Thanksgiving Greetings,
We are so thankful for each of you who lovingly and
sacrificially give of your time and finances to assist us in the spread of the
Gospel of Christ here in Papua New Guinea. "Not because I desire a gift:
but I desire fruit that may abound to your account"
(Philippians 4:17). Each week we see new
people coming to know Christ as their personal Savior. Rejoice with
us.
Last letter, we reported that Bundi would be voting
on their first national pastor on November 10th. Well that did not
happen. There is a new request for money to be paid for the church
property. This property was given for free 10 years ago. At that
time, a paper was signed by the prior landowners and that paper was
notarized in the government court house. Please pray that this issue will be resolved quickly. The
church members do not want to vote in a new pastor until the land issue is
resolved.
Bundi has voted to accept 7 new members upon
their baptism this Sunday. We dug a new baptismal on Wednesday for this
event. Please pray that the
weather will cooperate for us to attend. The rainy season has come as
we approach Christmas. If we are not able to fly that day, Kasi Karapa one
of Bundi's deacons, will perform the baptisms. This will bring our
membership to 37 active members.
We strongly desire to get some land, on the
airport, here in Goroka to build a hangar. We are getting close to the
approval for a nice plot of land. Please pray
for Tony Simitas to give us the final approval. The next step will be to
raise the funds for the building. The ABWE finance office has
a sub account already established for this purpose - Papua New Guinea
Airplane Hangar. Our mission president has begun promotion of this
project in his recent prayer letter. Please pray
as this is going to be something of major
proportion.
Stephanie and Aaron are in the beginning
stages of Pre-field ministry. They are scheduling meetings with churches
to raise financial and prayer support to come to Papua New Guinea and work in
missions. They are also preparing for their first baby that is
expected to arrive in mid April. Thank you for your prayers for all three of them. J
Tyler is doing good. We look forward to
seeing you all on our furlough sometime in 2005-2006. We are not
certain on our dates yet. Please pray as we
will need to get a place to live and a vehicle to drive during our
furlough. We would like to live in the Kansas City, Missouri
area. If you know of housing or a vehicle that will be
available, please let us know.
Steve's parents are doing fine. Please pray that Sandy's parents will maintain good health
too.
News from Goroka:
A pair of shoes caused a fight to erupt between
tribes from two provinces in the highlands earlier this week. It has been
reported that 17 people have been axed and three houses have been damaged in the
fight between people from the Eastern Highlands province and Western
Highlands. It has been reported that people from other highlands
provinces have sided with the Eastern Highlanders and that they had demanded the
Western highlanders pay compensation over what they have claimed to be
"continuous attacks on innocent highlanders living in Mt Hagen". The clash
began over a new pair of shoes. It has been alleged that a Western
Highlander decided to steal the shoes that the Eastern Highlander was
wearing.
Truly the land of the unexpected.
Listening for the trump from Goroka,
Steve and Sandy Aholt
Isaiah 42:12
Declare his praise in the islands
