Our family would like to extend a belated Happy New Year to all of you. 2022 had us hit the ground running with many activities and events. We are so thankful to be able to return to a more normal schedule with the church now that the majority of Covid restrictions have been lifted here on the island.
Ministry Update
Ambassador Baptist Church continues to do well. We had a wonderful week of Missions Conference in November. What a sweet time of fellowship with the other pastors on the island and their families. Our theme for this missions month was “Here Am I, Lord; Send Me.” This is a theme we plan to emphasize throughout 2022 with our church.
As we went into December, we were busy with many holiday activities, including our church Christmas program. We are extremely limited with what we have been able to do in preparations for that for several reasons; one, our church piano (digital is all we can use here in this climate) has not been working for some time, and two, we currently have limited location for rehearsals. Thankfully though we were able to hold rehearsals at our house and then we were able to order and receive in time a new digital piano to use for the church. This has been a huge blessing as we’ve missed this in our services as well. The Christmas program went very well and even one person mentioned to us afterwards that it really touched his heart and he had tears the entire program.
New Year’s is always an adventure here on Pohnpei. We held our annual New Year’s Eve service and activity and had a wonderful time with our church family. It was such a sweet time of preaching, testimonies and singing, as well as some fun games, and of course good food. We ordered about 600 glow sticks for the kids as well (though the adults and teens also joined in on the fun!) and everyone joined in for the traditional Pohnpeian way of bringing in the New Year with a LOT of noise.
January has brought more church activities and has kept us very busy. Susan and I have been able to take some time together to sit and discuss goals and plans for the ministry here for this new year. We have a lot of dreams for the Lord’s work here and now we are praying for God’s guidance as we look into making some of these projects a reality. We appreciate your continued prayers for the ministry here.
Family Life
It has been a blessing to have Kaleo back on the island with us once again. We do have some prayer requests for him though. In late October and early November, he began having some back discomfort. It progressed into severe pain and was accompanied by fever and just an overall feeling of illness. After having some tests done at the hospital, his doctor felt it best to admit him. He was in the hospital for about a week while they tried to figure out what was wrong. To make a long story short, they did determine that it is nerve related, caused by an infection in his system. But they said they cannot fully determine what is wrong and how to treat it without him having an MRI and further testing off island. With the current border closure, that is not really an option at this time. So Kaleo has had to live in continuous pain since then. He is back to work at a restaurant on the island, where Kestra works as well, but there are some days he can barely get out of bed and has to miss work. It has been a bit of a discouragement for him, and for us as we have no idea of what the cause is. We have recently learned that they are allowing some to go off island for medical treatment and return after. At this time, we are just praying for guidance as to what he should do. He really does not want to leave, especially so soon after finally getting back home. But we do hate to see him in pain so much of the time. We ask that you keep him in your prayers.
The rest of the family is doing very well. Kestra is finishing up her senior year and keeps very busy with schoolwork and work. Kyler is doing well with his junior year; he just turned 17 in December and has been given several opportunities to go scuba diving with friends recently. He jumps at any chance to go diving, but sometimes him mom gets a bit nervous watching the videos of his close encounters with sharks. Katrianne continues spending the majority of her time at the piano. She has recently passed her piano performance exams and has been busy working with her piano teacher selecting pieces for her next performance exams. She is thrilled that we have a piano at church again and has been spending time with Susan learning hymn playing. Kaylinn keeps busy with her ukulele and piano playing as well. She’s counting down the days till she finishes sixth grade and can move up to youth group at church.
We are looking for the end of the rainy season to be able to put in the last section of the retaining wall behind our house. What we need is about one full week with no rain, no scheduled church events and activities other than regular services, no family emergencies, and no interruptions. Anyone in the ministry, especially anyone in the ministry in the tropics, can agree with us that this is an incredibly difficult week to find, but we are trusting God will enable us to complete this soon. Our goal is to be done and celebrate the completion by March, marking four years since the mudslide, but of course God may have a different timeline planned than we do. My wife recently overheard our children talking about the early days after the mudslide, when we were basically camping in our house, with mounds of mud everywhere, open for critters of all kinds to come inside, having to evacuate constantly, cooking outside, and spending our days shoveling dirt. She was surprised to hear them all agree that they miss those days and what fun it was! Our kids can be such a blessing to us, reminding us sometimes that what we may see as bad times, they were able to see the good that came from it.
FSM Border Closure
The FSM government recently announced the extension of their emergency orders, officially extending the border closure through the end of May. We were hoping this would not be the case, but sadly, it is. We made the difficult decision to cancel and get a refund on our previously purchased plane tickets or risking losing them entirely as they can no longer be extended after February. At this point, we have no idea when a furlough to the United States will be possible.
We do thank each of you for your continued prayers and financial support. We thank each of you that gave extra for a Christmas offering for our family. Your love and care for us here on Pohnpei means so much to us and we are truly grateful.
Because of Calvary,
Rickson & Susan, Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, Katrianne, & Kaylinn
