A new year is here. The final chapter has been written for 2025 and we turn to another. Let’s reach over and grab a fresh journal shall we? I think that I will choose a yellow one with crisp pages. This year feels hopeful to me. We are a mere 10 days into the new year and already we have had some wonderful moments in ministry. As is the tradition, we begin the new year with VBS.

This year, the Lord led MAG into a season of building - not just facilities and infrastructure, but PEOPLE and communities! Systems and equipment, aircraft and flight programs, hospitals, etc. are necessary, but built only to give us the capacity to serve others in meaningful ways. This has been a fantastic year of building lives and families and deeper faith; a year of equipping leaders and nurturing disciples of Jesus across every age and stage of life; a year of encouraging and being encouraged.

Last month we were so blessed by two teams from Holmes County, Ohio. Both of them worked jointly together with another church to raise the funds to purchase a solar system robust enough to meet the current demands of the clinic and to have enough energy to keep it stable under heavy use, for instance, during our brigades. Not only did they provide the equipment but they shipped it down and to provided the labor and technicians to install it. It truly was an effort of love and we are so grateful.

This spring, we hosted a dental team for a week. All but one in this team had worked together in the past doing many mission trips together. Having been all over the world, they knew what to expect, and they worked together flawlessly. I loved going to the clinic to watch them work together. Obviously a big part of our health outreach is caring for the souls of our patients as well.

This has been the busiest two months on record for us here in Rus Rus. Busy, but oh so good. We have throughly been enjoying our time here with all of the teams who have graced our doorstep. We’ve been encouraged and uplifted so much. 

The first week of January we started the new year with our annual VBS here in Rus Rus and some surrounding communities.