NTM

We Moi people are very strong people, but we die quickly.
The spirits eat us.
They control everything – what we eat, what we hunt, where we build our houses.
The spirits watch us.
We hear them in the wind.
They control the night.
They send centipedes like arrows to bite us and kills us.
They demand that we kill.

The above words are from a video about Awayo, a man from the Moi people of Western Papua.  His story is so much like the stories of many who live here in Papua New Guinea.  If you have the internet means, I would encourage you to watch this video and perhaps share it with a friend.  The message is powerful.  (You can see the video at http://www.ntm.org/video/ ).

It is for people like Awayo that we are here – to give them a chance for freedom and life that can only come through a knowledge of their Creator.   Though we don’t sit in the jungle learning the culture and language, the school we provide for the children makes it possible for those who do sit there day after day.   Though you may not be able to be here meeting the needs of these families, your prayers and financial support make it possible for that to continue.  The body of Christ is an amazing thing!

School is back in session and we are enjoying the opportunity of working with the missionary children of Papua New Guinea.  It is wonderful to walk past the classrooms and to hear the children busy at their latest grammar lesson or learning about some country of the world.  Our classes often stand in a perilous position. While we are fortunate to have a full faculty this year, we have had years where classrooms had students pouring over correspondence courses – no teacher to ask for help, no activities to help them learn and grow.  We continue to pray that God will provide a full faculty for next year, so those quiet correspondence classrooms will not have to exist!  If you know of teachers who are considering offering even a year to serve on the mission field, please encourage them to contact us or look through the information on the New Tribes website (www.ntm.org).  It seems early to be considering this for next year, but preparations for foreign teaching have to be started early.

Happy PNG Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day!

This year was Papua New Guinea’s 34th year independence day celebration.   This is always a fun time for our mission center to reach out to the many national neighbors who live nearby.  Though we have no band this year, several former band members got together to play through the national anthem to help get our day started.  We then had a small parade around our soccer field.  The children decorated their bicycles  and the older students put together a “float”.  Above you can see Timothy’s eighth grade class float.  They had talked to the Coke distributor in Goroka and managed to get t-shirts and caps based on the latest “Brrr” theme for Coke.  (Are they doing this same promotion in the states?)  The kids were thrilled to get new shirts and hats.

Our soccer field was filled with our national neighbors.   Each of the classes at the school made up booths which allowed a small game that usually resulted in winning prizes (some candy or little toys).  Here is a picture of the “Cake Walk”.  This is very popular with our national friends.  Since they usually cook over fires, they don’t get many cakes.  They love to play this game of “musical chairs” to try to win a cake at the end.  We gave out about 25 cakes throughout the day.  Often we would find the empty cake plate sitting around the field.  They cakes don’t last long!

Our neighbors especially like games of skill. Here you can see the sling shot.  You had to try to knock down empty cans using a pebble in the sling shot from a specified distance.  The soccer kick game was also popular – trying to get the soccer ball in a small goal at a specified distance.

The students are very creative with the games they make.  One is a type of pinball game made from nails.  The 7th grade class made little guns that shot rubber bands and had the children try to shoot down plastic men.

Our Independence Day celebration was a lot of fun – and very tiring!  We still had school the next day, so everything was cleaned up and put away by late that afternoon.   It was great to see our students providing our national neighbors with such a fun-filled day!

The book I am reading exhorts Christians to be transparent.   It talks of how our lives need to be clear of all the “self” that clouds and smudges the  ability of God to be seen clearly through us.   As I think of prayer requests, I would pray that we would be transparent – that we could die to all those things in our lives that don’t allow others to see God as who He really is.  We pray God will continue to be able to do the work He desires to do through us each day – without hindrance!