Trevor & Estelle Burns, 287 Hawtin Road, Forrestfield 6058, Western Australia (for 2005)                                       theburns@oddsocks.net

Greetings friends,

Psalm 72: ¹⁸Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.  ¹⁹And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

We are so thankful to our God for blessing us with a grandson, Malachi Jay, born to Johnathan and Candy on March 18th weighing in at 8lb 2oz.  Mum, dad and son are all doing well and overjoyed at their new addition.  Now at six weeks he is looking very healthy and just starting to spend more time awake looking around taking in all his surroundings with wide eyes.

Home: We have been here since Jan18th and it has been a joy to be able to spend time with our family and be able to enjoy a break.  My (Trev’s) mother and father are doing well and it is good to see them once more.   After spending a month with Amanda & Michael we moved in with Johnathan & Candy to help out in the final month of Candy’s pregnancy for which she was very grateful.  We have now moved and are renting the Foothills Church of Christ manse for the rest of the year and the Lord has included the CEF car at no extra cost.  We have been able to be present at Amanda’s University graduation and are pleased to announce the she is also expecting and is due in October so we will be grandparents twice in the same year.

Estelle and I wish to take the opportunity to apologize to you our supporters for the long delay in news and also want to thank you for your continued support. We want you to know why this has been so as you are part of the body of Christ with us in our ministry in Hoskins. During our last term we were faced with the trauma of an armed break in and theft in the dead of night, and this unearthed a Pandora’s box in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Recently we visited with our Australian leadership in Laurieton, and in particular to find council with Betty Sharpe. We covet you prayers, patience and support as we work through the healing and strengthening processes.  We desire to return to PNG in January of 2006 but this will depend on the events of our next eight months medical furlough.  In our hearts we still see our need to be involved in the Islands Resource Centre and believe it has only just been established ready to be of great value to our missionaries and churches there.

PNG NOW: Well what are we missing?  One of the places we work with in our last term was Tsoi Island off of the north shore of New Hanover. What a joy is to see God establish brand new believers, and a new church there among the Lavongai people. One of the new believers, Aminio, ex-pressed to Missionary Wade Ebersole one morning, “Meeting only once a week just isn’t enough for me at all!”  He is so hungry for the Word!  Wade says, “Even in their local church, the leaders and others who did not attend our meetings are now admitting that those who DID, have something that they don’t have.  And they are desiring to know what it’s all about.”

Limanak is also a small Island at the very top of New Ireland where the Tigak people live.  In the last two years many there have found salvation in Jesus Christ and are growing with a great thirst for God’s Word.  They have recently completed the Book of Romans and the first two believers have asked for baptism.  Praise the Lord for such growth in these young believers.  We are excited about other developments with both the Ata and Asengseng peoples in New Britain.  They have such a desire to reach out to their neighbors that it is hard for them to keep pace with the need and supply enough bible teachers.  Teachers from the Mouk Church are busy teaching their neighbors the Lusi people and are in such need that they have asked New Tribes Mission to send in a missionary team who can learn and translate into the Lusi tongue and God has raised up Rick and Angie Zook for that purpose.  God is truly doing a work in the Islands for His glory.

FURLOUGH?  Well these days they are calling it Home Assignment, however just so as you are clear, we are not on home assignment but a medical furlough.  Now that has confused you I’m sure but it means that our Australian Leadership asked that we take time to heal so that does not mean speaking engagements and I (Trev) will probably do some work for the Islands.  However, please do feel free to contact us as we would love to have you to a meal or arvo tea and catch up. 

Would you please take time to pray for the folks we have mentioned here and for our complete restitution that we may continue as God’s servants in His service and to His glory.

Because of Christ,

Trevor & Estelle

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