Dear Friends,

Hope you are all doing well and are encouraged these days!! It’s shocking to hear all the tragic news from around the world, but it is exciting to think that very soon now, Jesus will be returning to take His children home!! What a day that will be, when we see Him face to face! I’m looking forward to standing before God in heaven, and to worship around the throne with dozens of Mengen friends! It makes me want to jump for joy to think that the wickedness of this earth will be one day destroyed! Satan and his band of terrorists will not win. Christ has already defeated them. Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers and support. The past few weeks have been busy and full of hard work!! This month, I had some Mengen friends come to Hoskins to help me with Bible translation for 2 weeks. It was a sweet time of fellowship with Edward and Francesca and their kids. It was very fun to catch up on the news from our village and hear about the new babies and marriages etc!! Hard to believe that I’ve been away from “home” for nearly a year!!

While they were here, Francesca and I worked really hard on Bible translation and were able to make terrific progress in Galatians, Philippians, Colossians and 2 Corinthians. Edward was able to check some of our work but the last week he got hit by a flu bug and became very sick for an entire week. Thankfully by the time they left, Edward was much better, but he had me worried for a few days!!

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers! The last few weeks have been fun, as we celebrated a few birthdays here at Hoskins and also the 40th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence! There were parties happening in the villages around us for the entire week last week! A few of us missionaries went to see some traditional singing and dancing. It’s always a sight to see everyone in their brightly colored costumes and to see their unique routines. It was also fun to see various musical instruments which the singers were using. My favorite was the huge conch shell which was blown intermittently throughout the one group’s performance!

Dear friends,

Greetings from COOL, DRY and WINDY Hoskins. It’s not often you hear those words all in one sentence, but at the moment, we are in the midst of El Nino weather conditions. This means that 24 hours a day we are having extremely high winds along with a severe drought. It doesn’t feel like the tropics at all—instead of a fine layer of mold, everything is covered in a deep layer of dust! It is getting a bit old, being blasted by hurricane-force winds day and night, but it sure keeps the mosquitos away and keeps us nice and cool!! No doubt rainy season will kick in soon, so we’re trying to appreciate the dryness while we can. This has been going on for at least 8 weeks now, so the situation is very grim for the local gardens. So sad to see the folks here struggling again. Just in February of this year, the situation was desperate because of a massive hurricane and flooding which destroyed everything. Now we are having drought.

Dear Friends,

Well, it seems cliché to say it, but WOW, this summer sure flew by in a flash! With 10 weeks away from PNG, I covered coast-to-coast in North America and split my time in 3 different locations. It was such a JOY to see many friends and family members during my brief time at home and I’ve returned refreshed and anxious to continue on with the work of Bible translation here in Papua New Guinea.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from “this side” of the ocean!! I’ve been in the USA for about two weeks now, and what a whirlwind it has been! It was wonderful to spend time with family for the first week. Now I’m enjoying time with Keri and her family and friends in California. We’re having such a GREAT time travelling around and seeing the sites! It will be sad to leave my good friends, but I’m anxious to see the rest of my family again!

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers and support. I appreciate each one of you so much. These days have been busy and exhausting, but I am thankful for the Lord’s continued grace every day.

A few days ago, I received upsetting news from our village. One of our young Bible teachers and his wife had a fight which resulted in the husband trying to commit suicide 2 times in 2 days. Apparently she threatened to leave him and he was overcome by grief. This whole situation has come as a huge shock to all of us as this young couple has been doing so well. In fact they were just about ready to join our Mengen missionary team and move to our outreach village. Needless to say, the past few days have been emotionally draining as I try to do what I can to help from a distance. I am so thankful for these days of modern technology which allows me to call on my mobile phone and speak directly to friends in our village! So crazy to be calling right into this jungle location, with birds chirping, chickens squawking, babies crying, and people laughing in the background!! Not sure how many hours I’ve spent on the phone this last week, but yesterday I talked for over 3 hours with various ones.

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for the Mengen church. The Lord is at work, and it is exciting to hear of what He is doing in the hearts of the people here.

Although I’m no longer living in the tribe, I’m thankful to have occasional contact with some of the Mengen believers, whenever they are able to get a signal on their mobile phones! Yep, it sounds crazy, but even the remotest areas of the world are now coming into the age of modern technology. Just the other day my phone rang and here was Kariang, my translation helper in Lele, calling to chitchat. It was so funny and I was laughing on this end and she and her husband and kids were laughing on that end!! It was the first time we had ever talked by phone, so that was really special.

Dear friends,

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone.
Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living, just because He lives.

Thank you so very much for your faithful prayers and financial support for me over this past year! I have appreciated you all so much and thank the Lord for your integral part in reaching the Mengen for Christ. This year has been full of change, but I am thankful to the Lord for bringing me through each and every challenge.

This coming year is going to be another busy one, as I press on with the work here in Papua New Guinea.

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers and support. I appreciate each and every one of you. These have been interesting days for me, on many levels and I’m so encouraged to know that you are standing behind me in prayer!

HEALTH: Over the past several months, I have struggled with an old back injury and then continuing bouts of numbness and tingling in my limbs and spine. After corresponding with both a chiropractor at home and also our doctor here in PNG, they both agree that I have a herniated or at least bulging disk in my neck. My back is also very tender, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Hopefully this will clear up on its own over the next few months, but for now, it is pretty annoying. Thankfully it’s not painful, but just gives me little “electric shocks” whenever I bend my neck. Makes it difficult to work on a computer or even go downstairs without looking!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory …. forever and ever! Amen.
(Eph. 3:20-21)

Thank you so much for your faithful prayer for me, throughout my past 16 years (almost), in Papua New Guinea. It has been such a crazy adventure every step of the way, and this past month has been no exception. I’m so thankful that our Heavenly Father is with me always and guides me continually by His gracious hand.

Dear Friends,

I trust this update finds you well after a round of celebrations for Canada Day and American Independence Day this last week! We celebrated a bit in here as well, just getting together as a team for special food and fellowship.

Life continues to roll along at an amazing speed and it’s hard to keep up sometimes.