EVER HAVE A BUSY SUMMER?
We ended the month of May with our 3rd graduation exercises for Baptist Bible Institute of Port Moresby. Acacia, Selly, Enoch, and Alex finished three years of study with both BBIPOM and Faith Bible Institute.
It was also a great blessing for us to have Pastor Buddy Smith from Malanda, Australia as our commencement speaker. He and his wife Susan have been dear friends of ours for years, and they were such an encouragement to the churches and students here.
SUMMER SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
The Lord has opened many doors of service for all our graduates. Following their recent graduation, Enoch and Alex went to Kerema to serve at Charity Baptist Church, while Missionaries John and Melissa Gray were away in the US for a short furlough. Acacia continues her work as a Christian school teacher, as well as do several of our other graduates. Two graduates are pastors, some are on staff in local ministries, and other men help their local church pastors. Recently one was working with a PNG missionary pastor in Australia, while another was serving in his home town across the country. Another is serving with Missionaries Josh and Rebecca Florence in their ministries as the financial administrator, plus teaching Sunday school and high school religious instruction.
EMPTY NEST
Selly (Pastor Ben’s daughter, who has lived with us for the last three years) graduated from both Bible school and high school in May. She traveled with us to the US for meetings, and is now settled in at Bethany Baptist College in Makati (Manila), Philippines, to study for her BS in Education. Lena and I are now “empty nesters” for the second time!
Most of Selly’s life has been around ministry, and her desire to serve the Lord has really blossomed. In the last few months, she has felt a great desire to serve the Lord in missions, and she publicly surrendered at Capital City Baptist Church in Port Moresby to do just that. We’re glad that Bethany Baptist College will fuel her desire even more, as they have a tremendous emphasis not just on talking about missions, but in doing it!
PREACHING, TEACHING, MARRYING
We had 17 opportunities to share about missions and ministry in the last 10 weeks. Our hearts were encouraged and refreshed by so many friends and prayer partners along the way!
This weekend will be the wedding of our oldest grandson, Ben, and it will be my honor to officiate for him and his bride Elise. And it will be the first time in years that our whole family has been together at one time!
By the time many of you get this, Lena and I will be back in PNG, ready to start our second term at Baptist Bible Institute of Port Moresby.
ONE MORE THING, PLEASE
Could I ask you again to pray with us for my wife’s health? Between our meetings, she had several tests and doctor’s appointments. She is in need of serious lower back surgery sometime in the near future. Would you pray with us that God would make a way for her to avoid having to have the surgery? The pain is constant, but she is working on ways to live with it without being heavily dependent on pain medicines.
Praising God for His Grace and Goodness,
John & Lena Allen
Psalm 71:18