Sorry we haven’t updated in a while…it’s not because there’s nothing happening, that’s for sure! We’ve been in Palau, the adjoining island nation, all summer, as Amos is working on building a new hangar for PMA there. We were also covering for another missionary family on furlough.

In September, I came back with the kids to start homeschooling with some other local kids who live here. Amos joined us a month later. We’ve been apart 4 months this year so far with all his travelling back and forth between Palau and Guam and Yap, so it’s nice to be a family again.

Then we just finished up a conference 2 weeks ago to train and help Outer Island leaders reach their islands with the gospel. PMA flew about 22 people in from the islands of Fais and Ulithi here to Yap, and every day they attended the conference to learn the foundations of the Bible, theology, etc. Amos joined in the conference, as well as helped with logistics, and I cooked with some of ladies. Around 36 people in all took part for a week and a half. I love cooking outside with firewood and big pots and doing what is so normal for the islanders here, but is so fun for me (I cook with propane normally😊). The rice tastes better when cooked over a wood fire.  Some of the new believers from these islands are still staying in Yap with our local pastor and his wife and getting further discipling and training.

Yesterday I picked up the women for Ladies’ Bible Study, where we are currently learning and practicing how to share the gospel in a simple format. Next week, a good friend of mine who is a PMA missionary in Pohnpei, is coming for a few weeks and will be helping us to teach the ladies of the church and anyone else they invite. The Bible studies that we do will give an overview of God’s purposes throughout the Bible. It’s called “King of Glory”. We are excited about that.

Every Friday we have youth group at our house. They are a nice group–mostly high school and college age, keeping us young (I hope!) We are starting a short series on the Gospel and Apologetics.

The homeschool kids and I celebrated our “Harvest Festival” today and dressed up as different characters and had lots of games. I have 10 kids who come and homeschool every day, and it’s a lot of work, but one of the most rewarding things I get to do here, I really love it and have a lot of fun. The kids are fundraising in partnership with Sonlight, my homeschool provider, to raise money to send children from India to Children’s Bible Clubs, as they are the largest unreached people group in the world, apparently. At these Bible Clubs, they can learn about Jesus, sing and learn the Bible stories, and also get help with their schoolwork. So the homeschool kids have been hard at work picking lemons to make and sell lemonade (25c per cup), also making popsicles to sell (50c each) (I should add, shamelessly petitioning their parents to buy buy BUY), and have patiently raised enough to send one child to these Clubs for a year ($24) and are now trying to raise enough for two. Since Sonlight will match whatever they raise, we are hoping to be able to send 4 kids. It’s a drop in a big ocean, but it’s something, and I’m really proud of them for being so motivated and thinking beyond their own community.

Amos flew to the island of Woleai last Sunday for an emergency medevac to pick up a woman who has appendicitis. Woleai is 370 miles away, about 2.5 hrs, and the runway often floods in the middle if there is rain, so we are thankful that it was pretty dry when he landed to pick her up. We don’t normally fly on Sundays, but for medevacs and other emergencies, we will, of course.

So that’s just the last couple of months or so in a nutshell! God has been very good to us, and we are sometimes a bit overwhelmed with everything that is going on, but we definitely feel like this is where He wants us to be.

Heidi and Amos and family