Six Days Until Furlough

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity. As Martha has worked tirelessly to clean the house, purge unwanted items, and get the house ready for furlough, I (Adam) have worked hard to finish editing the audio recordings of the Gospel of Matthew so that the Enga translation team can distribute them in October. In Enga culture, it encourages people to see tangible results of our translation work, so it is important to keep releasing books as we finish them. So I praise the Lord that He enabled me to finish Matthew. And I'm so encouraged that the Enga translation team will be launching Matthew even while we are away on furlough. They have really taken ownership of the translation work.

As we have planned and prepared for furlough, there have been a lot of unknowns such as Who will take care of our dog? Who will rent our house? Will our house be safe if nobody rents it? What will we do with our car? How will we be able to monitor the work of the translation team from overseas? Where will we spend our time on furlough? Where will we live? God in his timing has answered all of those questions, and we are grateful for His providence. It is so reassuring to know that we have a God who loves us and cares for us, even in the details of life.

As we prepare to go, we are sad to say goodbye to so many good friends whom we have come to know during our first term here in Papua New Guinea. We are especially sad to see some of our dear friends 'go finish', which is a Tok Pisin way of saying 'go for good (not to return)'. It helps us understand a bit of what our own family and friends may have felt when we made the decision to come here in the first place.

Bella enjoying time with her friends before furlough.

On July 7, we fly into Los Angeles, where we will be staying until August 7. Then we will drive cross-country, stopping in Colorado, Minnesota, and Connecticut before settling down in Pittsburgh for the fall. Then after the New Year we will drive back out to California and stay there until the end of our furlough next July. It will be a whirlwind of activity, but such a wonderful blessing to our family and friends again.

Some supporters may be wondering whether or not they should continue their financial support during furlough. The answer is Yes. We are still just as reliant upon gifts for our supporters during furlough as we are during our time in Papua New Guinea. We have truly been overwhelmed by the faithfulness of our supporters over our first term, and we can't express just how thankful we are for your continued support!

We hope to see all of our supporters during our furlough time, so please don't hesitate to contact us to schedule a time to get together. We would love to see you! Until then, please pray for traveling mercies as we travel from Ukarumpa to Port Moresby to Brisbane to Fiji to Los Angeles over the course of two days. See you soon!