) as there has been a problem in the family. Bapka has asked that we (Wuests and us) and the other church leaders try to help them get it sorted out. Pray for open, humble hearts.
We are looking forward to our daughter Heather’s arrival here on the field by the end of July or the first of August. She is still waiting on her visa and for whatever reason it has been slow going. Heather still needs to see her monthly support increase and she is trusting the Lord for that to happen before she can come to PNG as a teacher in the MK school. Heather graduated from our MK school and now is coming to teach other MKs. What a legacy that has been passed on. Someone has offered to buy her tickets but she cannot purchase her tickets until she has her visa in hand. This is a test of our waiting on the Lord for His perfect timing. A prayer answered before this was sent out. She has her visa on the way. Now she just needs her support level to go up. This will be the last time I will forward Heather’s updates. If you would like to receive her updates, please email her: heather_burdett@ntm.org.
We haven’t had any significant rainfall in nearly two months. Our water tanks are running low and even though we are practicing water conservation protocols (saving shower water for toilet flushing etc) it will not be long before our tanks are depleted. Please pray with us for the Lord to send rain. Not only for us but for the Dom people and all those in the Highlands. The dry weather will eventually affect their gardens which is their sole means of eating. Before I even got this sent out, God has sent us a big rain. It should go a long way to getting our tank back up. Thank you, Lord!
Continue to pray for Gerolf in Culture and Language Acquisition. It is a difficult task, but pray for strength and perseverance.
About four weeks ago Jim had an accident with a piece of sheet metal and cut his right hand very deeply severing an artery and cutting some nerves. Thankfully Gerolf, our partner, was able to take Jim to the hospital in our nearest town and Jim got help. A med student and a nurse repaired the injury with
about twenty stitches. Praise the Lord that no major tendons were severed and Jim has full use of his hand other than some lingering tenderness and numbness in the lower part of his thumb. This photo was taken after he removed the stiches. With antibiotics, it healed quickly, with no infection.
We are so grateful that it was not any worse.
At first, we heard that Martin’s cancer was terminal and now Tuesday, Jim took Martin to the local hospital as the surgeon who did the original surgery was visiting and he says things looked good. The only problem was that Martin’s tongue had healed to his cheek so they want to detach that. Martin will go into surgery today to loosen the tongue and smooth out some rough edges on his tongue. The doctor will observe if any more cancer is growing. It has been 10 months since his original surgery. The doctor said that they have not had a radiologist in the country for 6 years. People with money are going to the Philippines. But this is not an option for Martin, even if he had the money. Please continue to pray for him. He is one of our few faithful teachers. Martin’s surgery has been postponed for two weeks. The surgeon is a traveling surgeon and other surgeries had priority.
Jim is wearing many hats and thankfully paces himself and tries to prioritize. Some work projects are in need of being done, but his hand accident put those on hold. Pray for continued strength to do these things. We are grateful for God allowing us to be here and minister to the Dom people. Thank you so much
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