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New Guinea News                                                                      21 February 2010

Madonna

Madonna being adopted into the clan by Tika with a traditional necklace.

Many of you are familiar with our teammates directly involved in the Patpatar work: Butch and Tammy Kunzer and their family (who are currently in the States) and Madonna Yates.  We had met Madonna, an Australia lady, during our orientation to Papua New Guinea.  She was teaching in the school for missionary children.  She later returned to Australia for more training and then returned to PNG and  joined our team nearly 2 years ago.  We never realized when she joined the impact she would have on the work here.

In the two years Madonna has been here, she has been very involved in the community, and been a great friend and help to many of the ladies here.  She has worked hard at learning the language, done much of the printing of Bible lessons for our team, has helped in the literacy development, and has been involved in many ways while we taught the Bible to the Patpatar in the nearby villages.  She desires to help the team in translation of the Bible later after she finishes language study.

Late last year, Madonna headed home for a short break.  After 3 ½ months, she joined our family once again to help with the ministry here.  After only 2-3 weeks, Madonna realized that something was not right with her health, and made the very hard decision to go home to Australia to get everything checked with a doctor.

The recent news has been disappointing for all of us, especially Madonna, but also our team, and the Patpatar people.  Madonna has breast cancer.  She has surgery scheduled for the first part of March.  Madonna wrote: “There will be some appointments leading up to the surgery and then chemotherapy and further testing probably for at least 6 to 9 months afterwards. At this stage I don’t know if the cancer has spread to any other parts of the body and won’t know till after the surgery and further testing is done.”

“This is not what I wanted to hear,”, said Tika, a Patpatar believer,  “but I know that God is in control and all I can do is pray and leave this in His hands.”    Other comments have been, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this.  She is such a good friend to all of us ladies.”  These have been some of the comments that I have received as I’ve told my Patpatar lady friends of the recent big news we have received.

Madonna has amazed us as she has been looking to the Lord through this situation and has seen His hand in this as far as her medical care.  He has directed her to a wonderful Christian physician that is a specialist in this area.  She has told us she has seen God’s hand as well as others reach out to her and show her love and support.

Please pray for her.  She has a long, hard journey ahead of her.  Please pray that God will be glorified in all of this, and that the Patpatar can see Him work through this situation.  You can pray for us too.  Madonna is very special and close to our hearts, and our family, and it hurts us to see her going through this.  We are far away and can’t take care of her, but God can and He is, and He cares, and we are so thankful for that.

New Guinea News                                                                                           09 February 2010

I don’t want to be a part

Avalon sandwiched between two twin girls.

Here at our place the kids play and feel secure.

“I want to say a thank you to God.”  One of the Patpatar Christians told me as we sat in the hut and the darkness of night began to hide our faces.  He continued, “If I hadn’t heard the foundation (the teaching of God’s Word from the beginning) and if the true good news wasn’t clear to me, I would have gone inside this fight that is happening.”

Earlier we had been talking about the on-going mini-war between two of the clans in the village.  On New Year’s Day three men were badly cut up and injured when machetes were used to try to settle a dispute.  Contrary to being settled, it has only reignited the old feelings of animosity and revenge.  Last week the revenge was taken out on an unsuspecting woman who was cut up with a machete and left bleeding on the road simply because she was a member of the other clan.  Now women are afraid to go to the garden and kids are afraid to walk alone on the road.  Then when a leader in the village, the man’s brother to whom I was talking, tried to intervene, he was threatened and chased away with machetes.

The young believer and I continued to talk.  He explained, “When they made the action to cut my brother, that is when I would have got my machete and gone inside this fight.  But now I don’t want to be a part.  They answer with machetes and fights and killing, but it is not the real answer.  They are being deceived and don’t know the real source of these wars.  They have become like Saul, who went to kill and arrest people thinking he was doing God’s work, but they don’t know they are doing Satan’s work instead.  It is good if the leaders and government will help this fight to stop, but the only real answer is that they know the truth inside the talk of God.”

As this man who has been changed by the power of God walked away and disappeared into the darkness I rejoiced in what God had done.  To not do what the clan expects, to not react the way that tradition demands, is a big step.  I pray the testimony will speak loudly as well.  I pray that this believer and others will be able to have the opportunity to share the “real answer.”  I pray also for all those being affected and living in fear because of this on-going fight.

Thanks for rejoicing with me and joining me in these prayers.

Aaron

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse

Missionaries with New Tribes Mission

In the Patpatar tribe in Papua New Guinea

New Guinea News                                                                                           14 January 2010

Quick Update – Chance to pray more

I know many of you have been praying for the meeting here in Patpatar this morning and wanted to know how it went.  Thank you for that…we need the prayers.  However, instead of being at the meeting, I was going throughout the village trying to find the leaders to update them.  This morning early one of the men had something come up and had to leave to go into town.  The meeting has had to be rescheduled for Sunday evening (very early Sunday morning in the States).

We are desiring that the meeting will take place on Sunday, so that this does not continue to be set to the side to fester and grow.  We pray that God will be glorified through the situation and that the truth will be evident.

We will keep you posted,

Aaron

New Guinea News                                                                                                           20 December 2009

Quick Update

Wanted to send a quick email to update all of you concerning the last New Guinea News and the prayer requests I had given.  The day of our meeting with the village council came up.  We waited at the meeting place not knowing what to expect.  Three of the believers came to  be with us.  We all sat and waited and waited and waited.  The accusers never showed up.  Thank you for your prayers.

We don’t know if another day will be set or not.  We don’t know why the accusers did not come.  But we do believe it is an answer to prayer and thank you for the emails of encouragement you sent.

Aaron and Lori

New Guinea News                                                                           11 January 2010

The Tale of This Week

Christmas with the believers (notice the heavy winter coats?)

From the bits of news we get from the States, it sounds as if it has been a cold start to the new year.  Here, in the other hemisphere we can’t get cool enough.  But despite the heat we had a good time as a family for Christmas in the tribe and had some missionary friends from another tribe visit us for New Years.  In this ‘New Guinea News’ I would like to bring a couple of prayer requests to you all.

Recently I read something from some missionaries who worked in Africa starting back in 1948.  It said, “America’s great theme is independence – ‘I can be what I want – I can do what I want.’  Such is not the case in other cultures.  You are what your tribe is – you do what your tribe does.  Otherwise you are not really a part of the tribe.”  The same can be said of the Patpatar.  In addition much of who the tribe is and what they do is based on the leaders of that tribe.  That is where things can get difficult.

There are not many of them, in fact it is primarily just one man who is against the continuation of God’s Word being taught here, but right now he is the predominant leader for the village.  Oddly enough he has only recently returned to the village after being away for years, but he is set against us and our work here.  In the last New Guinea News we let you know about this situation and that the group of accusers failed to show up at the meeting.  Since then more questions and accusations have been launched and a new meeting date has been set.  The meeting is Thursday morning  the 14^th (Wednesday evening in the States).   Since he is the leader in the village and since it is culturally inappropriate to disagree with him this has put the believers in a difficult situation.  Some of them will be at the meeting, but to stand up and speak for the truth will be alienating them even further from the tribe that is their life.  Already, three of them have come to me and said that they will need God’s strength because theirs is not enough.

Please pray for us in this situation.  Please pray for the believers.  Please pray that instead of this hindering God’s work here it will only strengthen it.

In addition to that, another believer has come to me and asked that as a body of believers here in Patpatar that we pray for his neck.  I would like to have you join us in that.  Bles has had the side of his neck swell up several times recently.  It causes a lot of pain and he cannot move his head very well.  The first time it eventually subsided.  The second time he was sent to a small hospital where they did a surgery.  It subsided again, but now a month later it is swelling again.  I don’t know what it is, and the doctor’s report he received was not very informational, but we can pray.  As you can imagine this has been a very trying time for this young believer, an early testing of his faith.

The final prayer request is for our partner Madonna who will be coming back to PNG on Friday.  We are excited to have her back and pray that she has a safe journey here and can settle in well.

Thanks for fighting the battles with us as our partners in prayer,

Aaron

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse

Missionaries in the Patpatar tribe

With New Tribes Mission

New Guinea News                                                                                                                                                           16 December 2009

Tale of Two Weeks

Aaron and the Patpatar men in a session at the workshop.

Warnings, false accusations, being yelled at, a break-in and theft…and all that the week of Thanksgiving.  By the end of the week we were wondering what new difficulty would greet us the next day.  But it was not just our family that was facing the problems, it was also the Patpatar believers.

For a while now, we have been studying through the book of Acts with the young Patpatar believers.  The spread of the Gospel, the start of the church, and the work of the Holy Spirit are a few of the important topics we have been covering.  One of the biggest surprises for the Patpatar was the persecution and hardships the early church experienced.  Many of the apostles and those most dedicated to God’s work endured ridicule, ostracizing, beating, and even death.  This truth in Scripture soon manifested itself in reality to the Patpatar church.  Many of those professing faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross have been talked about, excluded, taken advantage of, and even threatened.  Though mild compared to the persecution the first church experienced the believers here can relate.  It seemed to culminate the week of Thanksgiving toward us.  Though all of the events were not related, and though we never felt in danger, and though the break-in was at our partner’s house who is currently in the States, we do believe that the Enemy and enemies of the true gospel would do whatever they can to discourage and hinder God’s work among the Patpatar people.

We were encouraged with many of the believers who realize what is happening and like the early church are standing firm in their faith.  We met together in the midst of this time and had a wonderful time of prayer and praise to our God and Savior.  There are those however, who due to the persecution have faded to the background to avoid being a target.  There are also issues and accusations that have to be dealt with before the village council that we would request your prayers for wisdom on how to respond and react.

That week was followed by a much different week.  Though the timing seemed terrible, I think that God knew we needed to be away from the situation.  Our family along with two of the Patpatar believers left for a workshop about curriculum development.  There we met with missionaries and tribal believers from about 10 different tribes throughout the islands of Papua New Guinea.  Besides the benefit of the workshop it was great for the Patpatar men to interact with their brothers in Christ that they had never met but had been praying for them and was encouraging for our family to be with missionaries who could relate to what we were going through.  Following the workshop our family went on a “getaway” and got some much needed rest, relaxation, restaurants, and shopping J.

Now we are back in the tribe and have quickly faced again the realities of village life.  The people have been cleaning up the villages and repairing houses after a big flood over the weekend and today I attended the funerals of an elderly woman and a baby.  Tomorrow we face the village council.  We praise God for what He is doing here, what the church is learning, the ministry He has allowed us to be a part of, and the times of rest we have had.  Thank you for keeping the Patpatar in your prayers and for being a part of our ministry.

The family relaxing with a koala bear.

ALL for Him,

Aaron

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse

Missionaries to the Patpatar people of Papua New Guinea

With New Tribes Mission

New Guinea News                                                                                           21 August 2009

Patpatar Praise

Buruno is nearly blind but still praises his Savior.

Tahut sakit God ta no num harmarsai.

U ga tule Jisas ma ga maat u tagu

Ma ga kul bakut ira nugu magingin sakena.

Pai ta ira nugu gingilaan.

Pai ta ira nugu bilbilai.

Ma pai tiga linge mah be iau ni gil ie.

Ma pai tiga linge mah be nu gil.

Jisas at ga gil bakut ie

Ing ga maat u tagu

Ma ing ga tut hut balin.

One of the Patpatar believers timidly strummed the guitar and sang the song above that he had written.  When he finished he told me that he didn’t know if it was good or not, but wanted to try to express what he believes in praise to God.  About a week before I had suggested to the group of believers that they should begin writing songs of praise to God that we could sing as a group.  His was the first.  This is what it means:

Thank you so much God for your mercy.

You sent Jesus to die for me

And to pay for all of my sins.

It is not because of my works.

It is not because of my goodness.

It is nothing that I have done.

It is nothing that we have done.

Jesus, Himself has done it all

When He died for me

And when He rose again.

We now have over a dozen songs that the Patpatar church sings to praise God for who He is and what He has done.  One of the most recent songs was added by a believer who walks further than almost anybody else to attend the teaching.  The amazing thing is, he is nearly blind.  Here is a translation of the song he wrote:

I will praise my Savior because he has bought me back.

I was fenced in by death in the midst of darkness.

But now I see clearly the grace and mercy of the Savior.

Thank you so much for your great blessing.

Isaiah  42:12 says, “Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the islands.”  It has been a privilege to be a part of the ‘choir’ here in the islands of Papua New Guinea.  Thank you for your prayers and contributions that make this all possible, and thank you God for YOUR great work You’ve done here in the Paptatar people!

For His glory,

Aaron and Lori

PS – For the last few months we have had email difficulties via our radio.  For the time being we are unable to send or receive email in the tribe.  I am in town today on a supply run, so am able to send out this update.

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse

Missionaries with New Tribes Mission

Among the Patpatar in Papua New Guinea

New Guinea News                                                                                           7 November 2009

Within the Borders

Lori doing literacy work with the Patpatar

Last time we wrote to all of you out there, we told you about the work that was being done beyond the borders.  We thought that it may be good to let you know about the work within the borders as well.    We do have a day to day ministry among the Patpatar people here.  It is the main reason that we are here!

We meet 4 mornings a week to teach God’s Word to the two churches in the two villages.  Currently Aaron is teaching through Acts with several new believers.  It is exciting to see their eyes opened to the truths presented in the Bible.    Aaron also spends between 6-8 hours a day in the office.  At times it may be more, but this is the average.  During this time, he is writing Bible lessons, correcting Bible lessons  and discipling the men that come to help him.  His day to day also includes teaching his two oldest girls Arithmetic in school.  So, as you can tell, Aaron has his hands full with plenty to do.

Aaron has asked me to write this e-mail to give you a picture of the life of a missionary wife and mother within the border of the Patpatar Tribe.  I have the responsibility to support Aaron in the ministry.  I enjoy going to the teaching sessions in the villages two mornings a week.  During these times I try to be sure to connect with the women  and disciple them, as well as find out what is going on in their lives.  If the need arises, I may help take care of some children so that the other mothers can listen to the Bible teaching more effectively.

My other part in ministry right now is that of curriculum development for the Patpatar literacy program.  It is taking longer than usual because of my other responsibilities, but I’m so excited to have this opportunity.  It’s actually something I never planned on doing, but I am really enjoying it!  I usually get to this tasks on the days that I do not go to the teaching, since teaching usually takes at least 3 hours out of my day.

In the home, I have two children I am home schooling as well as a toddler.  They all keep me hopping!  I now have a 4^th grader, and a 1^st grader, and I try to find activities to keep Kylee busy and learning.  Home schooling takes us about 4 hours a day, and may be split up between other tasks of the day.    Speaking of kids and homeschooling, Avalon is now 9, and is an avid reader, enjoys climbing trees and being out playing with the Patpatar children.  She is becoming better at speaking the national trade language, as well as throwing in some Patpatar language here and there.  She is becoming more and more aware all the time of her need to spend time in the Bible, and seek God.  Sierra is 6 and getting better at reading all the time.  She is a very sweet spirited girl who loves Jesus.  She is a little more quiet and reserved at first, but once you get to know her she becomes tons of fun.  Right now she is very much into animals especially cats and kittens.  Kylee is 2 ½ and is learning to be a big girl in many ways.  She likes figuring things out and loves to be part of whatever it is the family is doing.  She loves to be read too, and loves to learn and be a big helper.  Kylee is still young, and still needs Jesus, so please pray for her when you think of her.  We are so blessed to have three girls who love what we do and love being here despite missing their family back home.

Other things I find to do are: I hold down the fort when Dad is away on his “beyond the border” trips, and besides cooking 3 meals a day every day for the family, I cook 2-4 times a week at lunch time for the people that come to help us with various tasks such as yard work, Bible lessons, or house work.  Other than that, it is raising children, caring for the family, housework, relationship building witht eh Patpatar ladies, correspondence, paperwork, and sometimes assignments to help the team.  No one day is completely like another within the borders.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement that keep us going!!

Within the Borders,

Lori

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse

Missionaries among the Patpatar people

In Papua New Guinea with New Tribes Mission

www.tribalmissions.com

www.ntm.org/aaron_luse

aaron_luse@ntm.org

There are over 20 villages, over 8,000 people, 1 mountain range, and 2 shores, in the Patpatar tribe.  But that is just one tribe.  That is only 1 of the 800+ languages in Papua New Guinea.  So what about the other 800+?  What about those beyond our borders?

I (Aaron) have the opportunity from time to time to be involved in a ministry that reaches beyond the borders of the Patpatar tribe.  Because most of my time and energy are focused on the work among the Patpatar that is what most of our updates are about.  I wanted to take this update to tell you a little more about some of the work I do as a culture and language consultant and where that takes me.  In the tribes here in the islands of Papua New Guinea, there are several places in which missionaries are learning the unique culture and language of that particular tribe. About every six months I get to go in and do an evaluation on their progress.  Since every tribe has a completely different language and unique aspects of their culture, it is impossible for me to comprehend what is being said.  But with the help of the trade language and other tools, it is possible to do some testing and then give direction on how to become more proficient in their tribal language and culture.  The purpose of these evaluations is to keep the missionaries on track and get through the learning stage as quickly as possible so that they can continue on with their ministries of teaching God’s Word, presenting the Gospel, doing translation, teaching literacy, and establishing churches within that tribe.  In this way I get to share in a small part of what God is doing in other tribes in Papua New Guinea and you have a part in that as well.

Last month I traveled 3 hours by boat to our closest “white skin” neighbors in a village south of us.  There  I had the opportunity to do an evaluation with two couples.  This is the same tribe that I was able to be a help with an initial survey in back in 2006.  I am also excited about this work because some of the Patpatar people have inter-married with the those in this other tribe.  This was the final evaluation for one of the men and so now having completed language and culture, he has been busily translating portions of Genesis into their language.

Then a couple of weeks ago I took a 2½ hour boat ride to the next island, waited and eventually found a vehicle to take  to the end of the road over an hour away, then followed the trail for 3 hours and entered a village in another tribe just after dark.  There I was able to do an evaluation with the missionaries  This is the same tribe that I was able to do a survey into when we first arrived in Papua New Guinea, and that Lori and I desired to go into, but God shut all the doors at that time.  Now there are two families who are in this remote area and have just started into culture and language study.   

This last weekend, I was able to give another evaluation, ironically to my own teammate, Madonna.  She joined our team about 1½  ago and has been working hard to acquire the Patpatar language and culture.  Though still in the learning stage, she has helped our team a lot already by building great relationships, visiting with the ladies, teaching some classes about sewing and baking, helping enter literacy information into the computer, printing Bible lessons, and more.  She did well on her evaluation and is about half-way through this grueling process.  This month she gets to take a well deserved trip back to Australia to see family and friends before returning to the tribe in a few months.  Thanks for continuing to remember her and the Kunzers as you pray for what God is doing in the Patpatar tribe.

I am still amazed by God’s gift to us through His Son.  I am still amazed that He is willing to use us in His plan to take the message to other tribes.  Thank you to so many of you who have partnered with us to see other tribes reached.

For His glory,

Aaron

Since the last update much has happened.  Our partners the Kunzers have gone back to America for “home-assignment.”  They will be doing a lot of traveling through the mid-west this summer so you can pray for them as they catch up with family, friends, and churches.  Just prior to their departure we all attended the annual conference for the islands region missionaries.  That was a good time to fellowship, catch up with fellow missionaries, and get the latest information to help in our ministries.  We have now been back in the tribe continuing to teach and work with the two groups of Patpatar believers.  I will tell you more about that in the next update, but wanted to also share about our literacy program.

Last week Diane and Annette, two literacy consultants, came to help us layout and develop the Patpatar primers for the literacy course.  They were a great help to give suggestions and methods for what letters and sounds to teach first and how to go about teaching them.  Lori is taking a bulk of the responsibility for the literacy program and so had spent months gathering materials, creating word lists, working with the Patpatar dictionary, and getting things ready.  When the consultants were here Madonna (our other partner) was a huge help in cooking meals and watching the kids.  The rest of us (including some of our Patpatar friends) spent long days putting everything together in an orderly fashion and writing stories in the Patpatar language for new readers.  The books include new sounds to teach and then stories to reinforce those sounds.  Like the Dick and Jane stories, they start out simple and get more complex.  Here is an example of one of the early stories from the first primer:

Tata kana?
Tata kana.
Tata i tuntun ku?
Tata i tuntun ku.
Tata i kanakana.

Nana kana?
Nana kana.
Nana i tuntun ku?
Nana i tuntun ku.
Nana i kanakana.

The above story means very little to those who don’t speak Patpatar, but when the Patpatar read it they understand exactly what is being said because it speaks to them in their heart language.  Our desire is that many will become literate so they can read the Bible in their own language and that they will understand exactly what God’s Word says because it speaks to them in their heart language.  Pray for us, and especially Lori, as we finish the primers and begin to write teachers manuals and get everything together to start the first literacy school.

See Aaron and Lori.
Aaron and Lori say good-bye!