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.

Nothing Much

For a change, nothing very exciting happened this week, but we still stayed plenty busy. Work continues to go forward on the air strip. Dale Crawford will be leaving us on Thursday, but we have really enjoyed his fellowship and appreciated his hard work.

 

Enrollment increased a bit in the read write school. I had to cap it at 23 as I ran out of books. We will hopefully be able to buy some more on the next town trip and get a class going for men. This class is teaching the people to read and write in Pidgin. This enables them to read the Bible for themselves -- such a blessing. The ages in the class range from upper middle-aged to young children. They all seem to be very excited about learning. Please pray for the national teacher, also named Katrin.

 

Another project that is keeping me busy is the church Christmas program. I wrote a short drama in Pidgin, describing Jesus as the perfect lamb. There are a number of teens and adults with various speaking roles. In addition, each Sunday school class will sing a song and the older ones will recite a verse. We are really praying that the Lord will bring a number of unsaved folks to the program, tentatively scheduled for December 20th.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers for the ministry here. You definitely have just as essential a role as any of us actually here on the field.

Teenage Girls

In all the excitement about the airstrip, I realized that I forgot to mention anything about the new teen Sunday school classes. I had 3 girls the first Sunday, 8 the next, and 11 last Sunday. The number increased both as older girls decided to leave the younger Sunday school class and join my class, and as other girls that attend sporadically started to come. We are studying through the book of Colossians. On Sunday we were talking about true Christian love that only the Holy Spirit can give to us. We, of course, discussed that the Holy Spirit is not given to us until after we are saved, so we talked about the need to make that decision. One of the girls came forward in the church service that followed and prayed to be saved. What a blessing! Please pray for Regina's continued growth.

 

Read-Write school also started this week. I am overseeing this ministry but a national lady is doing the actual teaching. She had 19 ladies and children for the first class. Some of these are people from church and some are unsaved folks from the community.

 

The work on the airstrip continues as Dale Crawford works from around 6:30am to 6:30pm each day. It is amazing the changes visible in such a short time. He hopes to finish the bulk of the work this week. Once the building part is finished, grass seed will need to be planted and the area fenced in. Please continue to pray for this project.