Saturday, September 9, 2017

In the USA

After being away from the USA for almost six years, it's great to spend time with family here once again; we've loved meeting new family members too:

We've continued to share at churches and Bible study groups about the work of Bible translation in Papua New Guinea.  We always enjoy telling the recent story of Angam, a speaker of the Tami language in Papua New Guinea: 

After reading Bible verses that his wife brought home from a women's Bible study, Angam joined his wife at the group the following week to hear more.  His wife watched his face physically change as he listened to the Word of God and understood for the first time the forgiveness that Christ offers.  Angam is now chairman of the Tami Bible translation committee and is sharing his story with members of his language group.  Because of the changes in Angam's life, many other Tami people are now excited about translating the Bible into the Tami language.  You can read more of his story here.

We are so grateful for your prayers and your financial giving towards our work.  Several people have joined our financial team since we last wrote and a few churches are considering how they might partner with us financially.  However, one of our main sending churches will be ending their partnership with us, following budget cuts.   We still need to raise an extra $1600 per month in order to serve in Papua New Guinea for the next three years.  Please keep praying!  The sooner our work is funded, the sooner we will be able to finalise our return date, planned for mid-January (before Clare's US visa expires!)

This month's prayer points:
*We praise God for how he showers us with blessings: from friendly welcomes, meals and financial gifts to vehicular loans and housing in a great location.
*We pray for wisdom and opportunities as we plan our schedule for the next four months: We have so many friends in so many places but so little time!  We are very aware that our energy is limited, especially after being busy for a long time.
*We pray for patience and insight as parents as we journey with our children through a lengthy time of transition.
*We pray for Andrew to be able to renew his US driver's license; he is facing difficulties as it expired while we were overseas.

Many thanks,

Andrew, Clare, Levi, Heidi and Eowyn Koens