NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

I know we just sent out an update a few days ago, but something just happened today, Sunday, that we wanted to share with you so that you can be praying with us.

In church this morning the lesson was about Paul and Silas and how they were thrown into prison for sharing the good news of Christ and instead of feeling sorry for themselves or blaming God, they chose to focus on Him by singing and praying. You know the story about how God rescued them from prison and used them to lead the jailer and his family to faith in Christ. It was discussed how if Paul and Silas had not been imprisoned then how would the jailer and is family heard the plan of salvation? The Simbari believers were listening very attentively and when the teacher was ready to stop the lesson in the middle of the story because it was getting late, the believers said they really wanted to hear the rest of it. So church went a little long this morning but it was such an encouragement to see the believers clinging to every word and making the applications to their own lives.

While we were in church we did not realize it, but our house was being robbed (for the first time since we’ve been in PNG). As soon as we realized we had been robbed we summoned our Simbari neighbors who came running to help. We told them what had happened and they took off immediately down different trails to try and apprehend the thieves. After awhile a group came back carrying some of our things which had been dropped on the trail as the thieves panicked when they saw people chasing them. Some of the items have been returned but not the thing that concerns us most. Thankfully we rarely encounter situations like this but we found out the instigator of this is already on the run from the police and had just arrived in our area.

There was quite a large crowd of people, many of whom were unbelievers, sitting on our lawn for about two hours as many of them wanted to show their support for us and some were just here to see what would happen. After awhile the Lord laid it on our hearts to go outside with Shari’s guitar and sit on the ground with them, singing songs like Paul and Silas did. We did not want the people to think that our stuff was too important to us, but rather God’s Word and lifting up His name. First, one of the believers shared with the rest of the crowd the story we had just heard in church this morning and then we sang for quite awhile.

We would like to ask you to be praying about this situation, that God would use it to draw people to Himself and cause us and our Simbari brothers and sisters to grow closer to Him. Please pray that we would not experience too many interruptions from the work that God has called us to do here as a result of this.

Thanks so much for praying!

Joyfully in Him,

David and Shari

In the church service this Sunday the believers shared a very exciting answer to prayer.

Ever since completing the outreach in a neighboring village about an hour and a half away, the new believers down there have had the desire to construct a building which can also be used for continued Bible teaching and as a literacy school. However some opposition to the Gospel that sprung up during the outreach has prevented them from being able to have a village-approved meeting place. Since the completion of the outreach some of the believers from that village have been making the rugged hike up to our village every Sunday to worship with their brothers and sisters here but there are many more who would come to hear if we had the teaching in their own village. The believers have been praying together for the Lord to work in the hearts of those who are opposing God’s work and to open the way for the believers in that village to have their own place to meet. This Sunday we heard that approval to build in that village has been granted by the community. They said it was obviously “of God” and that they didn’t want to be opposing His work. So building plans are under way and we are all praising the Lord together for answered prayer.

The bones in Simon’s leg have been healing slowly but surely and he is gaining more and more mobility. Unfortunately the surgery incision site has taken longer to heal and this week he went to the medical clinic to get it checked. The doctor cleaned it well and then put adhesive sutures on the wound to pull the edges together again. He said if it does not do the trick he will have to redo the incision and use surgical sutures to pull it together. So, we would appreciate prayer for complete healing and that there would be no more complications between now and next Fall when we take him back down to Australia to have the steel plate and screws removed. He’s all caught up with schoolwork now and keeps very busy with Junior Class activities and homework.

Esther is living with her aunt and attending a nearby community college. She has been taking a couple of condensed winter classes which have kept her very busy. But it will be good for her to get a couple more credits out of the way before regular classes resume in February. We are hoping she can come to PNG next summer for a visit so we are all excited about that! 

Rachel is doing very well in school and recently made the high honor roll with only five other students from 7-12th grade so we are very proud of her efforts. She loves music and has been volunteering some Sunday mornings to help on the worship team. Recently she was invited to join the adult choir and was very excited about that. There are some other teen girls who sing with them so she won’t be the only one.

Jason has really been enjoying the beautiful sunny days that the Lord has been blessing us with. He loves to be outdoors almost every waking hour so that makes it a bit hard for him to be motivated to do his home schooling. He is a typical boy! He has really taken an interest in a small guitar that Simon received as a gift when he was about the same age. Shari has taught him three chords and he has been practicing those and singing the same song (in Pidgin)  over and over again. He loves to gather a group of Simbari kids outside on the lawn and give them other homemade musical instruments to play. A couple of days ago he must have had about fifteen kids (teen guys too) all around him in a circle as he was playing the guitar and singing with them. We thank the Lord for his outgoing, sweet personality which we know is a real example to these kids who need to hear about Jesus.

We would like to let you know about a need at our missionary medical clinic here in PNG. A donated portable x-ray machine has been received and installed.  Supplies have been purchased and a dark room was built last summer but they need a qualified person to finish setting up the system and teach them how to use it. If you are a qualified x-ray technician who might be able to help please send us a note. The clinic serves hundreds of missionary families all over the field of PNG. Thank you so much for joining us in praying for this need.

We appreciate each one of you and are so thankful for your prayers, support and encouragement.

David, Shari, and family

We had a very special Christmas service with the Simbari believers this week.

After beginning the service with some Simbari worship songs our son, Jason, sang “Away In a Manger” in the trade language while Shari accompanied him on the guitar. Then Lori, Rachel, and Shari sang a couple of other Christmas carols in the trade language. After that was a drama about the birth and life of Christ that the Simbari believers themselves organized and presented. This is the first time they have ever done anything like that and it was done very well. There was a larger crowd than usual at church because a lot of visitors are here now for a big holiday sports tournament. The believers acted out not only the birth of Christ but highlights from His life including one of His miracles, His betrayal, trial, death and resurrection. After that they portrayed a man staggering along carrying a heavy burden of sin and crying out from the weight of it on his shoulders. Then another man playing the part of Jesus came along and lifted the burden of sin and put his arms around him. The two men who were performing the drama were so overcome with the reality of Christ’s sacrifice for them that they had a hard time getting through the drama without crying. While they were acting out the drama, four other believers were in the background humming in four-part harmony the song “At the Cross.” It was the most beautiful song we have heard them sing and several of us were in tears as we listened. After the burden of sin was lifted from the man, both men joined the group who had been humming, and together they began singing the verses of the song. It was such a blessing to celebrate the birth of Christ in such a special way and to be a part of the joy that His birth has brought to this small corner of the world.

We have really enjoyed having Simon and Rachel with us for Christmas break and it will be hard to see them go back to school next week, but they have a lot of activities to look forward to and are always anxious to get back. So that makes it not so hard to say goodbye. We really missed Esther as this was our first Christmas apart, but we have received some great e-mails from her telling about all the things she has been able to do with her aunts, uncles and grandparents during the Christmas season, so it is comforting to us that she can be with them. We have enjoyed having another missionary couple join our team for Christmas and they will be staying a couple of extra weeks at our guest house so they can catch up on some much needed rest.

We just wanted to say thanks for praying for the Simbari mother and baby who fell down the cliff awhile back and were seriously injured. We just heard recently that they are back home and doing well now. The Lord is so good!

We hope you have a Happy New Year and we appreciate your love and prayers for us and the Simbari believers.

Love in Christ,
The Ogg Family

Hi! We just wanted to take a moment and express our deep gratitude for all your prayers and support through this medical situation with Simon. We have been overwhelmed by the financial gifts that have been sent to help out with the extra medical and travel expenses incurred this past month. David was just working on the post-consultant check revisions on Acts and the generous hearts of the early church really stood out right now because we have just seen this exemplified in your sharing of this burden with us. Simon has been doing well since the surgery but is having to work extra hard now to get caught up on his school work.

Thanks too for praying for the Simbari woman and her baby who fell down the cliff. We are very happy to say that they are both still living and it seems they are getting better every day. The baby did indeed have a cracked skull, but regained consciousness and is eating and drinking. The mother’s head wound got infected so the doctors are waiting for the infection to go away before they stitch it up. But it sounds like both of them are doing well considering their close brush with death. The woman’s husband hiked out to town and is now with his family so that is good. There has been a lot of "trail talk" (rumors) going on about them, and some have even been told that the baby died, so it has been good to have one of our missionaries at our regional center near town calling the hospital every other day or so to get reports and then pass them on to us. The grandmother of the baby hiked over to our village yesterday and was quite distraught thinking her grandbaby had died, but was very relieved to hear that it was just a false rumor.

Today is our co-worker, Lori’s birthday so I am busy getting a special dinner and dessert put together for her. Lori’s cat, Daisy has been expecting kittens and we thought it would be so neat if they arrived on her birthday. Well, guess what! Daisy had three kittens this morning and they are cute tabby cats like their mother. It just amazes me that the Lord cares so much about every detail in our lives and delights in showing His love to us in the small things too. It is especially meaningful for Lori because this past year when we were all in the U.S. on home assignment, Lori’s beloved cat, "Computer," was killed by some village dogs and it really devastated her.

Jason was really happy when I let him spend the morning at Lori’s house observing for the first time the birth of kittens. Talk about a wonderful science lesson!

Well, that’s all for now. Just wanted to thank you for your continued prayers for our family and the Simbari people.

With love in Him,

Shari for the family

Hi! We just wanted to say thank you so much for your prayers and concern for Simon and our family during this tough time. We praise the Lord for His tender care over Simon and for giving the surgeons in Australia wisdom during his surgery.

Simon had a metal plate and twelve screws put in his smaller leg bone right above the ankle and will have those for a year unless there is a problem with infection. The doctor told him he would need to have the cast on for six weeks and then physical therapy begins. So, it will not be an easy time for him having to lay off the physical activities, but we are praying that the Lord would use this time to draw Simon closer to Himself. Thanks for your continued prayers for his healing. David and Simon flew back up to PNG on Sunday and Simon was able to be back in school on Monday. David flew home to the bush today so we’re all happy to be together again. We have been apart a lot this past month, but the Lord has sustained us and comforted us and we praise Him for that.

Sunday morning, church was packed and Raymond taught the lesson in Acts 6,7 about Steven’s message right before he was martyred. There were some neat comments afterwards and I also shared briefly how my heart was very encouraged when I read ch. 7 verse 56 about how Steven saw Jesus “standing” at the right hand of God, and how when His people suffer, Jesus isn’t just sitting down relaxing, He stands up and takes notice of our pain. Please pray for the believers as they go around visiting different homes in the villages around us this week. They really have a burden for those who don’t have a personal relationship with Christ and are without the hope of eternal life.

On Sunday afternoon we had some unwanted excitement just as Lori and I were sitting down to relax and do some card stamping at my house. A large crowd showed up with a toddler who had fallen down a cliff while the mother was working in her garden. The toddler was unconscious, his head was swollen, and his pupils were not dilating. Then the mother walked up and she had a huge gaping head wound with the skull exposed, and two other deep wounds, one on her hand and one on her leg. They said when the toddler fell down the cliff (about 30 metres), the mother went scrambling after him and fell down the cliff as well, getting severe wounds on the way down from the sharp branches sticking out of the ground. I had never worked on such a terrible head wound before, and it was pretty scary. But I worked on cleaning and bandaging her head while Lori worked on her leg and hand. I then talked to our doctor on the radio to find out what we should do about the mother and her unconscious baby. He said there is not much we could do other than to get the baby and the mother out to the Goroka hospital. The woman, her baby, and her husband, stayed at Raymond’s house on Sunday night and the believers all gathered together there to pray for and share the gospel with them. The next morning our mission plane came in and took them out to Goroka, but it didn’t look like the baby was going to make it. Please pray that the doctors in town would not give up on him but try to save his life, and that the parents would come to know Christ through this deep trial. This is their only child.

Thanks again for your prayers for us and our ministry. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love in Christ,

Shari for the family

Simon made it out of surgery late today. We went in at 11am to prepare for a 1pm surgery but the surgery didn’t start until around 4pm. So after waiting for 5 hours Simon put on a nice lavender hospital gown and went into the operation theater. I’m not sure exactly how long the surgery took yet because he went to another recovery room before he came to the room where I was waiting. He got there about 6:30 pm. And was a little groggy at first but starting clearing up quickly. I don’t have a report from the doctor because it was late and didn’t get a chance to talk to him after the surgery. But Simon looks good we want to thank you for praying. We’ll update you you when we know more ourselves.

Just thought we’d update you about Simon and David.

Their medical visas were obtained in a very short time, PTL. They made it to Cairns, Australia Thursday night and saw the doctor Friday. (On Fridays the doctor is in his office for consultations and so they made it in time to see him at his office before the weekend and in time for the earliest possible surgery) After more x-rays the orthopedist recommended that Simon’s fractures be treated with internal fixation. (a plate) If treated only with an external cast then the potentially unstable fractures could still move and would need constant monitoring over the next 4-6 weeks. So the doctor felt the better option would be to insert a plate to secure the bones in place to guarantee they won’t move during the healing process. So he is scheduled for surgery at 1pm on Monday morning. He’ll be in the hospital overnight.

We would really appreciate your continued prayers for Simon and that there would be no complications with the surgery. The risks being the general anesthetic and infection. Please pray also for Jason and I as we return to the tribe on Monday and for Rachel as she stays here at the mission school till Christmas break. She is doing fine about me going back now, and is enjoying some fun activities with her friends and classmates.

Thanks again for you love and prayers!

Shari for the family