Well, folks, coffee is running low. I’m out of oatmeal. And GV soda. There’s no chocolate in the  house. Must be time to move on …..

Days fly by at warp speed as the “winding up of loose ends” for this Home Assignment time  continues. Amid the chaos of packing & planning, a plaguing new possibility has surfaced. I’ve previously been very verbal in telling folks I’d be returning to PNG twice more – 2014 and 2020.  Lately however God has been prodding me to consider another option. It’s with mixed feelings that I  am realizing this just might be the last time I return overseas. I’ll appreciate your prayers that I  will know God’s heart and mind in this. At present I’ll return to PNG with plans to do a rather  daunting 5 ½ year term followed by a 15 month Home Assignment time. That would bring me  up to the ripe ole retirement age of 70. It’s at least a current possible plan……

 

You’ve likely heard the old adage: “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans” so if any of  you hear God chuckling, do please let me know! It is of course also possible that He has other  ideas and could bring me home before 2019 – but unless He directs otherwise, I’m returning to  PNG with this option in mind.

My thanks to each of you again for a wonderful Home Assignment time, for all the items you’ve donated for the people  of PNG (and me!), and for the financial contributions to help with shipping and paying customs charges. Six Action  Packers are already shipped and waiting in Pennsylvania. I’ll drop off an additional 3 with Friends in Action in Mansfield  MO as I head to Kansas next week. FIA will send them on to Pennsylvania — and then we’ll see which GMS container has  space available for shipping the lot. There’s a container leaving in July, and the next ???? It’s certainly in God’s hands!

I’ll appreciate your prayers as I leave Poplar Bluff on the 16th. I’ll then fly out of Kansas City on the 19 th, Lord willing  arriving in Wewak PNG on the 21st  with no overnights along the way.  Again – my sincere and grateful thanks for the part you each one play in my life and ministry. I certainly couldn’t do it  without you! A closing thought from William Townsend (founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL)

 “The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is  never considered a foreigner.” William Townsend

This is indeed what God has privileged us to be involved in these many years – 1 st  with the May River Iwam and now  helping with the printing needs of some 15+ language groups around the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.  Thank you for standing together with me in this His work.

Co-laboring together with you for the King!

Hope Sharp  .