Dear Friends,

This first quarter of the year is our Birthday season. Mieko turned 18 in February and for her special day we went to I-trampoline. The kids jumped for an hour and realized jumping can be quite tiring as you get older. Joan and I sat on the side lines … taking pictures.

 Mariko is quickly becoming a young lady at 22. Jared’s 24th is this week with Joan’s birthday the following day. Micah and I have to wait until later in the year. My Mom would have turned 87 and Dad 89. Time waits for no one so we need to make the most of each day the Lord gives us.

We continue to represent New Tribes Mission here in Hawaii by informing people of the mission’s existence and encouraging those the Lord may be leading into missions. A Pew Research study was just released that brings out some of the difficulties in recruiting modern day missionaries called “Millennials”. One of the major issues is that 47% have children out of wedlock which are poor examples of an intact family. Gay marriage was recently passed in Hawaii and the study showed 68% of millennials are in favor even though they know God’s decrees but continue to approve of others who violate them. This new generation is better educated but they are bogged down with student debt. This is bad news for a conservative mission organization but the good news is that there are 103 qualified people signed up to begin missionary training in the fall. PTL!

In PNG, the missionaries just completed their annual conference which was a refreshing time for all. The report I heard along with it being a “wonderful time” was that it was “amazing how many children were there.” We need to continue to pray for these families with young ones and the grandparents who have limited ability to bond with their grandchildren. A tragedy occurred in a village close to where we used to minister. One of the local Bible teacher’s 14 month old daughter recently drowned. Please pray for Awil and Klokme as you can imagine how hard this would be to endure. As always, thank you for your gifts of love.