Last month’s update was about God Ordained Change. Now this month I’m saying that Change is Normal. I could have use the title “Change stretches us”. Regardless of the title I think that you get the idea- life is a bit unpredictable at the moment. When we lived in Malaumanda, life was unique and definitely different from life in the USA BUT it had a fairly predictable routine to it. Get up, have my devotions, eat breakfast, translate and meet with guys throughout the day, dinner, bed, repeat. Boy, that almost sounds relaxing as I type it.
I am about a month into my new ministry role and it seems that no two days are alike. I make plans and set goals, and sometimes they actually work out. Most of the time not. It tends to be a fairly dynamic work environment where things come up and change the day. In the end I find myself engaging with people and hopefully encouraging the support side process of church planting here in PNG. There is satisfaction in that even if it is rather stressful at times. Probably the biggest benefit is that God is revealing to me some portions of my heart that need to grow and change.
Judith is doing well though her ministry mix has changed too. She continues to help in the school some though much of her time is focused on projects. She is working on all of the meal prep for the upcoming Sepik conference. Just think, feeding roughly 100 people evening meals for 4-5 days. That will keep her busy for awhile.
The boys are pretty much settled in to school. It doesn’t look the same this year though. Daniel was gifted an old Honda CR250R motor bike so he is riding to and from school. He has also joined the boys volleyball team this year. This is the first time that he has done this so it is fun to see. Timothy keeps on growing and is doing well in school except for diagramming sentences in English. We can live with that though. He loves to write creative stories which is great.
We do want to again say thank you to everyone who faithfully pray and support our ministry. We love this opportunity to share our lives with you.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer and Praise
- Praise that we are more or less healthy at the moment.
- Praise that Eric was able to find some other people to take some of his tasks from him. Pray for wisdom as he balances his various responsibilities. Pray also for creative thinking and a gracious spirit as he works through some challenging areas on the centre.
- Praise that the Senior retreat for Daniel’s class went well. There was a great sense of unity in the class and we had a wonderful time together.
- Prayer/Praise that it looks like the Malaumanda New Testament is getting closer to being printed. Just about everything but getting an invoice to pay has happened.
- Prayer/Praise that we have new renters for our house in Oregon. We still have quite a few expenses to sort through but at least we will have some money coming in here soon. Adding our mortgage to the normal expenses here hasn’t been fun.
- Pray for Stephen. He is doing well in his classes at Moody Aviation. He isn’t getting many hours at his job so that is a concern. We are still praying for his financial aid to come in.
- Pray for an opportunity to go in to Malaumanda some time before the end of the year.