Brethren,
Greetings from the Land of the Unexpected!! We hope and pray this finds you well as you seek to serve our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in your corner of the world.
These last few months have been filled with exciting new opportunities in the ministry but have also been a battle as our family have faced various sicknesses. In April, our family was hit with a stomach flu that took us about 10 days to run its course through our family. We were scheduled to go to Port Moresby, our capital city, to renew Joanna’s passport, but we had to cancel our trip when the flu showed up.
In May, sickness struck again as Sheila and I both somehow got Staph infections. We are currently finishing up the required antibiotics and starting to feel somewhat better, although the recovery seems to be slow. Lastly, Joanna has come down with some sort of sickness as well and has been feeling poorly for over a week. The doctor is unsure of what it is but has given us enough medicine to prayerfully cover all possibilities. Please pray for us all as we struggle to recover from these various ailments.
Highlands Baptist Bible Institute: This semester of HBBI has been going well as many of our students look forward to finishing their final year of studies, and our new students settle into the routine of studies here at HBBI. Many of our 3rd year students have been called on to speak during our Tuesday morning chapel sessions and it has been a great blessing to see these students preach the word of God with boldness.
Kelua Ministry: Please continue to pray for the work in Kelua. Last month, we were excited to see one of the local guys get saved! Paul has been coming for a while, but like many of the young men in Kelua, alcohol and drugs had kept him in bondage for many years. Please pray as Paul grows in his new faith in Christ. I will begin holding classes on baptism in the next few weeks to help Paul as well as the other new Christians in Kelua understand this next step of obedience.
In a previous letter, I mentioned a piece of ground that has been given to this work. This will be available for us to begin using in October/November (a crop of sweet potatoes needs to be harvested first). Meanwhile, we will be working to fence the property and get other facilities put in place. Please pray that the Lord will guide and provide in the months to come as we work to establish a permanent church in this needful place.
CCVE: This last month, we have also been blessed to start CCVE(Citizenship and Christian Values Education) classes at the primary school in Kelua. This is a curriculum that has been developed by another Baptist missionary in PNG and has been accepted by the education department. Previously, the PNG education department allowed various preachers/pastors to come and hold services in the schools for the students who wished to attend, but with this new CCVE program, the entire student body will be taught the word of God every week, regardless of their denomination or church association.
While we are blessed to see this allow us to have another means of outreach in Kelua, this will also open doors all over the province and region as we continue to try to grow this ministry and start to hold classes in other schools as well. It is also a great blessing to see many of our Bible school students get involved in this new ministry and join us in this work.
God Bless,
Kenneth Seremak and Family