We were paying for the trip with our tax return money and never even thought about asking God if He wanted it paid for a different way.  Well all along the way people and churches kept giving us surprise gifts.  When we figured it all up, we found that God had paid for our entire trip and all expenses associated with it, plus we had $100 extra left over.  What a cool blessing!  Thanks God!

Tomorrow (March 24th) is my due date but it looks like it may come and go without incident.

I’d like to ask you to pray that I won’t have to be induced.  With Samuel I was induced 10 days late and my doctor is loathe to let me go that late with this one seeing as how he is estimated to be born weighing 10.5-11 pounds.  Oh yikes!

But I just firmly believe that God made our bodies to do what they’re supposed to do and I hate to interfere.  On the other hand, I hate to go against my doctor’s advice since he’s the one with the training and experience.  The last thing I’d want is to hurt this little one.

So would you please just pray that I’ll go into labor on my own and we’ll never even have to mess with the induction stuff?  Thank you!

Lights are really starting to go on among the people.

Saxun said, "we all have a problem between us and
God. We think we’re good and we try to do good things to please God, but we still have sin between us and God, and He can’t accept us. We need to get this problem straightened out first…"

Danbinim said, "We have a big problem between us and God – sin!"

This week Karl (the missionary teaching) asked, "If I do good, if I try to keep all the commands in the Bible, if I do this, if I do that, who am I putting my trust in as the "Road"?" We heard a rather confident voice come from Daruru saying, "just you!"

We are excited to see the people starting to get it! There are still others that waver back and forth. Satan is trying to keep them confused. Their religious background has told them that they can be good enough for God. 

Mark 4:15 "When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts." Please pray fervently that the Lord would protect His truth that has been sown in their hearts and that Satan would be kept from confusing the Madak people. They are still trying to figure out how doing good things can remove the sin. Pray that the Lord would break through the religious blindfolds that Satan has kept on them for so many years. 

Thank you for your fervent prayers!  Pray for the TRUTH to been heard and accepted!

What is more amazing is that prior to the literacy program and the gospel presentation in 2007, they had been illiterate and in complete spiritual darkness. Because their language had never been written down before, they had been trapped in their tribal superstitions and were ignorant of the message God had passed down for them in the Bible concerning the gospel.

In 2004, as we moved into the village and began the process of language learning we were so thankful for training we received through the NTM training centers. In this village, there was no dictionary to turn to. The people couldnʼt tutor us as they themselves were unaware of the patterns in grammar and phonetics that made up their every day way of communicating. Even the way they thought and interpreted life was completely foreign to us. We were completely dependent upon the Lord to open our minds and show us how to proceed.

M. David Sills in his book, The Missionary Call, he quotes Ralph D. Winter, “God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not have.” We saw this to be so true as we began the process of trying to understand the culture and language. The Lord did not give us ideas and plans from thin air or mystically come and inspire us. The Lord used our minds and the time we invested into being learners throughout the training as the substance to work with as he guided us through the Holy Spirit to do the work that He had sent us there to do.

Everything we learned in the training was crucial. All the little sounds we were hearing in the tribal language needed to be analyzed and written down into understandable symbols. The grammar structure also had to be analyzed so we could understand what was being communicated. When it came time to write an alphabet, we were able to use the training in forming new orthographies that we had received. It was not easy, but again, the Lord prepared us in advance with the knowledge required and then brought all the information back to the forefront of our minds when we needed it.

Sometimes we get so busy in what we are doing that we forget to stop and look back and remember how the Lord has worked in our lives to equip us for the work He is doing through us. In light of that, we want to stop and thank the Lord for the great cross-cultural mission training we received through New Tribes Mission. We want to especially thank the staff that works at the training centers for the time they give to equip new generations of missionaries and for passing on their life stories and examples to those of us who are able to take and apply those principles to our own new works.

We are also thankful for those who prayerfully and financially support these trainers and teachers as they work stateside. Their jobs may not be taking place on foreign soil, but they are no less impacting the world of tribal missions as their thoughts and ideas are spread throughout the world as they are implemented by the NTM students in many countries.The Lord is truly using them to give missionaries the tools they need to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

-Written by Bill and Kelley Housley, serving with NTM in Papua New Guinea.
You can receive their updates by requesting them at pilgrimspa@aol.com.