Moving Through Milestones

It's been kind of sad to slowly pack things up from our humble home in the jungle of the last 14 years! A few days ago, we took advantage of our supply flight, and started sending out some of our belongings in preparation for moving out to town. We're going to need to do this with each supply flight over the coming months so as to minimize the cost of moving. Imagine trying to move your belongings using a helicopter and sometimes a small plane! We're hoping for the actual move to happen right after the first week of July.

If you've been following our updates, you've seen that Mibu Ministry has reached a major, strategic ministry milestone that was planned from day one! We're at that point in time where the church and it's leaders are mature enough that our continued full-time presence in the tribe can actually be harmful for their continued growth. So we as a team, and along with our consultants, have determined it's time for us to no longer live full-time in the tribe, and to move out to town, where we can continue to serve the church off-site. That doesn't mean our job is done in Mibu. Far from it! We'll continue to serve the church full-time, but from a different setting. But it's sad to start the process of moving. The reality is that this has become our home!

Moving out to town will allow us to focus more fully on some of the bigger jobs that are still left like translation and lesson development without so many of the interruptions of day to day life in the tribe. We're working on a system to maintain regular communication with church leaders. And we plan on making short term visits in Mibu several times a year to work with and train leaders, support the church in any way we can, and of course work together with our indispensable translation helpers! We've been working hard all of last year, and will continue this year, putting some final touches on the training of the church and its leaders. We're hoping to be able to appoint elders sometime soon here, prior to moving out! Yet another huge milestone in ministry! This is exciting! Imagine, going from having had no access to the gospel to where they're at now; a maturing church and the impending appointment of the first shepherd-elders!

Meanwhile we continue to plug along in the many areas of work we're involved in, translation (currently working through Revelation... whew, a tough one!), and developing lessons for 2 Thessalonians together with some of the leaders, discipling potential elders, and weekly training sessions with the church after they meet on Sundays. Everybody is gearing up for what will hopefully culminate in the appointment of the first elders in Mibu!

We would really appreciate your prayers for all of the work that is going on in Mibu and for our upcoming move, and for the resources needed to start living out in town. Thank you all for your involvement in this ministry through your prayers and finances and words of encouragement! We're so grateful for you!