NTM

This is our 4th Christmas in North America after having spent half of our life (and Christmases) in PNG.) And I still miss our PNG Christmases! Perhaps if you’ve never lived overseas and not had any of the trappings we’ve grown used to, you may not realize how close you can get to your coworkers and how much fun we can have!

There were no great stores to shop in, no traveling to be done, rarely any Christmas plays or programs or practices, etc. We just had each other. In the Sepik town where we lived there were usually 3 or 4 missionary families nearby at the orientation center.

After only one or two years there, we realized that it’s just TOO HOT for a big Christmas dinner at noon. So we began eating our dinner on Christmas Eve and then had leftovers on Christmas day. That left plenty of time for going to the river (when the boys were small–it’s a pretty shallow river) or walking to the lake or playing volleyball or coming up with numerous other fun games.

We always had fun. No snowboarding of course, but no snow to shovel or drive through either!! We never had a lot of presents and I know the boys missed those some years, but I think we all agree we still had a lot of fun.

But we’re happy we can see our families now. What a blessing that is. At any rate, it’s about HIM anyway, isn’t it?

Please pray for the many people around the world who don’t know Him yet. And pray for these missionaries in training wanting to go and spread the good news!

Janet says that when she started homeschooling our boys she finally figured out what she wanted to be when she grew up–a teacher.  She did get to teach them for a total of 10 years.  She also taught Bible studies, Sunday School and literacy classes in the village, a Consumer Math class at the MK school, etc.  Now she’s getting to try her hand at teaching phonetics.  This involves teaching how to make and write many of the ‘odd’ sounds that are made in other languages.  As you may imagine, English letters just aren’t sufficient to write Chinese, Portuguese or a remote tribal language.  And we certainly can’t make all those strange sounds without a little coaching!

She has a small, interactive class of 9 students, all of whom want to go to a foreign country to either reach a tribe with the gospel, or support missionaries by piloting the planes that take them to their place of service.  She’ll change classrooms every 2 weeks (for a total of 5 ‘blocks’) so she’s happy to get to know most of the students better.  (I’ll start teaching a class in a couple weeks–more on that later…)

Please pray for the students–this is quite stretching for some of them. 

Praise the Lord with us for opportunities we’ve had to encourage the students here and there.  It’s been fun to be able to share some of our PNG experiences with them and see their excitement about getting to the field. 

We moved into our new house the beginning of October.  This is one of the 4-plexes being built at the NTM Missionary Training Center (MTC) to hold all the new staff and students.  It’s great to feel settled and to have space to entertain.  We’ve already had a few house guests and expect more.  Please come visit us if you get the chance!

Another 4-plex is nearing completion and they’re about to lay the foundation for another one.  Continue to pray for safety and finances to carry on this huge project.

Click on ‘photos’ above to see more pictures of the house.

July, 2006

"The Gypsy Life"…that’s what my Dad jokingly referred to when talking about our life as missionaries. And in many ways he’s so right. Missionaries do a lot of moving and I guess we’ve had our share over the past few years…from hot muggy PNG to cold Wisconsin and now hot Missouri (or "Misery" as some locals affectionately call it.) Well, it IS different but it’s definitely not misery! The Lake of the Ozarks area has a beauty all of its own (in spite of all the rocks).

Yes, the lake is definitely the most attractive part to this area. It draws people from all over the country and hopefully it will draw you to come for a visit sometime too! Our new home here at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is right on the Lake of the Ozarks here in Missouri close to Camdenton. Since arriving here in June we have been busy helping out with some projects that need to be done before school starts, one of them being the house we’ll be living in. The construction crew is presently working on 10 housing units that they hope to have done before school starts. With the increased student body and staff needs, many more houses still need to be built. Alan is working on the construction crew (and doing quite a good job I might add!), so it’s been a joy to be able to work with him!

It looks like we’ll be able to sit in on classes the first couple of weeks to brush up on language learning skills. Then Janet will get to help teach part of that course. I will be able to help teach the tribal church-planting course, which I’m greatly looking forward to.

NTM also believes that relationships are very important–here in the training and all the way to the tribes. In view of that, some of the staff have a regular time of discipleship/mentoring with students, along with many casual times together. We’ll both be involved in that team too.

Right now it’s pretty quiet around here, except for hammers and nail-guns, so we’re looking forward to a little more activity when all the staff get back from their travels and 140 students arrive to start classes on August 15.

Janet’s also trying very hard to finish the Romans lessons for the Awana program in Papua New Guinea. She thinks this will be the last installment of the project she began helping with 6 years ago. As always, it’s so exciting to hear how the Lord is using these lessons with the children as well as their parents. And it’s good to be able to still have a part in the work in PNG while here.

In His Service,
Gordon & Janet Wohlgemut

Gordon has had many opportunities to use his skills in Photography to minister to the needs of both staff and students.  It seems there is always someone in the training getting engaged or married and so Gordon has been asked many times if he would do the pictures for the weddings etc.  He also shoots many special events here at the training center and helps many families with portraits for their prayer cards. His photography is also an open door into the lives of many folks in the community, both to serve and to be a witness.  Of course he really enjoys taking his 2 sons Josh and Alan along to help with the pictures or one of the students. You can see some of their work online.  The website is: agapefocus.com