Jonathan and Dian and family serve at a national missionary training college in Asia-Pacific. In April 2024, construction of a new staff dormitory began. After about a year, the construction work was completed, so that a family and four single staff members could move in. Thank God for His generous provision.
The past school year ended in June. Six young missionary candidates successfully completed their entire training and were able to take the next step in faith that the Lord has prepared for them. July was then quite busy: homeschooling, accounting, staff retreat welcoming new Bible students, and finally the orientation week.
In the background, there was also an internal restructuring of the staff team on campus at the halfway point of the year. Since several colleagues had left the campus in recent years and been replaced by others, it was very necessary to agree on a clear division of tasks. Since this reorganisation process, they now have functioning working groups again that don’t hinder but rather help each other. Jonathan is now part of the team that takes care of the academic administration of the school. Dian is part of the coordination team for the evangelism programme (a task that Jonathan had been doing since 2019) and no longer helps with childcare during class times, but with the first-aid room. Dian still runs the children’s programme on Thursday and Friday afternoons.
Dian also spent three weeks teaching the new students. Together with her colleagues, she was able to explain many things to them about health, personal hygiene, and common illnesses. This was the first time she had taught this subject. Thankfully, it went very well.
At the end of August, Tobias their new home school helper arrived.
In September Jonathan was able to teach church history for three weeks. During that time, a very spontaneous training session also took place at which dealt with innovations in accounting. Although some things were discussed and implemented, there is still no successor for Jonathan.
This month annual in-house child safety training sessions are planned. At the end of the month Jonathan is scheduled to teach Old Testament history together with two young colleagues,
Besides all these things, they are increasingly preoccupied with planning for home assignment from June next year. Please pray that the Lord will grant them wisdom and strength to plan and prepare well for this upcoming return “home”.