NTM

It’s hard to believe we are here.  We’ve looked forward to it for some time.   We started here as any new missionary would with orientation. We spent a few hours with the various department personnel at NTM Manila. 

We also spent a couple of days with the NTM bookkeeper here.  He walked us through the many accounts that we will be working on a regular basis.  Now we are ready to move on to the island of Palawan and our new ministry. 

We applied for work permits, got our residency certificates, and got our shortwave radio licenses. 

First Impressions of Manila

Girls in the Squatter Area

During our time here I’ve enjoyed my morning walks through the various neighborhoods.  I see very nice houses right next to poor squatter areas.  Affluent people have guards and tall concrete fences with wire and broken glass on the top.  The poorest have no shelter at all.  Most of the people live in between working hard to find the money to feed their often large families.  Squatters houses may be 3 stories high. 

Squatter houses

I find the traffic rather amazing!  I’m often up before 6am and there is lots of traffic on the streets.  The way I cross is by "Jay" walking.  While that might sound crazy,   I’ve tried to cross at the corner and it’s twice as difficult there.  At least when I "jay" walk, I only have to look two ways.  

Busy Traffic Street

Street Side Butcher Shop

Carrying Produce to the Market

A "Bus"

A Jeepney painted with "Lord and Savior"

Girls sell flowers

Forgotten dust-laden statue of Jesus in a corner

The other day I stopped at a Catholic church.  Everything was neat, clean and precise.  The paintings on the wall were beautiful.  Then as I was leaving I noticed that they had a "Jesus" that they no longer needed.  He was pushed over in a corner and was collecting dust.  It was upsetting.  Yet, I was reminded that that is only a piece on concrete that can not answer prayers or save people.  I know the real Jesus.  Yet, how often do I neglect Him and relegate Him to an unused corner of my life.  

It is a privilege that He has given us to serve Him.  We are grateful to be here and trust that we might be allowed to continue to serve Him until He returns. 

Please pray for us as we pack and have closure with our tribal friends and our fellow missionaries here in Papua New Guinea. 

Please pray for safe travels as we will be visiting friends and family in November, December, and early January.  Then we will travel to the Philippines and arrive towards the end of January 2009 for orientation into the GH ministry.

Dear Faithful Loved Ones,

It is with mixed emotions we write this letter. Oh, how we thank the Lord we have you standing behind us in prayer, encouraging correspondence and faithful support! As the Body of Christ we have labored together with you to reach the Wusuraambya people for Jesus. Thank-you for laboring with us the past eleven years as we have lived and served in Papua New Guinea.

This year both of our partners have moved out of the tribe for varying reasons, so we have been left alone for many weeks at a time. Andrew Goud returns from time to time to work on the translation but much of the time he is working on the translation from the Highlands center. Considering that our leadership has seen us as the “glue that held our team together” (mainly because of our spiritual maturity and leadership abilities), now that we no longer have a team in Wusuraambya we have felt the Lord moving us on to a different ministry of encouragement and service to tribal missionaries.

The field of the Philippines has been looking for a consistent, dedicated couple to oversee their guest house on the island of Palawan for quite some time, now. We have been aware of this opening for a long while and with both of us having a background in business and our love for serving God’s servants; we started asking God if we were the ones He desired to use to fill this position.

The Philippine field leadership and our own leadership, here in Papua New Guinea, are excited with us for us to go serve in this capacity! Our partners have given us their blessing, too, and though our hearts are heavy with the thoughts of saying good-bye to our many PNG friends and missionary friends our hearts are also full of joy at the knowledge that God has many new friends on our horizon, whom we can bless and be blessed by.

The ministry we are going into will be a multi-faceted ministry. The field leadership of the Philippines wrote, “the ministry in Puerto is a multifaceted ministry including, buying, shipping, communication, bookkeeper, guest house manager, property management, employee personnel manager, short term teams, community liaison (including other missions, local Christians and businesses, and sometimes government officials)”. We will need your prayers as we embark on this journey with our Savior, for His sake and His glory!

Though we are due a one year home assignment in January, we plan to take a 3 month short leave to visit our mothers and children over the holidays. We have been asked to arrive in the Philippines in January, so we can overlap with the couple who agreed to fill in on a temporary basis, so they can train us.

We are very excited to go to the Philippines because we want to be used of the Lord to bless the tribal missionaries as they reach out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their individual villagers. Having been tribal missionaries for ten years, here in PNG, has helped us to appreciate the vital link between the tribal supply person and the missionaries who are dependent on him/her for necessary items. Also, we have learned throughout the years the importance of the role of the Guest House manager when we come out of the bush for conferences and breaks. It is a ministry of encouragement and blessing to those who are often tired and weary. A ministry of encouraging them to keep their eyes on Jesus – and that it WILL be worth it all, some sweet day!

In June, when we said good-bye to our son and his family, in the Philippines, it was very heart wrenching. How do you tell a 9 year old granddaughter that it is God’s will for us to live in different countries? God has now opened the door for us to work on the same island and we look forward to the opportunity of being just a few hours away from their village so we can see them several times a year, Lord willing. We have desired to be near our children and grandchildren and the Lord has granted us the desire of our hearts. We thank Him!

This ministry is an extension of the role that we have had in PNG…only the location changes. In PNG, we lived in the jungle to reach tribal people with the Gospel and we had a support team in town enabling us to continue laboring in the bush. In the Philippines, we plan to be part of the support role for the bush missionaries who are ministering to the tribal people in their bush locations.

We thank the Lord for your faithfulness to us and the ministry the Lord has blessed us with through our years here in Papua New Guinea. We look forward to being your co-laborers in the Philippines! There is never a dull moment when one embarks on a journey with God. We are excited to see what the Lord has for us, and for you, as we continue to work together until the last tribe, tongue and nation has heard of the hope they have in Christ. Please pray for us as we pack up our home in the jungle and say good-bye to our dear Wusuraambyan friends! We appreciate you!

Grateful to be your co-workers,

Darryl and Becky Jordan

Ginger Jordan, Stephen’s wife, the mother of four of our grandchildren, and our daughter-in-love, wrote a precious article about our visit  so we wanted to share it with you.  We could not have written it any better.  We are so thankful for her and blessed that the Lord has allowed her to be part of our family!

Ginger’s article:  

"We have been privileged this week to spend time with our family who has crossed oceans to reach us. Stephen’s sister and her three teenage boys, traveled from the States to spend ten days with us. Stephen’s parents traveled from Papua New Guinea, where they are also missionaries. Organizing, eating, and traveling provided its challenges when there are twelve people in our group. We are so thankful to the Lord. So thankful for the wonderful attitudes of everyone, especially the three teenage boys, even when nine out of twelve of us got sick with a 24-hour flu within a day of them arriving to our island. We are so thankful for the safety provided in our sight-seeing adventures, although an overnight stay in a hospital for one of our nephews was not a planned adventure. We are thankful for medical help available to alleviate his severe pain, possibly caused by a jellyfish sting. Please continue to pray with us as Stephen’s sister and nephews will be leaving us soon to return home. Stephen’s parents will remain with us for a couple more weeks. We are thankful for time with family, and the memories that we made that will carry us through until the next time we are together."

Greetings from Manila!  We are visiting Stephen and Ginger along with our precious grandchildren, Rebekah, Abby, Luke and Jonathan.  Having a wonderful time here, great things are happening in our village in PNG. Later in June, we will return to our village.  We received an email from our partner, Andrew Goud, and we would like to share the excerpts of his letter to encourage you!

  Aleks teaches

  Winson and Willis teach

  Josaak reads Scripture

Excerpts from Andrew’s letter:

"Phase One of the chronological Bible teaching has been completed by our Wusuraambya Bible teachers, Willis, Jesi, Aleks, and Josaak. A number of people have responded to the Gospel and are now your brothers and sisters in Christ. We have heard of 13 who have trusted Christ as their Saviour. Some have given testimony since then, but we have not heard how many. Praise the Lord with us for His work. We are anxious to visit with these new believers as well as those who trusted Christ in earlier months.

Now that Phase One has been completed, the Bible teachers will teach Phase Two (teaching new believers back through the Bible, showing them how all the Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Christ) They will then teach the new believers through the book of Acts. Some hardships have come into the lives of the believers. Please pray that they will continue to trust the Lord in the things that come their way. Willis has been training new Bible teachers as well. Winson is one of the new teachers. Please pray for him as he learns to teach God’s Word. The other four teachers would appreciate your prayers as well.

Let me share tidbits from some of the testimonies we have heard recently:

Daniel is about our Daniel’s age and plays with our boys. (He is not the Daniel that was saved earlier through checking the Bible lessons with Terry) "..I know I am a bad person. I heard it and understand that I am a sinner but Jesus’ blood was shed for me. I was in the darkness and I understand that Jesus’ blood was shed. He has called out my name."

Menaak is the girl who has been "marked" to marry Gemos. (arranged by the parents) Gemos was saved some months back. He was not sure what to do about the girl that was to be his wife. Should he break off this arrangement because she was not a believer? He decided to wait and now Menaak has also become God’s child. Now when they get married they will have a Christian marriage.

One of the illustrations of our relationship with God that the teachers used in the teaching was the picture of holding hands with God. When you can hold hands with someone, there is nothing between you. You are thinking alike, you are good friends. We as humans cannot hold hands with God. We are sinners and our sin is a barrier between us. Our sin keeps us from being friends with God. God turns away from us in our sin. Then Jesus comes and takes away our sin. Through Him, we are able to hold hands with God. This illustration spoke to many people listening to the teaching.

Menaak shared: "I am not in a position to help myself. Jesus is enough for me…I heard up to the point of holding hands. They said you can’t hold hands with God by going to church. I was a lady that talked to others about God but it’s not through that. I have done good deeds. Through that, could I hold hands with God? No way!! I thought about this blood of Jesus that was shed for me, a sinful lady. Now I could hold God’s hand as a sinful person.  Jesus did it for me.. His blood took away my sin. "

Yisamaya, Gemos’ sister has also trusted Christ. "You are black, I thought. My thoughts are very bad. I kept listening as they taught about Jesus and that’s when I understood that Jesus helped me. This time I felt like crying.  Tears came down my face because I realized that I wasn’t fit to help myself.  I kept listening and continued to come until the illustration of holding hands with God and I realized that I was holding hands with God through Jesus."

Sailas "I am not a good man. I’m a thief, I slept with my brother’s wife. I’ve done many wrong things and thought many wrong thoughts all my bad ways were like a bunch of ropes on me…I saw the drama of Jesus dying on the cross. He could have said to me "You have done all these wrong things" and He could have killed me. When I saw the blood of Jesus shed I realized it was shed for me. When I saw that, I cried. It was like all those ropes (his sin) were taken off me and I wanted to jump." Sailas has been going around the community asking forgiveness from those he has wronged.

Praise God with us for these transformed lives and please pray as they take their first baby steps in their Christian walk."

Please pray for the Wusuraambyan Team, the believers in the village, and for Terry and Rosie’s family as they prepare to move out of the village. 

Our team has been together in Wusuraambya for 11 years.  We have developed strong relationships with each other and the villagers.  Although, it will be difficult to see Terry, Rosie, Troy, Kara, and Sharla leave our village, the Lord has prepared their hearts and guided them into another ministry.  They will be involved in  new missionary orientation and member care  near Goroka.  They  plan to move by July  24th so that  their children may  enroll  in the MK school near  Goroka.

Please pray that the Banmans will know how to present this decision to the villagers so they will not feel like the Banmans are deserting them.  Also, pray for all the preparations that need to be made in moving and the adjustments to living in town.

Last year the Gouds moved out of the village to help their children adjust to the MK school and to be together as a family.  Please pray for them as well.  Andrew and Cathy are trying to translate Romans while living away from the village.

This leaves Darryl and Becky in the village by themselves.  There will be a new missionary family coming into the village for bush orientation so Darryl and Becky will be involved with helping this family learn the culture of the village.  They will probably be in the village for several months.

Thank you for being our prayer coworkers.

Now by saying all that we have something else we need to share with you.
As you see exciting things taking place in the Wusuraambya work there are other needs that have been brought to our attention. 
 
We have been asked by NTM leadership to move to a different position located at our PNG  highlands HQ.  It is outside of Goroka.  We would be taking on a position of leadership which includes running the orientation program , being involved in member care, having a part in the leadership meetings where decisions are made, etc.  We have felt God working in our hearts and preparing us for this.  We were starting to wonder how long we should keep trying with the language but we were willing to hang in there another few years.  We’re not ble to help enough with translation of scripture because of the lack of good understanding of the grammatical features of our complicated language.  The biggest need right now is a translator and the Gouds are working in that capacity.  So when we were asked to pray about changing ministries, we were surprised at the timing being so soon but weren’t shocked at the suggestion!  We are concerned about how this will affect our coworkers – the Gouds, Jordan’s and the believers in Wusuraambya and ask that you pray with us for them.  We hope to visit the bush/tribe to encourage the believers and our coworkers from time to time. School starts July 24 so we’re hoping to be basically moved out of the village by then.  We’re excited about the new ministry we’ll
 be involved in although there is some trepidation as to how we’ll fit into it.