Dear Friends,
What a week it has been. Last Monday I had surgery to remove my gallbladder, the first time I’ve ever been in the operating room. It has taken me a few days to recover and I still have to take it easy for another couple of weeks. So far there have been no complications, so I thank the Lord for that. I’m also very happy that the whole event is now over with!
While I was recovering at home, I was surprised by a special visitor. Judy Wright, my previous co-worker in Papua New Guinea, dropped by for a few hours. What a huge encouragement that was to me!! Dave and Judy are continuing to work with Ethnos Canada (formerly known as New Tribes Mission). They live in Saskatchewan and are developing materials for teaching the Bible chronologically to people right here in Canada. There are many First Nations people who have never heard a clear gospel presentation, so that is the focus of Wrights and their team. The Lord is opening many doors for them and it is amazing to hear God’s Word is being made alive to ethnic people right here in our own country. I know that Wrights and their co-workers would appreciate prayer as they develop material and teach and train others to take God’s Word to the nations.
Well, yesterday I finally saw the neurologist and was given the results of the MRI that I had in April. This was the first MRI I had since starting on medication for Multiple Sclerosis and I was pretty nervous to hear if the meds were actually working or not. I was very relieved and thrilled to hear that my MS is stable and that I have no new lesions on my brain, so I can just keep going as I have been. Praise the Lord! I’m very thankful that I don’t have to start back at square one again!! As it looks now, there shouldn’t be any physical reason why I can’t return to PNG for a few months in the New Year.
With all the physical things going on the past couple of weeks, I haven’t spent much time on Bible translation. Thankfully I have a few months to work on it and the pressure is off, but it certainly weighs on my heart and I would love to see this major project wrapped up.
Although I haven’t had a report from the Mengen for awhile, I know that the Bible teachers would appreciate your prayers. I have been thinking recently of a young man named Anton. When he was a child, he contracted TB and was very sick for months. Thankfully the Lord saw fit to spare his life, but Anton was never very strong as a kid and didn’t have the energy to take the 1.5 hour hike up the mountain to school every day. Instead, he would sit in Dave Wright’s office for hours and soak up the teaching and discipleship that Dave was giving to the men.
Anton also took literacy classes, so he would spend his time reading through the book of Acts or Romans! Pretty awesome to see Anton now all grown up and become a godly young man, respected by adults and children alike. Last year Anton became a Bible teacher with the responsibility of teaching the teens and youths in our village! A huge but vital task to say the least. Please pray that Anton would continue to be a good testimony to the kids he ministers to. Pray also that the Lord would bring a godly girl along that would make a good wife for Anton. There are so many pressures on young people and it would wonderful to see Anton settled into a happy marriage.
Thanks for your continued prayers for the Mengen people of PNG and also for myself. I have been walking this road for many years now and many of you have been on this journey with me since the beginning. I sure appreciate each and every one of you. Pray that I would be faithful to the Lord and His work as I continue to move ahead. The road is long and the journey is difficult, but the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.
Because He lives,
Becky