Tom and Melanie Tanner Your Missionary in Papua New Guinea About to Hear the Gospel!
IMMEDIATE PRAYER REQUEST – Pray for the Isarakans, about to hear the culmination of the Creation to Christ lessons. This Monday, November 22, 2010, (Sunday night our time), they will hear and see the story of the resurrection. There are about 500 people in this area, located in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. Pray they will understand the gospel and place their trust in Christ.
Currently in USA
Thank you all for your continual prayers for our family. We are settled in Palm Bay, FL. Dustin has been attending Brevard Community College and is doing well there. He got his driver’s license and has just started working at Target Store. He is gearing up for the Black Friday rush! Brett and Wesley have been attending Covenant Christian School (which is a part of the church we attend.) Brett has been playing on soccer teams since our arrival and also ran on the cross-country team at his school. He is now a certified soccer referee and enjoys making money on the weekends reffing games. Wes has enjoyed playing on a church soccer outreach league.
Melanie and I are seeking God’s wisdom to discern when we should return to PNG. Although we are only scheduled to stay in the USA for six months, we want to make sure we don’t leave Dustin until we are comfortable that he is ready to be on his own, and we hate to move the other two boys in the middle of the school year. We would sure appreciate your prayers for us as we seek what God has for us. Also, pray that I will find steady work so we can continue to meet the costs of living here in Florida.
We recently took part in a mission’s conference in Lake City, FL. It was good to meet new believers and challenge them to take part in what God is doing in Papua New Guinea.
We would like to catch up with everyone while we are here in the USA, but at this point we are not sure which areas we will be travelling to. We are actively working on raising our support level from its current 65% mark, so if you know of any leads on places we can share, please let us know. We do appreciate your faithful prayers for us. Thank you again as well to those who also are being a financial blessing. We are glad to partner with you in this mission of reaching tribal groups with the Gospel.
TANNER TRIBUNE CONTINUED
Hello again,
It has been sometime but yes we are still here. Our ministries continue and we are as busy as ever. Our oldest, Dustin is now a senior in school. Can you believe it a senior! School has started again so Melanie is once again heading up the HomeSchool department and I (Tom) am teaching 8th grade bible again. I am also handling more of the school maintenance now as well.
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Tanner Tribune Update
Our school break is almost over and the fourth term is coming in 3 days. We had a restful break which we were able to enjoy time off as a region and have a conference together. Now we are going to be picking up the pace again with school starting. This last term tends to be the busiest because of all the people looking to leave and new ones looking to replace them.
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Tickets in Hand!
We were able to purchase our plane tickets to PNG! We will be leaving on July 15th. We feel privileged to be heading back to take part in expanding the reach of the gospel to Papua New Guinea.
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Palm Bay Fires
You may have heard about the fires here in Palm Bay, FL. There was smoke in every direction from our house with at least 9 fires raging throughout our end of the city as 12,000 acres were burned. There was no way the fire departments could respond to all of the fires that kept popping up; and with 30 mph swirling winds, no way any of us could predict which direction the fires might head next. Our neighbors were hosing down their houses and some of them evacuated as the fires came within 3/4 of a mile from our house. We were without power and water for two days and school was cancelled as well.
Over 8,000 homes were without power, 100 homes damaged and 40 homes have been destroyed. We do not have any fire hydrants in our part of town, and that has obviously been a huge problem. We are thankful our house and my parent’s house have been protected. Thank you for praying for us and caring for us.
Animal Kingdom!
This past weekend we went to Animal Kingdom with some friends from our church. Their son, Ian, has neuroblastoma, so we went in association with a group from our city called "Candlelighters of Brevard". The group offers assistance to families with children going through cancer. Please pray for Ian and his family through this journey. (http://www.caringbridge.org/ga/ian/ ). There are more pictures on our photo page.
Tickets to PNG
Last month we told you we still needed $5,000 to buy our return tickets to PNG. We’ve received $3,500 towards our airfare and now we only need another $1,500!
Please pray for us as we work out the logistics of travel dates and finalize our preparations to return. Finalize is actually a little bit too strong of a word to use, as we still have A LOT to do.
Missions Conference in Michigan
Last month we had a great time travelling to Michigan for a missions conference. What a blessed time it was for us as we visited with the folks in Perry, Michigan. It was a great conference and we were happy to be a part of a church that is very supportive of missions. They have been supporting missionaries for 75 years now and what a wonderful legacy to have. Thank you for your prayers as we travelled and spoke at the conference.
Throughout our trip we got to see lots of snow. It snowed as we travelled through the beautiful mountains of Tennessee and of course there was lots of snow in Michigan! Brett and Wesley got to play in it for the first time. Boy, was it cold compared to what we are use to! We got to sled and Brett tried his feet at snowboarding. It was great to enjoy a different part of God’s weather. Dustin missed the snow because of school comittements but when he saw the pictures he wished he could’ve come with us.
Thanks for your continual prayers. The Tanner family
Almost time to go back to PNG!!
It’s hard to believe that things are winding down for us. Our time in the US is quickly coming to a close. Can you believe that we have almost been back a year? Where did the time go? Pray with us as we seek to find good ticket prices and when to actually leave for our return. We thank you all for your prayers and we ask that you continue to pray as we seek to raise our support to as high as we can percent wise. Thanks to all of you who contribute financially to our ministry overseas and thank all of you for your continual prayers. God Bless, the Tanners