Clay Pots ~ Passports and no cancer

We want to give praise to God!!! We just got the kid’s passports along with their entrance visas in the mail today! Kellie just returned from her cancer check up and the Dr. said to go ahead and plan on going back to Papua New Guinea! She got a clean bill of health. Then we got a phone call last night from some friends saying they want to buy us our needed laptop! Also, we have ¼ of the $ needed towards our return tickets (thank you Cornerstone!). And Micah prayed 2 nights ago that a boy in his class would stop bullying him and hitting him. Well, Micah came home yesterday and said that this boy came up to him that morning and ‘out of the blue’ said to him, “I have decided to stop hitting you; I will not bully you anymore.” And he has!

We have reserved tickets for our return to the tribe for the first week of August. 16 weeks and counting.

Over the past months, we have spent countless hours worrying and, as the Bible says, trying to add “another hour to our lives”. What we have learned yet again is that prayer works! So those post-it-notes with our plans and strategies to scrimp and save are now in the garbage where they belong… along with our many parenting “ideas” for how to stop a bully. Prayer is the only strategy, for by it God fights our battles for us!

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots ~ Latest News

The Tobo Team:
Knapps, Mankins, Williamsons
Newest member of the team – Ezekiel Mankins - (not pictured),

So what is the latest news from the tribe?

Chad Mankins has been keeping busy both translating the book of Romans and also writing the lessons and teaching them to the church. So his plate has been full indeed. The first drafts of Romans are completed and are in the process of being prepared for a consultant check. The problem is that consultants are hard to come by, so please be in prayer that a consultant is freed up to help Chad and that he is able to get Romans checked before summer… that would be a wonderful thing to have done by then. Also, the Mankins have been fighting some illnesses in the past few months and so it would be wonderful if you could all pray for them. We have also heard that it is raining cats and dogs in the tribe (God wouldn’t want to disappoint now, would he), so be praying for both the Mankins and the Williamsons that their spirits would be encouraged and that they would have some sun to dry out their clothes.

Speaking of the Williamsons, it sounds like Jason should be getting close to finishing his formal language study! That means he will soon be able to join Chad and I in the translation of Bible materials and in the more intimate areas of discipleship. Please pray that he will continue to progress well (as he already has) and finish here soon with flying colors.

And, as always, continue to be in prayer for the Tobo church. Pray that their love for God and for each other would grow as they continue to learn and appreciate God’s love for them as seen in the book of Romans. Pray that they would understand in a new and empowering way all that Christ did for them through his death.

Thank you for your prayers, many of you have said to me that you pray daily for us and the Tobo work… thank you. Your prayers to God on our team’s behalf have made a difference in the past and they continue to do so. God honors our attitude of dependence upon him as manifested by our prayers to him. I have the great privilege of being able to recount answered prayer after answered prayer… thank you for never ceasing in this great work of the Spirit!


His Clay Pots,
Jason for the Tobo team

Clay Pots ~ Update on Malachi

Thank you so much for praying for Malachi’s surgery today. It went really, really well and (as you can tell by the picture) the hospital makes it “so much fun” that Malachi rates it right up there with McDonalds! His cheerful attitude was a testimony to all those around him. He has 15 stitches internally “down there” and the extra fluid build up is gone. He is learning how much ice really does numb it and make it feel better and the few steps he took today came close to a John Wayne stride. We are keeping a careful eye on a slight fever he has just gotten and praying it doesn’t get any higher. But for now we are all going to bed exhausted and grateful to God for allowing this to be a successful surgery.

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, Malachi (and turtle, bear, and doggy who all had to go through it too!) Knapp