The Year in Review
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and apparently there’s something called Boxing Day in there too?
I pray that you too were abundantly blessed during your holiday season and that those blessings, rather than being an end in themselves were a spotlight on the goodness and faithfulness of your loving Father’s character.
I was just reading something talking about our tendency to pray for missionaries by asking for blessings and God’s presence and His strength. However, the author advocates that those are things we’re already promised in His Word. They aren’t things we need to ask for. Instead, as I study through Ephesians with a group of ladies here, we see Paul praying that the Ephesians would know God better.
So I pray the same for you and for me, that the trials, the joys, the times when we lack strength, the times we don’t feel His presence or provision, when we see him abundantly provide, when we sense His peace and in times of want and of plenty . . . may all these things point us toward seeking and knowing Him better.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Ephesians 1:17-19
As I’ve been looking back over the past few months, I am extremely grateful for the Lord’s abundant provision of community. Pictured above: Thanksgiving with many of the “Singles”. We also had a Turkey Trot 5k, which I soon discovered was longer than the distance I was used to run/walking— still enjoyable though, since I had two friends to share the agony with. I’ve been able to host a few ladies’ dinners on my porch underneath the mosquito net; it’s a little cozy/crowded! I’m grateful that there are so many people here that I enjoy, from all over the world! I’ve really been enjoying hosting a study through Ephesians at my house. My friend Amber and her three small kids returned a few weeks before Christmas. What a blessing for me to be able to decorate cookies with them.
Special occasions can be hard for missionaries as we’re away from family. But I had the pleasure of joining three different families on Christmas Eve (Canadian), Christmas morning (American) and Christmas afternoon (Northern Irish). It was great! For the past several months . . . something like 11, we haven’t been able to gather together as a full church. We were limited to 100, then 50, then 20 in one location. So it was such a joy, as our pandemic restrictions were lifted, to be able to gather together as 100 people on Christmas Eve. We were even able to light candles and sing “Silent Night” on the soccer field. What a beautiful night!And I spent New Year’s Eve in Papua New Guinea’s capital city as part of a time away. I’ll admit though, that I was actually asleep when these fireworks went off but woke up enough to take some pictures!
For missionaries in remote locations like Papua New Guinea, the last thing you want to do is face a medical emergency on your own. Part of God’s provision for each of our missionaries is having doctors, nurses, dental hygienists and dentists on the field to take care of medical and dental needs as they arise. If you would consider being part of God’s provision for families as they serve to plant churches in Papua New Guinea, in a medical or dental role, check out the needs here: http://go.ethnos360.org/png-med-jobs
Here are a few of the videos I’ve completed recently.
The desire in ministry is to raise up leaders who will be able to continue the work long after the missionaries have left. Literacy is the first place where the missionaries are able to start handing off some of the responsibilities of the ministry. So what does that look like? And how do they know who to start handing teaching over to?