June 6, 2011
Dear Praying Friends,
This email is long overdue! We should have kept you updated since we returned from the Faroe Islands, but have gotten caught up in all the things that needed to be taken care of regarding family and home, as well as ministry related to Papua New Guinea.
It is hard to believe it is almost 3 months since we returned from our 3 weeks visit in the Faroe Islands for Dad’s funeral. Since then Rachel has been keeping busy with home schooling as well as sorting through things here in the home and trying to get things organized. We have also fit in a couple of trips. One was a week to Missouri, so we could spend time with Rachel’s parents and sister and family, too. Rachel was really glad to see her family again, after several years apart. (I’ve seen them more often, since I’ve had to make trips back home to keep my Green Card current.) The second trip was to northeast Iowa where another sister lives with her family. It was good to visit in both places.
I have been staying very busy with things pertaining to PNG. Since I worked in field leadership, I have been asked to stay engaged in things there even though we are on Home Assignment. Also, there have been plenty of things to take care of in and around the house. No, no big gardens, but we have planted just a few tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers, and possibly there will be one or two other things yet, shortly.
School has officially finished for this school year, but we will have the boys do a few things through the summer, so they don’t forget too much before next school year. 🙂 We will be away for the last half of the month of June plus a bit of July. We will be the missionaries of the week at the camp where Rachel’s sister and family work called Whispering Winds Bible Camp. The following week we’ll be in Camdenton, MO, at a seminar for NTM missionaries who are on Home Assignment. Then we’ll head over to northern Iowa to be the missionaries of the week at another camp. Our youngest three boys are really excited about being at each of these places as they will be going with us.
As for the rest of the boys, Karl (18), like the rest of us, has to adjust to what it means to live in the US. There are a lot of choices to make, and sometimes it is difficult to know what the right choice is. He needs a job, but so far he has not succeeded in securing one. Pray that he will learn to trust in God in decisions he has to make, and that he will indeed find a job in the near future.
Hans (20) is very busy with two jobs. He is preparing to go to Bible School in the fall, but has some college debts he needs to pay off first, so he is working to take care of that and save up for Bible School. Actually, this last week he was working in Joplin, helping out with tornado clean-up, after getting time off from his jobs to be away for a few days. As it turned out there was some misunderstanding about getting off work, which resulted in him losing his fulltime job. So now he is looking for another fulltime job, besides the part time one he still has.
Philip (24) is done with NTM training and is preparing to move to PNG to work in July/August, if things come together for him. At this point his support level is very low. This week he will spend a week at Whispering Winds Bible Camp in Missouri as the missionary for the week, so he has been very busy preparing for that.
David (26) is not working and is still looking for medical help. He saw a doctor last week as a follow-up after some tests. He has been on disability since the fall, and in March they dropped him from disability. He is working on appealing their decision, while at the same time still looking for medical help. This latest doctor hasn’t found anything particularly helpful, but is referring him to someone else for further evaluations. We would appreciate prayers for him that God will guide him.
Benjamin (28) and his wife, Wina, are in Germany where she is from and were planning to go with NTM to PNG this July. Plans have changed a little due to a baby being due in November, so as you can imagine we are very excited with them, too, as they (and we) wait. After the baby is born they will complete the paper work for PNG and Lord-willing, early 2012 they will arrive there.
The latter part of the summer I plan to make a trip to the Faroe Islands, possibly by myself, to help my brother take care of things in our childhood home, now that both of our parents are gone. While there I also need to spend some time visiting and sharing in churches. In October it looks like I will also need to make a trip to PNG for leadership meetings. Besides this we desire this fall to travel and visit churches and friends in different part of the US, though nothing has been scheduled yet. Therefore, if anyone would like to have us come and share about the ministry in PNG that God has allowed us to work in, and that you have had a part in, whether through prayer or financial gifts, please let us know and we will communicate with you to schedule a date.
Over Easter one of our coworkers in PNG had the opportunity to visit with the believers in Mangseng. It was very encouraging to hear of God’s working in their hearts and their desire to continue reaching out to those in their community with God’s Word.
Thank you so much for praying for us over these last several months. There have been several challenging and difficult times, but God has been faithful and He has promised to continue to be faithful. Thanks also to many of you who wrote to us personally. We greatly appreciated it.
In Christ,
Peter and Rachel Hansen Home phone: 402-505-3764 Cell phone: 402-319-1279