The Provider Never Changes

Dear Praying Friends and Family

As I am reading through the Gospels in these recent months I am observing another consistency of our great God. While Jesus walked on this ground, He provided for many different people in many different ways: He healed with His touch, He spoke healing into existence, He provided by instructing someone to go fishing, He multiplied a meal to feed a multitude, He instructed a person to go wash in the water to experience healing, He healed by being touched, He turned water into wine, and He gave His life as our sin-paying substitute. The method of provision often varied, but the Provider never did. He was always faithful to provide for His disciples.

And today God is still the same! His methods of provision for us over the past few months have varied, but our need-meeting God has not changed. For several weeks this summer He gave us cooler weather so we didn’t have the high energy bills associated with running an air condi­tioner. God covered our family dental needs by using the generosity of a dentist who is a Christian to give us free ex­ams, cleaning, and service. God met our medical needs by providing me with part time jobs. God provided for home schooling expenses by giving Dawn & I opportunity to work at a concession stand for a major league baseball team.

And now God is using 2 businessmen and 2 more churches to meet much of our remaining monthly ministry needs. As was mentioned in our previous communication, we were over $2000/month short of where we wanted to be financially before we return to PNG. Thank you for praying – that situation has changed considerably! A family-owned business (and friends of ours) recently joined our monthly support team for quite a significant amount. We also just recently heard from another church here in Kansas City that wants to partner with us in reaching the Bena people. A church in Idaho also recently contacted us to learn more about our ministry for the purpose of joining with us through prayer and financial support.

And another Christian man who has a house flipping business recently proposed an “out-of-the-box” idea. He proposed that if people from our church here in KC could front the funds needed both to pur­chase and rehab an old house, he would do all of his work (the business-side of it) for free so that all the profit from the sale of the remodeled house (after the monies are returned to the initial “investors” from church) will go toward our ministry. This proposal has the potential of covering a great deal of our return-to-PNG expenses, such as airplane tick­ets. Various members of our KC church have jumped in with both feet on this project. Some provided the initial pur­chase funds, others provided the rehab funds, and still others have provided volunteer labor at the house site to reduce the expenses of this house flip project. It is great to see the body of Christ functioning like this, and we are humbled by the generosity of so many people who pray for us and who give sacrificially to help us. Thank you so much for being God’s various methods of faithfully providing for our needs.

Jordan helping with demolition at the house-flip work day Josiah helping paint the basement

Rich rolling the basement ceiling


MOVING MODE

We are in full swing of moving to Michigan. We have been sorting, packing, pitching, and reducing our belongings as we prepare to move north. Dawn and the kids will start their journey on Aug 11 with the plan to arrive on Aug 12. I plan to stay in Missouri for another 1-2 weeks to wrap-up various things here before joining my family in Michigan. Our home church found a house for us to rent while we are there, so we are thankful for God’s provision of this basic need. We are still seeking God’s will concerning our kids’ schooling for the coming year. Havannah will be homeschooling, Jordan will be attending an academy 3 days a week at our church, and Hannah & Hadassah’s schooling is still to be decided. Please pray that we will be able to honor the Lord through the stressful confusion known as ‘moving’.

Health Happenings

There is not much new information to report from the health ront. Dawn continues to make some progress, but the stresses of moving have slowed her recovery to full health. Hannah has been up and down recetly as her body responds to the various treatments being administered to her. Please continue to pray for their complete healing.

That is all our news for this time. Next time we write will be from Michigan, so until then may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

PNG Trip?

Dawn and I are considering the possibility of making a trip to Papua New Guinea sometime this coming Fall. We would be leaving our children here in the States with Dawn’s family. We would like to go for 2-3 weeks to reconnect with the Bena church, to encourage them in various ways, to do comprehension checking on some of my Ephesians translation, and to discuss strategies with our field leadership of how to move forward with our church planting efforts when we return full-time. We don’t have any more specifics to share at this time, because we are still in the planning stage of such a trip. Please pray with us regarding this possibility.

Enjoying being His child,
Rich

Hannah & Hadassah