Home Assignment Update…and the Interns are Here!
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Dear Faithful Partners,
I think the best months of ministry can lead to the worst newsletters. We have been going nonstop for the past month and there is plenty to share…but I’ve been sick for 5 days and Matt is too busy to take over writing this newsletter. So we’ll just see how this goes…

Matt, Ethan, and Lauren will be heading to the island of Ambae for a week this Saturday with the interns and the Kopkes. They will be holding a literacy workshop to teach people who are literate in English or Bislama to read in their heart language of Havai. This is an important part of making sure that the Scriptures our translators are producing is actually used and not just a book on a shelf. Please pray for the interns, our team, and our family as we are separated.

Forty-eight hours after they return from that trip, Matt and I will switch places and I will head with the team to the island of Pentecost. We will hold that same literacy workshop but this time for speakers of the Apma language. My co-teacher Cristy Yan and I will also hold two 1-day Sunday School Teacher Trainings in the villages of Panggi and Waterfall. Once those are complete, we will have done trainings in the areas of all of our translators on Ambae, Pentecost, and Santo. There is much more work to do, but I am glad we’ve been able to begin equipping the Sunday Schools in all four language groups during our first term here.

See the pictures below for a taste of our lives right now!

Angie (for Matt and the kids, too)
Angie’s Mom was only in Vanuatu for 6 days, but she was able to celebrate Lauren’s birthday and watch her ride Spirit. The boys were excited to see her, too! We feel so blessed that both of our parents were able to visit us during our first term overseas.
Top: Two interns, Amy and Angela, made sand castles with the kids when our team enjoyed a day at Port Olry (about an hour north of town). I know we live on an island, but we seriously almost never get to see waves and play on an actual sand beach, so this was a big treat!

Middle: Our usually introverted son Aidan has really come out of his shell with the interns here. In this photo he is doing card tricks for the interns and youth from our church.
Matt has a namesake – meet “small Matthew.” Carol, one of our translators, gave birth to a son in May and named him after Matt. We are so thankful for the growing relationships we have with the translators and their families.

Bottom: The interns have been cutting, stapling, and taping at our kitchen table getting everything ready for the literacy workshops.
Matt’s June sermon focused on how Paul’s letters fit into the book of Acts. He looks like a professor in this picture!
Furlough….or Home Assignment…..or What??
Most people don’t know what a missionary family actuallydoes on home assignment. Are they still working? Is it vacation? What are they actually doing?? It’s different for everyone, but here’s our plan:

Oct 2-15   Leave Vanuatu, spend 6 days with friends in Brisbane (the flight only goes once a week) while we wait to fly to Indonesia for PBT’s South Pacific Leadership Meeting.

Oct 16-Nov 8   Arrive in Dallas, set up our house in Texas (we rented it out while we were gone), get the kids back in school, do debriefing and medical check-ups.

Nov 9-19   Matt plans to visit friends and supporters on his way to the International Conference on Missions (ICOM). Angie needs to stay home with the kids since they will have already missed the first 2 months of school.

Nov 20-26 & late Dec   Time with our families in Missouri over the holidays.

After the holidays our lives should start to normalize a little. We’ve been encouraged by our leadership to use the first several months home as a time to readjust and reconnect. Then we can begin to plug back into the International Service Center wherever we’re needed. We also want to visit supporters whenever we can. We’ve missed you all!

Matt will continue to act as Vanuatu Team Leader and Finance Coordinator from the States. It will be a learning curve for all of us. Angie will continue to help with the Sunday School program however she can.

Along with the work we’re doing, we will need time to process everything that’s happened over the past two years. We’ve had health scares, wondered why we were in Vanuatu, and just plain been uncomfortable (physically or socially) almost every day. It wears on you.

It’s also been amazing, but that’s the easy part! 🙂

We will also be asking God for direction on whether to return to Vanuatu when Ethan graduates in two years or if He wants us to stay in Texas working in the main office like we did for the first 7 years. Either way, we’re Team PBT all the way!

We’re so glad we’re on this journey with you! We couldn’t do it alone!

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Two individuals gave “Welcome Home” gifts last month. Thank you!! You can also  help our family transition well back to the States by giving a special “Welcome Home” gift. Our family could easily incur $14,000 in expenses over the next 3 months (5 plane tickets – $7,000…1 vehicle – $5,000…partially refurnishing our house in Texas with a clothes dryer, 4 mattresses, a couch, etc – $2,000). If you know Angie, you know we’ll do it as inexpensively as we can, but we could really use your help.
 
If you would like to give toward these one-time expenses,
please go to our giving page.
 
Thank you for welcoming us home!
Prayer Points

~ The interns are here! They are busy learning Bislama, observing advisor checking, helping prepare literacy materials, and playing Nuclear Uno with our kids. We are doing our best to give them lots of opportunities to learn and serve, but also trying not to wear them out too much! Pray that God would show them His plans for their lives.

~ We had a great time with Angie’s mom. Six days was way too short, but a short visit is better than no visit at all! The girls all did better with the “see you later” than we expected, but it’s still hard. Pray especially for Lauren as she begins to process the good and bad of loving people and places that are oceans apart.

~ Please pray with us that God will raise up additional support for our ministry. We are at 73% of our monthly budget. If God is prompting you to give a one-time or ongoing gift to our ministry, please go to our giving page. Thank You!
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