Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Final preparations...

11 weeks and counting!
Just 11 weeks left of our 3rd term here in PNG! It's been our
longest term so far, and we are really starting to feel it. The kids
are on school break...the last one before we leave, and we are in the
midst of packing to move back into Mibu (upon our return), sorting,
cleaning, selling, and throwing away. A big job, and one we're trying
to get a handle on before the final term of school begins in April.
Pray for us as we work to get in everything that needs to be done, and
finish strong.

A Special Visitor
We have a fun treat to share. When we come home, a friend, a PNG
national policeman, will be coming home with us! It's been a bit of a
dream of ours to be able to introduce someone from PNG to our home in
America. Joel Kombi has worked and saved, and bought his own ticket,
and will be spending the summer with us (including our road trip down
south). Here is a unique opportunity to get to know a Christian from
PNG, and hear a bit on how our ministries here impact PNG lives. We are
very much looking forward to introducing you to him, and to expanding
his horizons!

Ducks in a Row
In so many ways, we feel so much better prepared for this furlough
than we have for our past ones. The Lord has been faithful through
churches and people like you, and we've learned a few lessons along the
way too. We managed to save for our plane tickets home, the Lord has
already provided housing for us for the entire time we're home, and we
even thought we were doing good in saving towards a van for us to use.
5 1/2 years ago, $2,000 bought us a good, reliable, 10 year old van.
THIS is how we have been planning and budgeting for this furlough.
Imagine our shock when we learn that in order to purchase a good,
reliable, 10 year old van, we need 3-4 times the funds! It may not be a
shock to you who have lived in the states these last 4 years, but for
someone who's been gone and out of touch with the used car market, we
find ourselves woefully unprepared for this expense! We are looking
into different avenues, but it appears we are going to need at least
$4,000-$5,000 to get us a van that will handle the miles we need to put
on it (funds of which we only have about half).
We have seen the Lord do amazing things for us these last couple
years. We KNOW that none of this takes him by surprise, even if it does
us. We also know that the Lord works through his people praying. It
seems that this is the last thing (that we know of) that needs to fall
into place before we can literally hit the ground running. (He's even
graciously supplied a "second car" for us to use!) Would you please
pray for us in this need?

Prayer
As we anticipate an incredible year at home, we do have some
additional prayer requests that we'd like to share with you:
1. Our kids' schooling. We've put in an application to a charter
school that is just 2 miles from where we'll be living and we feel like
would be an excellent fit to meet their needs. We find out mid-April if
they made it in or not.
2. Support raising. Please be in prayer with us even now that God
would be preparing the hearts of churches and individuals to join our
financial support team. We wish we could do without this aspect of our
ministry, but the fact remains that it costs money to do what we do.
The cost of living here in PNG has raised substantially in the last 5
years, which is reflected in our current support level of about 55%, and
we are hurting (our website www.walker-talkie.com is out of date and
still states that we are at 90%, how we wish this were so!). Combined
with the sour economy at home, we need the Lord to again intervene on
our behalf.
3. In April, Chris will be hiking into Mibu again for a couple
weeks. During this time, he will: make more detailed notes on what
needs to be done on the house in there before we can move into it upon
our return; do a follow-up post-literacy evaluation from the one he did
while we were there over Christmas, and do what he can to encourage
Geoff & Shannon and the Mibu church.

Because of HIM,
Chris, Angie, Jael, Baruch and Titus Walker