Hello everyone! We're thrilled to be continuing with ministry efforts to the church in Mibu! Lately I've been getting some momentum with the lessons for the book of Revelation. Honestly it's so difficult to figure out how to keep lessons at an overview level, without getting caught up in the weeds; all those little details that are so fascinating and raise so many questions. I've got a rough outline (several actually… haha) and will be hammering that out more as I go I'm sure. It'll be just as much of a challenge actually teaching the lessons as well since I'll likely need to do that virtually like all my work.
I'm also slowly working through the corrections for the Elder Training Lessons that I drafted up last year. My friend, Moombi (also an elder in the Mibu church) is helping me through those as he has time. So it'll be something we just pick through slowly as the year goes on.
I'm super grateful for the gracious gift of a supporting church recently which will allow me to travel back to PNG, and hopefully Mibu, for 2-3 weeks in the coming months. I'd like to go mid-late April if possible, but my work visa is only recently processed, and the whole thing will need to be completed before I can buy tickets. So for now I sit and wait and watch ticket prices. If needed I may bump it a month or so. A trip back to PNG will give me a chance to reconnect face to face with our coworkers-in-Christ in Mibu as well as our other coworkers, the Walkers. It will also be my opportunity to sort through and sell or give away the remainder of our belongings from all those years living in PNG.
There hasn't been much news of the gang in the last few months. Mostly just communities sorting through the aftermath. The government, true to form, did nothing. Even the allocation of funding by the government which was promised toward relief expenses was not paid out, and so that's left us overall about $30,000 that we need to raise to fill the void. Overall though there's not been much activity from the gang. This makes us nervous because it likely will appear to not be a problem anymore, and not hold the attention of the government who we'd hoped would take some strong action to put a stop to it and exact justice. We still hope and pray. But our concern now is that after the communities work so hard to rebuild their lives, the gang is still there, and could just as easily pick up their activities where they left off. So regarding the gang, please keep praying. I think maybe we can shift, or add to our prayers the need for wisdom and grace for the various communities to get things back to normal.
In family news, the kids continue to work through school. Skyler (junior) and Maddie (freshman) are doing well at Valley Christian High School. Abby (7th) and Ethan (4th) are doing good at Center for Educational Excellence! Skyler started a job a while back working just 2 hours a day after school for an after school care program. That's helped her begin paying us back for her car for which we loaned her the money. Maddie just applied for a job at In-N-Out down the street. We're waiting to see what happens with that!
Back to education… To any and all of our AZ friends; if you pay AZ taxes, would you consider utilizing the wonderful ACSTO program here to help fund our older daughters' school at Valley Christian High School? It's a great program that allows you to contribute at a NET ZERO cost to you! You can apply this to your 2022 taxes all the way up to tax filing date this year, so there's still time! And did I say it costs you nothing? Here's a link if you'd like to help. Please reach out if you have any questions! https://pages.acsto.org/sxwe2k/
Oh, I forgot to mention too that Skyler and Maddie are both scheduled to head out (less than a week away now) on short term mission trips of their own! Skyler is heading to Kenya, and Maddie is heading to Mexico where they are going to serve mostly underprivileged children in local communities in conjunction with ministries already on the ground there. We're excited to see them serve in this way. Maddie is completely funded now, and Skyler has just $162 more to go to be at 100% funded. We're so thankful for those who have generously given to help them on their way! This will be a great opportunity for them not only to serve others and be a bit of the light of Jesus, but also an opportunity for them to discern God's direction in their own lives. I'll drop a couple links here if you're interested in reading a bit more about what they're doing. And if you feel so inclined, Skyler just needs a bit more to be 100% funded. Gifts are tax deductible.
Skyler - https://vcs.managedmissions.com/MyTrip/skylerhusa
Maddie - https://vcs.managedmissions.com/MyTrip/maddiehusa1
And then Abigail is signed up to do an educational trip to Greece next year with her school. We took this one on hesitantly, but decided together with her that if she could work to pay for the trip she could go. She has to find a way to make $288/mo for 14 months to completely pay for the trip. So far she's 2 months in and has shown a real entrepreneurial spirit as she works hard to make this money! She started by washing and waxing our cars, and is still doing that on a limited basis. She's even put a carwash sign out on the street and pulled in a number of drivers by who loved the idea! But now she has perhaps found her entrepreneurial calling as she is making these FANTASTIC cupcakes and selling them! Not only are they beautifully created, but they taste so so delicious! If anyone here locally is interested, they're $20/doz. She makes $10 profit per dozen toward her trip!
