Recently Andrew and Joanna McCready with Manoah were excited to be able to visit another two regions in Asia-Pacific, meeting new people and finding out about future ministry opportunities. They also enjoyed visiting the national missionary training centre for three days.
Both regions have numerous never-reached tribes. The trip benefited them greatly as they met many new faces and leadership personnel who gave them information on the needs. Unfortunately for the full week of their visit Joanna and Manoah were ill with the flu. This made it harder for them to visit people and to travel, but they pushed through it. They are both still trying to get better and would appreciate your prayer.
At the training centre they met the twenty-two national students who are in Bible or mission training. Hearing about their curriculum was nostalgic for them as it’s basically the same training that they received not too long ago in England. A lot of students expressed the desire to work full-time in tribes. Andrew and Joanna praise God as they partner together with brothers and sisters from Asia-Pacific in this big work. Please pray that God would raise up more students to attend the training centre each year and that God would take care of the staffing needs.
The needs for this region include never-reached tribal groups that want missionaries but also groups that need missionaries to finish the Bible translation. They were moved as they heard first-hand from one of the missionaries about the events that happened not too long ago due to a tsunami (September 2018). It reminded them of how quickly life can change. It was great to hear though, that with God’s enablement, they were able to help many people with basic supplies, a listening ear and interceding prayers.
The other region that they visited was an eye-opener for them to the great need for support and tribal missionaries.
The biggest blessing from their trip was that God is still stirring hearts for the Gospel as He says in His Word:
“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Hebrews 8:10b
Please continue to pray that God will make it clear to them in which region they should serve. Visiting three regions so far has answered questions but they still do not have peace about where to serve. It is possible that Andrew might get to fly to see another island. They have until March 2020 to make a decision. Language consultants are encouraging them to make use of the good language teachers that they have where they are currently living. They will continue to study language and culture full time and have enjoyed and greatly benefited from the weeks that they spent learning grammar in a local language school. Please continue to pray for good progress in the language.
In July, two families are and two ladies plan to join Andrew and Joanna for language learning. They know one of the families from Northern Ireland from the training in England. They have been given part of the responsibility to help them settle. Please pray for them as they prepare and head out with their three little ones. Pray that Andrew and Joanna will be a blessing to them.
Andrew and Joanna are thankful for your support in prayer as they continue in language and culture study. Their aim is to use their newly learned language to show the love of Christ in Asia-Pacific.