The world has been spinning around awfully fast these days and we have not had lots of time to sit and catch up on things. We do appreciate all of your prayers and we hope this update will help you to better pray for us.
School Break Busyness
It has been a joy to have Levi and Jacob home from school for a bit of a break. I suppose that is part of the reason things are spinning so fast.We sent them off this morning on the “School Bus” Cessna 206 airplane and they flew off to another term at boarding school.
Having the whole family together for a few weeks was exciting as we tried to cram in extra family time into our already crazy schedule. That has meant late nights with the big boys and early mornings with Josiah. Josiah has said many times over the last 2 ½ weeks “I prayed for my brothers to come home and now they are back!” We were afraid he would have a difficult time saying good bye and watching them fly away, but in answer to our prayers he said good bye and ran off to the house without even a tear and waved goodbye to them as they roared down the airstrip past the house on take off.
Please be praying for him especially in the coming days as the reality of Levi and Jacob not being home sinks in.
Danielle has also enjoyed having a full house again, but all of the late nights and early mornings have taken its toll on her as well. Even before the boys came home for break she was struggling with fatigue and pain.
Please continue to pray for her health.
In July when we took the boys to school, she had a doctor’s appointment with our mission doctor. At that time he confirmed what we had been suspecting. He diagnosed Danielle with Chronic Fatigue/Fibromylaigia. For some time now this has been having an effect on our ministry as Tom has had to take time from the ministry to help the family. It is quite stressful for him at times to juggle the demands of ministry and the needs of the family.
Village Changes
This past summer PNG had its national elections and new leadership was appointed for the next 5 years. This included local leadership.
For the past 10 years our village “Council,” who functions more like a town mayor, was Yenep. However, neither he nor any other man from our village went to the district office to register and put their names on the ballot for “council.”
Because of this, we no longer have a government representative from our village and for a month or so it almost looked as if we would have no leadership at all. This of course left us a little concerned. As time went on, it became apparent that our village would fall under the leadership of the Council from a village in the neighboring Amto language group.
Please be praying for our new Council “Henry” as he has 3 villages under his leadership.
He has traveled to each village and had them mark committees to oversee various aspects of village life. Among the Siawi people we now have 5 committees.
Please pray for Sabien as he will be the new “ward” committee who will make sure all the “heavies” are straightened.
The people felt that since he was the biggest trouble maker, they would make him the man who has to straighten everything hoping it will restrain him. He will also be required to travel to the district office to meet with the police on a regular basis. The village thought that regular contact with the police would take some of the fire out of him.
Please pray for Kwaelom as he has been marked as the committee to represent the local church.
Please pray for Konasi as he has been marked as the committee to represent the aid post.
Please pray for Ekebei as he has been marked as the committee of transportation. He will look after the up keep of the airstrip and local “roads” (trails) and the river.
Please pray for Imen as he is the new Magistrate who will hear all the courts.
RomansTeaching
One of our greatest joys over the past few months has been watching the fruit of grace and righteousness ripen in the lives of the believers. It gave me great joy to teach Romans 8.14-15. As we talked and discussed what it meant to be adopted as a son in the Roman culture, smiles began to appear on their faces as we talked about them being given the position as an adult in the family of God.
But the discussion that Romans 8.16 created was a bit of a surprise to me. There still remains much confusion on not only the Holy Spirit but also man’s spirit.
When did we receive our spirit?
Is the spirit we have as a believer different than the spirit we had as an unbeliever?
Can our spirit leave our body?
Does it go to heaven to talk with the Holy Spirit?
Many of these questions have false doctrine fueling it. Each one took us time to answer as we tried to address the roots of those questions. Many of them took us back to Genesis as we looked at God’s creation of man.
Please continue to pray as we teach through the rest of Romans 8.
Teaching Teachers
We have now had two meetings with a group of men who have a desire to become teachers of the word. Currently there are 14 men attending this group. We know that the demands of being a teacher will weed our numbers down over the coming weeks as distractions come into their lives.Our desire is to have about 8 men that Jason and I can disciple as teachers.
Please be praying that we will see faithful men emerge from this group.
We have started studying the lessons in Genesis with the goal of these men beginning a class for those who would like to hear the Chronological lessons taught again here among the Siawi people.
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