Many of you know that Paul has suffered with severe allergies for several years. The combination of his overactive immune system and living in a land of perpetual Spring makes for a bad mix. Up until recently we have been able to manage his itchy skin and other allergy symptoms with various medicine and keeping our house as free of allergens as possible…..not an easy task here.
Since returning to PNG (a year ago) our NTM clinic has not been able to successfully get a consistent supply of Paul’s main allergy medicine from Australia (Xolair shots — very expensive and need to be refrigerated). He has been completely off this medicine for several months and was doing OK, but recently he took a turn for the worse. We believe a recent infection has caused a lot of his problems and are praising God that the antibiotics are doing the trick!
Please pray with us that we find answers to why this is happening and how to live life in a tropical environment, preferably not on Xolair (expensive) or steroids (health issues). If not, we are concerned that it might require us to relocate to another climate (country).
One More Urgent Prayer Request
We have mentioned before the need for more personnel here in PNG…especially aviation folks. We are at an all-time low and yet the needs of our bush missionaries still remain. Just this last year several new tribal works were opened up…and more and more of these newer works are only accessible by helicopter.
Not only are we very low on pilots (this summer we will only have 2 pilots when we really need at least 5), but we are low on mechanics and other aviation personnel as well. Because of this we HAVE TO scale back on our flying. This will result in less supply flights for our bush missionaries and less flights in general for our NTM personnel. (This could include medical flights if/when we forfeit our commercial operator license).
Please continue to pray with us that the Lord would provide more laborers. Also pray for our leadership as they have to make the necessary decisions to keep things running.
While You’re Praying…..
…..here are a few praises & a few more prayer requests:
Praises:
* Baby Wilson is doing well! We will be leaving PNG mid June to start our maternity leave back in the US.
* We have moved! In anticipation of another family member, we have been able to relocate here on our center to a slightly larger house. The move was a hard one, resulting in all 3 of us getting sick, but we have recovered and are enjoying the last few weeks before we leave.
* The Gospel is going out in PNG! Many of our tribal works are currently having outreaches…some done mainly by tribal believers…. including an outreach to our neighbors (which just concluded).
Prayer Requests:
* Recently our Interface campus had to close and relocate to another one of our NTM centers. We will miss having this beautiful camp-like location so near to us but are glad the program is still able to run. (Many of you will recall that this is the same program that Andrea went on in 1997). Don’t know what Interface is? Check it out by looking up “NTM Interface.”
* Strength as we finish up our last few weeks here and head back to the US in June. We will have 5 flights totally 24 flight hours to get us to the east coast of the US. Pray for calm nerves and smooth connections as we do this with a very active 19 month old!
* We are still in need of housing in the Southern Maryland area for the 7 months we will be in the US.