Gerolf and Mailis Wuest with Richard and Christian are now back in Germany! After a little detour in Australia (due to Covid19 restrictions) and four flights, they landed at Munich on March the 24th and travelled on to their final destination, in the south of Germany. They are grateful to the Lord for the provision of an apartment and a vehicle through friends. The boys are back at their ‘old’ school and day care facility. After four weeks, they feel somewhat settled. Another reason to thank the Lord is that they can continue as members of Ethnos360 Germany for some more months, which gives them time to adjust to their new life situation. They are looking to the Lord to show them the next steps, but first they want to settle and gain stability for their family.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is much in their hearts and mind. They spent last year at the NTM PNG Central Area centre rather than in the Dom tribe. During that time, they took two trips as a family to their village to encourage the believers, see friends and bring belongings out. In November and December, they managed to sell and give away most of what they owned. Some of the more valuable and precious things are on their way to Germany in a sea freight container.
Gerolf finished the course material in Pidgin English for future Bible teachers (‘Stadi Gut Buk’). He and their Dom co-worker worked hard on it and they are glad to have left it in the hands of the present Bible teachers who see the need of training others, since there are several requests for chronological Bible teaching in the Dom language group.
On February 21, as a family and with some German missionary friends they travelled to Dom for a goodbye service and festive meal. Unfortunately, they were not able to go back to their village because of the mountain road being in a very bad state. They chose to meet with the believers in the village where the first missionaries were located and were glad to see people present from all three Dom churches. It was a bittersweet day for them all. While Gerolf and Mailis know that leaving the Dom churches on their own is necessary for their own sake, they grieve for having to leave the people and place that they grew to love. The Dom believers are and will always be in their prayers and they covet your prayers on their behalf.
Their co-workers Jim and Judy have not been able to go to PNG yet. They are waiting for the international travel situation to become more normal again. This is probably not going to happen too soon because in the middle of March PNG started to find more Covid19 cases than before. Currently stricter measures are in place to control the spread of the virus. Pray for the situation! PNG does not enjoy the same level of health care as we do in the ‘Western World’.
Gerolf will be looking for a job and Mailis will study German in order to integrate well into German society and someday be able to be employed as well. They are very thankful for support throughout the years that they had the privilege to serve the Lord as career missionaries! Please continue to carry them in your prayers as they navigate the new waters of permanently living in Germany. Missions is still very close to Gerolf and Mailis’s hearts and they continue to ask for the Lord’s guidance in how He wants to use them in their everyday lives as they encounter many that have not yet heard of Christ.