WELCOME!

Kasalehlia! We are the Kihleng family and we are missionaries to the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. This blog is to keep friends and family (and whoever else is interested!) updated on what we are doing in the islands. So check back here often to see updates on our ministry as well as our ever growing family!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

May, 2011 Prayer Letter

Kasalehlia! I know most of you are enjoying some warmer weather. As for Pohnpei, it’s just as hot as ever!

We have had about the best spring we’ve ever had here on Pohnpei, ministry-wise. Every year we have been faced with a lower attendance around Easter as so many are pulled back into their former denominations by very persistent priests. This year, we were excited to see our regular attendance and even higher! Easter Sunday we had over 100 in attendance for our main service and around 50 at our early morning Sunrise Service. It was a blessed Easter for us as in addition to the Sunrise Service and main service, we also were able to see 4 baptized!

Thank you for your prayers for our revival week! We had a great week with Evangelist Randy Chovan and saw 22 saved that week and several more in the weeks to follow! Brother Chovan also preached at the Christian school on the island and 17 came forward for salvation after the chapel services! The following week, Bro. Chovan also preached in several of the other Baptist churches around the island and there were many decisions made there as well. We are praising God for His blessings on this week of revival and ask for prayer for continued growth in these new converts. In recent weeks we’ve seen quite a few more salvation decisions and had another baptismal service just this past Sunday! God is really working on Pohnpei and we thank you for praying with us for this revival we’ve seen!

The Baptist Bible Institute of Pohnpei has gone well its first semester. We are still learning (and have a long way to go!) but we’re off to a great start. Thirty-nine students finished out the first semester and just this past Monday were given their final exams. We are off for the summer but will begin again on August 8th.

Summer is just around the corner and with it many summer ministries. Our family will be taking a two week trip to Guam at the end of June. We’ve been planning a trip with the kids for some time and found we had enough frequent flyer miles to get tickets for the whole family with just having to purchase one ticket at the child’s fare! Pray that we have a good time of rest and relaxation and uninterrupted family time!

In July we have our two major summer events, Youth Camp and Vacation Bible School! We are still looking into our options for this summer’s camp location but anticipating a great week with the young people on the island. And we are hoping to make this year’s VBS the best we’ve ever done with an extra emphasis on reaching the parents. We have some ideas for doing so and ask for you to pray with us that we will see many come to know Christ this summer. If you are interested in donating funds to either the camp or VBS, you may send your monetary gift to our mission board (address in the right hand column) designated to either Pohnpei Youth Camp or Pohnpei VBS.

As you may remember from our last letter, we are fervently praying that 2011 will see the project for our new church building move forward! We continue with these prayers and ask that you do as well. It is something that God is laying on our hearts all the time now and we know it’s time to move forward with the plans and preparations. We will let you know more in upcoming letters how YOU can help with this project!

On the family side of life here, we are working hard to finish out the school year! Kyler will be graduating from Kindergarten on June 6th. He’s excited about the graduation but more excited about the cake we told him we’ll have afterwards! Kaleo will be finishing 6th grade and Kestra 1st.

We are so thankful to finally have hi-speed internet here on our side of the island! We’ve been waiting for this for a long time and it was just hooked up out here about a week ago. Now, Susan is trying to update our blog better and hopefully keep it more up to date with photos and video. So check back there from time to time to see what she has added. The address is www.kihlengfamily.blogspot.com.
We hope that you are all having a blessed Spring! We thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. Please continue to pray for us and our ministry here on Pohnpei.

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

Easter Sunday Baptismal Service




This is our niece, Cherish

Pictures of our Kids

Kaleo - Age 11

Kestra - Age 7

Kyler - Age 6

Katrianne - Age 4
Kaylinn - Age 14 months


Random Photos

Our backyard after the mudslide behind our house!

What we woke up to the morning after the mudslide - talk about a shock!
K-Bird, the newest member of our family!  (Pohnpeian parrots, called the serehd, actually have long green tails but the people who caught this one for us cut the tail off to keep him from flying away - it will grow back eventually).

Kestra and Katrianne at our nephew's wedding

Our boys and Kimo at the wedding (Kimo is our songleader at our church)
Our littlest princess



Spring Revival Photos

Our outdoor "building" we use for revivals and special meetings
Rickson interpreting for Evangelist Randy Chovan


Saturday, May 14, 2011

Update

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've updated this blog!  BUT, I have great news!  We now have entered the era of civilization and have hi-speed internet out in the jungle where we live!  We have been anxiously waiting for it to be available on our side of the island for a long time and are so thankful to finally have it!

A lot has happened over the last couple of months and I will be sending out a regular prayer letter this week to update on everything but will briefly mention some things now.  We had revival services in March with Evangelist Randy Chovan.  It was a great week and we saw many come to know Christ that week.  And as the seed was planted, we have seen quite a few more come to know Christ since the revival!   We've had several baptismal services since, including one today and it has been great to see these new converts coming to services and growing in the Lord.

We're looking forward to the end of the school year.  Kyler will be graduating from kindergarten in a couple of weeks.  Kestra has about 5 weeks left of school and Kaleo, well, we're hoping he'll finish in time to have a little summer break!  Sixth grade has been a tough year for him but we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! 

Will try to get some photos up here soon!