|
We are planning to return to Papua New Guinea, God willing. We are aiming to leave in August! However, there are many changing aspects to this plan, and as always we commit them to God and trust him to open doors, as he wills. There seem to be a lot of doors that need opening right now!
|
|
We've applied for a travel exemption to leave Australia and are working through the various paperwork involved in returning to the field. Please pray for this process, and for God's continued guidance as to the timing of our return.
Pray that Ukarumpa would be able to get approval for returning workers to quarantine in their homes, rather than in hotels in Port Moresby.
We continue to be thankful for how God has provided and continues to provide for our needs here in Australia as we wait. Thanks so much for your prayers and part in this.
Pray that we can rest in God's peace and be content, whatever the circumstance.
|
|
Psalm 29:10-11
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord is enthroned as King forever.
The Lord gives strength to his people;
the Lord blesses his people with peace.
|
|
|
|
Above from top: The kids have grown and thrived in the last few months here. Their favourite game involves pretending to go somewhere on an aeroplane! Robert has been working on the farm building more tunnels like these to grow strawberries, and sometimes helping with the sheep work. Splashing in muddy puddles reminds us of our PNG home!
|
|
One of the main reasons we felt we needed to follow Wycliffe Australia's directive to return back to Australia in March was because Robert, at the time, would not have been able to work as a pilot. Travel and aviation were shut down for a good few months in Papua New Guinea, as people followed government directives and isolated themselves.
However, things have now changed as restrictions are easing. Village teams are starting to go back to their translation projects, and some need helicopter transport to get there. Unfortunately, a few weeks after we left, the other three helicopter pilots in Ukarumpa also had to return to their home countries, and there are now no Wycliffe/SIL pilots for the two helicopters! Instead, a missionary pilot from New Tribes Mission is helping out but the workload will quickly become more than one pilot can sustain. Only one of the other helicopter pilots is likely to be able to return this year from the USA, and his travel plans are still uncertain.
So, with work ahead for us to do, we are trying to get back to Papua New Guinea. The world of international travel is now a very swampy quagmire to wade through. This is why we need your prayers to navigate it all!
The splitting of the workforce into 'essential' and 'nonessential' workers has extended into the missions community as well. It's been strange to try and work out where we stand on this new pandemic social ladder. The challenge is to consider ourselves and our skills with sober judgement, also balancing the needs of our family, whilst still keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and the knowledge of who we are in his kingdom! In God's family we are all essential within the body of Christ, and all needed to work out our part. Yet we can only do so by recognising that it is God who works in and through us, for his own glory. This truth gives us both value and humility as we look at how we can build one another up!
Romans 12:3b-5
Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
|
|
To Contact Us:
Email: robert-loralie_handasyde@wycliffe.org.au
Robert: 0434 440 704, Loralie: 0478 478 818
If you’d like to know anything more about our journey, send us an email!
We love to hear stories of your lives too, and are encouraged, challenged and changed by hearing them. Please never underestimate how much we value you all!
|
|
|
Please do not redistribute this newsletter without permission
|
|
|
|
|
|
