Things we’re thankful for…
Hazen 
Emmanuella 
Noah 
Sam 
Fall Foliage
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1
Fall in the USA
We’ve had a busy fall season so far. Hazen, Noah and Emmanuella are enjoying our local Christian school. Sam is settling in at college and enjoying his classes. He loves the many art classes associated with his architectural/design major. We are all thoroughly enjoying the fall season and the changing leaves. We have not seen that in a while! As a family we’ve enjoyed our church youth group as well. We parents have studied and written papers for language and culture learning, driven the kids around, taught driver’s education (all 3 boys now!) and now we have left the younger 3 kids with grandparents for a couple of weeks so that we could visit a few more churches and supporters before going back to PNG. We were also able to visit Sam on his birthday. Thank you for praying for the return travel situation. A couple of weeks ago, a couple of routes opened up to get back. We’ve been asked to wait until early November to buy tickets so that it is more likely our tickets won’t cancel.
Bush Happenings
Thank you for praying for our Tanguat friends. Continue to pray for Justin who was featured last month. He has made some decisions that are not allowing him to teach at church for the time being. He also fell out of a tree recently but seems to be alright now. Pray that the Tanguat would see the joy in having a daily relationship with Christ and not see Him as just a “ticket to heaven.” Pray also for the rest of our believers as there seems to be a resurgence in the popularity of sorcery and the like. The younger generation especially is looking toward people who claim to have powers to share with them on how to make quick money and gain power over enemies. Ironically, these “knowledgeable individuals” charge a lot of money for their workshops.
Family Spotlight:
Arnold and Susanna live in a tough neighborhood. Their days consist of working and living around people who are very often talking about things surrounding the spirit worship of their ancestors and the south pacific cargo cult. We know because that is what we hear talked about when we are visiting that hamlet. Arnold is a Bible teacher-in-training and is one of our literacy teachers. He is one of the best readers in Tanguat and it seems to come easy for him. We are praying that he will continue to grow in his ability as a literacy teacher to be able to help others who do not have as easy of a time with reading. We also pray that they will be able to continue to stand firm in faith and not be swayed by the other influences.
Pray:
For the continued growth of the Tanguat believers and for the Bible teachers-in-training to continue to grow in faithfulness.
That routes would stay open, the kids’ passports/ visas get returned and we test negative for Covid in December right before our trip back to PNG!
For us as we continue to work on language tasks while here in the U.S.
Praise:
For the beauty of God’s creation and specifically for very colorful foliage.
For our teammates who can continue to encourage the Tanguat believers.
For the time that Ellen and I were able to spend with Sam over his birthday.
The Swenson Tribe
Tribal church planters serving in Papua New Guinea
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