Merry Christmas!!
We are excited to have Savannah and Christina coming for Christmas! They will arrive on Friday for their school break. We will be missing our other 4 children and 3 grandchildren who are in the USA. Hope you have a very special time with family and friends! So very thankful for God’s gift of His son, Jesus – especially as we celebrate His birthday!
Our Tigak pastor, Paska, has a grandson and namesake that needs medical attention as you can see in the photo. They were told to wait until he was older to have surgery. He has now been flown to the capital city, Port Moresby, to be evaluated. He has been in Port Moresby with his dad since September. They have now been told he needs to go to Singapore or Australia because they are not equipped to do surgery on him in Papua New Guinea. Young Paska and his father, Edaman, are just waiting without knowing when that might happen or how the details can be worked out – especially the finances. It is all pretty overwhelming. Litia and Paska would appreciate your prayers on young Paska’s behalf. Young Paska is a great kid! Super outgoing and funny! He made a joke before going to Port Moresby about not wanting to have surgery because he likes getting his little “disability stipend” once a year from the government.
The 2nd picture is of one of our young believers, Tarans, with his new baby. Ned had shared with many of you about Tarans, “the trouble maker” while we were in the USA, who has continued to grow and mature in his faith. Continue to lift up all the young believers that are being discipled and are growing in their walk with the Lord.
The school year in Papua New Guinea ends in December so all the schools are now on their “summer break”. We were able to attend three of the school closing, “speech days”, to celebrate the end of the school year. On our island, the school only goes up to 2nd grade. If the kids want to continue their education it requires moving to another island. Sometimes they will live with other relatives and sometimes the parents will move to live with their kids at school. It is a big commitment for the kids and parents to continue their education. Two of our young girls from our island, Jemalin and Prisila, were able to complete 8th grade this year. This was a big milestone for them. We traveled by boat to their graduation and spent the day enjoying all the festivities involved. The keynote speaker at their graduation was a Papua New Guinea lady who was a Fulbright Scholar which allowed her to get a Master’s degree and Doctorate in the USA. We were impressed that she had been able to do that!
Ned’s foot is completely healed now. We greatly appreciate all your prayers for this. It was beginning to look like it was going to require a trip to Australia for medical care. Ned is under a time crunch to finish getting all the rest of the Tigak New Testament ready to be checked by a consultant along with preparations for all of the Scripture he will be checking for other language groups. We greatly appreciate you standing with us in prayer! We couldn’t make it without those of you who faithfully pray for us.
“Jesus… the greatest story, the most amazing gift, the blessed hope of all who believe”
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