There are times when the Lord doesn’t allow our best laid plans to play out as we expect. Our departure from Wewak was one such time. We had booked tickets to leave on Sunday afternoon to start our journey back home. Saturday evening we were informed by the airline that the flight was canceled. We went down the next morning to see if we could get on an earlier flight but was told that the morning flight and the next morning’s flight were full. We were rebooked for Monday afternoon though after a few hours that flight was canceled as well. We were rebooked for Tuesday morning so we went down early just to be sure. Well, when we got there about 100 people were already standing around the front door. Long story short, after about 2 1/2 hours we had our luggage check and boarding passes in hand. Praise the Lord that we did get to Port Moresby (the capitol) and were able to get to the US Embassy to renew the boys passports, enjoy a bit of family time and give Judith a couple of days break from cooking. Thankfully the final leg of our trip home went smoothly.
Now that is not the only God ordained change. I mentioned briefly in our previous update that I have been asked to fill in as the Lapilo centre manager. This isn’t a role that I have any experience in per se but I do see how the Lord has prepared me for it. I was in the office a few hours after getting back from our trip. It is now a week and a half later and I am still in the ministry role discovery process. We will be sharing more about this new role in future updates.
I’m sure that many of you are experiencing your own God ordained change. We just need to remember that when God ordains change that it is His plan that we are a part of. We will just be in a different part of it.
Thanks so much for praying for us. We feel the need of it these days.
Eric and Judith, Daniel and Timothy, and Stephen
The pic above is of Judith and I with our co-workers, John and Christina Hutteman and fellow Sepik missionary, Greg Melendes, who was in country to spend some time with the believers in the Waxe tribe.
Prayer and Praise
- Praise that we are more or less settled back into our house here at Lapilo.
- Pray for Eric as he is in the midst of learning his new position. Also Pray for him as he finds people to take on some of his existing roles. There is only so much room on his plate.
- Pray for Judith as she is busy these days with school management team meetings but at the same time working through what her ministry ‘mix’ will look like moving forward.
- Praise that the boys are about 1 1/2 weeks from starting up school. Now I know that wouldn’t be considered a praise for them but it will be good for them to get back into a routine.
- Pray for the Senior retreat for Daniel. Judith and I are sponsors this year so we are in the midst of helping to plan this event which will happen in August.
- Praise that Stephen is doing well at Moody Aviation. His foot seems to be OK but please Pray for his health as he is home with a high fever. Hopefully he can get over it this weekend. Also Pray for financial aid for his schooling.
- Pray for leadership meetings here that happen this coming week. There are a lot of topics that need to be discussed.
- Pray for the printing of the Malaumanda New Testament to be invoiced so that we can pay for it and move forward.
- Pray for the country of PNG. As is true in many parts of the world, the financial circumstances here in PNG are challenging to say the least.
- Pray for us as we look for new renters for our house in Oregon. We are also using a new property manager which can be a challenge to start when 8000 miles away.
- Pray that the work of New Tribes Mission PNG will be a part of seeing the Gospel of Christ grow and expand in its influence here in PNG.