Prayer Letter Archive

Late January/February 2005

January 25, 2005

HI there! I wanted to write and thank you for praying. After 3 days of touch and go, the car dealer and I came to an agreement and Joan and I are now the proud owners of a 4 Wheel Drive 3 ton truck. I put it to work right away as I drove around the little town (second largest in PNG) for 10 days buying food, chicken/dog feed, truck parts, toilet, PVC pipe and more! So handy to have the long bed! The truck is being brought over by barge and should be here next week. Pray it doesn't get damaged enroute and that the barge doesn't sink on its way here.

You know this trip was a big deal for us as the highlight was going shopping to one of the 3 miniature supermarkets. Fresh fruits and vegetables were great! We even enjoyed watching the news and seeing reports of the blizzard that was hitting Chicago and the Northeast. Brought back bad memories as I'm not fond of freezing fingers and toes. Even with all that excitement, it was nice to get back home and sleep in our own beds again.

We were all heart broken when we returned and learned Mariko's Kokomo had died. Long story. A real shame too as it was starting to fly and come back home again. As you can imagine, Mariko was devastated.

Pray too as I work on the boat this week and hopefully get it going. I got new springs for it (Ouch!) and some other things so hopefully it should do the trick but I think it best to rely on the Lord through your prayers rather than my mechanical abilities.

Here are some things you can be praying about:

1. On a small island north of New Ireland a long ways east of us there is a tribal group called Lavongai. We have had missionaries in there for the past 11 years. Over the years, 7 families have gone home for one reason or another. (we only place 2 or 3 families in a location but as soon as a family would come, another would leave) HOWEVER, finally a team, Wade, Deanne and Sarah have stayed long enough to learn the language and start teaching the people the Bible. They have been teaching for the past couple months now almost daily and this is the last week of teaching where they will be teaching the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. This is also when the people will learn that Jesus is the promised One, sent to redeem them back from their lost condition and be reunited in fellowship with God. Pray for wisdom in presenting these last very important lessons. Pray for the salvation of the ones hearing the Word.
2. Praise, Awil from the village next to the town we live in here has been teaching Phase 1 of the chronological Bible teaching to Philip & his wife Lalia and Lalia's mother Yarme and they are excited to hear. They meet each night of the week. Pray for good understanding of God's Word.
3. One of our Pilots while in Michigan last week was hit broadside and killed instantly. He was 48 and left behind a wife, Pam, and 2 boys. Pray for the McCurdy family as they mourn the passing of Bruce.

Trust your having a good week!

Mark

February 2, 2005

We had an exciting day. After contemplating what to do with my boat engine, I decided to pull the head off and see if I could see any problems. I spent the morning getting the head off and saw some things that needed attention so prepared it for shipping along with a small box with parts in it. Later that night as we waited at the wharf to put the head on the barge to be sent to a workshop, that small box with parts was broken into and the parts stolen. An estimated $300 heist but more in frustration. You can't imagine how disappointing this was. It was so senseless as the thief would have nothing to do with those parts. The Lord knows and I find rest in that thought alone.

Shortly afterwards, the barge arrived with our truck! That was a bit tense at times as the wheels rolled out of the nets at one point and had to be repositioned. At one point it looked like the rear end would bang the barge then at other times it appeared the mirrors would be torn off. But, in the end, it made it to the ground only to have me back into a rock and smash a small utility box.

The next day, Joan and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary on that romantic day in February...ground hog's day. The kids made us a steak dinner and we enjoyed our private dinner complete with candles and waitress. Joan looked better than she did 25 years ago!

Please pray that head can get fixed and returned soon so we can get the boat up and running as we have work to do with the boat.

Mark

February 24, 2005

On Tuesday we celebrated our little girl, "Princess" Mieko's 9th Birthday. We had a small party, just our family. Mariko had her going all over the house finding clues and finally once she got all the clues together, they made a puzzle and told her where the present was. It happened to be under the table so we ran all over the house just to return to where we started! Pretty clever we thought. For her fun activity, Mieko wanted to go diving so we did a dive in front of the house and saw a bunch of fish. Nothing big and no sharks thankfully! The kids are growing so fast...too fast!

The other day I had to transport a bunch of kids that are here for a missionary training course. We decided to use the new 3 ton but also had a pickup come along just in case we got stuck. As it turned out, the pickup got stuck twice and the big flatbed had to pull IT out of the mud! I was sure impressed with that big truck and it's ability to go where no man has dared to go before.

We will be coming to the States mid May of this year to attend Micah's graduation. We're checking into airfares now (OUCH!) and putting together an itinerary. We will be in the Illinois area from May 22nd through July 18th. If anyone is looking for a house sitter during that time, we'd love to have a place to stay! Same thing for in Hawaii as we'll be there from May 18th. through January 8th. and will be needing a place to stay there as well. Also, if you would like to have us come speak at your Church, let us know. So, a couple things you can be praying with us about. We look forward to seeing you!

Love,

Mark