A Busy Spring

Our family recently returned from a wonderful trip to Alabama. While there, we were blessed to spend time with friends and family, as well as speak to many new people about our future work in Papua New Guinea. We’re excited about the partnerships God brought to us during this time, and look forward to what he has in store for the future of these relationships.

The next few weeks will be busy for us as we complete our time at the Center for Pioneer Church Planting (CPCP). It doesn’t seem quite real to us yet that we’ll be moving away from here so soon, as we have come to love many things about living in the lower Rio Grande Valley. We’ve never before experienced life in such a place as this; residing on the border of two countries has been an experience ranging from intriguing and confusing to, at times, quite challenging. Looking back over the past two years however, we realize that our time here has been fun and enjoyable. The people here are wonderful, the authentic Mexican culture is great, and the never ending summer weather is a real treat. In addition, we’ve learned so much in our CPCP classes that we can, with certainty, say that we will never again be the same. We feel very fortunate to have had the privilege to acquire such extensive biblical, theological, and cultural training before moving to the field.

We are now beginning the early stages of preparing for our move to Papua New Guinea. Last week, Jeremy drove to Houston with a friend to pick up the wooden crates which will eventually hold all of our belongings and be shipped across the Pacific Ocean to our new home. The plans we’ve been making for many months are now becoming reality, and we are beginning to feel the pressures that come along with a move such as this. Total reliance on God’s perfect plan is the only way we can make it through the next few months, and we pray that we won’t lose sight of this.

As always, we covet your prayers. We’ve been very blessed to have so many prayer warriors supporting us these past few years. Please know how thankful we are to have you interceding for us during this time of constant transition.

Please pray that:

-We will remain centered on the gospel during the tumultuous days ahead

-Our family will seek to glorify God in everything we do

-Our marriage will continue to be strengthened in a supernatural way

-We will have godly wisdom in parenting

-Our children will learn to seek the face of God during these difficult times of travel and transition

-We will be connected with more Christians willing to sacrifice for the sake of sending the gospel to the nations

-God will propel more laborers to the harvest. The need is great; the workers are few

-God will begin to stir the hearts of the tribal peoples in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea who are now without the gospel and have no way to hear it

Here’s a brief look at our upcoming schedule. Some of these dates are estimates but will become more firm as we finalize our plans.

April 18-23 Entire family in Chicago for To Every Tribe’s Ekballo Midwest Conference

April 26- May 10 CPCP classes

May 13-16 Jeremy’s final trip to Village VH in Mexico

May 17-29 CPCP classes; Jeremy’s parents and Kandy’s mother visit Los Fresnos

May 30 Graduation

June 7-21 Birmingham, Alabama

July 1-27 Colorado Springs, Colorado for family cross cultural/language training at MTI

August 1-15 Los Fresnos; Pack and ship crates; move out of campus housing

August 16-23 Entire family to Oaxaca, Mexico to visit the Gibson family

August 24- December 1 Birmingham, Alabama

September 8-19 Kandy in North Carolina for Missionary Medical Training

First week of December Papua New Guinea

If you would like to help send our family to Papua New Guinea, please go to

https://www.toeverytribe.com/donations/donate.aspx

Select our name from the drop down box (Sanders, Jeremy and Kandy), and choose your method of donation. We very much appreciate your financial sacrifice for the sake of reaching the nations with the gospel.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of months