In the waiting

some of our Sobega workers taking down a tree limb on base

In our last update, we mentioned that Nathan has been working on base with the maintenance guys now that we are done with formal national culture and language study. Our time has been split with us serving part-time in this support role and part-time trying to find co-workers and a location.

Well that is still the case! But our job description is now a little different… Our Central Area base where we have been living (called Sobega) has had some holes come up in support needs. We were approached by leadership to ask if we would prayerfully consider filling the role of Sobega Center Manager for a year. In this role, we will continue to serve part-time in support and part-time continuing to find co-workers.

After praying about this and seeking counsel from mentors and our sending church, we decided this would be a really good opportunity for our family as well as a chance to better support the church planting efforts here in Papua New Guinea. The goal is still church planting! If we end up finding co-workers before our one year is up, we will work to find someone else to fill the Sobega Center Manager role so we can allocate. But as of now we are tentatively planning on serving here on base through next summer!

Our role as center manager has three main parts:

• Overseeing operations of the center

• Hosting tribal church planters that come out of their works for rest and meetings

• Building strong relationships with the community around our center

Our family is really excited to be joining the team here in Sobega working to support church planting while we ourselves prepare a church planting team. We are also excited for the chance to disciple and live life here with the national community.

Please continue to pray for us as we serve in this way and continue to look for co-workers!