Skip, Hop, Jump

Skipping School – 

 It doesn’t happen much in life, so on those rare occasions where the teacher says it’s okay to skip class, we get pretty excited!  That just happened to us with our last language evaluation.  Our language consultant said that our ability is beyond where we are in our lesson plans, so now we can skip the equivalent of 4-6 months worth of language sessions.  Wahoo!!  We were very encouraged and are now only facing a few more months of official language study before being able to shift our focus to other things.  Thanks God!  It’s all for your glory.

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Island Hopping –

   A few of those things we get to focus on next include some ministry opportunities here in town, along with helping the team figure out where we will go to serve long term. 

   God has helped us find a church here in town that has welcomed us and already given me the opportunity to preach (great language practice!).  We also want to reach out to our neighbors and other friends as the opportunities come up; our hope is to continue these relationships and invest more in them as we shift our focus off of formal language study in a few months’ time.  

   I (Tyler) have also been able to make 2 trips over to the Island where we are hoping to serve long term.  Our goal as a team is to find out more about the conditions and needs of the people living there.  The situation on that island is quite complicated and we are realizing we may be looking at significantly more survey work than expected in order to gain an accurate understanding of the current circumstances there.  Although our original focus was on that one island, we also want to be looking beyond it—this task will likely include quite a bit of island hopping around our region to see what the needs are.  But hey!  No problem, we’re on God’s timetable, not ours.  We’re usually pretty shortsighted compared to the God who sees the end from the beginning.  He knows what tomorrow AND next year holds and has the perfect plan to get us where He wants us.  Sweet!

Isaiah 46:9-11

⁹ Remember the things I have done in the past.
    For I alone am God!
    I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ Only I can tell you the future
    before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
    for I do whatever I wish.

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Jumping to the Family – 

   As a family we are doing really well!  Allegra has been incredible at holding down the fort so that I can join the survey trips.  We’re learning to work together as a team more and more these years. 🙂  Moriah is enjoying doing some preschool work each day and already has her letters down pat.  Maela quickly mastered crawling, is getting close to walking, and is a very adventurous and independent little cutie. We’re so thankful for our girls and how they sweeten our life here!

   Thanks for caring about us and our family—We so appreciate your prayers and support that allow us to be here and thrive! 

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Praise

• For the encouraging language progress.
• For ministry opportunities here in town and on survey trips.
• For the grace and joy God has been giving us each day to keep going.

Prayer

• For wisdom to balance finishing our studies and focusing on other areas.
• For wisdom parenting our 2 active girls.
• For God to teach us and prepare us for future ministry.
• For the Father’s direction and guidance in these survey trips.

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Extra Prayer Request:

   One of our coworkers here has recently been going through a really tough time.  For months now, their family has been taking turns being sick with either difficult or unknown issues.  Boils, burns, rashes, high blood pressure, heart issues, fevers, flus, and more.  We would like to ask you to pray for them.  They are Ben and Tabea Kirk (Daniel, Barnabas, and Noah) and are from Europe.  Currently the most serious issue is with their youngest son who burned his hand quite badly and now has an infection.  Pray for healing and encouragement for them through these trials.