NTM

Although this last term of school was been very busy, our family had a few chances to leave campus and do a few things with some of our national friends.

Our friend Jenny who helps Kristen with household tasks on a weekly basis invited us to go to a rugby match in town a few weeks back. Her husband plays for one of the local PNG teams and we were able to go with Jenny and some of her family members to watch him play. Karl enjoyed learning more about how the game of rugby is played, the girls made some new friends and Kristen enjoyed spending time with Jenny outside of the house without chores to accomplish.

The other fun event we were able to attend was a birthday party for Jenny’s niece. In PNG, children’s first birthdays are big celebrations and Jenny’s niece, Gracie’s party was certainly no exception! Jenny lives in a tribe across the street from the center we live on so on the day of the party we put on our hiking gear instead of our party clothes to go to the celebration. When we arrived at Jenny’s house, she gave us a little tour of her property and we were able to meet her six year old daughter and a few of her other relatives. She lives right in front of a river and is in the process of building a new house a little bit further away from it because her family has had a couple of scary moments during the past rainy season when the river rose almost high enough to flood their current home.

We then found out that the party was going to take place across the river at a different location so we all took turns loading up on a “gumi” tube to cross the river. Since there is no graceful way to do this it was quite a funny event to watch! We all eventually did get across the river and then hiked a ways to get to the party. Along the way, we were able to see Jenny’s vegetable and coffee gardens and her pigs. One of her pigs is currently expecting babies and our girls cannot wait to go back to see the piglets when they are born! We eventually arrived at the party and met the adorable little guest of honor, “Gracie” along with many other friends and relatives of Jenny’s. The food at this party was a bit different from kids’ birthday parties we usually attend to say the least….forget grilled hamburgers, potato chips, and fruit snacks. We had bamboo cooked chicken, kau kau (sweet potatoes), and fried bananas. It was actually very tasty and even the girls were willing to try a few things. After visiting for awhile and playing with Gracie, we hiked, “gumied”, and walked back to our house…a tiring but very fun day!

We had the opportunity to spend the weekend at another NTM campus just a few miles up the road from where we are located.

The purpose of the weekend was to become a little bit more oriented with the goals of NTM PNG and to get to know other missionaries who are fairly new to the field. We loaded up our luggage and ourselves onto a canvas covered truck – known as a PMV (public motor vehicle) and proceeded on a very bumpy ride to our destination. Our kids thought the ride was great and would prefer we travel that way all of the time. When we arrived ,we were directed to our cabins which were made of “pit-pit” walls (a woven bamboo type material) and consisted of 2 sets of bunk beds and not much else. The accommodations were about as close to camping as Kristen would like to get! Despite the fact that she couldn’t dry her hair all weekend which would normally make her very crabby, we all had a wonderful time. We had the opportunity to listen to several veteran missionaries speak on a variety of subjects and had many opportunities to talk to them one on one. There was also plenty of time for games, great conversations, and naps throughout the weekend and we were grateful for a time of rest and refreshment.

This particular campus of NTM runs programs for college age students three or four different times a year. The sessions last for about six weeks each and the goal of the program is to give students a real picture of what full time missions looks like. There is a wonderful video and more information about this particular program at www.ntm.org/video/

"Karl, the pastor just asked if you would like to share your testimony"

I knew I was in trouble when my colleague, with a gleeful smirk on his face, leaned over to tell me this. In that moment,  I entered into two different unexplored territories for me.  First, I generally never speak in front of people  without thinking, preparing and sweating about the topic I am going to cover.  Secondly, this is the first time I had to speak through an interpreter – and he did not quite have a mastery of English.  Needless to say, there were times when both of us lost our train of thought. 

We have twice attended a national church in town which uses the trade language that we are trying to learn. It is difficult as there are few words that we actually understand. Sitting through a long service, we heard the word for food – kaikai – numerous times and were starting to get a bit hungry. Afterwards, when able to question why we kept hearing that word, our friends explained that they use the metaphor of “good food to eat” when talking about the Word of God. Hopefully, our continued study will enable us to understand a bit more.

NCA is in need of teachers in science, history, and grade level elementary teachers.  This school year we did not have to offer ANY coorespondence courses but it looks as if we may need to next year.  Please pray for teachers to come.  If you are interested, please click on the "Go" tab above and contact NTM.

Also, continue to lift up the helicopter situation here as it seems the situation will not be resolved for several months.  Fortunately, we do have access to a helicopter through the another mission agency but it is a much more expensive avenue than having our own.  The church planters who need it to get in an out of the tribes are the ones who bear the brunt of the additional costs.

Please pray for us as we continue to learn the trade language.  It gets increasingly difficult to have the self discipline to study as we involve ourselves more and more in the needs of the center.  Pray for continued times to use "Tok Pisin" and for the fortitude to keep studying.

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas from Papua New Guinea! As we write this letter, it is 85 degrees, all the trees are lush green and we have poinsettia bushes thriving outside of our home, not in pots wrapped in tin foil. We are not in Connecticut anymore!

As we reflect back on the past year and the journey the Lord has had us on to PNG, our hearts are joy filled because we are able to testify that He has been our strength and our shield. We have never been more acutely aware that only by His power, grace, and mercy do we have life and breath, and that He sustains us through each day. As we celebrate our Savior’s birth in this very different place, developing new relationships, and at the very beginning of a new ministry, we are especially grateful this year that our God does not change. We are also very thankful for you. Your prayers, emails, packages, financial support and all of the many other ways you have partnered with us have taught us so many lessons about how the body of Christ works. Thank you for being such faithful servants in Christ Jesus.

One of the benefits we have living here on the support center is that there are often church planters visiting for a variety of reasons (medical appointments, visiting their children, or just taking a time of rest). We have much opportunity to interact with them and hear about the tribal works they are involved in.

I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago to sit with one of these church planters who was on our center for a short time. I was able to talk with him for a few hours as we watched his son (whom I have in my Algebra 2 class) play soccer and got a chance to better understand the enormous task it is to translate scripture into the “heart language” of people. The layers involved in this process are too numerous to describe here but beyond the concrete, physical difficulties, he asked for prayer in an area that is not related to the process.

In beginning to translate Romans into the Hewa language, the difficulty is the content. Up to this point, the translation has covered a narrative of events (creation through Exodus, life of Christ, the book of Acts) which tribal people can easily relate to as they have a long history of “story-telling”. But the people from this tribe have never before been involved with argumentation, building a point based on logical foundations and evidence. Can you imagine the difficulty of this task? The church planter made a statement I will never forget – “It is not humanly possible to complete that task”. Praise God it is not left to our abilities, but to Him who provides life, equips his workers and blesses faithfulness.

Pray for the Hewa tribe in the highlands of PNG as the church planters lay the foundation in the hearts of the people there to receive the wonderful and piercing words found in the book of Romans.