In our weekly round-up, Eternity looks at what some of our Australian missionaries are up to each week. 

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Steve and Narelle Etherington in the Northern Territory

Steve and Narelle Etherington have served in the Northern Territory with CMS (Church Missionary Society) for nearly 30 years. Much of that time has been spent working on a translation of the New Testament for the Kunwinjku-speaking church in West Arnhem Land.

Working in partnership the Bible Society and CMS, the Etheringtons are working towards finishing and publishing the Kunwinjku New Testament within the next two years. Watch the video below to learn more from Steve:

The Steeres in Kenya

Mardi and Andy serve with SIM in Kenya. Mardi is volunteering as a pediatrician at Kijabe Hospital, which is staffed by both missionaries and Kenyans. Andy is a lecturer  at Moffat Bible College. Moffat offers pastoral training to students from Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Congo and pastors graduate with a 3 year diploma, with the option of a further one year higher diploma.

This month, the Steeres have been finalising the transition from short-term, partly self-supported volunteers to long-term, fully-reliant-on-our-partners missionaries. This week they have blogged about the challenges they are facing, as they also prepare for some time home in both Australia and the US:

“We’ve been strategising the next 6 weeks – how do we tie up loose ends, without leaving unfinished business at the hospital, on committees, at Moffat?  How do we make sure that we don’t leave our friends and colleagues with an additional workload of things we started but never completed?  How do we finish this lap of the race well, while still keeping our engines ready to start the next round when we get back here? We’ve been looking ahead, planning our return here – what will our roles be, who does the hospital need us to be, what will we stop doing, what new things will we start?  How will those changes affect our family, can we commit to serving in similar but broader ways?…And underneath it all, life here has continued.  Our hospital & Moffat work of scheduling, teaching, updating, rounding, meeting, mentoring, planning.  Our joyful but tiring work at home – parenting, relating, cooking, celebrating, listening, learning, being.” Click here to read their full post and how God has been sustaining them.

Martin and Julie Field in Argentina

Martin and Julie are working with students in the city of Córdoba, Argentina.

Yesterday, Julie blogged about how the preparation for their kids camp a few weeks prior has been of help to the women’s Bible study, as they study Titus :

“This week we looked at the role of older women in the church, as mentors for younger women. There was a challenge to consider who we can encourage in the faith as an older woman, and who we could look to for guidance amongst the more mature women in our midst.” Click here to read the full post and catch up on more of Martin and Julie’s news.

We know some missionaries work in sensitive countries and we’re setting things up so that they’re not compromised. Got a missionary we should know about? Email us here and we’ll follow them up.

Header image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1170737