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.

Just a week ago I wrote about a girl named Dulcie. We were praying that she would be able to stay in our village and hear the evangelistic Bible teaching. This morning I was grieved to find out that her parents have taken her back to her home village, where she will likely marry an older man who wants her as his second wife. Although this is common practice in PNG, the most painful part is the knowledge that Dulcie may never hear the Gospel message and have a chance to accept Christ as her Savior. Her village is quite a ways from here. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to send Mengen missionaries down to her area, but at the moment, they have no Gospel witness. I keep reminding myself that Dulcie and other young girls in her circumstances are not forgotten by the One who made them. Please keep Dulcie in your prayers.

There are several other girls who are from our village and have moved away. You may remember hearing about a teenage girl named Sabubu. Several years ago she was stalked by an older man who eventually attacked her with a machete, nearly killing her. Thankfully she survived, and is now married and living quite a distance from here. My heart still yearns for her, remembering her hunger for spiritual things many years ago, but knowing that she never heard the truth about how Jesus came to save her from her sins. Sabubu and Dulcie and many other young women are still in spiritual darkness and need our prayers.

And speaking of young women…..we heard this morning of 2 teenage girls in our village who have contracted measles! We had heard that it was going around in our area, but as far as I know, these are the first cases in our immediate village. Please pray for Monday and Pilomen (pillow-men), that the Lord would heal them and that He would use this time of suffering, to draw them closer to Him. Monday in particular has been frittering around and not serious about her walk with the Lord. Pray that both she and her mom Maui would hunger to follow Christ.

Pray too for the rest of the people in our village, both old and young, that the Lord would protect them from contracting this serious illness. One young married girl named Manuela, is pregnant, and especially vulnerable. Pray that the Lord would protect her not only from measles, but also malaria and other tropical disease which tend to make their rounds here. Pray too for Josephine who is due to have her new baby in a few weeks. Pray for a safe and healthy delivery, and that the Lord would protect both her and her baby from the measles and other complications.

Thanks so much for your prayers. It is exciting to see the Lord at work amongst the Mengen people. Today our 2 missionary couples will be returning to our village for a week. It will be fun to hear what the Lord is doing in the outreach. As far as I know, they are still teaching in 2 locations, with at least 2 other villages putting pressure on them to begin the evangelistic teaching in their places too!

Pressing on until Christ returns to take us home!

Becky Preheim