Kasalehlie from Pohnpei!
We are heading into one of our busiest summers ever! With our
upcoming furlough just around the corner, we have a great deal of extra
responsibilities in addition to our regular summer ministries.
Summer Ministries
We had originally planned on holding camp in June this year; however,
because of the drought in February that cancelled school for so long, most
schools on the island had to extend the school year through June. As a
result, we're having to fit all our summer ministries into July!
July 1st thru 5th will be our Vacation Bible School, one of our favorite
weeks out of the summer! For the past two summers we've had approximately
100 children attend this ministry program and are praying for an even bigger
attendance this year. We're praying for many salvation decisions and for
opportunities to reach the families of the children that attend.
July 15h thru 20th are the new dates for our Summer Youth Camp.
This is another important week out of the summer here on Pohnpei.
We have taken a close look at past summers and evaluated what worked and
didn't. Based on that we've made some changes in how we'll do camp this
summer and are praying that as a results, will see even more lives changed and
decisions made! Please be in prayer for this ministry as it's always been
such a great time for the youth of Pohnpei to turn their hearts towards God.
Furlough
July 30th is the date
that our family leaves for furlough in the Unites States. We have many
mixed emotions as the dates gets closer. While we are excited to see
friends, family, supporting churches, and more in the US, leaving behind our
home and extended family, our ministry, and life here is not easy. It is
especially difficult for the older kids as leaving behind friends and the
activities they have grown up with is tough. Of course we keep reminding
ourselves that it's only temporary, but it's still hard to say goodbye!
We will be in the
States until June, 2014. Pastors, if you have specific dates that you
would like to have us give an update on our ministry, please contact us at
rkihleng@hotmail.com. Our schedule is filling up fast! We're looking
forward to being in as many of our supporting churches as possible while we're
in the States.
Baptist Bible Institute of Pohnpei (BBIP)
We've just completed our 5th semester of the BBIP. I'm sure all of
the students are enjoying a little bit of a break! It's been a great year
and we're going to miss our students while we're in the States on furlough. We're
thankful for John and Christa Boylston and the other pastors families on island
for being so willing to keep things going in our absence. We're working
hard to have all material, handbooks, and forms ready for the Fall semester
before we leave. It's been exciting seeing so many of the students
progress. Many have gone on to attend Harvest Baptist Bible College on
Guam and we have two students who will be leaving with us next month to attend
Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC. We have several students who
are only about 3 semesters away from graduating from BBIP, one of whom is
making plans to return to his home island of Nukuuro to plant a church there.
Our primary goal for starting the Bible Institute was to enable locals to
be able to plant churches on the outer islands so this is a huge answer to
prayer!
The Boylston Family
The Boylston family has been settling well here on Pohnpei. We
have been meeting with them regularly for language study, which they are doing
an excellent job of picking up! Their kids and ours became friends
immediately and love playing together every chance we get. This, of
course, is another reason why our kids would prefer we skip furlough altogether
- they don't want to leave their new friends behind! Please keep the
Boylstons in your prayers while we are off island for furlough as much of the
responsibility of the ministry here will be handed over to them. I have
complete confidence that they will keep things running smoothly, but I'm sure
they will appreciate your prayers!
New Mailing Format!
We are working to stream-line our mailings in order to be a better
steward of our time and money while still giving you all more frequent updates.
In order to receive future mailings from us, please go to http://kihlengfamily.blogspot.com/ and sign up to receive our
updates. You will then need to confirm your subscription, but then you
won't miss out on any of our future newsletters, ministry, and family updates!
Over the next few months, we will discontinue mailing through the postal
service to reduce the cost of postage. For those of you that still would
like a printable version of our newsletters for posting on church bulletin
boards or other purposes, a printable PDF version will be posted on our website
as well. Thank you for your help in this as we work to stay in better
touch with those who support us through prayer and finances!
We look forward to seeing so many of
you over the next 10 months! Thank you again for your prayers and
support. Please keep our family in prayer as we head off into this huge
adventure called "furlough"!
Because of Calvary,
Rickson, Susan,
Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler,
Katrianne, and Kaylinn
Printable PDF Version
