Baptismal

I also forgot to mention that four were baptized today.  One was a child saved at VBS, two were our youth who were saved at camp, and one was our nephew's wife, Myoleen.  We are grateful for what God is doing in the lives of our people here.

VBS Update

And I'm behind again!  I know, what happened to the posting every week!!!  Have been wanting to update everyone on our summer ministries, particularly VBS, but every time I sit down to work on it, distractions come from every direction!  

VBS went great!  It was an amazing week!  We saw over 20 kids come to know Christ throughout the week - I'm not sure of the exact number but I do know it was over 20.  Our youth workers are hard at work with the follow-ups and discipleship.  One of those children was baptized today!  We were able to meet our goal this year of 100 kids in attendance at VBS!!!  On the last day, we had 102 on the attendance charts, though several more came in late that were not counted on the charts so actually even more!  And at our closing program, the parents were invited and we had probably around 30-40 parents come and hear the gospel.  It was and exciting time for our ministry!  Attendance has been high in our church services ever since.  We have been averaging over 100 every Sunday morning the past few weeks and today was actually over 130!  I believe that is our record attendance for a regular Sunday morning!  We were blessed to have Rickson's brother Bruce preach this morning.  He is in the Army and being deployed so he has brought his family back here to stay during his deployment.  We are so glad to have them back!  The cousins are all having a great time getting reacquainted.  Bruce preached a great message this morning and the altar was packed during the invitation.  

I'm going to be working on adding VBS photos and video so check back over the next couple of days and see what's up!  

Also in updates, Kestra just celebrated her 8th birthday.  And Kaleo will be turning 12 in another week.  We hope to start school beginning of September.  

Hope everyone is having a blessed weekend!

Update!

I know!  I'm beyond past due for an update!  

Well, for the last two weeks of June we were able to take a much needed and long planned for family vacation to Guam!  We had a wonderful time!  Also, while we were there, we were able to get family photos done (which means we will hopefully soon have an updated prayer card!).  I'm gradually getting the pictures done up here on this blog.  

July is our busy month.  Youth camp was the week before last and it was a huge success.  Thank you to those who fervently prayed for this ministry.  Over twenty people were saved at the camp this year and we are seeing some wonderful changes in our young people.  Please pray that we will see continued growth in these young people and we will be able to disciple them.  This week is our VBS!  Please pray for a great week with this.  We are hoping to see at least 100 children this year in our VBS!  And we are adding some extra things to reach the parents as well.  I hope to be able to give you some great news about the week!

Our family is doing well and enjoying the summer months off of school.  Of course, the new school year is just around the corner and we're already planning for that, but having the time off from the usual routine has definitely been nice!  I will continue to add photos as I can.  Computer time is limited these days as we are having island wide power outages daily due to most of the generators on island being down.  We have had this for a month  now and are sure hoping they can get things fixed soon!!!!  The power is off daily first thing in the morning until afternoon - our most productive hours and the time we need power most!  But we've learned to adapt, though will certainly be glad when they can have things up and running again! 

Kyler's Kindergarten Graduation

Our little man graduation from Kindergarten on Saturday, June 4th.  We invited friends and family up to the house for a little ceremony and reception.  It all went really well other than having to start half an hour late due to a bad storm and power outage.  I've been trying to upload video too but just not getting it to work.

May, 2011 Prayer Letter

Kasalehlia! I know most of you are enjoying some warmer weather. As for Pohnpei, it’s just as hot as ever!

We have had about the best spring we’ve ever had here on Pohnpei, ministry-wise. Every year we have been faced with a lower attendance around Easter as so many are pulled back into their former denominations by very persistent priests. This year, we were excited to see our regular attendance and even higher! Easter Sunday we had over 100 in attendance for our main service and around 50 at our early morning Sunrise Service. It was a blessed Easter for us as in addition to the Sunrise Service and main service, we also were able to see 4 baptized!

Thank you for your prayers for our revival week! We had a great week with Evangelist Randy Chovan and saw 22 saved that week and several more in the weeks to follow! Brother Chovan also preached at the Christian school on the island and 17 came forward for salvation after the chapel services! The following week, Bro. Chovan also preached in several of the other Baptist churches around the island and there were many decisions made there as well. We are praising God for His blessings on this week of revival and ask for prayer for continued growth in these new converts. In recent weeks we’ve seen quite a few more salvation decisions and had another baptismal service just this past Sunday! God is really working on Pohnpei and we thank you for praying with us for this revival we’ve seen!

The Baptist Bible Institute of Pohnpei has gone well its first semester. We are still learning (and have a long way to go!) but we’re off to a great start. Thirty-nine students finished out the first semester and just this past Monday were given their final exams. We are off for the summer but will begin again on August 8th.

Summer is just around the corner and with it many summer ministries. Our family will be taking a two week trip to Guam at the end of June. We’ve been planning a trip with the kids for some time and found we had enough frequent flyer miles to get tickets for the whole family with just having to purchase one ticket at the child’s fare! Pray that we have a good time of rest and relaxation and uninterrupted family time!

In July we have our two major summer events, Youth Camp and Vacation Bible School! We are still looking into our options for this summer’s camp location but anticipating a great week with the young people on the island. And we are hoping to make this year’s VBS the best we’ve ever done with an extra emphasis on reaching the parents. We have some ideas for doing so and ask for you to pray with us that we will see many come to know Christ this summer. If you are interested in donating funds to either the camp or VBS, you may send your monetary gift to our mission board (address in the right hand column) designated to either Pohnpei Youth Camp or Pohnpei VBS.

As you may remember from our last letter, we are fervently praying that 2011 will see the project for our new church building move forward! We continue with these prayers and ask that you do as well. It is something that God is laying on our hearts all the time now and we know it’s time to move forward with the plans and preparations. We will let you know more in upcoming letters how YOU can help with this project!

On the family side of life here, we are working hard to finish out the school year! Kyler will be graduating from Kindergarten on June 6th. He’s excited about the graduation but more excited about the cake we told him we’ll have afterwards! Kaleo will be finishing 6th grade and Kestra 1st.

We are so thankful to finally have hi-speed internet here on our side of the island! We’ve been waiting for this for a long time and it was just hooked up out here about a week ago. Now, Susan is trying to update our blog better and hopefully keep it more up to date with photos and video. So check back there from time to time to see what she has added. The address is www.kihlengfamily.blogspot.com.

We hope that you are all having a blessed Spring! We thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. Please continue to pray for us and our ministry here on Pohnpei.

Because of Calvary,

Rickson, Susan,

Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, Katrianne, & Kaylinn

Easter Sunday Baptismal Service

This is our niece, Cherish

Pictures of our Kids

Kaleo - Age 11

Kestra - Age 7

Kyler - Age 6

Katrianne - Age 4

Kaylinn - Age 14 months