December, 2009 Prayer Letter

Merry Christmas! We are enjoying the holiday season here on Pohnpei and trust you are enjoying this blessed time of year as well. The holidays here bring heavy wind and rains and this year has seemed even more than usual. We are thankful for the somewhat cooler temperatures though.

MINISTRY NEWS

This year has been a good one for our family and ministry, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2010. I am including photos of the work done on our land here in preparation for our upcoming building project. It’s been exciting to see the progress and we are anxious to have our new church building completed. We are consistently running 90 to more than 100 on Sundays so we are especially eager to have more space for services.
Fall has been busy for us here. We started out the season with our annual missions conference. We are praising the Lord for the great response we had from our people and the largest Faith Promise budget we’ve had so far! We were able to take on a new missionary family for support, the Boylston family, who will be coming here to work with us in the ministry.

FAMILY NEWS

Our family is doing well. Susan is progressing in the pregnancy without any complications and we are thankful for that. Katrianne turned 3 in November and we sure are thankful for this little blessing in our family. She is a sweetheart. Kyler will be turning 5 just 2 days before Christmas. He’s been excited about his birthday for the past month and regularly “practices” blowing out candles, every time Susan has a scented candle lit.

CHRISTMAS!

With Christmas right around the corner, our young people have been working hard at preparing for our Christmas cantata. This year they performed Ron Hamilton’s cantata, “The Greatest Gift.” I translated the speaking parts into the Pohnpeian language and the young people did a fantastic job with the program. The church building was packed out for the performance with many having to stand! We pray that the seed was planted in the hearts of some of the unsaved that attended.
We pray that each one of you have a blessed holiday season and a wonderful New Year. We thank you for the blessing that you all are in our lives here and the part you have in our ministry here on Pohnpei.

Because of Calvary,
Rickson, Susan,
Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, & Katrianne

PRAISES

• The large attendance we’ve seen lately in our services!
• The Faith Promise giving promised for this year.
• Growth in the ministry here on Pohnpei.
• Progress on the land project for our new church building.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• The Boylston’s to be able to raise their needed support quickly.
• Continued growth in the ministry here.
• Funds for the land project for the new building.
• Susan’s pregnancy.

Katrianne's 3rd Birthday Pics

Birthday Lunch at South Park

Gift from Aunty Car

The Birthday Cake!

Flowers from Grandma

Two Little Princesses

Latest Updates

I know it's been awhile since I've posted an update here! Things have been busy around here. The last couple of weeks have been pretty good and we are thanking the Lord for the huge crowds we have continued to have at church. Several Sundays now we have had over 100 in attendance! It gets pretty crowded and warm in the building and we are looking forward to being able to start the construction on our new building.

Yesterday was Katrianne's 3rd birthday! She had a great day and we are so thankful for this little sweetheart. Later this week I will try to post some pics of her day. But for now I want to give an earnest prayer request for a good friend of ours. Kendener Ezekias fell from the top of a very tall coconut tree last week (the very tree he fell from is pictured at the top of this post) and is facing a very difficult recovery. It is a miracle that he is even alive. The frustrating thing as always has been the local hospital here and their care. He has been in excruciating pain, mainly from the dislocated discs in his back. His left leg was completely shattered. It wasn't until a day or more later however that the hospital realized his right leg was also completely shattered (how they missed that, I'll never understand). Due to improper cleaning of his wounds and delayed setting of the broken bones, he is now badly infected and even at risk of possibly losing his leg. And to top it all of, the hospital has now run out of pain killer! They are trying to get him to Manila for better care as soon as possible but the typical government system here is delaying that process. The state will pay for Kendener's ticket but he needs someone to accompany him, who will have to pay their own fee. His father is planning on going and is in need of around $1200 for his ticket. Please pray that the Lord will provide this money as he is needing to purchase this ticket within the next day. They are hoping to get Kendener on Thursday's flight out of here. Meanwhile, he has to face the pain he is experiencing, WITHOUT any pain medication. Please keep him in your prayers.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we have much to be thankful for in our lives. We hope that you all have a great week!

New Update

Wow! What a weekend we have had! It was a bit different from our usual schedule as Friday was a holiday here on Pohnpei (UN Day) and a youth rally on Saturday. Since school was out Friday, the youth had a workday as they are continuing to raise money for a future missions trip. Music classes for Friday evening were cancelled as the young people were pretty wiped out, so this gave me and Rickson the chance to have a nice evening out! One of our neighbors stayed with the kids and we enjoyed uninterrupted conversation over Chinese food.

Saturday we had a youth rally at one of the other churches on island so again all afternoon and evening music classes were cancelled. This made for a busy day for Rickson but gave me a nice quiet afternoon and evening with the kids and a chance to get caught up on some things around the house.

Sunday was a great day. We had a good problem Sunday morning - we had to interrupt the welcome segment of the service in order to set up more chairs. We had over 100 in attendance! This included some unsaved visitors that we ask prayer for. Two girls visited our church for the first time and as they live on another part of the island, they spend the afternoon with us and then attended the evening service as well. Please pray for Lori and Clara that they would soon come to know the Lord as their Savior.

After the evening service, Rickson had to drive the visiting girls as well as several others back to town. I woke up around 11:00 and realized he still hadn't gotten home! It was still another hour or so before he arrived home and was able to explain what had happened. After dropping off the people he had taken, he and several others who had just gone along for the ride were heading home when the truck ran out of gas! Rickson didn't have any cash on him and gas stations around here do not take credit cards so he had thought he had enough gas to make it home. Unfortunately, not quite enough though. He and the guys were able to push it (uphill) to a parking lot and walk to the medical clinic to use their phone, where he called a neighbor of his sister's to wake them up and have her husband, Braden come meet him. When Braden arrived, he didn't have any cash either so they drove to the ATM machine, only to find it out of order. They ended up having to borrow $10 from another pastor there in town, then drive from gas station to gas station trying to find one open. The 3rd one they checked on was open so they filled some empty bottles they had with gas and started back to the truck, drove only a little ways, and Braden's car ran out of gas. What a night! Finally, both vehicles had enough gas in them to get home and everyone made it home safely. I think Rickson will probably not be making any more late night trips to town without cash with him!

The night continued to be a restless one for us all as there was stormy weather throughout the night and the power kept going on and off. Finally, around 4 or 5 the power went off and stayed off. It only just came back on a little while ago so we have had a very late school day! Meanwhile, Rickson and Kaleo are in town at Calvary Christian Academy this morning as Rickson is speaking in two of their chapel services today. He and Kaleo will also be singing a special. Speaking of Kaleo, he played a special on the piano last night for offeratory and did an excellent job. We're so proud of him for using his talents for the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers. God is working here on Pohnpei!

Have a great week!

New Pictures

Morning Coffee, anyone?

Kyler and "the new baby"

Kestra and "the new baby"

Katrianne's version of the Hair Dryer

Our new Fire Chief

Update

We've had a busy last week and weekend! Some of you probably heard about the tsunami warning that we had last week. Thankfully, there was no tsunami but we did end up having some very heavy rains and a bit of a mudslide behind our house. Again, thankfully there was no damage to our home and no one was injured.

Friday and Saturday were busy with music classes, a youth workday, and cantata practice. We are preparing to do the cantata "The Greatest Gift".

Sunday, we had wonderful services both morning and evening, with decisions made and good attendance. One of our young "preacher boys" preached in the evening service and that was a blessing.

On a family note, we are all healthy finally and I am doing much better now with the pregnancy. For awhile I was too sick to care about much of anything but am finally passing that stage. The baby is due sometime in early March.

The children got a new kitten a little over a week ago. I'll be posting some pictures of the kids with their new pet. Homeschool has been going well. In fact, the kids were up around 6 this morning ready to start their school work!

We hope that you all have a blessed week!

Weekend Update

We had a nice weekend here on Pohnpei, in spite of the bad weather we've been having. Saturday was a workday for the youth as they are starting to earn money for future missions trips and activities. They were able to earn $50 by cleaning a lady's yard in town.

Sunday services were good with a good attendance. We had about 85 in the morning service, including some returning visitors. Some very exciting news is that our church not only met our Faith Promise goal, but went over the goal amount! We are looking forward to an exciting year of missions giving!

Most of you probably already know that our next "big" project is to build our new church building. We have been working on the land and filling in the swamp area along our current property. A lot has been done already but still more to do. Please continue to pray for this project. I will try to get up some current photos this week of the work being done.

Missions Conference

We have been having a great Missions Conference here at Ambassador Baptist Church! Tonight is our last service. Saturday was our Missions Banquet and here are some pics from that.

Pastor & Mrs. Welles - Calvary Baptist Church, Kolonia

Pastor & Mrs. Vera Cruz - Truth Independent Baptist Church, Lukop

Pastor & Mrs. Moses - Bible Believer's Baptist Church, Mand

Pastor & Mrs. Eliam - Wone Baptist Church, Wone

Katy & our niece, Charity

Summer Pics - From our Summer Vacation

It's Time To Resurrect the Blog!

Yep, I'm finally bringing back the old blog. I realize we need a place we can regularly post updates and photos of what's going on here on Pohnpei.

I'm going to go ahead and include here our most recent update letter, sent out to our mailing lists last week. That should pretty much bring everyone up to date:

Kasalehlia! It’s hard to believe that summer has flown by already and here we are in September! We’ve had an extremely busy, but exciting summer here on Pohnpei.

June started out with many graduation activities for the students who attend our church. We had quite a few graduates this year and are thrilled to see several with plans to pursue training for the ministry. In June we also had a missions team come from the island of Kosrae. This team of young people was such a blessing to all of us at Ambassador Baptist Church. Also in June, Susan started back up with the music lessons to those in our village. She has several piano classes this year as well as a small instrumental class. We look forward to seeing these students use their talents for the Lord.

In July we had the privilege of having some very good friends, John and Christa Boylston, come to the island for a survey trip. They had been praying for some time about coming to work with us in the ministry here on Pohnpei. We had a wonderful time with them here and thank God for the direction He has given them. Please pray for the Boylstons to be able to raise their needed support quickly so that they will soon be able to serve here in the ministry with us. One of the ministries that John will be working with me on is the translation of the Old Testament. As many of you know, this will be a true answer to prayer to finally have the complete Bible in the Pohnpeian language.

August was the month we held our Vacation Bible School this year. We had many children come out for the activities and were excited to see two young people accept Christ as their Savior in addition to other decisions made. Near the end of August I traveled to Guam to speak at the orientation week of the Harvest Baptist Bible Institute and College. As a last minute decision, I ended up taking Kaleo along with me. It was a great time for the two of us to spend together as well as seeing many friends and family there on Guam. It was also a blessing to be there at Harvest again. August is also a month for birthdays in our household. Kestra turned 6 on August 12th and Kaleo turned 10 on August 29th.

While I’m on the topic of family, I’d also like to mention that we have another Kihleng kid on the way! Susan is due to deliver sometime in March. Please pray for a smooth pregnancy and delivery and a healthy baby. She’s struggled through a good bit of the summer with “morning” sickness, which seems to hit worse in the evenings for her. We’ve decided that must be because she is from the east coast where it is morning when it is evening here.

We’d like to give a special thank you to those who have given money toward our land project. The filling of the land has continued through most of the summer and is nearing completion. It’s already given us the needed space for youth activities as well as the VBS activities, but especially will give us the area we need to build our new church building in the future.

We thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. We hope that you all enjoy a blessed fall season there in the States. Please continue to pray for us and our ministry here on Pohnpei. May God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
Rickson, Susan, Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, & Katrianne

There's No Place Like Home!

At long last I'm posting from Pohnpei! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post but I've had a terrible time getting into this site from here. Internet connection here is so slow - that's going to take some time to readjust to.

All is fine with us here. We survived the long trip and have really been enjoying being back home. It's going to take some time to get settled again and unpacked and organized. The kids are so excited to be back with their friends but they are having some trouble getting used to the heat again.

We do thank you for your continued prayers. We're so thankful for all the Lord has done on this furlough and we are especially thankful for His provision and bringing us back here to our home and ministry.

Heading Home!

Tomorrow morning! I can't believe after waiting for over 8 months, we're finally going home tomorrow morning! We have a 12 1/2 hour flight ahead of us so we can definitely use your prayers! We're praying for a safe flight and simply just an uneventful flight - without losing anything or anyone this time.

We've had a good time this week with Rickson's brother Bruce and his family as well as other friend here in Hawaii. We've enjoyed some relaxing time as a family, but seriously, we're all, kids included, just ready to get home!

This furlough has been a blessed time for our family and, though it is hard to leave our home and ministry for so long, it was necessary for us at this time. I'm grateful to God to be able to report that our support level has increased on this furlough from 72% when we first arrived in the US to 94%! This is a huge answer to prayer!

Lord willing, next time I update this blog, we will be home on our little island!

Been having a nice time here in Hawaii! We are sure looking forward to getting home though. We will be flying out on Monday at 7:00 AM Hawaii time so please keep us in your prayers as we travel.

Aloha! We made it to Hawaii safe and sound. We're staying at the prophet's chamber at Ohana Baptist Church. We'll be at Koolau Baptist Church tomorrow for the evening service. The kids are having a good time with their cousins here. We're all a little jet-lagged but hopefully that will go away quickly! We're enjoying the time we're able to spend with Rickson's brother and his family.

I haven't done too well with keeping everyone updated on our travels throughout California! We are enjoying our trip. We had a bit of an experience in Houston as our flight from Charleston was late and we missed our flight there. In our haste to get to the next terminal we were all rushing to the train and Kaleo jumped on and the doors slammed shut before any of the rest of us could get through! It was definitely a moment of panic for us all but God protected and we were able to find Kaleo safely at the next terminal.

We just completed our last meeting in CA yesterday. We had a blessed Easter with our friends at Faith Baptist Tabernacle. We've also enjoyed taking the kids to the San Diego Zoo, the state capital, Sutter's Fort, and Old Town Sacramento. We were able to spend about 6 days with my brother's family in Arroyo Grande and had a great time there. The kids were really sad to say goodbye to their cousins there. I will try to post some pictures of the trip later on when I have the chance.

Now we are leaving Sacramento and will be heading back to southern CA but first I think we'll be driving the kids up into the mountains to see some snow.

IT'S TIME!

We are just ready to head for the airport! I can't believe we are finally starting for home! It's been a long furlough but definitely a blessed one and we are so thankful for what God has done in our lives on this trip. He has met our every need and far beyond! We've had some wonderful experiences and made so many new friends as well as renewing contact with some old friends. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel. We still have a long "road" ahead of us. We will be flying out of Charleston, SC today at 2:55 and arriving in LAX this evening at 7:36 (with a layover in Houston). We will be in California for nearly three weeks and are looking forward to our meetings there as well as seeing family and friends. On April 20th we will continue on toward Hawaii and then finally on the 28th will arrive on Pohnpei! Thank you for your prayers!

We are currently in NC for Ambassador Baptist College's Bible Conference. Rickson spoke yesterday morning in the chapel service and did a great job. The Lord really blessed! Today we will be driving to Covington, VA for a missions conference at Calvary Baptist Church there and then back to Charleston on Friday to TRY to get the rest of our packing done. We have a LOT to do still before we fly out on Tuesday! And Rickson will be driving up to the Raleigh area on Saturday for a meeting on Sunday!

I've had many people asking about when our flight is so I finally got around to checking. We are scheduled to fly out of Charleston at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, March 31st. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this next "chapter" of our journey. We're looking forward to our meetings in CA, spending time with family there, and just having some good quality family time with our children.

Have a great day in the Lord!

Susan's Top Ten

These are in no particular order.

Top Ten Things I Will Miss About the USA

1. High Speed Internet connection
2. Starbucks
3. Northside church services (I'll especially miss hearing sermons in English)
4. Walmart!
5. My family
6. Fresh produce any time I want
7. Downtown historic Charleston
8. Malls
9. Traveling (yes, at some point in the future I will miss this again – just not for awhile!)
10. Good places to take long walks without dogs chasing you or drunks trying to pick you up

Top Ten Things I Have Missed In Pohnpei

1. Our church and especially the people
2. Our house
3. Having children on my porch every hour of the day!
4. My Sunday school kids
5. The Peppermill Restaurant
6. Fresh hot coconut biscuits from Kanichy’s
7. Our beautiful front porch view of the ocean
8. Sunrise walks by the water
9. Hosting Sunday dinner for our extended family
10. Fresh tuna any time I want

ONLY 43 DAYS TILL WE ARE HOME!!!! Actually only 42 since we lose a day crossing the date line!

Rickson is on his way home now from Raleigh. He said the missions conference there was a great few days of meetings. I was so sad to have had to miss it! Katrianne and I both have come down with this nasty sickness. I haven't had the fever or vomiting that the kids had though so I'm hoping I can kick this thing quickly! Meanwhile, I'm trying to get packing done and things mailed on to Pohnpei.

Good morning!

Well, I (Susan) will not be able to go on this next trip with Rickson after all. Kyler and Kestra both have Influenza! That explains the fever always coming back. The doctor said the type they have is resistant to any medication too so there isn't much we can do for them other than give them Motrin, Tylenol, and a lot of love. So Rickson will be leaving alone this morning around 6:30 for Raleigh, NC for the missions conference at Neuse Baptist Church. I have to admit I was really disappointed to not be able to go on this trip as it was our last full missions conference before we head back to Pohnpei. But I know God has a reason for this. Please pray that the kids get to feeling better (Katy is also doing a lot of coughing - Kaleo is the only healthy one at the moment!).

We are thoroughly enjoying some warm weather! It's in the 80s today! We've been fighting the flu bug in this house for the past couple of days and that has certainly put a damper on our last full weekend here in Charleston (the next couple of weekends we will be traveling). Kyler is the only one now still having a fever and hopefully he'll be back to normal (what is that anyway?) by tomorrow so we can leave Wednesday morning for Raleigh as planned.

We have a HUGE praise! A pastor called us last night to let us know his church had voted to take us on for support! This is the first "new" church to take us on this furlough! Also, two of our supporting churches raised our support! This puts us now at 89% of our needed support!!! When we arrived here in the States in August, we were only at about 73% of our support level; we are truly thankful for how God has provided!

Ministry Update

We've had some great meetings recently! We were in Richmond Hill, GA last week for a missions conference at Bethel Baptist Church. We were sure sorry to only be able to be at the first night of the conference as that meeting was such a blessing! We then headed up in the mountains to Blairsville, GA for a missions conference at Shining Light Baptist Church. The girls were thrilled when it snowed on Sunday! We passed through Greenville on our way back to Charleston and found quite a bit more snow there! Due to the icy conditions we ended up staying over in Greenville (which also gave the girls some more time to play in the snow!) and we were also able to spend some time with Katie and John Pobuk at BJU. Katie and John are from Pohnpei but have grown up in Hawaii and are now attending BJU. For the first six years we lived on Pohnpei, we rented their house there.

Last night we presented our ministry at Westview Baptist Church here in Charleston. We had a great time of fellowship there as well.

Well, Kyler survived the ordeal at the dentist! He did really well! We were so proud of him for being so brave! He is now a "toothless" little man. You can see from the pictures that his mouth is a bit swollen but other than that, he is doing just fine. We had a bit of an emotional moment this afternoon when he realized that his teeth were gone! He was insisting we take him back and make the dentist put his teeth back in!

Thank you for your prayers!

Kyler will be going in at 8:00 this morning to have his teeth removed that were damaged in his fall. Please keep him in your prayers today as this could be a bit of a rough day for him (and probably for us all!). Thank you and I will update you later as to how he is recovering.

Rickson and Kestra had great meetings in Greenville. They were in two different churches, Faith Baptist Church and Good News Baptist Church. They had a great time seeing a lot of our friends from the islands as well.

Today Rickson decided to drive up to Columbia to visit with some Pohnpeian friends whose mother had just passed away. Praise the Lord, Rickson was able to lead both the man and his wife to the Lord. Please pray for this couple that they will grow in the Lord, as well as for the time they are facing with the loss of their loved one.

Kyler is doing well today with his teeth. He is starting to eat solids a little bit. He went back to school today and enjoyed being back with his teacher and class. Next Thursday he will be going in to have his damaged teeth removed. So please keep this little guy in your prayers as well.

Tomorrow we will be driving down to Richmond Hill, GA (near Savannah) for the evening service. This church has been supporting us for about four years and have been such a blessing to our family.

Hope that you all are having a great week!

Our life is constantly taking unexpected turns. Kyler had a bit of an accident yesterday. He was reaching for something on his nightstand while sitting on his bed and missed and caught his mouth on the edge of the nightstand. Wow! What a mess! We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the Pediatric ER at MUSC to see what to do about his teeth, which were at that point pretty much just hanging in there. He didn't need stitches but he will need to see the dentist about his teeth first thing Monday and will not be able to eat solids for awhile. His mouth has swollen quite a bit and the gums are very bruised. He has cuts on both lips. He's quite a sight! I tried to take a picture to post but he wasn't too happy about that so maybe when he's in better spirits. So, Rickson and Kestra will be the only ones going to Greenville this weekend. The rest of us are staying behind. Pray they have a safe trip and good meetings and also for Kyler's quick recovery!

Tomorrow we will be leaving for Greenville. We're looking forward to being able to spend some time with many of our friends from Pohnpei. Susan has been fighting a cough for some time so please pray for her that this will clear up soon. Have a great weekend!

Our Little Kyler and Katy

Our Latest Update Mailing Sent

Kasalehlia! I know I am long overdue on getting this letter out and I apologize for that. Furlough has kept us much busier than we ever imagined and I need to give you all an update on our travels.

We have kept a fairly full traveling schedule up until Christmas. The Lord has given us opportunities to be in many of our supporting churches as well as several churches new to us. We truly enjoy being able to share what God is doing in the islands and are thankful for the opportunities we’ve had to present our ministry in so many churches.

We thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend the holidays with Susan’s family here in Charleston. The kids especially enjoyed Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma. We were certainly surprised to experience a Christmas here with weather nearly as warm as in Pohnpei! Christmas day in Charleston was nearly 80 degrees!

As many of you probably already know, I was able to go back to Pohnpei this month to check on things with the ministry there. I believe this trip was really needed to encourage our church people there. It was good to be able to see everyone again and to ensure that the work was continuing there in our absence. God has blessed us with some faithful church members who have dedicated much of their time to overseeing the ministry while we are on our furlough.
Our children are enjoying their time here in the States but are truly homesick for their island. They are experiencing cold weather for the first time and are sure hoping to see some snow while we are here. It has also been a good experience for them to be in an American school for part of this school year and we are so thankful for the teachers God has given them this year.
We continue to have a busy schedule for the remaining of our furlough. Below you will find our itinerary for the remaining of our trip. We have only a few services open between now and the time we leave and are hoping to fill some of these as well. We will be flying out of Charleston, SC on March 31st and then will be in California for three weeks before heading to Hawaii for one week, and then on to Pohnpei. We will actually arrive on Pohnpei on April 28th. Furlough is always an exciting time, but our heart is in Pohnpei and we are anxiously looking forward to getting back home.

We have tried to schedule as many meetings as possible during our time here in the States. Our goal was to get into as many of our supporting churches as possible to give an update of our ministry as well as to present our ministry to several new churches as we have had the need to raise some additional support. I have mentioned in the past that with the current economical situation, the cost of living has risen dramatically in Micronesia, added to the fact that our family has grown considerably since originally leaving for the islands. Therefore, our support level is currently at only around 81% of what we need. For the few supporting churches in which we were unable to schedule a meeting with, I would like to mention that we have a DVD of our ministry that we have shown when giving updates. If you would like a copy of this DVD, please notify us and we will mail one to you. I believe this presentation gives an adequate visual presentation of what God is doing in our ministry. The DVD also includes photos of our new home, which many of you have given financially to help build.

We do thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support. We thank God for the ministry in which He has placed us and for so many faithful prayer warriors to support our efforts in the island. For those of you who may be near a church where we will be presenting an update of our ministry, we would love to have the opportunity to see you. Feel free to contact us at anytime while we are in the States via email at rkihleng@hotmail.com or our cell phone at 843-697-8701. We look forward to hearing from you! May God bless you all as we begin this new year.
Because of Calvary,
Rickson, Susan, Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, & Katrianne