Dear Ministry partners;
Greetings from the Owens family. We hope that you all had a good Christmas and are looking forward to the start of a new year!
We enjoyed celebrating Christmas this year with our family, a blessing we don't take for granted. We were fortunate to have Kendal's mom come stay with us, so we got to have Christmas with her as well as all of Chad's family. The holiday was bittersweet as we missed Kendal's dad being a part of it, but we did enjoy seeing many extended family. We know that the first holidays after losing a loved one are tough, but we praise the Lord that Christ's birth (and subsequent death) brought redemption and renewal. I Peter 5:10 tells us "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect,confirm, strengthen and establish you." Because of that baby born in a humble manger, we have the promise of eternal life. We rejoice that Kendal's dad shared that promise too.
As we look forward to welcoming 2015, we look expectantly to what the Lord will do and how He will use us. Our plan is to return to PNG in late June/early July. We look forward to continuing our work both here in the US and in Papua New Guinea. For the first half of 2015 our work will include sharing with others about Bible translation in Papua New Guinea. The needs there are still great with over 200 languages in PNG still needing a Bible translation project. Recently, we had a chance to share at an Awana group. We asked the kids "what do you want to be when you grow up?" As they shared their answers, we shared how someone with those skills could be used to support Bible translation. It was a fun way to illustrate that whatever skills God has given you, everyone can have a role in the work of Bible translation.
Finance update: In order to return to PNG mid year, we have a significant amount of monthly support and one-time financial needs that must be met before we can return to PNG. Please pray for us as we seek to grow our team of partners. If you have a church, Bible study group, or just a group of friends who'd like to hear about how God is moving in PNG, please let us know. We love to talk about what we do! Increase Needed: $2680 p/month.
Job update: Once we return to PNG in July (Lord willing) Kendal plans to return to the school serving as part of the admin team and working as the school registrar.
We ask for your prayer and thoughts as until last week, Chad was planning on returning to be working in Audio/Video Bible creation, when he got a surprise invitation to a leadership role. Two days ago, Chad was asked to take on a position of leadership. We are currently praying about it, and wanting to know how you, our support base would feel about Chad moving from audio/video into leadership. Good leadership is important in furthering Bible Translation in PNG, but it means he will be changing from what he is currently doing in Audio/Video. Also on our minds is that fact that recently 2 new staff have joined the Audio/Video team, so staffing there is not as dire as the need in the leadership. It is a weighty decision that needs to be made, and if you have thoughts or concerns, please email them to us as we prayerfully consider this decision.
We look forward to returning to PNG and are praying that our financial support gets to where it needs to be so we can return in July!
Kid update:Sydney and Calvin are enjoying their time here in the US, especially spending time with family, but are also looking forward to returning to PNG. Having spent more than half their lives there now, PNG has become home to them.
Happy New Year: New Years is typically a time to reflect on the past year and look expectantly toward the upcoming year. Recently, a friend challenged me (Kendal) to choose "one word" for the 2015. Rather than making resolutions (that often get broken), I've decided to embrace this idea of choosing one word to focus on for the year 2015. The word I've chosen for the new year is RENEWED. (Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 5:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16).
Would you join me in praying that 2015 will bring:
RENEWED strength to face each day
RENEWED passion to follow the Lord day by day
RENEWED strength to continue the work God has called us to
RENEWED vision for our work in Papua New Guinea
RENEWED support to allow us to accomplish the work
We pray that you also will be RENEWED in the coming year as you seek to follow the Lord's leading in your life!
Prayer needs:
-Our monthly financial support commitment needs to increase in order to return.
-Chad needs help deciding on a job change in PNG.
-Please pray for Kendal's emotional healing.
-That God would send some good new friends to our kids, both in the U.S. and in PNG.
HOW to give:
if you're curious on how to give there are 2 steps:
1 - email us and inform us of your commitment. This is how we track how close we are to our goal. Monthly, quarterly, annually, one time gift? We need to know
2 - donate through the Wycliffe website following the 'how to' directions below. All donations given with a credit card, have an immediate 3% fee taken from our end to cover the cost of a credit card. Debit cards incur no such fee, neither do checks.
HOW TO:
open a web browser and go to : https://www.wycliffe.org/partner
down where it says 'search for a missionary' type in "Chad and Kendal Owens"
when you see our picture you can put an amount in and click "Give" at the top
(start a campaign is something very different, you can ignore that)
Thank you, for all that you mean to us and all that you do!
-Chad, Kendal, Calvin and Sydney
p.s. Chad has written a book about the first 5 years of our lives in PNG, and he's attempting to get it published. If you want to read about it, go here: http://ow.ly/G8mwj
