A Quick Update From Down Under

This last week has been a blur of excitement and busyness. Things have been going fairly well, with some twists and turns. We have 2 guests staying with us for the next 2 weeks. Greg and Jean Giles! We have enjoyed having them here and they have been a huge blessing. (I haven't had to do dishes this entire time!) We have done a few "touristy" things with them up in Darwin, and then came down to Barunga 5 days ago.
We were planning on having G and J stay in the downstairs flat which we had prepared for them. Both of them were saying, "I hope we don't see too many snakes while we're here! Yuck!" I assured them that we didn't see that many, and it wasn't going to be a problem to worry about. Well, the first thing they saw after looking into their flat and checking out the bathroom was this:
So, needless to say, they are staying upstairs. :) Luckily it's just a children's python, and we haven't seen it since. :)
Please pray for continued healing for Alice. She has been a bit sick and unable to eat without throwing up for a couple of days now. We took her to the clinic this morning and found she had lost 2 pounds (1 kg), but the nurse said it just had to run it's course and everything else looked normal. Alice did NOT throw up today, and she did eat something(salad... definitely her Mother's daughter...) She is currently asleep and put herself to bed at about 6:30 this evening without dinner. So hopefully she is healing up. If you could pray for complete healing, this Daddy would appreciate it a lot. :) We're trying not to worry, but that's easy to do.
Our Tuesday Kriol Baibul Study is a big blessing to us, and to the ladies as well. Today there were 11 people there (including Greg and Jean, Cheri and myself), and one man. :) We talked about the trinity. Boy, did I feel inadequate!
Thank you so much for your prayers for us and for taking an interest in our family and ministry, you are all a blessing to us.

He IS risen!

Yesterday "main braja"(my indigenous brother) passed away. Though I have been sitting with him and his family for over a month now, reading the Kriol Baibul with them, and praying for him, yesterday was another opportunity entirely.

As I was sitting with the family, my mind was racing, "WHERE can I find a verse that will comfort this family? LORD! PLEASE HELP ME!" As I sat there in the chair next to my brother's shell, with the family waiting for some encouraging word, my mind was racing. I've never been in this sort of situation before!

By God's grace, I remembered a chapter I had read in 1 Corinthians. Chapter 15 was the chapter I read with the family, in Kriol. 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of the fact of Jesus' resurrection and as a result of HIS resurrection, those who are His will also be resurrected. As we were reading through the chapter, (my brother's widow, her mother, their cousin and her husband) we read a section at a time.

Her cousin said, "Please explain it to us. What does it mean?" So, for each part of the Scripture, I stopped, and we talked about what it meant. Praise God that Jesus Christ IS risen! We talked about the different kinds of seeds bearing different fruit. And how the body we have now must die in order to have the new one(unless we're alive when Christ comes back and we're changed in the blink of an eye). We talked about the 2 Adams(Adam, and Jesus), and how Jesus gives us life. Then we talked about how Christ defeated death. We talked about the final day, how all the dead in Christ will rise up to be with him in heaven. We continued to read about the new bodies we will receive on that day. That our current bodies aren't meant to last forever, but there is the new body which God will give us on that day. We talked about the new bodies for a bit, perfect heavenly bodies. As I read the verses, the people would "hum" their agreement. It was like as they listened, it was encouraging their hearts. I pray it truly did.

We read through the entire chapter, and talked about it. Everyone there was listening intently. Please pray with me that God's Word would take root in their hearts, and that they would read that Scripture again and again (as they said they would!). Please pray that I may continue to be a blessing to their family, and for wisdom in how best to comfort them in the days following my brother's death. Thank you!

* You may have noticed I didn't use my indigenous brother's name at all. That is because in indigenous society, when someone passes away, out of respect for their family the name isn't used. The only thing used is the relationship term for that person.