Family News!

Here we sit on a beautiful Lapoc afternoon a few days ago......crisp air, gorgeous pine trees, work over for the day, out having fun with our Lapoc missionary team and the camera.

So what have the past days held for us?

Well, Paul pulled off his first ever surprise party last night! The occasion was to say goodbye to James and JingJing and their two boys after a year here in Lapoc having exposure to missions. They return tomorrow to their home in Tumpagon and another young family will replace them – also from the Tumpagon Church - to have exposure to missions for a year.

Despite the party involving 47 people (mostly all the bible teachers and their families who James and JingJing have grown very close to as well as our team), they all got into our home and the food (including a whole pig that had been roasted on a spit) was all on the table without James or JingJing having a clue as to what was going on. And when Paul brought them in through our front door you should have seen their faces!

The huge yell of “SURPRISE” made Ben and Leonie’s baby Grace scream in fright but everyone else laughed in joy at the genuine surprise in James and JingJing’s faces and at the tears of joy in James’ eyes.

Apparently after the party was over, they could hardly get to sleep and talked late into the night about the party they had been surprised with. James said that no one has ever done anything like that for him before and it was a special ending to what has been a great year for them.

So that was one of the BIG things that this last few days has held but apart from this and apart from a big change in our team dynamics with one family going and another one arriving, well.......there have been other happenings too. Jubab has been working hard at school and is nearly finished Term 1. He’s looking forward to a week’s break from school real soon (and I think Ben is as well!)

Paul is hugely overworked – overseeing a lot of building projects, coordinating a lot of supply buying for all the building projects, for the two training seminars per month, for all of our own personal needs and for the office work – as well as studying and teaching the book of Ephesians in the church here in Lapoc and our work translating the New Testament. We are currently working on the book of Colossians as Philippians has been checked and finalized!!!!

I am having fun planning for the arrival of 3 grandchildren the end of next week - including one still in diapers - who will be living with us maybe a month while Jen and Udi await the birth of baby #4!! Jen is giving birth in hospital this time instead of here at home because of blood pressure problems. I continue to help with discipleship and am also heavily involved in the translation project. Last week I had a whole day of training with the scripture teachers and it was a hugely encouraging day with the ladies.

Health wise, Paul and I have some really good days and other days when we have trouble with various things that are bothering us but basically none of our health ‘woes’ are causing trouble enough to slow us down. We praise the Lord for the amazing way He has kept us well!

My Dad continues on a tablet form of chemo and we are comforted knowing that there is a perfect plan in this suffering as our God uses everything in our lives for good.

We are enjoying serving the Lord and enjoying our adventures as a family and we are so thankful for all that the Lord Jesus has brought about in our lives.

The scripture that has encouraged us this week is about His love.....

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword…..no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Romans 8:35-37

Back to School!

In October before we left to visit my Grandpa, we held a training seminar and since we arrived back the end of January we have already held three more. It is not the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus but the hearts of the men and women who are being taught have the same passion to spread the Good News about the Lord Jesus throughout Asia.....and they have already taken the Gospel through four different provinces and to over 30 towns and villages here in this part of Asia.

Paul is sharing with this group of men and women – elders, pastors, bible teachers, ladies involved in children’s ministry and elder’s wives – about the importance of being in the Word, implanting it in their own hearts and letting it flow out from their hearts as they teach others.

It was three days,  from Monday until late Wednesday night this week,  packed full of study about doctrine, outlines, team teaching, the need for each other, forming strong ministry teams, discussion time about church planting and anything else on their hearts......and many other things. 

Behind the scenes were many ladies who were helping everything to go smoothly, who were cooking, making beds, cleaning.......and other women who were providing technical help with the Mp3 players, with the computers and power points and with printing study materials. Not to mention Wingwing who drove many hours to bring everyone here and who also brought in large quantities of meat, fish and vegetables from out in town. Paul had the job of making sure everything coordinated and enough food was ordered and this was huge. 

The men and women attending these training seminars have been taking their study time very seriously!

At the end of the day when we’d come back to our home and the evening meal was over,  some of them studied late into every night, only slept a few hours and then would be up again at 2:00 or 3:00am to continue studying. Our home became a hive of activity during the evenings of little groups here and there, discussing the Word with each other and of others finding their own corner to study the Word in and to write and to ponder. We had never seen the likes of it in our 25 years’ experience as missionaries.  

We made sure that there was coffee on 24 hours a day and kept lights on all night in the study areas so that they could come and go as they pleased.

One of the exercises we did with them to help them see the benefit of working together as a team was to get each of them to prepare a message on Acts 3:1-10, and then the ladies who work here in the office with us encoded all the information from their combined lessons into the computer to produce one joint lesson. They then took that lesson and compared it with their own original lesson to see how much more insight God had given them on that passage from the joint thoughts and understanding of their whole group together.

 

They were amazed and very pleased with the end result of their combined effort – so much so that when the elders and bible teachers from Cauyunan went back home, they continued to put into practise what they had learnt here and they set aside one whole day a week – sometimes going without lunch – to study diligently together as a team the book of Ephesians so that they could team-teach it to the church. And as a result they have seen a re-kindled passion for the Word growing in the hearts of the believers in Cauyunan and some who had become somewhat indifferent to spiritual things now look forward to gathering as a church each week because the fervour of their church leaders is becoming contagious.

When the church leaders from Cauyunan shared this news with us last month, we got teary-eyed and our hearts were very touched by what God is doing in their lives! And this month, they have even more news to share because the church leaders in Tumpagon and Limondà are following their lead and are also setting time aside weekly to come together as a leadership team and to discuss the scriptures and to learn from each other.

During these training seminars, we have been including a couple of the wives each time – so far 6 of the wives have attended and 4 more will be coming next month – and we have been encouraging the men to involve their wives in their personal study times and to see their wives as their number one disciple and themselves as their wives’ number one disciple as well. And we have been hearing some very sweet stories of how God is bonding these couples together more and more as they study the Word together and get more involved together in ministry.

Even the young people in Cauyunan are catching their leaders’ excitement to study the Word and the number of youth that are meeting together for Bible studies each week is growing! 

Meal times have been fun – people spread out everywhere at tables and on the floors and lively conversations – and we do our best to cook as much variety as we can for them.  The smallest group we have had at a meal for these training seminars so far has been 18 people and the biggest group has been 30 so it hasn’t been too enormous but still keeps us on our toes and means starting in the kitchen before the first rays of sun start to appear in the sky.

We believe this year, that these ‘school’ times in the Word, twice a month, are an undertaking that God has committed to us to host and to facilitate and to help teach. It is something that God laid on our hearts last year and He is helping us with more and more ideas on how to make these times increasingly beneficial.

Please pray for us to have great wisdom and to have hearts that continually grow in sensitivity to His voice and to the direction He is leading.  A friend shared Isaiah 41:10 with us yesterday and it is a beautiful thought to close this letter with:

Do not fear for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God; I will strengthen you, surely I will help you; Surely I will uphold You with My righteous right hand.