Dear Family and
Friends,
Thank you all
for your prayers for us and for our ministries here in PNG this past
month. As difficult as this time has been without Ty, we know that God is
the One giving us strength and peace.
The baptismal
service at Hosanna went well, and two people were baptized, a teenage daughter
of one of our deacons and an older man who was saved out of the Lutheran
church. Torrential downpours made the service quite interesting, and God
was glorified. We would truly appreciate your continued prayers for the
others in the church who still need to make decisions for baptism. We
continue to work through the different doctrines of the Bible with the people,
and Dan is still meeting every week with the pastor and deacons to organize the
doctrinal statement. Dan is also working a lot with Pastor Abol, making plans for the time we will be gone to
Australia.
Thank you for
praying about the Christmas conference at Lifeway
Baptist Church. After meeting with the leaders, they decided to go ahead
with the conference. There was a great turnout, and Dan had the
opportunity to preach. Please continue to pray for them, as many members
still have not returned to the church and as they are dealing with a lot of
internal struggles.
Term 1 for GBBC
will start at the end of January, so please be in prayer for our students as
they return to campus and for the many new students who are coming.
We just created
a new website for those of you interested in learning more about our ministry
here in PNG. Please visit us at thyng.abwe.org.
We’ll also keep a blog posted there with weekly updates on our family and/or
ministry.
Our tickets for
Australia are for the 7th of February. We ran into some delays in getting
our medical visas for Australia and are hoping that we will get them before
that day. If not, we are unsure of what will happen next. We plan
to return to PNG on May 3rd so that Dan can be back to teach for term 2.
While we are in Cairns, Dan plans to continue to work on things for Hosanna and
to get his class notes ready for term 2. Many have asked why we will stay
in Australia for so long. Trust us, we would much rather stay here and
continue our ministries, as it is especially difficult emotionally to be
away. For international travel, the latest Amy can fly is 35 weeks of
pregnancy. After the baby is born, it takes a while to get a US passport
and PNG visa. We will return as soon as we have those in hand. Our
US doctor here in PNG has said that the turnaround time to have the baby in
Australia is much quicker than the US, and that is why we chose Australia in
the first place. Thank you to all who are praying for us as we embark on
this journey.
We love you all
and deeply appreciate your prayers, encouragement and support.
Love, Dan, Amy,
Tyler, Kate & Claire
P.S. Kate
had her fourth birthday on the 2nd of this month. She is getting to be
such a big girl. Claire just loves Kate so much, always wanting to get
things for her or asking us to sing a song about her. Dan just built them
a swing set, and they both absolutely love playing on it.
Additional Prayer
Requests: Please pray for…
1.
The organization
of Hosanna Baptist Church.
2.
The great need
for additional missionaries with ABWE in PNG (Kerowagi
in particular).
3.
Overcoming
cultural barriers in sharing the Gospel with the lost here.
4.
Daily strength
for life without Tyler.
5.
Our individual
relationships with Jesus Christ.
6.
Preparation for
our trip to Australia and continued good health for Amy and the baby.
7.
Amy and Rachel Prigge as they learn to diagnose and treat illnesses.
8.
Supplies needed
for medical shipment from US. Please contact us or visit our website if
you are interested in helping!
9.
Discernment of
God’s will for graduates.
10.2010 GBBC budget and staff contracts.
11.Various administrative duties at the college.
12.New students for 2010.
13.National staff house: $28,000 remaining.