Life in
Lapoc is sometimes scary, sometimes hugely stressful, always very busy, quite
often bone-jarring (when we’re travelling over the rough roads), is
surprisingly noisy, never lacking in surprises and keeps us always thrown upon
the Lord.
So what have Howells been doing this past month?
We have helped two people have operations, we have visited our
brother who is suffering terribly with liver cancer and have searched for pain
medication for him, we have sorrowed for 9 people killed in a terrible truck
accident along our own Lapoc road, we have held two newborn babies, we have had
had at least 6 nights of lying awake for several hours thinking and praying
about things heavy on our hearts. We have worked over 320 hours between us on
the books of Acts and Ephesians, preparing bible lessons, revising the
translation and working on a correspondence consultant check on Ephesians to
finalize this before printing. More hours have gone into preparing materials
for the youth group and into a booklet on the prayers the Lord Jesus taught,
which is the topic this weekend for a women’s convention in Tumpagon. As
well as this, we have spent about 18 hours on our bone-jarring road, doing a
supply buy, picking up visitors from the airport (which we loved doing!)
and visiting the churches in Gahiton and Colawingon. We have individually
and together put many hours into counselling and discipling and we spent a
couple of hours one morning making a little girl with cerebral palsy feel
special on her birthday. We had a teenage school girl who is orphaned stay with
us for two weeks and in fellowship with the church leaders have found her a
place to live and have helped her set up home when it became evident that she
had no one else to take her in. We are praising our Lord along with Ronnie and
Aling that after 6 months of chemo, and 9 months since her surgery for colon
cancer, Aling’s test results have come back all clear! We have visited
the flood victims and checked the progress of the houses being built for them.
We have done a family photo shoot and also discovered that Dad doesn’t like
pumpkin mixed in with pasta (he gives it a lower rating than eating a
bat)! All 3 of us have had our moments of exhaustion where we just
couldn’t keep going without a rest and all three of us have seen the Lord’s
amazing, constant care as we have faced some heavy trials. We (well actually
Paul ) have ordered truckloads (literal truckloads!) of cement and gravel and
building materials and is in the process of building several buildings for
schools, a clinic and the beginning plans for 3 church buildings. We have
taught the Word, shared with friends, prayed and prayed, felt at loss, found
the way through, kept on plodding sometimes running, haven’t had a sleep in
past 6:00 am for months and months (except for Jubab who sometimes sleeps till
noon on a Saturday), have composed two new Tala-Andig songs..........and
more!
Through all of this, your prayers and support are the backbone
of us being able to keep on in the work here........you are part of God’s team
here! Don’t know where we’d be without you and we sure do praise our God for
you!
