Gary and Esther Smith tribal church planting How are things going?
Our corworkers (the Schlegels) are currently out of the country on medical. So far it’s nothing serious, just needed to get some testing done. Yesterday I wrote them some quick points on what was going on here and it occured to me later that perhaps others would enjoy reading this. So here you go…
1. The Bible Teachers (BT’s) have taken it upon themselves to meet on Saturday mornings to discuss church business. They say they need time themselves to talk through things and weigh things, then for things they aren’t sure on they would bring them to our Monday meetings. How cool is that?
2. Another language group is still knocking on the door and really wanting us to come. Felix said that he would be willing to move there and work alongside a missionary family as coworkers! Everyone was really excited about this and said they would support this. This is obviously way down the road, but just exciting to see the guys opening themselves up to God using them in the Great commission! A few days after this, a guy who I met at MTC back in 2009 wrote me and asked if I had any allocation ideas for him as his family wants to come to the Madang Region and work with us! So I told him about this idea and he is praying about it. WOW!
3. Village M – all the guys decided it’s time to stop messing around. They are going to do a community service day in village M to build the literacy house. So we will speak to the church about this and set a Monday for as many as possible to go to village M and do this together with our sister church in village T! Another WOW!
4. Both T and S (sorry I’m not allowed to put village names on our blog) are going to (hold on to your hat for this one) tear down the old church buildings!!!!! They so for too long we’ve been sitting scattered around and after seeing how other churches meet they feel it’s time to build a similar structure!!! Another WOW! We need to discuss this further as we wonder if it might be wise to wait until after teaching in village M since an act like this may just drive a bigger wedge.
5. More people in T and S are ready to get baptized. (Sorry I can’t remember the names of people in T, but here it’s Wamane and wife and someone else, I forget now. Pray for this, b/c Erike and Jimingke are discouraging them big time from doing this.
6. Concerning the withholding of charging their batteries until the find the theif who stole from us. We asked the BT’s about what they thought and they were unusally quiet and only said, “It’s up to you guys.” So when we told them that we were thinking that we’ve handled it incorrectly and read Luke 6:30 they were extremely happy and said it was right to lift the ban. So we have done that. The good part about this is that it has made the talk about it come up again pretty big. They seemed to really appreciate seeing us respond to God’s word this way.
7. In church this Sunday Jinongke got up after the teaching and confessed his sin of gossiping and asked for forgiveness. Also about church there was probably about 20 people already there waiting for us! Another Sunday thing is that they changed the prayer time. Whoever has a prayer request then will actually say a prayer during prayer time. This is working well and last week a woman actually prayed! (Epepe)
8. There seems to be a different spirit among the BT’s especially since the Citizen Teacher Training Seminar (CTTS). They seem more committed and excited about serving.
9. I am going to another tribe with Nathan on Thursday for the weekend to help another missionary do a comprehension check on his lessons. The BT’s were very happy about this as they have developed a real heart for this place since having Ambox here and being with him at the CTTS. Jaspa even brought it up as a prayer point this Sunday b/f he knew about me going. Also they are concerned about and praying for Manam.
10. The day after I returned there was a community bung led by the elementary workshop people with Boomy and Rafael. They did a big talk about how to raise children! Lots of it was really good, like scheduling, and helping kids to succeed in their God given talents. But one thing was a little off. They said you should never spank your children. The heart of it was good because abuse and disrespect is rampant in this country, but still not consistent with Scripture about how to discipline children so we had a long talk about it with the BT’s yesterday and it was great! It’s nice to be finally teaching them these kind of practical things.
Ok, that’s enough for now. That’s some big stuff going on! God is moving. And it’s encouraging how people are responding, for the most part. I mean there is still those on the periphery. Sorry this is so long, but I figured this stuff would encourage you as you sit there waiting on reports.
Love you guys!
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Gary & Esther Smith
NTM – Private Mailbag
Madang Province, M.P. 511
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
web: www.ntm.org/gary_smith
Trip to T village
After two years of being in Christ the believers in the other village are doing very well. Normally the bible teachers from our home village hike up there on the weekends for teaching and discipleship, but once every 6 weeks or so we missionaries go up for a visit to encourage. This time I think I was more encouraged by them! They are doing very well and clearly understand how they were in the past and how well they exist now, and give all the glory to God!
Caleb went with me this time. After four hours of tough hiking we arrived and went to our host home. Normally we stay in a house that they built for us with just one or two bible teachers, but this time we stayed with the family. The families house had become unlivable so they have moved into this house. At first I wasn’t excited about this as it is a little awkward since the whole house is only one room! But it ended up being a very good thing as I got a unique picture of family life that I normally do not get to see. And since they are believers now much of their family life has changed!
It used to not be uncommon that husbands would hit their wives to force them into submission. Relationships between parents and children was not one of joy but just existence. And wives did not respect their husbands talking bad about them to other women. But what I got to be a part of this weekend was the exact opposite! The husband does not hit his wife anymore and the wife smiles when she talks about her husband now. The children smile and laugh together and with Mom and Dad. After I laid down to sleep I listened to the husband and wife share stories about how each of their days went. It was genuine and sweet fellowship. They actually enjoy one another, this is in stark contrast to the past. And indeed all glory goes to God!
The hike was intense and I’m still recovering, but worth it all to get to look into the windows of their souls and see Christ! Here are some pictures of our hike…
“Our trip to another village March 2012″
From Visit to other village, posted by Gary Esther Smith on 3/25/2012 (12 items)
- This is Caleb and me leaving our village (you can see it in the upper right corner of…
- Part of the hike was crossing a river several times. One time though it got a little …
- only had my point and shoot camera so the quality isn’t the best but still so nice se…
- We stayed with a lovely family and we shared our Ramen noodles with them, this little…
- Inside the house – yes, this is the whole house!
- Ok this just freaked me out. I was sure that the chicken would pop that poor baby in …
- How do you like my preaching attire? First time preaching barefoot!
- Church
- Some bought a sewing machine from town (2 day hike) and the ladies are getting pretty…
- Our destination
- Bridge over troubled waters – the bridge is pretty troubling itself, but it supported…
- nice “road” eh?
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher
Remotely Online
The Lord moved and worked out a way for us to be able to get internet while we are here in the tribe! So in this remote location we are able to stay better connected to family, friends and fluency (okay so that was a stretch, I just needed another word that started with “f” 
). A church in the States donated the funds for us to be able to purchase a satellite dish and other hardware necessary to connect to the internet.
Already Esther and the kids have talked to Grandparents and parents a couple times. I instant message with my family and have posted several things to Facebook. Homeschooling has been dramatically enhanced. For example, we’ve always seen links to go to and see how things work or to get more information, but we’ve never been able to utilize that before now! Just yesterday we were instructed to do an experiment, but we didn’t have the proper materials to do so. However, the book said, “If you don’t have the proper materials just go to this link to see the results,” and presto the kids we able to see it work!
We are very thankful for this addition to the ministry here and will try to post more often on this blog so perhaps you can get a deeper peek into the lives of tribal missionaries. Of course that may not appeal to everyone, so I’ll try not to post the pictures of all of us eating spiders. Oh wait, there are no pictures like that. Which may have something to do with the fact that we really don’t eat spiders because their hairy legs get stuck in our teeth. It’s worse than popcorn.
See you around the web. No pun intended with the above spider joke.
Library Re-opening
“Wonderful time! Church and then re-openning of the very small library for the Dinangat, after church Sunday March 11, 2012″
From Library Re-openning, posted by Gary Esther Smith on 3/11/2012 (19 items)
- Just some pretty flowers along the path.
- Cute little girl clapping hands during praise time.
- Worship team
- We hand out bible verses to read during the sermon time. This is cute as she holds he…
- More cute kids praising God
- Basa explaining the Library after church. Yes, church is outside.
- First “customer” to get a library “book” – more like a booklet
- People in line to check out booklets.
- Doing two things at once
- Ladies reading booklets together.
- Yoro – just saying Katma (greeting at Noon)
- Erike hanging out.
- Library buzz
- Peso being cool
- and the buzz continues
- Happy Moms. All believers!
- Our coworker Jeremiah showing how the hand crank mp3 player works.
- Came home after the day to my crazy son Zach
- This man can hardly see, but loves God’s word so doesn’t give up at reading!
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Smith Update Jan 2012
Dear Supporting Friends and Family,
Show of hands, How many of you love roller coasters? Ah, many hands went up, but still some did not. Since some people do not appreciate roller coasters we have refrained from sending out an update for a while. I’m referring mainly to our desire to get to the other village for evangelistic teaching. It’s been a roller coaster to say the least. We’ve taken you along that ride and decided to wait to communicate with you all again until we knew something a little more definite. I, for one, love roller coasters and have laughed and cried all along this trip. But for now let’s disembark and take a deep breath.
After much prayer, hiking, and consulting we will do a literacy outreach first. This will give us time to establish a presence in that village and “give them a picture of Christ.” The other village has agreed to build a literacy school and a house for the teachers. All of them still aren’t completely on board with hearing the Bible yet, so we will use literacy as sort of a John the Baptist to prepare the way. Please pray for this to succeed. We don’t have dates yet, but will let you know as things progress.
The two believing villages continue to grow and discipleship opportunities abound. It is so good that we are still here. Some believers still struggle with security of salvation or slip back into old thinking. While others continue to grow and flourish. For example, two married couples (one pictured below) recently desired to make changes in order to glorify God in their marriages. Sometimes the challenges make it tough to be here, but we wouldn’t trade anything for being a part of these believers’ lives as they grow. It’s the greatest joy there is!
Family Stuff: Recently our family got to take a break in town at our mission center. There we have the privilege of seeing a mission doctor and getting everyone’s teeth cleaned by the mission dentist. There is a school there on center and each one of our kids got to go for four days. They enjoyed it very much and loved interacting with other friends. But probably the highlight for Esther and I was the report we received on Caleb. As most of you know he struggles with a learning disability. This has even almost brought us to having to leave the tribe in order to meet his specific challenging needs. However, the Lord has provided a way. There is a trained specialist on the mission center who has given his life to serve missionaries and their children to help them receive the education they need. He could be in the States making much more money and living much more comfortably. But he has chosen to live here and serve the church by helping missionaries. Anyway, he tested Caleb several years ago and revealed Caleb’s challenges to us. We made adjustments but the progress has been slow and painful, especially for Esther.
On home assignment in ’09-’10 school year the Lord provided a way for us to enroll him in a special program called “Discovery,” and the specialist there also tremendously helped us with our specific needs of living in a tribe. Equipped with curriculum designed for these needs, we returned here in 2010, believing that God would improve things with him and enable us to remain in the tribe to serve the Dinangat Church. For the past year and a half we have seen improvement but were reluctant to claim anything as we can’t properly test him. While we were on center we asked this man, Mitch Hoskins to retest Caleb and see how things are going.
Well, the report was great! Mitch, the specialist said that Caleb made great improvements, much beyond what he normally sees! This was a huge affirmation to Esther’s perseverance and patience and Caleb’s hard work. It’s been a tough row to hoe, but it has been amazing seeing God provide all that we need along the way, enabling us to remain here in the tribe.
Likewise God uses each of you to the same end! Thank you for your faithfulness and support all these years. It’s a privilege serving with you.
Gary for all us Smiths in Dinangat
report of survey trip to possible outreach village
Dear Supporting Friends and Family,
We trust that your Thanksgiving was indeed that, full of giving thanks in spite of the long hours of driving or standing over the hot stove, cleaning your house, and then struggling with indigestion (smile). We do have much to be thankful for do we not? However, if we let them, circumstances can overshadow our thankfulness and we focus on the “pieces” of our circumstances, thus losing our peace. This is exactly what happened to me over the weekend. Much to our surprise, the village leaders in village M said they do not want us to come and teach the Creation to Christ story.
Salt Jan 2011 Update
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Eph 1:3
“This message is like salt!”
Imagine if you can, eating food without any seasoning at all. (I know some of you poor souls for health reasons live without salt, but perhaps you can still catch the significance of the following.) Not only does your food never get any seasoning, but it’s the same food all the time every day. So when someone comes to the meal with a little salt it’s like honey. Literally, they call it “sweet!” Used to be so hard for me to understand when they’d eat some salt and call it sweet. But it just means, “Man, that really tastes good!” Which helps explain why after Sunday’s message on Ephesians 1 Nonjong got up and said, “Man, this message is like salt!” We take salt for granted, but to them it is really precious. Sometimes I think we take the truths of Ephesians one for granted as well, may it become more precious to us that God has already blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ!
A New Church is Born!
The following was just sent to us from our coworkers Jeremiah and April Markley in the tribe. Rejoice with us and listen carefully for the angels!!!!
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again,
because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation,” 1 Pt. 1:3
It is with overwhelming gratitude and joy that I write to you tonight to report that there are new names written down in glory! God in His grace and mercy has reached down and snatched several precious souls from the throws of Hell, and claimed them for His own for all eternity! Praise the Lord with us, for He has answered your prayers and for the sake of His Son, enlarged His Bride this week!
Outreach to neighboring village – week 7
Here is the latest on what is happening in the tribe from our coworkers Jeremiah and April Markley….
Along this church planting road, there are many crossroads, where the basis of what you believe concerning certain Biblical doctrine will determine the grid through which you filter all the rest of the teaching. For example, if after hearing the teaching on the Garden of Eden, you didn’t believe that everything truly was perfect before sin, and you believed that death existed before sin did, then death (physical and eternal) as punishment for sin does not seem like a punishment for sin as much as merely a part of life. It would be impossible to understand the gravity of sin in contrast to a righteous and Holy God, and therefore even cancel out a true need for a Saviour.
Remote group of believers being used by God!
Dinangat Update – outreach to begin Jan 17 Sunday evening!
Keep reading to see how they are fulfilling the purpose of the church by exalting His Name, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost!
The words sometimes associated with church are unfortunately words like hypocrisy, self-righteous, egotistical, or imposing. I read a book a while ago that summarized the purpose of the church with several words all beginning with the letter “E.” As we have had the privilege of serving in Papua New Guinea we have seen God make this a reality as He has changed lives. He is building His church all over the world. Yes, there are skeptics but the truth remains: His church, His kingdom, advances, and it’s purposes are clearly evident in Dinangat. They are exalting the Lord, equipping the saints and evangelizing the lost.