Kaselehlie from beautiful, rainy, and hot Pohnpei!
As I’m sure most of you know by now, furlough has had to be postponed for now. Having to cancel our meetings with so many of you was a difficult decision and a sad one to make. But as the Covid-19 situation around the world progressed, we know it was definitely the right decision. It was not long after our decision to cancel our flights that the Federated States of Micronesia closed it’s borders, which would have left us stranded in the U.S.
As we’ve watched the events of the past few months unfold in the United States, we have kept you all in our prayers constantly. It has been heartbreaking to see these events happening, but we are thankful that God is still in control. All we can do is trust in Him in this time of uncertainty. We are also thankful that the swift decisions of our government leaders here in Micronesia has prevented any cases of Covid-19 from arriving here in our country. How have things changed for us here since the borders closing?
- All schools closed on the island. Since we homeschool, this didn’t really affect us; however, we did take an extended “spring break”. For about a month now though we have been back at it, working our way through this school year.
- We were required to close our Bible Institute classes. We had just concluded exams for the current block of classes and just closed out the semester there. Lord willing, we will be able to have classes again in the fall, though at this point, we do not know for sure what the restrictions will be.
- In person church services stopped. Because of our extremely slow internet out in the area we live, we are unable to do live videos of our services, but we have been recording each service and uploading on Facebook on our church page. After two months of the borders being closed here, there really is no way for the virus to have arrived here on island. So we began holding church services in person once again on June 7. We are meeting for services outside with chairs kept far apart in order to follow our state’s policies. We have decided to continue recording the services and sharing online as many Pohnpeians in the U.S. have let us know they are enjoying watching services in their own language. Last week I was even able to talk with a young lady on Guam who has been viewing our services, and lead her to Christ.
- Our jail ministry has had to be put on hold for the time being as well. We are collecting items to deliver to the prisoners from time to time to let them know we haven’t forgotten them and are praying for them. We do not know when we will be allowed to resume services there again.
- Our youth ministry was unable to meet in person for a time as well; however, we started meeting again this month.
- All sports activities and gatherings on the island have stopped. Our kids have missed their sports practices and being with friends of course. We have had to get creative to do things on our own but one thing we’ve enjoyed as a family is going for walks and run in the evening together.
- Our usual bigger summer ministries as of now are on hold. We are not allowed to hold our summer youth camp or VBS. This is extremely disappointing as these are two of our biggest highlights of the summer. We are looking at options for some sort of substitutions but we’re not really sure at this point what that will look like.
As you can imagine, a lot of people were left stranded outside of Micronesia when the borders closed. As the government works to prepare to bring them back, many are expressing fear that Covid-19 will arrive here in the islands. Please keep these islands and people in your prayers as it’s very likely we are only at the very beginning of the Covid-19 situation here in our part of the world.
Among those stranded in the U.S. of course, is our son Kaleo. He has been staying with Susan’s parents in NC since his college closed in early March and we are extremely grateful for them housing him during this time. He finished the semester out online and now that things have began to open up again in NC, he has been looking for a job there in order to save money for the fall semester. He was originally to come back to Pohnpei in May, but of course is unable to. He’s submitted quite a few job applications but so far hasn’t found anyone hiring. We ask that you please pray he finds a job soon. He’s looking at several options for the fall semester but of course, every one of them is dependent on his being able to work through the summer to save the money he needs.
With the extra “down time” because of the quarantine here, we’ve tried to tackle more of the projects on the house. We’d like to finish the retaining wall this summer. That project was at a halt due to the supplies we needed not being available on island at the time. But now it looks like supplies are becoming available again and we can continue with this project. We’ve also started work on laying the flooring and painting. We’re hoping to get what we need to complete the kitchen this summer as well.
Many of you have already discovered our ministry/family private Facebook page. If you would like to get more frequent, “informal” updates, prayer requests, and photos of our life and ministry here, please request to join the group “Friends of the Kihleng Pohnpei Ministry”.
We thank you all for your continued support and prayers through this time. This year has proven to be a time of uncertainty and quite a few surprises. I’m so thankful that in the midst of it all, we still know Who is in control!
Because of Calvary,
Rickson & Susan, Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, Katrianne, & Kaylinn
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