NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Last week presented another opportunity to take a break from language learning. Earlier this year, while Jim and Judy were in the States, their tribal house was severely affected by an earthquake and sinkhole. No one is exactly sure what happened, but accounts from the people summarize a shifting of the ground that lasted throughout an entire day and night. Jim and Judy’s once level yard is now stepped in multiple places where the ground dropped away 3 to 8ft. Though the house is still standing, it is tilting down hill and must be dissembled and moved a couple hundred yards down hill. This last week 4 of us went out for 5 days last week and reassembled a shed down at the new location. This will serve as storage while the house is being disassembled and rebuilt. It will probably take 3 more trips through the month of October to finish. This was the first time I have built anything in the bush. I was very surprised to learn how long it takes! The timber is hard and crooked, the nails are soft, everything has to be pre-drilled, limited use of power tools, limited building material, less than ideal sleeping conditions, etc all make for a very long week. But in the end, we finished what we went down to do. There is so much left to do and your prayers for wisdom and endurance are much appreciated!

Last Sunday I was asked if I would be able to take a break from Language Learning and help do some electrical repairs out in the bush. You Bet! So Tuesday morning at 5 am I left our house to board a Cessna 206 for the 1.5 hr flight into a range of mountains that translates as “The Ends of the Earth.” I had the gripping privilege of experiencing three bush airstrip landings. It is quite an experience the first few times… heading straight into the side of a mountain, and bouncing to a stop on a muddy grass runway that has been carved out of the earth by hand. The problem was that a house had been broken into, and to get the batteries the thieves had cut and yanked out various wires. We were able to repair the damage in a relatively short amount of time, but had to wait until the next morning for the plane to come back. In the meantime I got to see a village court take place along with many other cultural events that I had never seen before. Had a really great time, and thankful to the Lord for this neat experience, as well as an opportunity to encourage a missionary living out in the bush.

Our water here is quite dirty, filled with all kinds of nasty organisms and silt. This our new pressurized water filter- which can fill a 5 gallon bucket with drinking water in as many minutes. Our old filter took all afternoon to do the same. But washing clothes and kai is a different story. Clothes generally come out of the washer dirtier than they went in, and it is just about impossible to keep bath water out of Kai’s mouth. He LOVES baths by the way! But he’ll survive… though he is running a small fever today. Anyway, thats just a quick look into part of our daily lives here. I will post an update on our language learning soon.

Our team traveled up to the Jiwaka Province on Friday to do some maintenance on a solar electric system. It was a very rough 4 hour drive… the highlands highway is riddled with fault lines and landslides. More than one place along the way had just room enough for a single car to slip around a giant hole in the road where the ground had given way and sunk 40 ft below. We had a great time of fellowship with the church planting missionaries there. They are almost proficient in the language and hope to start teaching literacy and preparing chronological bible lessons early next year! The system had a battery problem that was solved by making new battery interconnect cables there on the spot and rewiring the batteries and inverter. Everything seemed to run smoothly afterwards. Praise the Lord for the work that is happening amongst the unsaved there!

We made it to PNG and are loving it! The trip was fairly uneventful, Kai only threw up once. We were warmly greeted when we arrived PNG and have been getting to know the other missionaries and surroundings for the past week. Next week we start Language Study! On Monday Kevin was able to travel to the Interface Campus with Bill Cottam, an electrician, and an engineer to troubleshoot battery problems. After a day spent inspecting and rewiring 90 batteries, reprogramming several inverters, and troubleshooting a 45kva generator, we think we have the problem solved. Wednesday we were able to visit the town and experience the market, and Kevin was able to get his drivers license, though it will take some getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road, shifting left handed and not turning on the windshield wipers when trying to use the turn signals. Going around roundabouts might be the toughest obstacle though. Tomorrow Kevin will travel 6 hrs up the highlands highway with the same group of guys to work on some equipment in a tribal location… please pray for safety and wisdom, as well that the team can be an encouragement to the missionaries.

On our way! JAL set us up in a sweet private room with free food and drinks, here in Chicago. Next flight, 13 hours…

We have purchased our tickets and will be flying to Papua New Guinea on July 13th.

On the 17th of July we will meet with a team from the US to do some technical consulting and problem solving for a week.

After this our focus will mainly be orientation and language acquisition for the next 6 months.