With the Pal church

We're back in Pal.  The trails are just as slippery as ever.  Our home is familiar, our team a joy to spend time with, and hiking...makes me feel old!  Yesterday we sat with Nivat and Kulut and chatted outside their home.  They brought out bowls of soup to share, we ate yams together.  Kulut shared how he had woken up in the middle of the night to read from the Word.   He got excited about it and was pulling down his guitar to worship when Nivat woke and said, in effect, "Uh...everyone else is asleep, do you really want to do that?"  They laughed as they told us the story. 

Nivat and Kulut have guests right now, a young couple named Mabel and Manam.  You might remember that I asked you to pray for them a few weeks ago?  Well, when their little girl was dying, Nivat went to them and said, "Come stay with us."  For the last two weeks she's been providing their food and firewood.  This isn't normal in Pal culture: she's not part of their earthly clan. 

Later, Nivat said to me, "You know, when Esab's son died, I didn't do anything extra for them, and when Moyobo's son died, I didn't take care of them either.  I feel bad about that. I knew that I wanted to do SOMETHING to help this couple."  If you took time to pray for this young couple, know that God answered your prayers through the love of this believing lady who is part of His Church.

Nivat and Kulut love God's Word.  As they are reading it together and with their kids, they're being changed into His likeness. Your prayers are bearing fruit...thank you!

"This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world.  It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace."  Colossians 1:6, NLT

For a few ways that you can pray with and for us:

• Pray for energy and wise & loving words as we spend lots and lots of time with believers, hiking the trails to gather in hamlets and homes.
• Pray for medical help for Pal.  In addition to the meningitis deaths that we wrote about a few weeks ago, two more kids have died in the last two months of what appears to be TB symptoms.  While TB is treatable, it's not easy to diagnose or eliminate.  We are considering having Nate spend a few days in a coastal part of the country to try to find out what options might be available to families that need more medical help than we are able to give.  We've heard that our province only has a TB treatment center in one distant area.
• Pray for the young church as they get ready to say goodbye to our co-workers, the Hostetter family, who will be moving out to a mission center next month.  The church leaders are growing in their ability to teach independently and to discern truth vs falsehood.  We are encouraged!
• Pray for the Fachner family, for endurance and encouragement as they serve here in Pal for the coming year.  Axel will continue meeting regularly with Bible teachers and Sandra has a difficult homeschooling situation.  While they function well here and have great relationships, there will be lonely and hard times.  
• Pray for our Noah (17) as he will spend two weeks at the end of June serving with Bill & Kelley Housley, helping with construction at Ramu Valley Academy.

Hiking to K. village

Visiting with Avos before the mid-week worship & teaching time

Now a high school SENIOR!  He's looking forward to serving with RVA!

Some of the believers gathered in a hamlet for teaching and communion this morning,  Here, a friend is unwrapping the leaves around the grated 'bread' that our friends cook in bamboo most days.