A Merry Christmas!

Last week brought a very merry Christmas to us here in Kiari as I hope it did to you in your homes as well. We had a surprisingly traditional Christmas, thanks to some recent good finds on town supply trips. Tiffany and I opened our presents (together with our cats) on Christmas morning and fixed a gourmet breakfast of eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and apple juice. Then we fixed our part of the Christmas dinner and went up to the Smiths for a dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, green salad, waldorf salad, ambrosia, rolls, and pineapple bake. Dinner over, we opened presents with the Smiths, played some games, and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. In late afternoon, we had dessert of cherry pie and nut pie. All in all, a very enjoyable day!

 

On Saturday afternoon, I invited my Sunday school class to my house to make Christmas cookies. I had made the dough ahead of time and cut out and baked most of the cookies, but I left one portion of dough for them to try their hand at cutting out. Then we frosted all the already baked ones and ate a few. The experience was a first for most of them as none of them have ovens and cookies are not a traditional part of their culinary skills:-) I was pleased that ten of the sixteen girls in my class came. We played pin the star on the Christmas tree, sang some Christmas songs, and I shared some insights from the Christmas story.

 

Yesterday (Sunday), I was a little ill (probably too many Christmas sweets) and unable to make the hike down to church. I was told though that there was a good attendance, as, just like America, people come out of the woodwork to come to church on Christmas Sunday. Megan, one of my teen girls who has wandered from the Lord, was there for all the services. Please continue to pray for her and for the rest of the teens that they will stand strong and continue to follow the Lord.

Christmas Program

Thanks so much for all your prayers for the Christmas program. It went remarkably well, considering everything. There was a good turnout of Sunday school children for their part in the program and also a good number of visitors invited by our church folks.

 

Most people remembered their lines -- pretty impressive considering it was the first time any of them had had to memorize a part in a play. I only did a little minor prompting. Also, it did not rain, which was a definite blessing as the rain falling on our tin roof would have made our soft spoken actors impossible to hear.

 

The biggest blessing of the service though was that one of the teenage girls from my Sunday school class came forward at the invitation and said that she wanted to be saved. She had tears in her eyes and seemed quite struck by the fact that Jesus had shed His blood and died that her sins might be forgiven. Her decision made all the work worthwhile.

 

Once again, thanks for your prayers. You had just as much a part behind the scenes as the actors on stage had in the foreground.

Paperwork

As you may recall, I have asked prayer for the approval of a work permit for Elizabeth Ellinghausen, a short term teacher for our Christian school. Recently we learned that the company who deals with the paperwork for us did notactually submit it to the government agency for approval until a few weeks ago! This not only affects Elizabeth, but also two short termers who are hoping to come to another village in PNG to do medical work and Christian school teaching. Please pray that the Lord will allow this paperwork to be granted in His timing and give wisdom and clear direction to all involved.

 

You're probably tired of hearing about the Christmas program by now, but it is a major part of my thoughts and prayers at this time. It will be held in the afternoon service on December 20th. That will be 3:15pm here, which would be 12:15am Eastern Time in the US. So if you think to pray for us before you go to bed on Saturday night, it would be much appreciated. We had our first full-scale rehearsal on Sunday and it went surprisingly well. Pleae pray especially for unsaved visitors and a clear understanding of the gospel message.

O Christmas Tree

As I'm sure you've noticed, the Christmas holidays are creeping up on us. On Saturday, Tiffany and I went out to chop down our Christmas trees. We don't really have pine trees, but we have a kind of tree that has needles that sort of resembles them. It looks a bit like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree though. I have been crocheting snowflakes to use as ornaments and also have some round glass flasks that make great balls when stuffed with colored tissue paper. Now if I can only keep the cats from climbing the tree or using the dirt base as a litter box:-)

 

Brother Randy had a profitable trip to town last week. Thanks so much for your prayers. He was able to get grass seed ordered and paid for and even found the type that he was hoping for.

 

We have 2 more weeks of school before we will break for the Christmas holidays. Practice continues for the church Christmas program. Until now, the actors and each Sunday school class has been practicing separately, but I plan to gather them all together for a complete dry run next Sunday. We'll see how that goes:-) It is planned for December 20th, so please continue to pray for that outreach.

Holidays

We had a very pleasant Thanksgiving this past week. Of course, the holiday is not celebrated here in New Guinea, so we had a missionary gathering and a good dinner. We had all been saving hard to get items in order to make as traditional a meal as possible.

 

The Christmas program has been taking a lot of time in recent days. It is the first time for a church Christmas program, so that adds to the challenge a bit. Most of the actors have never been involved in a drama before, or even seen one. That combined with their general shyness makes it difficult for them to be expressive and vocal in their acting. We are making progress though, and praying earnestly that the Lord will use it in the hearts of those who attend. Please join with us in prayer for this project.

 

Despite all the good progress on the airstrip, we recently learned that there is a lot more work to be done. There is a curve on the airstrip that is causing some problems. It is within the government guidelines but its location just over the top of a rise puts it in a blind spot for the landing pilots. As a result, the airstrip will have to be widened at that spot to straighten it out. Jeff Owens has been spending a number of hours each day working on the project. Brother Randy plans to go into town this week to buy more diesel to keep the bulldozer operating. He is also still trying to find grass seed, a definite need and prayer request.

 

 

Youth

Brother Randy and Jeff are safely back in Kiari, at least for a time. They returned via helicopter last Wednesday, but scheduled 2 airplane shuttles to Nomane (our closest airstrip) for Thursday to bring in the rest of the supplies and some of the fencing for the airstrip. Unfortunately, the trip to Nomane (usually about 4-5 hours round trip) ended up taking about 27 hours. Late plane flights and a bad rainstorm that turned the road into a mudpit made coming back on Thursday impossible, so they had to spend the night in Nomane and returned Friday afternoon. They were very happy to get home again!

 

Please continue to intercede for our youth. Nika, a young man who is attending school in town, has made some poor choices and needs to decide if he is going to follow the Lord or follow the things of this world. Megan, a recently saved teen girl, had an altercation with her mother where her mother was struck on the head (whether deliberately or not is still in question). Unfortunately, she has not made wise choices in dealing with the situation. On a positive note, I was able to have a small party this past week for my teen girls Sunday school class. We ate, played Pictionary (in Pidgin of course), sang some songs, and had a brief devotional. Eight girls came for the party and there were 13 girls in Sunday school this week. Thank you so much for your prayers for these young people.

 

Progress

Significant progress was made on the airstrip during the time that Dale Crawford was here. There is some finishing work that the smaller machine will need to do, but the basic clearing and grading is done. Dale Crawford left Kiari on Thursday amid much fanfare. We had a special service for him on Wednesday where the church folks gave testimonies and presented him with various gifts including a bow and several spears. Then again on Thursday morning, some of the people from the community presented him with some gifts to show their appreciation for his work.

 

Brother Randy and Jeff went into town with him when he left. They are trying very hard to find a place to purchase grass seed inside PNG. Apparently it is not an item that is much in demand:-) Failing that, they will have to purchase it in Australia and get it transported to PNG. They are also planning to purchase fencing to enclose the airstrip and for that will have to make a trip to Lae, a coastal city a few hours from the town we usually go to for supplies. Lord willing, they will return to Kiari on Wednesday.

 

Please pray for Megan, a teenage girl in our church and Christian school. She is struggling right now and facing some important decisions. Please pray that she will make the right choices.