June and early July found Darryl busy with two major speaking engagements in Singapore. Both were summer youth camps and had the theme of missions for their main focus. Now that is a subject close to our HEARTS !!

The second camp was The Big Picture Getaway youth camp at Singapore Vision Farms in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore. This was the first-ever NTM Singapore-sponsored youth camp and Brad Buser and I shared speaking opportunities, although I focused more on the smaller modules related to church planting and language/culture acquistion. The unique format of having mission field simulations was particularly educative for the campers.

 

I know many from both of these camps are now thinking a bit more seriously about their personal role in world evangelization. Praise the Lord!  Hopefully, we will all work a bit harder so that..."His ways are known on all the earth, his salvation (known) among all the nations (Psalm 67:2)

 

After those two ministry opportunities, Darryl, Kyla and Shawn unashamedly moved into "vacation mode". ...ha ha ha. First, it was arranged so that Kyla could go visit our son Chad in the U.S., but doing so by traveling via England, coordinating well with our eldest daughter's birth to our second grandchild. She was only a day late in arriving, just missing the birth of little Miriam Joy Ochs, but still able to be a great help during the post-birth period.  We are so thankful for finding some great airfares to Europe, and then a connecting flight on to the USA for Kyla to see our son, too.  We must confess: perhaps we spoiled our first grandchild Hudson with those reading books and toys...and we certainly snuggled our noses often into those wrinkly, puffy pink cheeks of that newly arrived granddaughter.  Did you know that in the Indonesian culture that particular "nose-pressed-to-cheek" encounter  is how they show their physical affection, especially to children? It's called "cium", which literally means "to smell"!  And come to think of it (generally speaking), she smelled OK, too!

 

 

Finally, on a serious note: My last visit into Taliabu was more focused on spending some time comforting Petrus' widow and the local church. Despite all the efforts by land and air rescue/search, his body was never recovered.  His wife Yuhana is doing well in the Lord, despite the loss.  We have established a trust fund to help his 5 surviving children complete their educations.  The fund has over $2,200 in it presently, which should provide  enough funds for the five children's schooling costs through junior high school, and help some with Ibu Yuhana's immediate living costs. Isn't that great!?  Hey, I don't solicit funds, but if you are interested in this memorial educational trust fund, contact me for details.

Finally, I leave in a few weeks for a trip to Taliabu where both mission and church representatives will visit soon for an evaluation of the Taliabo church and ministries.  We are using this time to "brainstorm" together with the local church leaders the best strategies to bring the Taliabo church to maturity.

During that time, Kyla will stay in Manado helping Shawn transition to his final year of high school. After the guests leave from the evaluation, I'll stay in the tribe a bit longer, tweaking my translation drafts. We do plan a longer trip in the tribe as a family in November.