Thank you so very much for your prayers!!!
Today we are taking this opportunity to tell you about how God has answered them and how He is taking care of us, leading us and just how exciting it is to live with Him :-)!
We have been back now in PNG for 2 months and are feeling settled and well. We are still living at the NTM-Center in town because we want to take this time to settle our two older girls. We want to make sure they feel ready to stay here in the boarding program when Ralf, Mimi and I go back to Dinangat… (more details about that at the end of this email).
When Ralf and Jeremiah Markley returned from their two week visit in Dinangat, they had a lot of stories to tell and pictures to share with us. Both of them were able to work lots on translation as they were meeting about three times a day with different Dinangat translation helpers. They were exhausted but so happy to get a lot of work done. Besides translation, they met with the Bible teachers to talk about some things going on in the church. And they were also able to spend two Sunday church services with them which was a very encouraging time.
Even though the Dinangat church has been without missionaries for over 8 months now, they are still strong and meeting regularly for church fellowship and for Bible teachers meetings. But still the temptations and struggles are there and some have fallen into them, have struggled, learned and seen the faithfulness of our God.
One of our Bible teachers fell into adultery a few months ago. Their marriage struggled and so did the church. Felix and Lukas, our most faithful Bible teachers, took charge and met with their brother several times to talk with him. At first he was not very open but after a while he changed. A few weeks ago the couple reunited again, apologized and want to give it a new start. He won’t be able to serve in the church for quite some time but he does have the heart to step into the service again as soon as the church will accept it. We thank God that He is working in us, that He is patient with us, forgiving us all along and starting new with us again and again. We are glad for the Dinangat church that they, too, can experience Him in this way and that they are learning more and more of His grace as they struggle and fall and get up again.
Another of our Bible teachers is struggling as a father. He invested financially for many years now into his daughter’s school training with the hope that someday she could become a teacher and earn some good money. This daughter though confessed that she wants to get married now, which means in the Dinangat culture that there is no room anymore for an education or a job. Her dad was quite angry about that and wasn’t able to control it in a good way. Later he did see that his behavior was wrong and he distanced himself from serving the church for a while.
And yet another Bible teacher is struggling with his marriage… you see, God does not use perfect people to build His church! It is quite the opposite. He is building His church with us, and through us DESPITE of us!!! His power goes far beyond our weakness and His grace is the foundation and goal of it all! We praise you, Father!
Please continue to pray for the Dinangat church, they need you!
This was the part about the Dinangat up until here, and now we want to tell you a few little things about our family. You can stop reading here (since it has gotten so long already) if only you don’t forget to pray for the Dinangat church! 🙂 THANK YOU!!!
As we have already told you, we are here at the Mission’s Center to help our girls settle into this life here, the school and their relationships. We assumed that it would take about a year for that. After that we would leave the girls in the boarding program and go back to Dinangat with Mimi. But it didn’t even take 4 weeks for the girls before they already said that they were excited about living in the dorm. We even felt like they hid their excitement from us to not hurt us somehow :-). We were so happy about that and thanked God that He is helping them so much to settle into here. We are now planning to go back to Dinangat with Mimi after the Christmas break. Until then we want to still see how they do and take our opportunities to help them when things are harder.
Biology for example is probably the hardest subject in school for them. But Math is becoming a favorite for Rebekka which is a total first. Naomi really likes History because the teacher does such a good job teaching it. We are so glad and thank God for helping them settle so well!
In the picture you can see Naomi with her friend Joanna who als lives in the dorm here. She is an adopted child from Haiti and her parents also work in a tribal place for church planting here in PNG.
Rebekka’s friend is Jaycee, she is the daughter of one of our two pilots who also live here at the Center.
Mimi’s friend is Fiona, she lives with her family here on the Center, they are also from Germany. Mimi really enjoys going to Kindergarten every day. She will surely miss that when we will go back to Dinangat, but I will homeschool here again in German like I did the other two girls quite a while back now.
Ralf and I are working on the Dinangat Bible translation. He is currently working on the first draft of Colossians while I am still working on side jobs of the Galatians Translation.
And I almost forgot to tell you that we are going into Dinangat for a couple of weeks during our school break which starts next week Wednesday. We are flying in with our co-workers, the Markleys, and are so excited to see everyone again and spend some time with the church. Right after that we get to go to our annual conference where all the missionaries of the Central Area will come together for Bible study, Worship, games and food. Mid October school will start again.
But now I have to really stop, sorry for making this so long. Thank you for your interest, your passion for Missions, your support and for your prayers!!!
Together for His Glory, the Schlegels.
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