What A Fall

No, none of us suffered from a fall, but we can’t believe how fast the last half of 2021 was.  Here is a brief recap:

Paul has been busy in the hangar despite the ever changing restrictions and lack of trained pilots resulting in a significant decrease in flight hours. Maintenance used time to get to many of those “back burner” items left for someday. Then just before Christmas break the flying picked up as usual (nice to bump into “normal” once in a while). Maintenance now has their hands full with the helicopter and a Kodiak down for inspections and maintenance. It’s nice to feel needed. With the restrictions lowering and two pilots near completion in training, things should pick up again soon. More pilot families are on their way too, one returning and one new! Praise God!

Andrea really enjoyed her first semester facilitating biology and chemistry in our mission’s school.  It’s amazing to be a part of providing a Godly school for our missionary kids.  As many teachers will tell you, the work seems endless, but it is so rewarding!

Phoebe (grade 4) and Joshua (grade 2) are doing well in school.  It has been an adjustment from homeschooling, but they are working hard.  Its been exciting to see them grow.

We all had our run in with COVID. First we want to praise God for His healing.  Being “high-risk” we weren’t taking this lightly.  We also want to thank the Lord for our medical staff here on our mission support center.  Many house calls were made including dropping off medicine and checking in on how we were doing.  (Interested in our medical missionaries?  Check out this video:  We Wouldn’t Be Here )  Another praise we have is the timing, although at the time, we were not so thankful.  It came on just as the first term of school was about to roll into a 2 1/2 week break.  We missed ZERO school.  (Yeah…no subs or make-up work.)  Unfortunately we missed a planned family vacation which we hope to make happen later this year.  🙂

Paul’s Going On A Trip

In our last update (way back in 2021) we asked you to pray for Paul’s mom and her health concerns.  After lots of prayer, we decided that it would be good for Paul to head back to Kansas for a few weeks to see his parents and also be able to help out a little with their care.  (Andrea and the kids are not able to go at this time due to school).

Lord-willing, Paul will be heading to the States late next week.  Traveling these days is filled with lots of paperwork, exceptions, even longer travel routes and of course LOTS of COVID tests.  Even with negative test results, exemptions and antibody tests, there is still a chance that he will not be able to depart PNG.  Lots to pray about!  Pray that the trip does happen, even though we hate so see him go.  He will be gone for just over a month so please pray for Andrea and the kids.

Praise & Prayer Requests

• Praise: Our recovery from COVID.  Thank you for praying!  Also, the infections in the local area seem to be decreasing.
• Praise: A lot of the PNG local restrictions are being lifted and we are enjoying larger gatherings and also playing sports again!
• Praise: Andrea & the kids had a great first semester at school.
• Praise: We have new pilots coming on line.
• Prayer: Paul’s travels to/from the States.
• Prayer: We requested prayer  (via Facebook) for the Mibu tribal group, and specifically the Mibu church.  They are still dealing with attacks from a gang in the area.
• Prayer: Andrea and the kids as they go it alone for 5 weeks.
• Prayer: That we shine bright with the love and hope in Jesus Christ.