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| Ambassador Baptist Church baptism service |
Kaselehlie! Greetings from Pohnpei!
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! We are long overdue on a prayer letter, so we have a lot to update you all. These past few months have been a whirlwind of activity along with many changes in plans.
Furlough Plans
I’ll start with furlough plans since so many have been asking. Much has changed here on the island over the last several months as Covid-19 at long last hit the islands. Micronesia had two and a half years to prepare and watch the rest of the world through the pandemic, but there was still a good deal of panic and overwhelm. Yes, our entire family got covid as well, but thankfully, fairly mild cases and we recovered well. Just as the island began to recover from the covid surge, severe influenza hit the island, and yes, our entire family got that as well. The flu actually was considerably more severe in the islands than the strain of covid that arrived here. Hospitals were overflowing, and many people were seriously ill. Even now many are still struggling with the aftereffects of this illness. Everyone in our family is still coughing, and attendance at church continues to be quite low with so many out sick. Due to the new and extended covid requirements and restrictions here in Micronesia, we have had to once again postpone our furlough, since the restrictions would affect us traveling with our younger daughters. From what we are understanding, these restrictions and requirements will be lifted by the middle of next year, and so we have begun to tentatively plan a furlough for the end of summer once summer camp and VBS is completed. This has been a very difficult decision for us to make. We have to keep reminding ourselves that God’s timing is best. Pastors, we are anxious to visit your churches and give updates in person and are saddened that it is not possible for us to do so at this time. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
Ministry Update
Our summer ministries were a bit different this year. Camp went very well, and we were excited to see over 100 youth in attendance. We thank those of you that gave to financially sponsor campers. We originally had 11 teens from our church sign up for camp. After we were informed that a Sunday school class in South Carolina had pledged to sponsor 25 teens, we were able to take an additional 14. Of those 14, 6 accepted Christ at the camp. Please continue praying for these young people.
After camp was completed, we began our final preparations for Vacation Bible School. We had an exciting carnival theme, and our daughter Katrianne had worked hard to create some amazing backdrops for the platform area, complete with a huge cardboard ferris wheel. Kids in our area were excited to come see what it was all about. The first two days were fantastic…and then covid hit the island. Immediately the government shut down the entire island, and we were unable to finish out the week. We are still hoping to use all the material and hold a mini VBS in the near future, but so far we have not been able to. The remainder of the summer was pretty much spent in lockdown and it was quite some time before we could even have in-person church services again. As I already mentioned, attendance is still quite low due to illness and even those that have been able to attend in person are coughing a lot.
November is our annual Missions Month at Ambassador Baptist Church. The church decided to do a week of missions conference this year instead of spreading it out over the entire month, though all services in November will still have a missions focus. Our missions conference will be held the last week of November and we are looking forward to spending time with the pastors and their families on the island that our church supports.
Medical
Thank you for your continued prayers for our son, Kaleo. He has continued to deal with constant pain, which has lasted an entire year now. Our insurance company here along with his doctor have referred him off-island for medical testing and care. He left for Guam on November 15 for his consultations, MRI, and whatever else is determined will need to be done. Please continue praying for him as the doctors there work to develop a treatment plan for him. He is very blessed to have a job that is encouraging him to take the time off, with pay, to take care of his health.
While Susan was in Guam in the summer, she was able to get some much-needed dental work done. She was able to have a wisdom tooth removed as well as another tooth that was giving her issues. We thank those of you that gave financially to this. She was able to get all of the more urgent things done, with plans to have the rest of her wisdom teeth out at a later time.
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. Your prayers are much needed through this time. We especially thank those of you that have reached out with emails and messages of encouragement and let us know you’re praying for us. This means more to us than you could possibly know. Thank you.
Because of Calvary,
Rickson & Susan, Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, Katrianne, & Kaylinn
