Well 2021 has started and for the most part life here in PNG continues on as it ever has. We still don’t have much of a covid issue here for which we are thankful. There really hasn’t been any social unrest unlike the US and other places in the world. Whatever the case may be where you happen to be, we know that God is on the throne. In a recent growth group that Judith and I are a part of we discussed Colossians 1.15-23. Read through that when you get the chance and be reminded that Christ is Supreme over everything. And, oh by the way, we are IN Christ. That’s not a bad place to be regardless of what goes on around us.
A few days before school started we were able to head in to town as a family and do a bit of shopping and then eat out. There are a couple of nice places to go where you can have a swim and order up a burger and fries. It was very relaxing and something that we wouldn’t mind doing again.
The 19th of this month Stephen, Daniel and Timothy headed off down the road to school. Now this has happened numerous times before but this time around it seemed even more significant because of the forced home schooling that we have gone through since March of 2020. It will probably take a few more days before they are truly into a good groove but so far so good. We are so thankful for the group of teachers that the Lord has assembled here.
The next item on our agenda will be a trip into Malaumanda on Feb 1. This time around it will just be me (Eric) heading in though Lord willing we will be able to find a time later on in the year when we can get there as a family. I am looking forward to spending time with the believers and leaders there. I know that I’ll have some work on the house to do as well as some wrenching on the Kubota tractor. Hopefully that won’t be too significant. What I am really looking forward to is a baptism service that they will have while I am there. The camera is coming with me so Lord willing I’ll have a video to share sometime next month.
OK, we’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks so much for your prayers and support.
In Him,
Eric and Judith, Stephen, Daniel and Timothy
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Prayer and Praise
- Praise that we are all healthy.
- Pray for Eric as he is working to help the first orientation class make progress in their Tok Pisin language study. This will take them a while but in the end, it will be worth it.
- Praise that the boys are in school and being instructed by quality teachers. Lapilo is a unique place in that these same teachers are also our neighbors. This does help when you get stuck on Algebra problems.
- Praise that another group of missionaries (65 men, women, and children) just arrived a few days ago. They will be in quarantine for the next 14 days. Pray for them. Some are returning though there are at least 6-8 new church planting missionaries here.
- Pray for me as I finalize plans to go into Malaumanda in February. Specifically, Pray for the baptism and the teaching and discipleship moments during that week.
- Once I get back from Malaumanda then we will be starting another orientation class. Pray for wisdom as we help the new class while still giving some support to the existing group of people.
- Pray for the final formatting work to be done on the Malaumanda New Testament.
- Pray for Judith as she has started to work in the medical clinic again. This is still a bit of a balancing act as she will also help Stephen with a correspondence Spanish 2 course. I guess that is another prayer request
FYI
We mentioned last time about our videos being on our website Hedeensjourney.com. This will continue to be the case. One thing that we are planning to change, or transition to, is to start using a different app for our social media posting. I won’t go into all the details concerning our reasoning for this but then again I don’t suppose I need to. The world is changing for certain and we will be adjusting. We are currently signed up with mewe.com and texting/VOIP app called Signal. Pray for us as we negotiate our way through this time. If you want to communicate with us other than email then just email us and we’ll help you connect via the Signal app. It is very easy.