Some Things to be Thankful For!

Nicole & Baby Noelle

Seth with Jericho & Eden

Family!

Certain people have different traditions during the holidays; one typical tradition people have is sharing with friends and family what they are thankful for, and if you are a Christian, you thank God for every good and perfect gift He has given you.

One of the hardest things for missionaries is not the extreme climates, the language and culture barriers, the food and comfort differences, or even the insecurity of safety and everything and everyone being foreign to you…it’s being away from the ones you love the most and the ones who know you best; family and friends. One of the seasons that is the hardest of them all is the holiday season, Thanksgiving-New Year, Christmas is in-between, and for Seth his birthday. This was/is our first season being away from family during the holiday season, or was it?

God graciously allowed in His Sovereignty for certain things to take place so that we could see some family over the holiday season! Wow! He is too good to us! Many of you know both of Seth’s siblings and their families serve in West Papua Indonesia, the same island as PNG. With schedules in and out of the bush, going back and forth with babies, we were able to meet up with Seth’s brother and family in Indonesia!

Very few people have gone back and forth across the border, so not many could give a clear-cut “this is how you do it”, but surprisingly if you are patient it is a fairly simple process. Before we arrived in PNG we were under the impression that it would be nearly impossible to cross the border to see Seth’s siblings, but how happy we were when we found out that is not the case! God orchestrated a week that Seth had nothing pressing to do, so he did a bunch of work before and after to clear his schedule, and Seth’s brother needed help with supply buying for himself before he went back into the Dem tribe. So Seth helped his brother supply buy and we got to meet our precious new niece Noelle, just about 3 months old. We had a great time catching up and just enjoying one another, we were able to help pack up everything, organize a little, and then help get them into the plane and off the Dem-land! We even had our own family Thanksgiving meal and a Christmas celebration too. It was a whirlwind of a couple of days, but it was so worth it! God was too gracious to allow us to see family, when we said good-bye to them over 16-months ago, we never knew exactly when we would see them again, nor do we know the next time God will allow us to see them. But we are thankful God gave us this special time with them!

We are very blessed; both of Seth’s siblings and Nicole’s brother serve God in full-time missions. What more could we ask of God…except maybe that we were all in the same country? 🙂 But we are over joyed to know our siblings are saved and are serving Jesus. This is truly something God has blessed our family with, and yes it is hard because we rarely see them. Seth went over 10 years without having both siblings together for Christmas; this is part of the cost of foreign missions. But it is such a joy to know we are serving our Risen Lord and He sustains us and keeps us encouraged when we have heavy hearts and miss our family and friends.

Thank you all for serving our Lord! God uses your personal messages/emails/calls, prayers, and support to keep us encouraged during this season. Thank you for your faithfulness, we could not go through this without your encouragement.