NTM

“Dear ones who REJOICE in the Lord ,

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield. Psalm 5:11,12

We all have many things to rejoice about and even in hard times we can rejoice in the LORD , who He is and what He has and is doing in and through us. We rejoice in a wonderful Christmas season we experienced here with other missionaries and Indonesian Christians and hearing of the enjoyable times our daughters and family and friends like you experienced as well!!! For many, Christmas brings both sad and happy memories with family and friends for many reasons. We were separated from our girls and good Christian friends back home but rejoice that they are doing well and trusting in the LORD.

REJOICING IN:

1. Our LORD’s first coming and soon second coming!!!!
2. Seeing much progress in our language and culture study and adjusting to living here once again after 7 years of being away!!!!!
3. God’s provision as we start the new year and plan to move to Sulawesi , an island of Central Indonesia.!!
4. Safety for our family here and in the States during the holidays.
5. A great Visit with old friends from AUSTRALIA , the Hastings.
6. Moving on to Unit 9 and Final class before we move into our future ministry later in March of this year.

LEARNING another language requires lots of time and willingness to be a learner for a long time to become effective in speaking and responding in a way accepted by the navtive speaker!! Praise the Lord for His help in every way , our consultants with our mission and our Indonesian teachers and friends who have helped in many many ways . We have much to still learn but can speak well enough to feel comfortable in most situations. We are still needing to learn to speak more naturally as an Indonesian would and learn more Spiritual terms and phrases. We have about one month of formal classes left!!!!!

GOD”S wonderful provision is going to provide needed things like furniture, remodeling and travel and specific ministry items we will need in the coming years in Sulawesi. Our future ministry involves encouraging fellow missionaries and Indonesian Christians in the Word, being involved in community outreach and providing comfortable accommodations when our co-workers come to do government work or have medical appointments or other business in town away from their place of ministry.

Preparing to move to Sulawesi. We are making plans to move to Sulawesi some time in March not sure of a date yet. After finishing language study we will be purchasing things needed in our future ministry, packing and selling things not needed there, and saying good-bye to many friends here both ex-patriate and Indonesians.

Many Adjustments are coming soon for us and WE need YOUR PRAYERS. These things are not our favorite things to face but inevitable. Our adjustments involve:
Focusing on our last days of language, decisions about things to buy, things to sell, packing our stuff, traveling long distances, unpacking and setting up house again, working with new house workers, learning a new town and leaving behind many good friends we have made this past year!!

REJOICE in the LORD and then again I say REJOICE!!!

Thank you for you prayers and support in many ways,

Love in the LORD,

John and Karen Callahan
Indonesia

john-karen_callahan@ntm.org

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.