We just got our cell phone # for the US 419-565-1519. Our OH home phone we share with my (Teresa’s) folks can also be used – 419-747-5380. We will be basing out of OH and that address is: 1701 Spring Village Ln, Mansfield, OH 44906

We leave by bus for Malaysia on Thursday morning March 31st, a 9 hr ride. We have some doctor appointments for check ups. Then on Monday April 4 we fly to Singapore and overnight. On the 5th we arrive in Cleveland at 7:34 PM. We would appreciate your prayers for our travel.

Our plan is to be in OH for April and May to get our feet on the ground and rest before leaving in June to travel all summer.

We can certainly say along with Paul in Philippians 1:3-6 “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Thankfully these last few weeks have been a respite from the busy months before. We’ve only had one overnight guest. David has been busy with supply buying for both teams up here. In fact he has a supply run today because the German family forgot this is an American holiday! But we said we would gladly do it since we didn’t have anyone for dinner today.

This next week we have Steve Manda coming for a few days. Steve is in the country briefly to renew his paperwork before going back to the US to finish their home assignment. Steve and Lois will be filling in for us next year when we go to the US but they won’t be coming back until a month after we leave. So we will use the time he’s here to orient him to what we do here and where we get all the supplies for folks. Steve and Lois are not new to the area as they served in the Taman tribe for many years but it’s been a long time since they lived here and things have really changed.

Following that David is hoping to take a young Punan couple out by bus to Malaysia for medical treatment they were not able to get here. The young mother has what the doctor here thinks is a tumor on her leg and the doctor we contacted in Malaysia says those normally are not benign so she could be looking at some pretty serious surgery. Please be praying that all arrangements will fall together. They have to get passports. Also our passports are in the offices for our visa renewals. They say they will give David his for a week to go out of the country. This is all a pretty frightening thing for this young couple who have rarely been out of their village let alone out of the country!

Rachel will probably come down to stay with me while David is gone for a week or more. She will be needing to go on out to town later anyway to sign for her visa renewal when she’s told it’s ready. DJ is still doing OK as he adds things back into his diet. He’s not had any re-occurrence of the pain he had the week following surgery.

As we were sitting there eating he remembered that he had to pay the electric bill, the email phone bill, check on DJ’s generator being repaired, visit a Punan couple in town and other odds and ends so he took off on the cycle headed back into town again.

But that’s the end of the story. It began more than a month ago as we started to get ready for our company which started arriving on Sept. 1. Rachel had two weeks of translation checking which was completed 2 days sooner than expected as it went so well. She, Bob Clark and the team checked over 1400 verses for the final approval of Mark and final part of Genesis and parts of Exodus. We’ve added pictures of her check under the Photos titled Rachel’s Translation Check.

Right on the heels of her checker leaving, we had some of our leadership team  arrive as well as DJ’s family for a Punan Team meeting for 3 days. I was cooking for 11. Grandpa and I got to watch the kids when mom and dad were in meetings. Rachel and Jenn helped as they could with wash, sweeping, and dishes. I couldn’t have done it without them!

It’s Becky’s birthday today and we miss being with her but did talk to her on the phone. She’s our oldest and it brings back a lot of memories of being a new mom and dad so many years ago.

Thanks for praying for us. And thanks to each of you that give so we are free to minister here. You are a vital part of the team.

Pray for David and I as we host the group including meals. It will be a challenging blend of Western and Eastern cuisine!

We continue to have input with the Church leaders of 4 tribes NTM has worked in in West Kalimantan island, however we are no longer living in the Punan village in the duplex we built to assist Rachel.  Her brother’s family has joined her to take on that ministry. 

We felt the need to have a center to assist them and others moving into our area to be able to get supplies out to them and also as a home away from home as they move in and out of the area.  We started building in Oct. and have just about finished it up.  The picture was taken mid Jan.  Since then we have moved in and are working on finishing up the minor details to make it a comfortable stop over for our families.

Our more central location makes it easier to work with church leaders in the whole area.

We spent 5 days in Jakarta for some rest and a bit of shopping.  Jennifer made us a splendid full turkey dinner with all the trimmings!  Being with the twins was a special delight.  They are talking so much more now and most of the time you can even understand them    Check out the photo albums for more pictures.

Now we are back on Kalimantan island and will soon be spending some time with our fellow missionaries for a few days of fellowship.  Teresa will be preparing the breakfasts for about 30 people for 6 mornings.

We hope to go back interior about Dec. 6th.