Thank you!
Thank you so much for your love, prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your part in reaching the Hewa people with the love of Jesus. Thank you!
We arrived home to Arizona in July! We were so thankful for wonderful fellowship with our Hewa friends as we said our ‘goodbyes’. They threw a village-wide pig feast and honored us with many speeches of gratitude and gifts of home-made string-bags and arrows. Then after completing the long journey back to Arizona, we were amazed and humbled by the incredible display of warmth and love by our friends at Cornerstone church who had cleaned and painted our house, and stocked the fridge and shelves with wonderful food and everything else we would need to live in our home. We were so blessed to arrive and find beautiful furniture in a spotless house complete with clean sheets on new beds. We were then able to complete two weeks of in-house quarantine in comfort, thanks to a loving church family!
The Christian school has started! Before our departure from Hewa we were very thankful that the Christian teacher named Gabriel arrived (pictured above on left) and started the school year. We are thrilled with his heart to serve the Lord and evident love for the Hewa children. He quickly began three classes for more than 50 students! We are thankful that he is obviously gifted to take on a task of this magnitude. We are asking the Lord to provide a second teacher to join him for the next school semester starting in January of 2021. Please pray God’s special blessing and provision for this new little school.
Mikayla will be getting married here in Prescott on August 29! We have been very blessed to meet Mikayla’s fiancé named Tobia, and encouraged by sweet fellowship with this Godly young man from Switzerland. Mikayla and Tobia had met at a Discipleship Program event and quickly realized their shared passion for the Lord and desire to take His message to the nations. They plan to spend some of their newlywed weeks in Texas and then fly to Switzerland for a few months before starting full-time ministry together. We are thankful for how the Lord has been steadily healing Mikayla and for how He has brought her this special man to join with in serving the Lord.
As we start a year of ‘regular home assignment’ here in the States we are already dying to know how our Hewa friends are doing. Please continue to pray God will give special discernment and courage to the five church elders (Yanis, Faimpat, Kifeson, Maikol & Ken) and for the current outreach that Kifeson and his wife Emiyas (along with Aliyes & Lusina) are leading in the nearby village of Yano. And please don’t forget to pray for Gabriel and the Hewa children in the new Christian school. And also pray for Susan & I as we make plans for how to continue with Bible translation and teaching/discipleship at the end of this furlough. Though our ministry will look a little different in these future years, the goals are still the same. We want to continue assisting the Hewa believers as they stretch and grow and thrive. We are deeply grateful to you for your love and prayers and gifts that have made this ministry possible, and we are excited to continue with more translation and teaching/discipleship for their benefit.
One more bit of information we would like to share is that as our co-workers, the Georges, have transitioned out of Hewa ministry, due to Jessi’s health, and are now living in Mississippi. Our previous co-workers, Keith & Angie Copley are now stepping back in to help serve the Hewa church, especially in our absence. Though the Copleys will be living in a PNG town where they can continue with their role as Directors, they will be visiting Hewa regularly with the goal of encouraging and strengthening their faith. Please pray for the Copleys as they juggle various responsibilities in order to continue investing in Hewa.
Love and deep gratitude,
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna
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