I just got this email from my friend, April! The Lord has truly undertaken for these dear ones...thank YOU for praying!! Please continue your prayers for them as a family, it isn't easy being so far from home and loved ones. BUT God...His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We place our friends lovingly in His tender hands.
Dear Friends,
Today I went back in for a follow up appointment with the doctor here in Australia. He was very happy with the way things looked and we got a pretty positive report. In fact, it looks like the placenta may already be healing. What a Mighty God we serve! We marvel at the way He has designed our bodies to heal and in a sense, “fix themselves”, even in those deep dark places that are very difficult for doctors to be able to do anything about. So, I am feeling very healthy. And although he has definitely banned us from going back to PNG at this point since there is still a pretty good chance of me having another abruption and going into labor immediately, he did officially give us the “O.K.” to travel back to the states, if that’s we wanted to do. He said it would still be a risk, but definitely a reasonable option.
However, after hours and hours of prayer (and we know many of you have been praying for us for wisdom, also) we believe that the Lord would have us just stay put for now. Our hearts of course ache to be able to be with family and friends, but we are at peace with this decision. Even though we will be unexpectedly (to us, not to our Lord!) spending thousands of dollars to stay here in Australia, after crunching the numbers, we would spend more than double that to go home to the states. Since we just returned from furlough in January, it seems too soon to spend that kind of money again. Also, and more importantly than the money factor, we want to remain as close to the tribe as possible. Should our little Bundle of Joy show up early, as is expected, we want to be able to get back into the tribe as quickly as possible, without being locked into a return- ticket date.
Soooo…we are just hunkering down here for now and waiting on Baby. The Lord has graciously pulled everything together for me to be able to home school Jordan while we are here. Our co-workers back in the tribe are sending all the necessary books out here via New Tribes Mission Aviation (NTMA), who fly out here a couple times every month. Such an answer to prayer! We are definitely looking forward to getting into some sort of routine. We also went out today and bought a few little Christmas decorations and are planning on enjoying the Holidays as a family on this great adventure! No, it won’t be the same as being at home surrounded by extended family, or even in our own house in the tribe with our precious co-workers. But the Lord has blessed our family beyond words and we will enjoy HIS PRESENCE and the gift of each other during this special time! God is good, we know we are blessed by Him, and truly, that is all that matters!
Thank you as well for praying for the Smith’s and Schlegel’s back in Dinangat during this busy week of literacy planning and primer construction! They had a very exhausting, but very productive week! There are now currently 4 primers in the Dinangat language, including stories and drawings (done by the Dinangat people!) and we are excited to see this work move ahead! We will send pictures as we receive them! Lord willing, Jeremiah will be receiving some files from Ralf and be able to help get the layouts together for some of the other booklets that will be used in the literacy program.
Thank you all for being with us. We are thanking the Lord for Baby’s health, and for mine as well. And we are thankful for YOU, our co-workers in Christ, and for your support of our family and the ministry to the Dinangat people!
In His Love,
~ April for the Markleys
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