Three years ago, Sasch and Charissa Schwendich who serve among the Buru people of Asia-Pacific shared that their missionary team and the local church purchased a plot of land down the mountain at the location where most kids attend school. They had previously opened a dormitory for the kids to live in with one of the elders and his wife to watch over them. The purpose of the land was to build a dorm, rather than needing to rent a house for them every year. At the time they shared about their plans and many of Sasch and Charissa’s supporters generously contributed toward the cost of preparing the land and towards building costs. Before actually beginning to build, they needed to obtain the deed for the land. And that is where things have been stuck for three long years. Praise the Lord! The deed has finally been issued!
This means they can finally begin preparing to build! Thank you for all your prayers to this point. The last paperwork needed before actually building is the building permit, but that should only take a few weeks, now that the deed is processed. Please pray for unity and wisdom during the building process, for finding the right contractors who will work well, and for patience when things inevitably go differently than planned.
School, housework and projects, translation, preparation for all the various meetings, and more make the months fly by.
Living and working for the kingdom is the biggest task and the biggest blessing. Sometimes it is slow and discouraging. Sometimes it is exciting and encouraging. Exciting things can be big, like a long-awaited deed, unexpected momentum in translation, or a non-believing uncle asking for a young couple to receive a blessing at the beginning of their marriage! Buru marriage customs are long and complicated, even to the question of when the marriage begins, so this is a step forward!
Thank you for praying for the translation process. Since January the pace has certainly picked up fast. Sasch and his coworker both worked through checking the backlog of first draft material and are now caught up! All of Mark is now comprehension checked. The complete book of Mark is now ready to be prepared for the final consultant check! They are thankful for a couple of men who have eagerly stepped in to help with checking. This should also help in the future to allow Sasch to continue translating and checking simultaneously even when his coworker is on home assignment. Pray as this project is wrapped up and Sasch switches gears to a new focus – the book of Acts. The first half of the book has been translated previously, so he will do a quick run through/check of that portion and then continue with the rest of the book.
Exciting things can also be small things. For instance, the ladies offering input on what they feel they need to study next in the ladies’ study, or kids learning memory verses for Sunday school. Pray that the words they hear and memorise will stick in their hearts and be a blessing, and that the topics covered in the ladies’ study will grow and be a witness in their lives.
The new ministry in the south is up and running. Sasch and the others have settled into a teaching rotation. Every three weeks two of them head down from Saturday to Tuesday to help teach for three nights. Pray for paperwork to be completed so that the ministry can progress to include Sunday services. Pray for open hearts for all involved, those listening and those who have the opportunity to minister. This initial phase of teaching should be finished mid-May, and all involved will gather for a celebration.
Their whole family also plans to go down for the end of the teaching, and then head to another location for a couple weeks’ break and for Ruben to attend a MK (Missionary Kid) youth retreat. Pray for thier plans, for good travel, and for the retreat to be a blessing to Ruben.
It is likely that Sasch and Charissa will not have any of the missionary team in the village for most of the rest of the year. Thankfully, now they have more and more fellow coworkers in the Buru church to help shoulder the many tasks of ministry. Pray for strength, unity, humility, and wisdom for all involved.
As always, thank you for remembering Sasch, Charissa, Ruben, Judah, Hosanna and Zadok in prayer; your encouragement is truly invaluable.