March is just about done and boy has it been an interesting month. Throughout this month we have been very busy with several different ministries. We have two orientation classes that are running at the same time. Myself, and another consultant, had the opportunity to spend a bit of time with a family who are living on an island with an active volcano (in the picture above) while learning the language and culture of that people group. Thankfully no eruptions while we were there but we did have days full of evaluations and discussions concerning the ministry there.
Once I got back from that trip we had the expectation as a family that we would be traveling back down to the Sepik for our annual conference. Well, just days before we were slated to leave there was a significant uptick in Covid cases here in PNG. We had been thankful for what had been the relatively light impact that Covid has had in this country. Unfortunately that has started to change. There are many more cases in the Capitol as well as in several of the main cities in the country. Because of this the gov’t here has imposed some domestic travel restrictions to help reduce the spread. It was sad for all of us to not be able to go to conference but we know that this needed to happen.
One of the other side effects of an increase in covid cases is that the centre where we are living at is in a bit of a lock-down. We aren’t stuck in our houses per se but some things aren’t functioning as normal. For instance, the orientation program that we work with is currently on hold for several reasons. We hope that this will not last for long though we are trusting the Lord with the circumstances. The boys are currently on a planned break from school but aren’t quite as free to roam as they normally would be. Nothing terrible mind you but not what they would like. We trust that before too long life will return to some sense of normalcy.
We do want to thank all of you who are so faithfully standing with us in the ministry that we have hear. There will always be challenges that we face while living in this fallen world but in light of eternity we can choose to seek to be faithful each day, and rest in that.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer and Praise
– Praise that we are healthy as a family
– Pray for all of the circumstances related to the covid uptick here in PNG. Pray for wisdom for both the government as well as the mission leadership as they seek to make wise decisions related to this.
– Praise that the boys are in the midst of their school break. One more term left.
– Pray for the current two orientation classes to be able to complete these courses soon.
– Pray for Alen, a Malaumanda elder, and Abel as they are stuck out in town because of travel restrictions.
– Pray for Judith as she is still working part time in the clinic.
– Pray for Eric as he has a lot of work to do reading through the entire Malaumanda New Testament manuscript which is the final stage of this pre-printing project.