Prayer Letter - New Guinea News

July 28, 2005

Saying Good Bye

Lori visiting with Patpatar women

In some ways it is hard to believe that we have already been in Papua New Guinea for four years. In other ways we are surprised at the way time has flown by. Next week we will be leaving PNG for one year of "home assignment" in the United States.

The Patpatar people continue to ask us on a daily basis how long we will be gone and when are we coming back. We assure them that we will come back and finish the work we have started. Our partners, the Kunzer family, are now back into the groove of things and will be continuing to learn the Patpatar language and culture and minister in other ways to the tribal people while we are away.

We are very excited to get a chance to be in America again (for Sierra it will be the first time). We look forward to seeing family, friends, and supporters. We want to share what the Lord is doing with the Patpatar with churches and individuals. We are even looking forward to eating out, shopping, and being in modern civilization. However, because of this, we have to say some hard good-byes. We are leaving our partners, who just arrived not too long ago. We are also leaving other co-workers throughout PNG. And we are leaving the Patpatar people. We have made some good relationships and we are praying that God will preserve their lives while we are gone. We have faced a few faces with tears as we are in our last days here. Just today, we were told that an old woman in the village was crying because we would be leaving soon.

Pray for us, our partners, and the Patpatar as we say good-bye for this year. Pray for our packing and traveling in the days to come. Let us know if there would be an opportunity to share with your church our small group while we are home. We are looking forward to seeing you!

For Him,

Aaron, Lori, Avalon and Sierra

PS - We will be disconnecting our email and we may not have it set up again until the end of August so you may not hear from us right away.