It's been a fantastically warm fall this year for us...which is to be expected out here in PNG. However, Clinton & I severely miss the cooler weather and the leaves changing colors... It's an odd thing to grow up with the changing seasons and then to move across the world and have one season year round! :) Atleast it's spring-like out here rather than Manitoba-winter-like! :) Though we are also missing snow! We keep up with the going-ons of Steinbach via Steinbach online and we're missing the snow that's starting to fall back home.
Because the NHL is still in a lock-out, being so far away hasn't been quite as hard on Clinton this season! :) (though is he is still hoping that the lock-out ends soon!) I know he's been itching to lace up some ice-skates and play some "real" hockey again!
We were skyping with family the other day and were able to see the snow back home. Clinton was trying to show Rorik what snow looked like, and it made us realize that the twins have no idea what snow is! :) What a surprise it'll be for them our first snowfall back home. :)
Things have been going well for us out here. We continue to work in our ministry fields... Clinton at the hangar and I at the medical clinic. The work itself doesn't change much as these are support roles and the least they change the better it is for everyone! :)
As for the work out here in PNG there are new and extremely exciting things happening all the time! 2 men here at Lapilo have started a new outreach of sorts. They are teaching bible lessons to the PNG preachers and religious leaders of PNG! Even though PNG has had some sort of Christian influence for approx. 100 years, they are still very immature in their knowledge of scriptures. The feedback from the conference they held this past week was overwhelming and they have quite a few more teaching opportunities coming up in the next few months.
I was talking with one of my bush missionary friends a few weeks ago and she was saying how much things have changed since their village has heard the gospel. She was telling me that shortly after they first arrived in the village a lady gave birth to twins. Twins are considered a horrible thing in many places in PNG as one of the old beliefs is that one twin is the good spirit and the other twin is the bad spirit. What usually happens is the father tries to figure out which twin is the bad spirit and then kills that child. However, in this case that my friend was telling me about, the father couldn't figure out which was the evil twin and so he killed them both just to be safe. Another instance of infanticide in this village is that if a mother has too many children to raise and none of the relatives want to adopt the new baby, then the mother or father will take a piece of firewood and knock the newborn on the head to kill it quickly and then bury it right where it's born. The good news that I mentioned earlier is that since my friend's family and other team members have presented the gospel to this village, there is no more infanticide of any kind! They are allowing both twins born to a woman to live and there is now always someone willing to care for any child born in that village. Praise God! I know there are many who believe that westerners should leave people alone in their beliefs and cultures... however, these villagers are so excited to not live in fear of the spirits anymore. They have expressed their joy over and over again that God's talk was brought to them so they could be free! It's incredible the stories that I've heard over here and it just makes me realize how necessary foreign missions truly is.
We have been so blessed to be a part of this work out here in PNG and we thank God for your part in keeping us out here. The gospel is so much bigger than any one of us and seeing it change lives is so mind-blowing that you know it is not of anything human hands or minds can bring about, but it's the work of God and His Spirit touching and healing the lives of these individuals. Praise God with us for the work that is going on in PNG! :) I'll stop preaching for now, but it's exciting eh? :)
We celebrated Tayah's 6th birthday this past month and she had quite the birthday party :). I even created a beautiful masterpiece of a cake... it was a barbie cake!
Then a few weeks later we celebrated Clinton's 28th birthday. And yes, he was spoiled a bit! :) I made a wonderful trifle with angel food cake, however it exploded all over my oven so the treat was a lot of work as I then had to scrub out my oven! Oh well, I'm still learning. :)
Clinton has now started an online course through Steinbach Bible College. His plan is to finish off his pastoral degree when we return next summer, so he's getting a head start! It's a lot of reading and assignments but I know he can do it well.
On that note, I'll sign off. We truly want to thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We appreciate the emails, notes of encouragement and skype calls.
You are all special to us and we pray God's richest blessings on you all.
Clinton & Rolanda, Tayah, Aowyn, Rorik
Prayer Requests:
1. Clinton's course: focus and understanding of the course material
2. the church of PNG: growth in maturity and numbers
3. personnel for the hangar: pilots and mechanics
4. safety for our family
5. finances: especially as we look to the cost of coming home next summer and setting up a house when we get home
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