The school year is just about done and a busy summer is just about to start. We trust that we will have a bit of downtime though we know from history that we never get quite as much of that as we plan for. In the end, the Lord gives us opportunities to serve and we try to engage with people as we can.
With just a few more days of school, we would ask that you be thinking of Stephen and Daniel as they have their final exams this coming week. Thursday is graduation here and the Junior class will be helping to do all of the clean-up for that. It will be fun to see how it all goes as we will be in that same position next year with Stephen. It is hard to imagine that we will soon be starting to send our boys off into the world. Exciting and scary.
On Wednesday of last week, I was able to fly into the Tanguat tribe to do a culture and language (CLA) evaluation. I usually go with another consultant on these trips but this time around all of the consultants were busy with their own kids graduating. The upside of this is that Judith joined me. We left the boys with friends in the center here and then had a 1-hour helicopter ride into the bush. It was a lot of fun to spend those 2 days with Paul and Ellen Swenson. They are doing very well at language study and will soon be ready to be in full-time ministry. There is a small existing church in there already so they already do get to have a small part with dreams of teaching and discipleship to come.
During June and July, we will have a bit of a break from the orientation program as the new missionaries are all in Tok Pisin self-study. That is good as we as a family will be visiting Malaumanda for a week starting the middle of June. We’ll fly out of Malaumanda to Wewak and help to set up our co-worker’s house as they get ready to return at the beginning of July. Lord willing we will have a few days of overlap with them to get caught up on life and to strategize about what we need to be doing in Malaumanda in the days to come. Of course, we are also looking forward to many days of swimming in the ocean as well while we are down at the coast.
We do want to thank all of you who so faithfully pray for us and support our ministry here. We are overwhelmed by God’s goodness that is shone through each of you.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer and Praise
- Praise for continued good health. There have been some Covid cases in the area though the numbers are starting to drop.
- Pray for Eric as he is working with 2 pilots and a mechanic (and their spouses) as they try to complete their pidgin study. They need to be at a certain level of fluency before they get to transition to the hanger.
- Pray for Daniel and Stephen’s exams this coming week. Pray specifically for Stephen’s Algebra 2 exam. It is crucial that he does well on it.
- Praise that some covid restrictions on domestic travel have eased. This will make it easier for us to travel to Malaumanda and Wewak this summer.
- Pray for Eric as he continues to work on the final proofing of the Malaumanda New Testament.
- Pray for Eric as he has some work to do editing through some of the orientation materials.
- Pray for Judith as she is balancing both working in the clinic with helping to encourage the orientation folks along with me.
- Pray for our trip into Malaumanda that we would have a great time with the believers there and make many good memories together as a family.
