Romans 8: 12-17 ( The Message) So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
This is a passage of scripture that I (Kristi) have been going over in Bible study the past few weeks. If you have a chance dig into Romans 8 in The Message, it is beautifully piercing in that translation. Sometimes it feels like life is this waiting game that we have to play on our own, figuring out the rules as we go, but that simply isn’t true. In Christ we know who we are and what we are called to. Our adventure with Him isn’t on hold till we reach Heaven is happening now, let’s start living like it!
Please keep praying for all these projects!
John has started working on His big water storage project that will be able to hold 2 days worth or water for the entire center in case of emergencies (like the drought that you just prayed us through). It’s amazing the amount of time and engineering that this project requires. He is also moving forward with work on our church building out at Kwina. Thank you so so much for your prayers and financial support helping to bring this project underway! We will keep you posted on the progress.
We are also planning a trip to our wasfamili’s village in Tararan. It was such a joy to get to see them again while we were in Lae, and now we get to go back again so soon. Our wonderfully generous church families in Hendersonville, NC have sent us lots of books to help revive the library for the K-8 school in Tararan. The books arrived on this last shipment from the States and we are so excited to get them out there to be used. This will be such a blessing to their community and a physical outpouring of God’s love for them!
And on a more personal note...
- This year seems to already be moving at warp speed. It feels like we just arrived back from working in Lae and we have not taken a second to breathe. Life is very full, and we are thankful to be getting back into a more regular routine.
- We would also love your prayer over our time management. Pray that God will make it abundantly clear what He wants us to spend our time on each day. Pray that we know what to say no to and pray that we are better with taking time to communicate with those of you back in the States. We are straddling two worlds and it’s a juggling act we have yet to master!
- 2015 was a hard year financially for us as well. Our Pacific Orientation Course was double the projected cost that we had anticipated, and shipping expenses came in higher as well. Please pray for God’s provisions for our family, that He will move in people’s hearts to continue to support us here in PNG—that they will see the value in His ministry here through us. And pray that we will continue to have peace in God’s timing of those provisions!
We love and miss you all! Please write us so we can be praying for you better too!
John and Kristi