Richard and Wendy Rees with Megan, Caleb, Rachel and Karis are back home after spending a week in the city at a home schooling conference. The three younger children did standardised testing and all did well. Wendy attended the conference and received practical and helpful teaching for her role as a teacher. Richard was able to run errands and do supply buying. They all enjoyed the break from village life and fellowship with friends and co-workers in the city.
Over Christmas and New Year they had planned to take a trip over to where Gwen (Wendy’s Mum) lives with Aunt Betty and Betty’s co-worker. They had to cancel that trip as they all came down with the flu and were quite sick. Wendy had it the worst and it took a couple of weeks to get her strength back. Gwen continues to keep well. Please continue to pray for Gwen and Aunt Betty’s future plans. Betty’s co-worker is planning to retire before the end of this year and Gwen and Betty will need to decide what they will do as far as retiring or staying on in Southeast Asia.
Richard and Wendy continue to move forward in writing Bible lessons. As they have been checking vocabulary for spelling and meaning, they are finding out that some key terms are not communicating what they thought they were. In some cases, it is a regional difference from where they used to live. In other cases, the terms that the missionaries and believers are using have developed their own meaning in the context of the church and do not mean the same thing to the general population. Some terms are older words that the younger generation is not using. Please pray for them as they work through these issues and develop Bible lessons that communicate clearly to a wide audience. Continue to pray for local helpers to be more involved in this process.
The purpose of the lessons is for evangelism through teaching God’s Word. For the most part, people in the community are not interested in being taught. They continue to build relationships and pray for God to work in people’s hearts and create opportunities to teach God’s Word. Their 86-year-old neighbour has many questions about life and the beginning of the world. He also has a lot of “answers” from all the knowledge he has accumulated in his lifetime. Richard and Wendy have just started teaching him. It has been difficult as he is much older than they are and in the culture, the younger go to the older for knowledge and answers. The teaching is often interrupted as he takes off in an explanation of things as he understands them. But, he is listening. Please pray for him, for his understanding and for wisdom and perseverance in their teaching. Pray for opportunities to teach others in the community.
Richard and Wendy’s new co-workers, Stephan and Sandra Hunziker have settled in well in the town about two hours away. They are enthusiastically building relationships and are moving forward in their language study and community development projects. Their three young children have adapted smoothly to their new home. Richard and Wendy enjoy the fellowship, encouragement, and help that they bring to the team.
Thank you for your partnership in the work of the work among the Pwo Karen through prayer.