We are so thankful for all of you who have been praying for us through the years. We need your prayers and have been seeing some answers to those prayers this month
Last month we asked you to pray that Judith’s final police clearance would come through. Well that happened during the second week of March and we were able to upload that file and complete that part of the process. Judith’s mom was a part of the work team and was able to bring the hard copy of that report with her. We heard on the 13th that the National Visa Center (NVC) had completed the processing and was going to forward the application on to the US embassy here in PNG. This was encouraging to hear but more on this later.
The work team from Judith’s home church, King Rd. MB church, was slated to arrive on Sunday March 15th. Well, snow and ice at Seatac airport canceled their first flight and after rebooking they were finally able to get to Goroka on Tuesday the 17th. It was a blessing to have them here and we spent Wednesday getting ready for our trip into Malaumanda.
Thursday we had two flights booked into Malaumanda. I went on the first one with the food and supplies as the weather has been bad of late and I didn’t want to get into the bush with one flight but no food. The Lord was good and the 7 guys arrived in Malaumanda shortly before noon. The Malaumandans did a great welcome to the team and then we settled into the house. We framed a few walls on Thursday before calling it a day.
The next day we split up the team with some of them working on replacing the window screens on the church and the rest of them getting the office walls up including the ridge. It was great to see the team working alongside of the Malaumandan believers throughout each stage of the build.
Saturday the roof went up, the siding went on and screen windows on the office were done. The Lord had brought a group of skilled guys to help with the project though their servant attitude was even more impressive. Even in the evenings we had a great time of fellowship in the Word and played a lot of cards.
Sunday we went to church at about 9am. I had the opportunity to share from Revelation where John saw the people from every nation, tribe, people, and language. We were experiencing that this morning. We also had two of the men give their testimony with my translating. What they shared was both encouraging and challenging to the church there and they appreciated it.
Monday some of the guys left to go back to Lapilo as we could not get everyone back at the same time. They were able to work at Lapilo while we continued to work on the teacher’s office. Tuesday the rest of us flew back to Goroka and settled back at Lapilo. Wednesday the team worked on shelving units for the centre. We had others who worked on the generators and installed some lighting. They certainly have a better understanding of what it takes to keep missions going here in PNG.
The team left this morning (Friday) to start their trip back to BC, Canada. What a blessing they were. Right as they were getting ready to leave we received an email from NVC to state that Judith has an appointment at the US embassy on May 13th. Wow! It seems that we have so many different things going on that it can be hard to keep up. Now do we know how soon after that appointment that she will get her entry visa? Not really. Hopefully we will learn more about this in the coming weeks.
We do want to once again say thank you to everyone who faithfully prays for us. We certainly need it and have sensed God working in our lives. Please keep praying for us as we need God’s strength and direction to finish this term on the field well.
Blessings,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer Requests
- Praise that we have enjoyed good health and numerous opportunities to serve.
- Praise that Judith has received her appointment at the embassy. Pray that we will be able to figure out what still needs to be done so that we can plan for our trip back to the US.
- Praise for the King Rd MB work team who came to help us with the Malaumanda project.
- Pray for Jim and the Malaumanda church as they will be going up to Minini soon to teach through 1 Corinthians.
- Pray for Daniel as he will be finishing his first year of Bible school in May and needs to find a construction job in Oregon as well as a place to stay while we are not there. Oh, and we need to find a vehicle for him as well.
- Pray for Stephen as he has coordinated with some mechanics in Spokane to work on our Jetta. They are getting close to being done with an engine swap and we are hopeful that we will have that to drive while on home assignment.
- Pray for us as we figure out where we will be living during home assignment.
- Pray that we can finish well here while planning for our home assignment.