Thank you so much for your love, prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your partnership with us in reaching the Hewa tribal people with the love of Jesus. Thank you!
We are so grateful for what God is doing in Hewa! On December 27, I (Jonathan) went back to Papua New Guinea for a one-month trip. Soon after my arrival, two men from Pennsylvania (Jeff and Zach) joined me to begin building the third double-classroom for the Christian school in our village. At the same time, a husband and wife team (Chad and Martha) arrived by helicopter from their ministry in the nearby mountains, to spearhead the construction project and to provide amazing meals to keep us well-fed. We were amazed how God brought everything together in perfect timing so that by the end of two weeks, the classroom building was finished. In addition to that, we also built a tiny house for married teachers who we pray will join the teaching staff soon. We owe a huge debt of gratitude for this team and for the village believers who arrived with Chad and Martha to join us in supporting this endeavor!
While the work team was making all this great progress, they allowed me to continue with translation so that I was able to meet with Hewa men each day to press forward with the final read-through of the completed New Testament. This is an important step in proofing and then eventually type-setting the manuscript so that it can be printed and delivered into the hands of Hewa believers. I was very blessed by the wonderful conversations and fellowship I had with the men as we carefully examined the books of John, Acts, I and II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, the Peters, and Revelation. I hope to be able to finish this process on my next visit to Hewa.
Now we have three double-classroom buildings (in addition to our previous co-worker’s house) being used to teach Kindergarten through grade six. This brings up a huge prayer request. We have plenty of students in each of these grades but we are lacking good educators. We only have four teachers trying to cover these seven grades, which is obviously inadequate, so please ask the Lord to quickly bless us with three more qualified teachers who have a passion to disciple children to follow Jesus. We are confident in God, our Provider, and are waiting with expectation knowing He loves to surprise us with how He can provide for our needs in wonderful ways.
Please also pray for the five church elders/pastors as they try to shepherd their flock. I was saddened to hear the ways in which the deceitful enemy is trying to wedge his way into our community and drag people back under the trap of fear that used to control them when they were following the practices of their ancestors. It is obvious Satan is infuriated by the light in the jungle and is working to bring bad influences from the outside and even from the inside of our group. I was encouraged that the Leaders are trying to speak the truth from the Word but it is easy to see they are getting battered and worn from the effort and they feel that they have been losing ground. Pray the Lord will give them sharp discernment and extra courage to keep moving forward with evangelism and discipleship. And also, please pray with us that we can return to PNG as a family in July to resume full-time ministry.
Thank you for your love and prayers,
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna
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