Greetings from Papua New Guinea. This month our update may be a bit scattered. To be honest, that is kind of how this month has been. As we get closer to our departure for home assignment we work that much harder to tie up all of the loose ends on this term on the field. Part of this effort is focused on helping Daniel to end his time here in PNG well. Some of it is me trying to bring some of my center manager projects to a conclusion, or at least a stopping point. Some of it is Judith and I trying to go through the entire house getting rid of things that we don’t need and then packing up all the rest. Some of it is trying to sort through the details of our trip into Malaumanda following Daniel’s graduation. And then we are trying to figure out what our summer is going to look like. More on that in a moment. We are thankful that whatever we are working on the Lord gives us the grace and energy to make progress.
A few random bits of info:
– Next week Eric will be heading into a bush location for one last consultant trip before heading off. This time Daniel will be able to come along with me as well. He was a very young boy when he last came along on this sort of trip and he wanted to experience this again before he took off.
– Eric will be transitioning away from his full time role as Lapilo center manager right after this trip. We are still working to find a replacement for him. The picture above is of the Lapilo center management team (LCMT) and their families when they came over for Friday night pizza. This pic only shows about half of the group. There were 30 people at the house that night.
– The Malaumandan Bibles are in country. Lord willing they will arrive in Wewak on May 5th. Then we will work to find a flight to take about 200-300 of them into Malaumanda.
– Judith is still planning all of our last social engagements before leaving. Daniel had a number of families that he wants to have over so she is working through that list. Last night we had 6 school teachers over for pizza. Child’s play compared to 30.
– We will start our time in the US by spending a week in Oregon. We are still looking for a place to stay from June 11th to the 17th in Dallas, Oregon.
– We are also still looking to see what the Lord will provide for us concerning a vehicle. Every time we head home the circumstances are a bit different but the same Lord always manages to take care of us.
Let me also say that we will be traveling for most of the summer. The whole month of July we will be down in California so if any of you are interested in a visit from a band of traveling missionaries then please drop us a line. We will look forward to catching up with you all and sharing what the Lord is doing here in PNG.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer & Praise
- Praise that we have been healthy except for a cold/cough and a bump on the head for Timothy.
- Pray for Eric as he tries to finish up some projects. Pray also that we can find a replacement center manager soon so there will be time for training.
- Praise that the boys are just about done with school for the year. Daniel was able to work hard and finished up some projects for English so that class is done now. Pray for Timothy as he still has a lot of work these days. He is doing great though.
- Pray for Stephen as he is in a busy stretch right now. Praise that he took his first FAA test for his maintenance license and passed. He still has a lot of work to do before he gets on a plane to PNG to be here for Daniel’s graduation and the Bible dedication.
- Pray for Judith as she still has some work to do at school while at the same time trying to pack things up at the house.
- Pray for the logistics revolving around the Bible dedication in June. We still have some time to work on this.
- Pray for our need of a vehicle and for a place to stay for that first week back in Oregon.
- Pray for the Lord to provide more support and church planting missionaries for the field of PNG. We could really use a doctor, more teachers, more tradesmen people who have a heart to train citizens, and the list goes on.