Thanks so much for your continued prayers. We have been having email issues but we are now out on break at our center and are able to give you a good update on the work. The main purpose of us being out at our supply center is to get medical help for Noah. He has been having a continuous middle ear infection and our Dr’s are recommending he needs tubes (grommets) put into his ears. This is a quick and normal procedure for you all at home but for us it will mean a trip to Aus and a two week stay for checkups etc. We are in the middle of getting appointments and informing our insurance as soon as we know any details we will let you know.
Language
Language has been going well overall but we had visitors over Christmas who had an extended stay as they got stranded in our village for a week because our one pilot was sick and the plane needed a part. With having visitors and being without partners for a month we have been really busy organising meetings and dealing with problems that arise in the church and community. We are now out on medical so please pray this goes quickly so we can get back to language learning. We hope to have our first check by mid to late Feb.
Solar work and problems
Over Christmas I went to Moila, a village a two hour hike away. We went there to install free solar lights and panels as they have no working lights in the hospital; a kind of a community project if you like. Well the hospital paid for carriers to carry the tools and equipment, all went well and we thought we had a good day. After we got back I recieved a letter from one of the carriers who is a young man from our village that we had good relationships with. The letter said he was unhappy with pay and was demanding that I give him another 10 kina. He threatened our family and property if we did not give him the money. Initially I was very angry after all we had done for this young guy in the past. I took a while to calm down and went to see the village elders. They were really upset and supported us so we brought the young guy to village court. He had his back to me the whole time as we explained that it wasn’t our responsibility to pay that his problem was with the hospital. We had provided all of this solar equipment free to the community; we also expressed how threats of violence are a very serious matter to the leaders of NTM. The court ended and I fronted 5 kina to Bobo and Gabi who in return had to give me 10 sweet potatoes for threatening us etc. The hospital payed me back the money but we have never received the sweet potatoes more than a week after the court. Please pray for us to have the ability to show love and grace to this young man and to remember that “in this world (we) you will have trouble”, and that trials and hardships are normal when we work for the Lord.
Church update
We have just finished with teaching through the book of Acts. We are at a crucial stage which is to move into the deep waters of teaching through Romans. We want to take things very slow and easy to generate greater understanding. Romans teaching should start on the 23rd of this month.
Another wonderful challenge we are dealing with at the moment is grace and discipline. We have these young believers with little understanding of what it means to be a Christian; they have in this past year only heard the story of creation and Christs work and only have teaching on the book of Acts. These young believers fall or run into sin at times; how to discipline and encourage when we haven’t got to the books that clearly explain grace, faith, walking in the Spirit, laying hold of the power of God, putting away the old nature and embracing who we are in Christ. These things are a challenge but the Lord is also taking us on a journey of enlarging our understanding of Grace and we thank him for that. Right now we are reinforcing grace and security in Christ, whilst expressing how we can hurt our heavenly Father who sent His Son to be punished for these sins. Please continue to pray God would give us wisdom as we try to shepherd this young but growing church.
We have much and varied work here, they include as you can see getting rid of snakes that crawl up our water pipes, servicing the generator, encouraging believers, learning language and much more. We are really enjoying our time amongst the Mengen people; there is still so much work to do and a long road ahead. We cant do it without your prayers and support. Thanks for being apart of the work with us!
Prayer
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– Please pray for us as a family that we will learn better to balance our time with work and time with each other.
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– We have contacted the insurance regarding Noah’s ears and the needed operation. Pray they will pay for most of the trip and that Noah can get off medicine and start feeling better. We will most likely be in Aus for 2 weeks but Noah’s operation will be an out-patient surgery and we will just have to hang around for check-ups.
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– Literacy starts again in a week, please pray the teachers and new teacher trainees will be faithful.
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– Pray that Romans will be a revelation and life changing book for the Mengen church. Pray that the Lord will help us to make up the lessons that communicate truth effectively.
With much love and prayers,
The Flanagan family, Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah