Our Team - From left to right - Allens, Parrys and Hattons

We are very joyful, thankful and praising the Lord that He has recently answered that prayer!!!  We know many of you were praying for us specifically over the past several weeks as the Hatton and Parry families traveled to our center in the Madang region for more concentrated meetings to determine if our families should form a team together.  Thank you very much!  We had many full days of spending lots of time together as families, eating meals together and having important discussions on topics that often tend to cause problems on teams.   In general, we enjoyed time to just get to know each other better.   By the end of the 9 days, we were all confident that the Lord was leading us to work together!  Please praise the Lord with us for His direction!

Please continue to pray for us as we move ahead as a team.  What’s next?  Since we live in different  parts of PNG, the next major hurdle is figuring out a time and place when we can get together again to talk about team strategy and make plans for moving into a tribe.  The big decision that we need to make is regarding the tribal group in which to locate!!  The needs that remain in this country are great and we need the Lord’s wisdom as we narrow down the choices.  We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

January 2012 newsletter-web

God's Word in the Gende language

The picture here doesn’t mean much to the vast majority of people in the world.  But for a small group of people in the Gende tribe tucked away in the rugged mountains of PNG,  it means the world – it is a portion of God’s Word in their language!   One of those Gende people is a young woman named Agnes.

Many of you have been praying for Agnes (read this earlier post for more on Agnes), whom we go to visit in prison.  Thank you so much!!  We asked you to pray for her salvation so we wanted to give you an update about our last visit with her.

Usually when we go to visit Agnes, we are given 30 minutes with her and then the warden tells us that our time is up and we have to go.   Since our time usually seems to go very fast, on our most recent visit we got right to talking about the Bible lessons and Scripture that we had given her last time to study.  (Without any explanation, this time the warden gave us almost an hour with Agnes!)  Now just in case you are unfamiliar with the typical New Tribes method, here’s a short explanation.  After years of working with animistic tribal people, it has been proven again and again that in order for these people to truly understand the message of the Gospel they have to be given the proper foundation starting in Genesis. Without an understanding of God, sin, substitution and many other key doctrines found in the Old Testament, they will very easily just add Jesus to their list of “spirits” that they need to appease.  So, the lessons and corresponding Scripture that the missionaries in the Gende tribe gave us to pass on to Agnes is just that – foundational teaching starting in Genesis and leading up to Christ.  For the last several weeks, Agnes has been reading and studying these lessons.

Here’s another little side note to help you understand a bit more about the culture here.  It is very common in PNG for people to say what they think you want them to say in order to please you.  That’s not too hard to believe since appeasing the spirit world is at the core of their worldview.  We have also heard that prisoners are encouraged to “repent” and change their ways while in prison.  And if a person thinks that saying the “right thing” will bring them some benefit, they will not hesitate to do so.

So, these things are in the back of our minds as we sit and talk with Agnes.  We also know that only the Lord truly knows her heart.  But, from our most recent conversation with Agnes, we believe that she does understand salvation and has been taken from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Light.  Praise the Lord!! But will you please continue to pray for Agnes?  Prison is a tough and lonely place.  Please pray that she will grow in her new faith and be a light to those around her.  And please pray for us as we continue to go visit her and take her more Bible lessons and Scripture in her language.

Would Agnes have studied God’s Word like this if she had not been sent to prison?  We don’t know the answer to that.  Maybe prison was exactly the place she needed to be in order for God to get her attention.  And we’re thankful that the Lord has allowed our family to have a part in Agnes hearing and understanding the Good News of salvation.

As we approached our most recent meetings with the team, we were asking the Lord (among other things) to give us encouragement and peace about moving ahead. He did exactly the opposite.  Without going into a lot of detail, in the days following our first meeting, the Lord was showing us that His answer was “no”.  We then began praying that the Lord would confirm that this was His will by having the other two couples come to us thinking the same thing. When we met again, we were all in agreement that it would not be wise to move ahead with us joining this team!

So, on one hand, we are disappointed that we will have to wait longer to get into a tribal work, but on the other hand, we are rejoicing for yet more evidence that our Father hears and answers when we cry out to Him for wisdom and direction. We may not know right now what tribe He wants us to work in, but we know that if the Lord said “no” to this opportunity, then He must have something better in store for us.   And in the meantime, the Lord is using us here on our NTM center to help support those missionaries who are already working in tribal locations.

Thank you again for praying with us regarding this decision. We are humbled, encouraged and blessed to have such a great support team who faithfully prays for us and the work the Lord is doing here in Papua New Guinea. Please rejoice with us that the Lord has answered and also continue to pray with us as we seek the Lord and take steps toward finding a team and tribe in which to work. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” The Lord has been faithful to direct our path up until now. We know He will continue to show us what He has in store for us!

Doesn't he look excited?

Now we’re just waiting for his entry permit (visa) for Papua New Guinea and we’ll be all set for our return on May 11.

Here are few photos of our trip:

One last photo in PNG - waiting for the New Tribes plane that took us to Australia

Luke stuffed in the back of the C-90 with the luggage!

On a new continent - enjoying a day in Cairns, Australia

Welcomed back by family and friends at the Pittsburgh airport

On our first Sunday back at our home church

A few funny things that have happened since we’ve been back:

- Bart having to consciously keep to the right side of the road while driving

- Titus talking in his sleep – in Pidgin!

- Luke being excited to find coins on the floor at Walmart and other stores

- Emily finding out that Walmart in our town no longer carries maternity clothes – we had to travel 45 minutes to find a store that did!

It’s good to be home again.  Now that we are all sleeping/being awake at the correct times, things are feeling more normal!

We just wanted to let you know that the two families are now moved in to the tribe and are getting adjusted to life there. Bart even had the chance to go into the tribe for a few days to help with some building projects in their houses!   To see more photos, visit our recently updated photo page.

First visit to a tribe

Thanks for praying!  Through your prayers, you have a part in the spread of the Gospel to unreached tribal people!

1. Titus recently had another doctor’s appointment with the hip specialist in Erie. They confirmed that he does indeed have Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. Although the x-ray looked worse this time, that was actually good news! The ball of his hip had deteriorated and indications are that his body is now cleaning up the fragments of dead bone. The ball can now begin to regrow. Because he has this at such a young age (usually it shows up around age 7 or 8), the prognosis is very good. He is not experiencing any pain and the doctor sees no problem with us leaving for Papua New Guinea this fall. We were praying for a clear answer from this visit and so we are praising the Lord for that.

2. Just yesterday we received our visas for PNG!!!!! We didn’t expect any problems in receiving them, but it is good to have our passports back in our hands. That is the last official thing that we were waiting for in order to leave for PNG. Praise the Lord!

3. We are now at 75% of our needed monthly support! One of our supporting churches recently raised our support and another family committed to joining our support team as well. Just 10% more until we reach the goal in our departure criteria at which we could buy our tickets. It is very exciting to watch the Lord continue to provide. We have seen amazing answers to prayer.

Please join us in praising the Lord about these matters! And would you also continue to pray that we would have the necessary support in order to leave for PNG the first of September?   Thank you!!

For some interesting listening, check out these radio spots that New Tribes has produced. http://www.ntm.org/listen/index.php?all=1 We’d love to hear what you think!

We just wanted to update everyone on the status of our crate and lockers that we shipped off to California about 3 weeks ago. 

Praise the Lord, everything made it to the shipping company in good condition.  It is now sitting there waiting to be loaded on a 20 ft. container that will go directly to the Madang region where we are headed.

Several other missionaries are also shipping things on this container.  It could take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to arrive – maybe even longer.  We continue to pray that we will make it to PNG before our stuff does!!

Friday was the big day!  After several weeks, we finally finished buying and packing all of the things we needed to ship to Papua New Guinea.  There are probably things we forgot, but it’s too late now!!

The truck came on Friday May 29 and we loaded our crate and 5 pallets of storage lockers.  Our things are now on the way to California where they will be put onto a container that is headed for PNG.  It may take the container 3 – 6 months (or longer) to make it to PNG.  Anyone want to take a guess which will be there first – us or our stuff?

Thanks for praying for us.  It was a big job to try to determine what we would need for the coming years in PNG.  Did we buy the right sizes of clothing for the boys?  Did we take the right tools?  Did we pack enough underwear and socks?

This whole effort of packing and sending our things ahead of us made us realize that we really are going to be leaving for PNG soon. It was also a step of faith as we are trusting the Lord to see our support continue to increase so we can leave for the field this fall.

Will you continue to pray that more churches and individuals will desire to partner with us in reaching the unreached in Papua New Guinea?