NTM

So here it is, July 2008, and we are close to wrapping up our mission trips for this year. Over all we sent out 138 people all over the world – to Brazil, Mexico, Guinea West Africa, and of course Papua New Guinea. On August 10th our last team in Papua New Guinea arrives back to the USA, and that will officially end the trips for this year.

It has been an incredibly busy year getting these folks ready and making things work logistically. But we have been thrilled to hear that many of the people who went have been challenged to consider their part in tribal missions.

It thrilled our hearts to hear the report back from the team leader of one of our Mexico trips, who said, “Half the team expressed they want to give their lives full time for missions. “

This is why we do what we do. There is a tremendous need for more laborers to “Go into all the world”. It’s our privilege to send these people on our short term mission trips knowing they will be challenged and confronted with the great need in the many tribal groups that still need the Gospel!

So we’re winding down for this year’s trips…but that doesn’t mean we have nothing to do! January is fast approaching, and that’s when we send off the first of our teams for 2009!

On Sunday, January 13, 2008 Doug and Kara will be picking up 12 people in NYC to see them off for Interface.  This team will have a brief orientation held at the newly refurbished NTM facility in Jersey Shore, PA, and will begin their long flight to Papua New Guinea on January 15.  Please be praying for good weather, safety in travels, and that each of the folks on this team will be challenged in the area of tribal missions.

Since I won’t be spending Christmas with my sister Laura and her family this year, Doug worked it out for me to go spend time with them over Thanksgiving.  We had a very special time together as a family, although we all missed having Doug there!

One of Laura’s good friends knew that I was coming, and gave us some money to do something special with.  So Laura and I were able to go to a bed and breakfast about 40 minutes from her house – just the two of us!  We had a very fun time together – great memories!

One of my highlights was playing our own rendition of "American Idol" with Nate, Brandt and Kenya.  One of us would be the singer trying out, and the other three would be Randy, Paula and Simon!  We had a LOT of laughs!

I was very thankful to have a chance to share at Laura’s church, which is one of our supporting churches.  It was a joy to be able to share about what God did in the Yagaria during the Dedication of the revision of the New Testament.  Carol Kaptain, the woman who did the translation, is from their church, and it was a privilege to share about that special time (which Doug and I were able to be at in PNG!) with the folks from her church.  She had even sent a Yagaria Bible as a thank you, and I was able to present it!  Wow, what an awesome privilege.

Now Doug and I are back together, and looking forward to a fun-filled Christmas with his family.  His brother and sister in law are visiting from Venezuela, so it will be the whole Shaylor clan together!

We had a mumu today with one of the local tribal groups.  It was so neat to see how a mumu is done…

First, the men prepare a wood fire and put stones over the fire so the stones get nice and hot.  The men also have the job of peeling the bananas, while the women peel the sweet potatoes.

Then the men finish preparing the fire.  Once the stones are plenty hot, they remove the wood so just the stones are left.  Then they make a ‘fence’ around it with smaller sticks stuck in the ground.  They line the inside of the poles with fresh cut banana bark, which makes a wall.  Then the men put this special grass on the hot stones.  The fire begins to smoke lots!  They put unpeeled bananas on it next and then unpeeled sweet potato (this will be food for the pigs).  They make a number of layers of the grass, bananas and sweet potatoes.  
Next, they put the peeled sweet potatoes and bananas on, layered with grass and edible greens such as cabbage.  There are a number of layers of this – each layer is food for a certain family or group.  The men then break up branches and put them on top and put the lamb flaps on top of the branches.

Finally the men cover the whole round pile with banana leaves and dirt.  They stick a bamboo shoot down the middle and pour water into the shoot, creating a sort of steamer.

This cooks for two hours or more, and then they take it apart, and everyone eats!  It was fascinating watching them do all of this.  They also showed us how to start a fire from just bamboo, sticks and some dried leaves.  Us ladies spent time with the tribal women learning how to make bilums – their bags.  There were lots of cute kids all around, and we had a wonderful time with everyone.  It was a great cultural experience!

Besides being ill and recovering, we’ve been able to do some neat things.  Kara has been enjoying her time learning tok pigin with her language helper, Lina.  We both enjoyed shopping at Y-Mart – a market the local tribal people set up for us to shop at.

Doug was able to go on a hike with everyone.  They saw some amazing scenery, and got to go swimming too. 

Skit night was tonight – we enjoyed some fun skits as well as some musical numbers.  Two of the guys wrote a neat song about becoming tribal missionaries – it was a fun evening and we are really enjoying being back with everyone!

Well, what would a trip overseas be without a visit to the clinic!  I (Kara) had been having stomach problems since we got here, and it got worse and worse.  I ended up with a high fever and became very dehydrated.  Doug and I took a few trips to the clinic till they finally decided to have us stay in the guesthouse, where they hooked me up to an IV for a few days and kept an eye on me while the medicine did it’s thing.

I am happy to report that I am back to myself, and we were able to rejoin the team a few days ago!  Thank you Lord!

I thought I’d write you all to say hi and let you know how we are doing. We all arrived safely to the Interface Campus. It’s amazing here! The view is I truly think the most beautiful I have ever seen. It’s like Paradise!

The team is fun and we are enjoying getting to know them. It’s been neat meeting Emerson and Miriam finally – he’s the coordinator here. Classes have begun and it’s neat for us to be able to sit in them.  We just love our little roundhouse – I’m so thankful we have our own bathroom!

We have some cool news – it looks like we are going to go to the Yagaria tribe next Sunday!!! Not the whole group, but the three guys that are here making a video of Interface, and Doug and I. We are so pumped! This is the tribe that Carol Gutwein/Kaptain worked in and will be presenting the revised NT to this August. We were telling Emerson how we’re sort of related to Carol, and that we are supported by her home church. He and his wife were saying that the tribe is going to LOVE that we are sort of related! I know the last group that was here went there and it was a highlight for them. We’re so glad it looks like we’ll be able to go! 

I thought I’d tell you a funny story. We had to change into skirts in Singapore so that when we landed in PNG we would be in them. I put one in my carryon which I changed into in Singapore. When Doug and I got on the plane we were sort of rushing and trying to sit down fast (you know how that goes!). I felt all twisted and tried to fix my skirt. Much later I got up to go to the bathroom. As I was walking back, I put my hand on the back of my skirt so it wouldn’t swish in anyone’s face. Well, much to my shagrin, I felt my slip!!!☺ As I groped myself to see what was wrong, I realized that I had a huge rip in my skirt – like about a foot and half long!!! I sat down and when Doug woke up, I told him my problem. I had no other skirt to change into. He said he had tape and would tape it for me. So when the plane landed, Doug got the tape out knelt down, and was up my skirt taping my big rip! We were totally surrounded by the team and they were watching us cracking up! I told them what he was doing – they thought it was hilarious! Doug was able to make it look like new and everything worked fine!

Then when we finally got to Interface, we realized NONE of our luggage had made it – which meant I had to wear my taped skirt for another day! Our luggage did make it in the next afternoon, so today when we got ready we were fully equipped with razors, toothbrushes, hair products, makeup…and non-taped clothes!

Thanks for your prayers.  Check out the photo album we posted on our photo page of our trip so far!

So we are about to send off our third team to the Interface Campus in Papua New Guinea, but this time, we’ll be going with them!

The reason we won’t have July 5th this year is because we will be crossing over the international date line in a plane…which means…we’ll never have our 5th anniversary!  Not too many people can say that they lost their anniversary!

About 30 of us will spend almost 6 weeks together in PNG at Interface.  We look forward to meeting our co-workers for the first time! 

On August 15th we will be back for a missions conference at our church in FL.  So you can see we have a busy and exciting summer ahead!

For more information on Interface or NTM’s other Short Term Missions Trips, go to www.ntm.org/missiontrips.

We’ve known for a while that we needed to get a second car, but there’s no way we could afford it. Living ½ hr. from NTM has made it tricky at times to make things work with our schedules, but thanks to the generosity of Mom, Pops and Chris, they’ve always lent us their cars when we needed it!

About a month ago, when we became aware of a couple who had a Mercury Grand Marquis they wanted to give to a NTM missionary that needed it… We were happy to be that couple!

Next week Doug’s brother and dad will be going Illinois where it awaits us, and driving it back for us. We can’t thank this couple – who don’t even know us – enough for their kind generosity!

Thank You Lord!

The day we return from PNG we will be running a booth at our church here in Florida’s Missions Conference.  We are thankful for the opportunity to do this, and are asking prayer for strength to do it as we will be very jet lagged!