NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Life back in PNG…we are adjusting well and are enjoying being back here focused on the specific mission God has assigned us. We consider it a privilege to have the unique opportunity of serving God on the foreign mission field, especially a place such as Papua New Guinea. I wanted to take a moment to share a special story about Annie. A week or two ago, Annie came up to me and said, “Dad, can we go to the village this morning? I want to find some kids to play with and I want to show them pictures of God.” I asked her what she meant and she had packed her little pink back pack with a children’s picture Bible, a few other of her favorite books and a few small toys. I was already planning on hanging out in the village that morning so within a few minutes we were on our way. It was about mid-morning and most of the people were in their gardens, in town, or some of the kids had walked to a school several miles away. The first two villages we came to we didn’t see any kids. She wanted to keep walking to Krovie where we were certain to find a few kids. This village is also know as “kids corner” and it’s about a half mile walk from our house. She was very motivated and was chugging along ahead of me. Anyway, we found a few people and kid who was about Annie’s age named Mopo. Annie sat down next to them and I sat down about 10 yards away with one of my buddies who happened to be in the area as well. I was working on learning Bena and Annie was sitting with Mopo and her mom. She first went through the children’s Bible and the mother was turning the pages and they looked through every page in that Bible. After that they looked at a few more books and both Mopo and her mother were thoroughly intrigued by the books. Some more time passed and then Annie got out her toy animals and played with them. She also had a kaleidoscope that they got a kick out of as well. When they were done playing Mopo asked if she could take Annie to her garden. They went to the garden and I followed a few minutes behind. Then all at once Annie said, “I am ready to go now”…the mission changed…the sun began to get hot..Annie is like my mom and when the sun gets hot it zaps her and seeking relief immediately is the best bet! So we took the bush route which seems to be a little cooler and more entertaining than the dirt road. We were in the village for a few hours and Annie and I both enjoyed our time. She has such a great heart and the sights, smells, differences, and ways of life have no bearing on Annie’s love for people…she doesn’t have any judgmental filters yet that somewhere along the lines we get as we grow up. For her, living and engaging with these people is a normal way of life.

Gracie and Malachi started school recently at Numonohi Christian Academy. (Annie was sure she was going to school too. Needless to say she was very disappointed to be riding home with Drew and I after dropping the other two off the first day.) They actually just finished their first full week of school this past Friday. They are doing really well with the adjustment of starting a new school and schedule. They are tired, but hanging in there. It makes for a long day for them as they get on the school run at 7:00 a.m. and return around 3:45 p.m. All of the kids that live here at ITF ride to school and back together. The men on campus take turns driving them back and forth. It’s about a 30 minute commute when our road is in good condition.

The kids are really enjoying the time they get to spend with other kids during class and especially at recess. Gracie is loving art and Malachi is especially thrilled with a class called P.E. It is an amazing new discovery for him.

Our summer has winded down here at ITF as our last set of students headed home last weekend. We had such a great time with all of them! It was so neat to be a part of the life change that took place in many of them. We’re looking forward to heading home ourselves here in a few short weeks! We have purchased our tickets and will be home September 14. We hope to see as many of you as possible while we’re home. We’ll be staying with my parents for the duration. I never imagined living with my parents so much as an adult. They must be feeling a little like the Cosby’s on the Cosby shows where their kids would keep moving back in with them. It’s a good thing we bring grand kids with us to sweeten them up with! Thanks Mom and Dad! Someday we’ll grow up and have a place of our own…maybe in Heaven.

A Cup Of Afternoon Coffee

A few days ago our friend Micheal brought us a bag of dried coffee beans his family had picked from their coffee garden. He asked if Drew would like to roast them. So today Drew roasted them in our oven. This afternoon Micheal came over and Drew ground the beans and made some coffee for the two of them. Micheal thought it was very strong so he added four or five heaping spoonfuls of sugar to his. I guess Drew is use to drinking strong black coffee. He thought it was a little strong, but good. It just made me think – what a unique cup of afternoon coffee they are having together. Micheal picked it from his own coffee trees and put it through his machine to get the skin off. Then he dried it in the sun for a few days and gave it to Drew. Drew put it in our oven and roasted it and ground it up in the coffee grinder and brood it in our coffee press. In a strange way it reminded me of the body of Christ. We all have different ways we serve in the body to get to the end result of glorifying God. Just like Micheal and Drew worked in different ways to get to the end result of a cup of coffee. Drew doesn’t have access to a coffee garden or machine that takes the skin off of coffee beans and Micheal doesn’t have access to a gas stove or coffee bean grinder. But, putting what they have together made for a pretty cool cup of afternoon coffee and some good fellowship. So many people share afternoon cups of coffee or tea around the world. This is just one of a million.

Please continue to pray for the Bena believers. They are young in their faith and desire to grow, but have little access to the Word and teaching. Your prayers can be a small part of helping these new believers grow in their faith. When you pick up your complete copy of the Bible in your own language please remember to pray for those all over the world that don’t have that gift.

Last weekend our family took a side trip with the students to another tribe/language group. Saturday morning we drove to a place called Yagaria. We loaded up the canter and 2 cruisers with most of our staff and all of the students. We parked our cars in a small mission center and then loaded into a PMV (public motor vehicle). The PMV took us a few miles up the mountain to a walking trail/road. The road went straight up into the mountains. Thank goodness a national lady picked up Annie as soon as our feet hit the ground. She carried her all the way up to the village for us. I wish I could explain the hike to the village it was so muddy and steep! We were slipping and falling all the way up. We gave all the nationals some really good laughs along the way. Our purpose for going to the village was to witness a baptism celebration. It was a huge celebration for them. They sang and danced before the baptism and as each believer was baptized the people would clap and cheer. It was so encouraging to see a group of believers excited to share their testimonies and share in the celebration together as the body of Christ. What a privilege to get to celebrate with them! We may speak a different language, have a different skin color and come from a different culture and country, but we are all from the same family in Christ. After the baptism we headed back down the mountain and back to the where we parked our vehicles. We loaded up our belongings (back-packs and sleeping bags) and headed out on yet another muddy and challenging hike to a small village.  The nationals there called it Muddy Mosquito. We were covered in mud from our knees down by the time we finally arrived. I kind of reminded me of my sister Jodi’s wedding. Except there was no cheesecake or buffet line waiting for us at the end. ☺ There was also no running water or bathrooms to wash up in. The ladies bunked up in a bush type meeting house and the guys slept on the floor of the church building. The bush house was actually pretty nice and clean inside and had a raised platform for us to sleep on. In the morning the pastors wife and a few other ladies made us a breakfast of rice, greens, magi noodles and tin fish. Mmm…. The men started preparing for a mumu we were going to eat for lunch after church. After breakfast the national ladies wanted to take the ladies in our group to their washing spot to wash up in before church. I was exhausted, but they said it was a really nice waterfall and it wasn’t very far away at all. They kept saying Em i klostu. Em i klostu. Which is supposed to mean it’s really close to here. For them it probably does seem close to the village, but to us it was a serious hike up the mountain and back down the backside to find the waterfall that they wash in. It was a beautiful waterfall, but by the time we got back to the church I was past the point of thinking this is such a fun exciting adventure and to the point of tears. Thank goodness God is so gracious with us and gives us the grace and strength we need when we have none left inside ourselves. We attended the church service there, which was another big encouragement to us. We sat on the floor as the congregation sang worship songs acapella. It was beautifully simple. We feel so privileged to get to witness these things in person. I can only imagine what it will be like in heaven when every tribe, tongue and nation is worshiping God together.

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7: 9-10

This session Drew and I have had the privilege of taking the students on planned exposure times. We plan a specific cultural experience and then take the students out on it. Our first exposure was taking them to pick coffee and showing them how the people here pick it, clean it, dry it and sell it. On the second exposure we helped Uriso plant kau kau (sweet potatoes) in one of her gardens. First we had to clear the weeds and dead grass away. Next we built up small mountains in the dirt called mountain kau kau’s. Then we planted the leaves from already existing kau kau plants. Kau kau is the staple food for those living in the highlands of PNG. So planting and harvesting it is a huge part of their culture. It was a lot of fun working in the garden with the students and helping Uriso plant a few berets of her garden. On our third exposure we went on a long hike to a far away garden. Along the way we hiked through other vegetable gardens and huge coffee gardens. At one point we were lucky enough to see some wild parrots flying above us in the trees. We stopped for a little break to cut down a very large banana tree. (This is one of Drew’s favorite things to do with a bush knife.) The students all took turns hitting the tree trunk with the bush knife. It reminded me of a line of kids waiting to hit the piñata at a birthday party. Once we made it to the garden the ladies pulled weeds and the guys cut back some kuni grass. We also snacked on some fresh cucumber we found under the weeds. After a bit of work we headed back to ITF. We were excited for the students to see the land and how far many villagers go to get food from their gardens at times. Usually a family will have 2 to 4 gardens in various places. One or two may be close by their home and the other one or two will be a much farther distance. Our final exposure took place this week. We thought it would be neat to have the students experience the way the villagers around us get their water everyday. So we headed up to the village and asked people if we could fill their water containers for them. They loved it! Most have a few larger 5 gallon buckets and then a few smaller containers. So we took the empty containers to the local water hole and filled them up then brought them back to the people. We have 3 main water holes within the villages near by. The students were able to see all 3 and make good use of them. We were so happy to be a help to our neighbors and in turn show the students what it takes for them to get their water each day. Even Kari got to come along this time!

Last week was a busy week for our family here at Interface. Along with starting the second session, we had our last week of school. Our last day was on Friday and we celebrated with painting and cupcakes! The kids painted pictures of their favorite part of school this year and we decorated chocolate cupcakes with a few friends.

I feel pretty good about the fact that we all survived a year of home schooling. I’m going to be honest with you. There were some really hard moments throughout the year. Moments where my eyes would cross and my tongue would hang out of my mouth unconsciously. Moments where I hid in the pantry eating every piece of chocolate I could find. But, we did it- we conquered this challenge together and I am thankful the kids and I had the opportunity. There were also some pretty cool moments throughout the year. Malachi didn’t know any of his letters before we started this year. Now he is reading books! Gracie was able to point out 3-4 countries on the world map and now she can point out nearly every country! They can both recite all of Psalm 139. There are many other accomplishments I could list for them, but I think you get the fact that I am one proud mama!

I hope to continue working on things with them throughout the summer. Gracie and Malachi will start school at Numinoi Christian Academy this fall. Gracie will be in 3rd grade and Malachi will be in 1st grade. While we are home to have the baby, they will be attending Jefferson Elementary. It will be another year of adjustments for our family. We’re confident God will be nothing less than graceful with us.

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The Students are here!! We have officially started our 2nd Interface session for the year. We picked up the 11 students from the airport in Goroka at the beginning of this week. They all looked very tired from traveling for 3 days straight. They have been sitting through culture, language and Bible classes all week. Yesterday they were finally able to get up into the village. They will have about 2 hours of village time each day.

Today Drew and I took them up to the village to learn how coffee is picked and prepared to be sold in town. We went with a village friend to his coffee garden and we all worked on filling a bag with mau (ripe) coffee beans. After picking the coffee we went back to his house to put them through a machine that removes the skin off of the beans. It is cranked by hand so the skin falls out the

back while the beans fall out the front and are caught in a bag. After removing the skin the beans are washed and then spread out in the sun to dry for 3 days. After drying it they bag it up and take it to town to sell to the local coffee factories. So next time you see a bag of Papua New Guinea coffee at your local coffee shop – who knows it may have been hand picked by me or Drew!

We’d like to ask you to be praying for these students and their time here at Interface. Please be praying that the Lord would stir their hearts for missions and raise up more laborers out of this group, and most importantly for their growth in their walk with Christ. Here is a list of the students so you can be praying for them by name if you’d like. (Katrina, Brooke, Whitney, Philip, Jamie, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mark, Caitlin, Dustin and Abigail.)

Also, please be praying for the staff here at Interface. The program is very consuming and leaves little time for rest for many of us. We count it a great privilege to be a part of this program and the work God is doing here. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We couldn’t be doing this with out you.

We recently had my parents here for a visit in February.  We had such a great time with them!  The anticipation of them coming was beyond words and those first hugs were priceless!  The kids had an awesome time with their Nana and Papa.  They were hardly separated from them the whole time they were here!

We are so thankful for the quality time we were able to spend with them.  It’s not often you get to spend time with family with out other distractions like cell phones, TV and other people competing for their attention.  And we did nothing less than waller in the fact that we had them all to ourselves!

They were able to meet many or our village friends while here.  The people in the village were so excited to meet them and visit with them.  (My dad was even able to pick up on some of the language!)  It is a big deal in this culture for parents to come visit from far away.  And they loved the fact that my parents were willing to come all this way from America!  Many of them brought special gifts for my mom and dad to show their appreciation for them coming.  It was so fun to introduce them to all of our friends in the village and the staff at ITF.

While they were here we took a little break to the ocean to a place in Madang Province.  There is a nice little place to stay there that is right on the ocean.  We had such a nice, relaxing time together.  The kids loved snorkeling in the ocean and did a lot of swimming! Oh, and ate ice cream with almost every meal!  We were also able to do a little kayaking, but mostly we just chilled out!  On our flight home Drew was privileged enough to be the co-pilot.  He was very excited.  In another life he would like to be a mission aviation pilot.

Mom and Dad were such a huge help to me around the house.

Mom did the laundry (She loves hanging the clothes out to dry!) and  Dad did the dishes after almost every meal.  They both helped out with the home schooling too.  It was so neat to see them teaching the kids.  By the way, Gracie took them to school in geography!  She totally ate it up too!  J We are working on learning all of the countries one continent at a time.  So far Gracie has N. America, S. America, all the islands in between and most of Africa down.  Everyday we lay out the names of the countries on a huge map.  I don’t know how she does it.  To be honest I have to use  the cheat sheet most of the time to keep up with her!  Malachi is not to far behind.  He is still traveling around S. America trying to find his way, but I’d say he’s doing pretty good for a Kindergartener.

We are so thankful for the blessing of having my parents come to visit.  We miss our family back home so much and having a taste of them has made us a little homesick.  But, we are trusting that God is more than enough for us no matter our circumstances. It is easy to take family for granted sometimes so I’m thankful God has given us the opportunity to realize just how much they mean to us.

We look forward to Drew’s brother, Matthew, coming to visit in less than a week!  Please be praying for safe travels for him.  The kids can’t wait to see their Uncle Matthew!

So, I’d like to tell you a useless yet silly little story about a few (2) bicycles that were stolen from Interface recently. Let me back up a bit though. A month ago 2 bikes were stolen from underneath one of the houses here at ITF. They belonged to the Foster’s kids. The Foster’s are serving in the Bena tribe as church planters near by. The village was informed that 2 bikes were stolen so people were aware and on the look out for the bikes.

Coming back to the present. Drew and one of the students participating in the session currently wanted to go out to see an early morning sunrise this past Monday. Instead of hiking they thought it would be much faster and easier to go on bikes. They headed out around 5:45 a.m. Of course they had to ride right through the village to get out to where you can see the sunrise the best. Uriso (a good village friend of ours) heard the 2 bikes go past early in the morning and immediately thought it had to be the Foster’s 2 stolen bikes. She woke up her Papa next door and they ran down to the Foster’s house to tell them. They told Rich he should go looking for the bikes. So Rich, the Papa, Uriso’s husband and another man they picked up along the way go down to ITF to get one of the vehicles. (Meanwhile Drew and the student have no idea they are about to be hunted down as thieves.) The 4 men drive down the road in search of two men riding the stolen bikes. Drew and Judah (the student) had turned off the road about 2 miles outside of the village to head up to the top of a big hill to see the sunrise. While up there a thick fog rolled in and the sunrise was unable to be seen. They also heard the sound of a truck passing by on the road but they were unable to see it, likewise the crew of bicycle bandit hunters couldn’t see Drew & Judah either because they were on the other side of the hill from the road. Drew thought it was the local villager who owns a PMV and was taking some people down to the main road to go to town. Anyways back to the 4 men. They drove all the way to the main road and decided to go check out a certain place that is known as a buying place for stolen goods. The men ask about 2 bikes and are led to another place closer to town. They take off to this place and are led to yet another place. By this time Rich is getting tired of this chasing around and finally decides to head back. While heading back to ITF one of the men in the truck confesses, after hearing the description of the bikes over and over again, that he knows where the bikes are and who is holding them. He tells Rich that they can go try to get them back that afternoon. Around 7am Rich’s wife calls him because she sees Drew & Judah (the bicycle bandits) riding back to ITF on the 2 bikes everyone thought were stolen. Still Drew & Judah have no idea and just waved as they went by. Drew did say that some of the people in the village on the way back were looking at them funny. Rich is just in disbelief by that time after all the driving around and chasing the stolen bikes and to find out it was Drew & Judah. He tells us all the story at lunch and we all get a good laugh out of it. But, it’s not over yet. Even though the bicycle bandit chase was a false alarm, Rich thought he would go check out the other bikes anyway since two of theirs had been stolen just weeks before. That afternoon Rich takes the man from the village that knows where the bikes are and they go to that place. The men start to bring the bikes out of the house and Rich is thinking “those aren’t even my bikes!” When they bring the 2nd one out he begins to recognize them…..they are another family’s bikes from ITF! The funny part is that no one even knew they had been stolen yet! So Rich and his family did not get their bikes back and probably never will, but at least we got the other pair of stolen bikes back. Come to find out Drew and Judah were on the only pair of bikes at ITF that hadn’t been stolen. Ha! It kind of makes me think about how life can be sometimes. Chasing after all these things that you think are rightfully yours. Chasing after things people might even direct you towards or encourage you to do. They can even be things we think are really good things. Then God pulls out something you didn’t even know you were looking for, something you didn’t even know you were missing. I know finding a pair of bikes doesn’t even compare to the things you will find in Christ if you go looking, but it serves as an interesting reminder!