Season’s Greetings from Steve and Sandy Aholt,
May God’s richest blessings be upon your family and you during this holiday season! Sometimes God’s working is not clear. However, His love for us is clearly expressed in His giving us His Son, Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.
We thank the Lord, and you, for allowing us to be here in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This February 3rd will mark 23 years that we have been with ABWE mission. We carefully follow God’s call daily, looking unto Jesus [the author and finisher of our faith]. Without Him, we can do nothing! Your faithfulness in giving allows us to fulfill our labor for Christ in bringing forth more fruit (John 15:5).
Steve was able to go with Mike Kewi, our Goroka Baptist Bible College assistant headmaster, and Pastor Abel, from Marimari Baptais Sios (Mercy Baptist Church). The three of them were scheduled to speak for one week in Poimeai, at Bible Baptist Church. They travelled by helicopter for 25 minutes to this remote location in the Bundi area. This is normally a 15 hour trip with the last 5 hours of walking. We were able to pack 465 kgs of cargo into the helicopter for the inbound trip. The week culminated with an ordination council and the ordination of Pastor Matthew Taku. Six souls were saved during that week of speaking and teaching.
Sandy stayed at home and prayed for the meetings. The smoke and dust of village living is detrimental to her eye health. Her eyes are doing fine and she is being careful. She was able to take orders over her cell phone. Some of the young people from Goroka Baptist were able to help with the shopping, to fill the helicopter with bibles, song books, teaching supplies and food items, for the inbound flight to pick us up. Those three days of shopping were a tremendous help and encouragement to the Christians in that area. Time and eternity will show the full effect of our ministry for Christ.
Bony was one of the people who got saved in the meetings. He had spent 5 years in a wheel chair being unable to walk. He was the only one in his family who was not saved. By the time we left, on Saturday morning, Bony was able to walk around without any assistance. Please pray for the spiritual growth of these new Christians to show praise to him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light (1Peter 2:9).
We have found that 1 John 4:1 is true concerning some videos that are out concerning the birth of Christ. Some of the details surrounding the life of Christ are not accurately portrayed. We are instructed to not believe every spirit, because many false prophets are in the world. Satan is very subtle in his approaches. He never ever changes.
Our infrastructure here continues to decline. The roads are in peril and the average electrical power outage is around 4 ½ hours per day. It is a good thing when we can make it through our shower without the water going off. Yes, our water supply is dependent on electricity for our water pump. We have learned the hard way, and keep a bucket of warm water ready to use.
A main staple of the people here is sweet potatoes. Many people are in short supply of this food. We were able to get a large bag of these. It took three guys to lift it into the back of our Land Cruiser. We have been able to distribute these to help people who are in need of food.
Listening for the trump and praying,
Steve and Sandy Aholt