The school year here at Lapilo is officially over. Both Daniel and Timothy have completed their classes and are officially in grades 12 and 8. Stephen has completed his first year at Moody as well and with the exception of his broken leg things have gone well. As we look at this past school year we can see how the Lord has gone before us as a family. Now that school is out we are in the midst of our normal time of transition. This year it isn’t quite as normal as we expected.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to leave Goroka for Wewak to help out in the center there. They are functioning with a skeleton crew there these days and our co-workers, John and Christina Hutteman, can use some help. This was also a way to have a change of pace and location. This is the change that we were expecting.
About 3 weeks ago the center manager for Lapilo, where we live, had an unexpected bit of news of their own. His wife was diagnosed with cancer and they need to head back to the US for treatment. This left a big hole in leadership and there isn’t anyone who can easily slide into this role without causing other departments to be seriously hurt. Well, long story short, they asked me to step into this role for the next year after which we will be heading to the US for our next home assignment.
We certainly did not expect this change. It took me several days to come to terms with what God was asking of me. Unexpected change doesn’t mean that God isn’t in the midst of it. So, once we get back from our time in the Sepik I will be taking on this new role. In order to take on this new role I will have to let go of some of the things that we have been doing such as orientation. This will be hard to do as we enjoyed working with the new folk in orientation. We’ll give you some more specific prayer requests below.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
Prayer and Praise
- Praise that we can continue to serve here in Papua New Guinea.
- Pray for us as a family as we head down to Wewak to serve for the summer. Pray specifically for Eric as he finds ways to help at the center there.
- Praise that the boys are about done with school for the year. Pray for Daniel as he will continue to work on his Spanish course.
- Pray for Stephen as he heals up from his broken leg and surgery. Pray also for his upcoming school year which starts in early July. We are still working through his medical bills, looking for the funds for his tools set, and searching for potential scholarships to help with the cost. Praise that he has about 1/2 of the funds needed for his tools.
- Praise that Stephen was made a resident advisor for a different Moody Aviation connected house which will help a bit with his bills. Pray for wisdom as he takes on this new role.
- Pray for the printing of the Malaumanda Bible. We have finally received the quote from the printers which ended up less expensive than we had originally thought. We hope to get this finalized soon so that we can start planning for a Bible dedication early next year.
- Pray for both Eric and Judith as we adjust our ministry roles here at Lapilo in light of Eric’s new ministry.
- Pray for the Lapilo center as a whole as we have a few more personnel ‘holes’ than normal. Pray specifically for more teachers in Math and Science, another doctor, and a few more skilled tradesmen in mechanics and carpentry. The last two would be for both doing the work as well as training PNG citizens in these areas.
- Pray for this summer to be a good break for our family.