October is almost over already! The Holidays will be upon us soon. This is the time of year we miss our families back home more than usual. Grown children, grand kids, parents and siblings are what give Thanksgiving and Christmas joy and meaning but the Lord compensates us with another family. The family of Faith here in the Dom and our coworkers, the Wuests. What a unique blessing it is to be here and celebrate with people who were once in darkness and now live in the Light.

Just recently we attended our annual conference (three hours’ drive from here). Fellow NTM missionaries from all over the Highlands and the coast of PNG plus support staff at the center gathered for four days of fellowship, worship, fun and sharing with each other about what the Lord has done in our individual locations. Thanks to our support staff for all the hard work of making the conference a success and blessing to all. Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful weather during it all.

The nice weather didn’t last though. Soon after conference we had a week of torrential rain that caused many landslides through out the Highlands. Appreciate prayer that the roads will stay open.

With rainy weather comes a drop in attendance of our three weekly Bible studies. We hold them at night in our home because our Dom Christians are so busy during the day with gardens and such. Please pray that more of them would make the effort to come even during this time of wet weather.

Jim has been teaching a series of sermons on the Kingdom of Heaven from the four Gospels on Sunday mornings. This is the first time any of our Dom Christians have ever had this topic taught in depth. It has been a blessing to Jim as well from all the study time in the Word and digging through commentaries.

The outreach ministry to the villages of B, A and M* continue despite many challenges of logistics, weather and shortage of outreach teachers. Currently there are three Dom men doing it all and they are a bit overtaxed. There is another opportunity to take the Gospel to a village in a related language but without additional teachers this cannot go forward. Please pray that the Lord will raise up more men (and women) to share in the work of the ministry.

Sadly one of our oldest and dearest Dom Christians and friend for many years named D’le (dill-eh) has been diagnosed with advanced, incurable esophageal cancer. We have tried many times to explain the nature of this cancer but D’le and his family do not really grasp it. Even now they suspect that someone has worked sorcery on D’le. It’s a hard situation all around. He can no longer eat solid food so we are supplying him with broths, Milo (a malted chocolate drink) and such. Jim and Gerolf go over to his hut as often as possible and read Dom Scripture to him and keep him company. D’le only has a few months to live and it will not be an easy passing away. Please pray for peace from the Lord to keep the hearts and minds of D’le and his family.