Risen Life & Covid

 

Last month, Nate spent time with new missionary families.  Learn how to make a roof out of leaves?  Check. Start to get to know your new neighbors and how they speak and think?  Check.

During that trip, Nate traveled up the highway to a Mesi settlement and spent time talking with and encouraging Mesi believers.

To reach the settlement, they forded this river.  An hour later it rained and the water level went up 7-8" within minutes!

Currently, the Covid pandemic is sweeping across Papua New Guinea.  Numbers of positive tests are sky-rocketing, in the communities around us here in the highlands of PNG as well as in urban centers throughout the country. The latest wave of cases has us working hard to comply with new testing measures and travel restrictions. 

Will you please pray?  

Pray for the community - that the Lord will spare those who have not yet heard the message of the Gospel.  

Pray for missionaries - that we will not carry Covid to remote locations, but that we will be able to continue to work for the growth of the Church in Papua New Guinea through language learning, Bible teaching and translation.

We serve the Man who rose from the dead! Death could not hold Him and we pray that we will continue to proclaim Him in every choice that we make.  Pray with us that believers will shine brightly in the midst of a dark and fearful time in our adopted home.  One friend texted to say, "There is talk in our village that those getting sick are really due to...sorcery.  So one of our Bible teachers gave strong talk on Sunday to encourage the believers hearing this sorcery talk.  Emphasizing this is a virus going around everywhere in the world etc."  

Some more prayer requests:

April 5:  Two dear friends who are co-workers here in PNG are facing significant events today.  One couple will be induced with twin baby girls - please pray for a healthy and safe delivery and for their return to PNG.  Another friend will have a cancerous mass removed from her lung in Taiwan.  Pray that she will be restored to health and that they will be able to rejoin their church-planting team soon.

April 8: Our boys return to school - via distance learning.  Thank God with us for faithful and gifted teachers who spent hours during the spring break making videos for their students.  They'll utilize textbooks and worksheets during the following 7 school days, at minimum.  Please pray with us that in-person school will be able to reopen April 19th!

April 9-14: Nate is hoping to travel into Pal to spend some days with the Pal church, alongside our teammates Chris Hostetter and Sandra Fachner.  Please pray for Nate and Chris to have great connections and conversations encouraging and challenging the leaders of the Pal church, and please pray for Sandra as she spends time with the medical team and believing Mesi ladies.

*We are also looking for a specific prayer team for our dear Mesi friend Lagan.  About 2 years ago, we started to notice some changes in her.  She is dealing right now with crippling anxiety and depression and hears voices.  We don't know if this is from a spiritual or chemical origin and have been faithfully praying for her as a team.  During this visit, we are hoping Sandra can hike to the remote jungle location that Lagan has been staying at to ask some questions.  Lagan's instability over the last few years significantly impacted her husband, who had been a faithful and gifted Bible teacher.  They are going through great and agonizing pain right now as a couple and family.  If you are willing to pray with us daily for Lagan through April, would you mind emailing us about your commitment?*

April 19-22:  Leadership team meetings for Nate.  "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking."  James 1:5

End of April:  Nate will travel to a mission center in a different region to spend time again with the new church-planting families who are orienting to the country and learning the trade language.  Will you pray for these 9 families as they struggle and rejoice through their new relationships and learn language and culture here in PNG?  And please pray that travel will be possible for Nate - we don't have dates yet because everything is in flux right now!

Our break has been much quieter than normal, but we enjoyed getting together (outside!) with our co-workers, the Hostetters, for a team tradition we call a 'bread-on-a-stick' cookout.