April Update
He is risen! He is risen indeed! It is because he is risen that we are here in Papua New Guinea to share this good news with the people. It's been great to read the testimony of new believers out in New Ireland, who shared with the missionary, "I am happy. What Jesus has done for us, I am happy for that. The Holy Spirit coming inside us like God's Word says, I am happy for that. I say, 'Thank you' to God my Father." Thank you for the prayer and support throughout all this time!
Trials and Blessings
The past month is full of surprises - for about two weeks straight, I've been invited out for meals at various other missionaries' home, in fact, I've been invited so many times that I only had to cook once or maybe twice during those weeks. I had great time of fellowship with them - chatting and playing games, it's something I've haven't had a chance to do for a very long time.
Then one afternoon, when I went home for lunch, I found many bags of groceries on my porch, the first thing I thought was the store must have made a mistake delivering those groceries to the wrong address. But when I looked carefully at the bags, found out that it had my name and house number clearly labeled. Someone had thought of me and bought all this for me. It was so sweet to receive it.
That wasn't all, at the end of March, I've got an email from NTM Australian office about the financial support I've received - it was more than twice what I normally receive each month!
As I've became the recipient of all these blessings, I can hear a voice inside me saying, "Freely receive, freely give." That is so easy when we haven't received much, but we've received the greatest gift of all, life in Christ, and all the blessings that flow through it!
It's great how God blesses us in all different ways, it seems God was preparing me for the "troubles" that were coming my way. At the end of March, we managed to loose data on one of our servers under my care. We found that there weren't any backups available for it. We've tried many different ways to try and recover the data, but to no avail. It was difficult, and it came at a time I'm trying to deal with other issues in my life.
But that wasn't all, a week later, the graphics card on my laptop stopped working, so I no longer have access to a computer at home, and found out a new motherboard will cost about $600. It's been great that many friends have offered to loan me one of their computers, its wonderful to see the generosity of others, but I thought there are so many other things that I would like to get done that maybe it would be best for me to be computer free for the next few months so I can take care of those things first. So until I return to Australia in August, I'll only be able to check emails while at work.
Then last week, I've finally made an appointment to see the dentist (praise God, we finally have access to a dentist here so we don't need to go to Ukarumpa (Summer Institute of Linguistics) to take care of our dental needs) and they found a cavity and also found that I urgently needed a splint because I'd already ground a few millimetres off my teeth while I was sleeping.
Through the blessings and the trials, God is teaching me to say, "It is well, it is well, with my soul."
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Praise and Prayer
- Praise God for the new believers in New Ireland, pray for them as some are helping the missionaries reach another nearby village.
- Praise God for the blessings and generosities I've received over the past month, pray that I could truly freely give and be a channel of God's blessings.
- Pray for wisdom in trying to recover the data, and for admin team to know what to do if the data is unrecoverable.
- Pray that whatever circumstances I face, that I may truly say, "It is well with my soul."
19 Apr 2009
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