NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

For you fish lovers and fishermen & women – fishing here with the Nagi would challenge your tall tales for sure! You would be forced to tame down those those tall fish tales to telling about the big one incher that got away. Yesterday my little buddy Eden came back from the creek with a leaf preciously wrapped around about 10 slimy little tadpoles. She was quite proud of her fishing trip and cooked these little dudes up over the fire for her supper. To show the Nagi a picture of a salmon has their mouths drooling and their eyes popping out of their head in amazement!!:) Such differences here in the jungle do help me to keep my perspective and open my eyes to see the appreciation that can be had for something as small and insignificant as a tadpole.

Ahhh at times language learning seems as overwhelming and as over-sized as this here gargantuan sweet potato! But the only way to make it smaller is to dig in! As we put together our culture files, attempt to analyze things going on in the grammar and memorize so many different forms for just one verb……it’s a matter of keep digging in and reminding ourselves that only the Lord that can enable us for this seemingly gargantuan task!!

“How in the world are we ever going to get enough gravel to cover the 350 meters on the airstrip ?” has been the question on our minds a lot this past year as we have tried to brainstorm how to finalize the airstrip here in the village. Even the most “hard core” of the village workers can only carry so many heavy loads a day before the necks and shoulders start to “wobble” . So we were are very blessed thru the many ways the Lord provided so that we now have an ATV for the gravel project. SO MANY played a part in this project for our team …those that prayed, gave gifts, town folks that dealt with paperwork issues, the JAARS pilots that helped bring the ATV from Australia and then again into the village. Man, we wish we could do free ATV rides or something as a big THANK-YOU to everyone. However, I hope it is an encouragement knowing what a blessing it will be to the Nagi people to have their airstrip finished and for the pilots that land here as well!! Stay tuned down the road for celebrating with more pictures when the airstrip is fully graveled!

This picture makes me chuckle! This is the effect we often have on little babies and children that are traumatized at our white faces. Eventually they are convinced that we aren’t QUITE as scary as we look.

“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ…” Ephesians 1:3

Much has happened since my last email. After much visiting and talking, the parents were still determined that they would not keep both baby girls. Even though the word had spread that this baby was going to die if someone didn’t take her there were no nursing mothers that would agree to help nurse or raise the child as their own. It felt like options were running out for this little baby. We then suggested to the village that baby formula was available so that anyone could take this baby and raise it. The people still kept saying that the baby would just die. We reminded them how a lot of their babies die – not just twins. It was a long, stressful day but filled with many opportunities to share new perspectives with our tribal friends. Together we waited and prayed to see if anyone would step forward or what our other options might be. And then one of the guys, Obet, who had said several times earlier that he would not take the baby came up with his wife and said he wanted to talk about the formula for the baby. “Ok, we are going to talk to the parents about taking the baby!” he said. Wow, what wonderful news! Obet and Olipa, who you see with the baby in this picture had decided they would take and raise her as their child and the parents agreed. Obet and Olipa have been learning how to feed a baby with a bottle and plan to raise her as their own. “We still don’t know if she will live or not” they say…”but if she does, she will call us mother and father.” I know you will be praising the Lord and rejoicing with us that this baby’s life has been spared. And what an even more exciting day if one day she will believe that Jesus Christ has made it possible for her to be adopted as God’s child into His family!

Thanks to each of you for your prayers, your encouragement and support during these days.

“My wife gave birth last night!” A man came up and told us early this morning.  “Twins!” 

The something “new” in the village today is not just the start of a new life …but just a small crack in some “new” thinking. The Nagi have never kept twins before.  They throw the 2nd born away. 

The parents and the village are still trying to decide the fate of this 2nd born baby.  They are hearing us as missionaries challenge their thinking and beliefs,  however their old ways are still stronger in their minds. 

The Nagi don’t yet have God’s Word to change their thoughts and direct them in decisions like these.  We are praying that this baby girl’s life might be spared. 

The mother did not go out and immediately throw her baby away as they would have in the past.  However, they still think that is what they should do and we don’t know how this will end. 

Pray for this baby girl and for wisdom for our team in this situation.  We don’t know the Lord’s plans and how He might use the birth of these twins to prepare hearts and lives for hearing His truth. 

This is just a brief update on the ATV project for the airstrip here with the Nagi. We do not know how the Lord will open or close these doors but I thought this might be an opportunity to present a little more information and a specific prayer request. So I am copying a letter that our co-workers sent out as it has the most recent details. I hope it will help you in praying for our team as we trust the Lord to guide us with the airstrip project:

“As you know, our airstrip has been officially open for about 7 months and we praise God for JAARS servicing us the way they do interior. This airstrip has enabled our team to discontinue our use of the helicopter, which made receiving our supplies and going into and out of the village very expensive.

We’ve mentioned before the problem that we face as a team in keeping the airstrip covered well enough in gravel so that JAARS will keep servicing us long term. For now, the tribal people and our team have worked at carrying loads and loads of rock up to the strip. These rocks were then crushed into pieces on the strip and that was done down the center of the whole length of the airstrip. This has made the strip hard enough for the plane to be able to land up till now. This is a short term solution.

We have been asked by JAARS to put gravel over the whole strip. As we’ve mentioned in other emails, unlike the rocks, the only gravel in our area is a ways away from the airstrip and the tribal people have said it is just too hard on them to do this. When you see these people work for 30 minutes and only haul one 60-90 lb. sack of gravel, which when dumped out, only covers one square foot of the airstrip (our strip is 60 ft wide x 1050 feet long)- it’s not hard to understand why they feel this way. Especially when you consider that it would have to be done at the beginning of every dry season for the next five or six years as each rainy season will really do a number on what was previously laid.

The only solution our team has come up with is the purchase of an ATV with which we would be able to haul small loads of gravel from the creek much more quickly without straining our relationships with the tribal people. We have looked into many options over the past six months. It’s next to impossible to find a reliable brand of ATV within Indonesia without paying close to three times the cost that it would cost in the USA. We have just found a used, but newly overhauled ATV in Australia for $7000. Coincidentally, we have learned that there is a JAARS flight from that very city in Australia which will come right to the JAARS hangar we use in  Papua on January 26 and then again on the 31st of January. This method of shipping the ATV would cost an additional $1000 or so.

The problem with this option is that to date, our team has collectively raised $3500 toward the purchase and shipping of an ATV. With this email, we are just presenting what looks like a great opportunity that God has brought along what with JAARS having this flight this month. If we don’t take advantage of this flight, their next foreseen flight from AUS to Papua would be after our next rainy season starts and may not happen at all this year.

If any of you or your churches are looking for missions projects to sponsor, we just wanted to make a time sensitive need known. If we receive enough feedback and interest in meeting the needs of this project, our team will probably just go ahead and purchase the ATV and arrange for it to make it here at the end of this month.

We know that God has a plan and a solution to our ministry’s airstrip needs and we’re trusting Him with all of this! Thanks for letting us make this need known.

Thanks, Dave and Melissa for the Nagi team”

What the world is that you ask? It’s rambutan! It is rambutan season here now…or the “hairy” fruit as it is called in Indonesian. But it really is quite tasty!

I came out of the village for paperwork renewal and fingerprinting but due to hang ups have been “stuck” in town. I was reminded of the verse that states.. ”I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23 Despite this truth, I very much wanted to direct my steps out of town and back to the village. However I have to accept that “STUCK’ is where I am supposed to be right now. On the bright side I am not really “stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Just in town. ☺

Have you ever tried to picture the view out my front window?  This is it.   Views in the village usually include trees and trees and more trees.  I have the added bonus of seeing the mountain…a constant reminder of the source of getting through each day: “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”  Psalm 121:1&2