Kaselehlie!
Greetings from Pohnpei! 2017 has gotten off to a great start these past few months here on Pohnpei and we are looking forward to the great things God will be doing throughout this year!
CHURCH HAPPENINGS
One of our highlights over the holiday season was our annual Christmas program. This year we did the cantata Maranatha! The Lord Is Come. Kaleo was once again able to be a part of the play and Kestra was excited to have the opportunity to join in with the youth choir now that she is a part of the youth group. Even Kyler was able to be a part of the play this year as he played the part of Kaleo’s character’s son. Katrianne and Kaylinn were a part of the childrens’ choir. The program was a great blessing and we were thrilled that the kids’ swim coaches all came to see the performance.
January was a landmark month in our church staff as our youth leader, Resio Aron, married his sweetheart Terisa, who is Calvary Baptist Church of Pohnpei’s Pastor Willam Joel’s daughter! We’re thankful for God bringing a godly young lady into his life who will be a great help with the ministry here. Please keep Resio and Terisa in your prayers as they begin their life together.
We were blessed this year to have our friends Mark and Crystal Javaux here with us over New Year and into January. They tackled quite a few projects around here and we hated seeing them go! Mark was able to work on our church sound system that we were able to purchase a couple of years ago (thanks to the generous donation of First Baptist Church of Colchester, Illinois who provided the funding for the system). We’ve only used the very basics of the system with our limited knowledge of sound technology, but within an hour or so, Mark had it all set up with numerous wireless microphones that we didn’t even realize had come with the system! He also spent some time teaching the men of our church how to operate the system so we can continue using it without him here.
Another landmark in our church in 2017 was Ambassador Baptist Church selecting our first deacon. Siosy Aron has been with the church since the very beginning; in fact our earliest Bible studies before the church officially started were held at his home in the jungle. We are excited about where God is taking this ministry and are thankful for godly men in the church such as Siosy.
FAMILY UPDATES
Sadly, the year had some painful beginnings as my Aunt Rita, one of my mom’s sisters, passed away in January. We will miss her greatly but know she is in a better place and no longer experiencing the pain and suffering she has been for the past year or more. Please keep the family in your prayers through this time.
Through some friends and family members, plane tickets for Susan, Kaleo, and Kestra were provided for a brief trip to the States to visit Susan’s parents. We were able to work the tickets out so they left on the same flight as Mark and Crystal. They were able to visit several of our supporting churches while on the trip and really enjoyed getting to see so many of you along the way.
BIBLE INSTITUTE
We began another semester of the Baptist Bible Institute of Pohnpei in January and are now nearing the end of the school year. We will be having another graduate this year, our third overall from the Bible Institute program. She is planning to leave the island after graduation to continue her education at Harvest Baptist Bible College.
SPECIAL REQUEST
For several years many of you have prayed with us concerning a new building for our church. We believe at this time God is giving us the burden to move forward with this project. Some of you may remember from our ministry DVD the outer, open-air building that we use for special meetings. We have decided to go ahead and convert this into an enclosed building to use for our sanctuary. Please pray with us as we begin this project and if you and/or your church would like to be a part of this project, please contact us to discuss ways to help with this building project.
A special thank you to those of you who sent special Christmas offerings to our family and ministry here. Some were anonymous gifts and we hope and pray you see this and know how much it meant to our family and ministry. Thank you!
We wish you all a blessed spring and upcoming Resurrection Sunday. Thank you for your prayers and financial support. God continues to work here in the islands and we are truly honored to have each of you as a part of the ministry here.
Because of Calvary,
