There have been some interesting turns of events at the mission school these last couple months. One short term family had to leave after classes finished in December for medical reasons. She was the junior high Home Room teacher, as well as the high school English teacher. This left us with some huge holes in the teaching staff. One lady, here on center, was able to take up many of the junior high classes. At the end of December God provided another short term lady to pick up the English classes for the rest of the school year. Two other ladies just arrived to help out with special needs of the children. It is so cool to see how God always stays a step ahead of us and has someone in mind even before we see the need! Please be praying for a good teaching staff for this coming year.

Our children are doing well in school. Jo Lye, the lower grade teacher, was able to turn over her class, grades 1-3, to Beth Sutton. Jo then took the kindergarten class and will finish the year off with them. Jo will be retiring this year, and we are thankful for the good transition that Beth and Jo have had these last few months. Daniel had only one other Kinder in his class so Jo asked if Kathryn could begin preschool with the two of them. Of course Kathryn was so excited to be able to go to school. Justin enjoys having Mom all to himself and doesn’t seem to mind that the older kids are gone all morning. Afternoon classes are going pretty well for Caroline, and she does enjoy being in the classroom.

Larry is doing well in his many facetted jobs. We are not sure who will be replacing him after July. We know that God will go before us in everything and make our way straight! We have been doing some preliminary thinking about our coming trip to the States. In the days ahead we will need to be finding some ticket information and making some more definite plans. It has been a busy term this last few years, and we look forward to reconnecting with many of you that have sustained us over these past years in prayer and financial giving.

Last time we wrote we mentioned that the Madak language group would soon be hearing Gods Word in their own native tongue. The Madak team started teaching the Bible November 3rd. We have been so encouraged by the reports that we have been receiving! Sixty to eighty five adults attended the first week. The people have been quite attentive and seem to have a real hunger to hear the Bible taught in THEIR language. One man shared with the team that some of the things he heard were like a "hammer"; meaning that the clarity of hearing God’s Word in his own language was like the blow of a hammer. The teaching starts in the beginning with who God is, and expounds on many of the stories in Geneses and Exodus before moving into the New Testament and seeing how Christ was the fulfilment of prophecy through ages past.

House building for the Nakanai team is going ahead! Just this last week a work team from Northern Ireland arrived to help out with projects here in the Islands Region. They will be helping out with house building for the Nakanai team as well.

Also last week, we experienced a death just outside our property. When we heard the mourning and wailing it was a grim reminder on how short our life span is and that another soul passed into eternity without hearing a clear message of salvation in the Nakanai language. We are so thankful that God has risen up this new team to begin learning the language of the Nakanai.

With all the things that have been taking place back in the States these last few weeks, we are comforted to know that God is in control of things and nothing catches him by surprise. This world is not our home, we are just passing through, and we have treasures laid up in heaven waiting for us. We are glad to be able to be a part of the team here; helping to see people come to know Christ.

Our family has been doing well. Larry keeps busy with the many facets that his job entails. Caroline has been busy with teaching at school four afternoons of the week. Elizabeth is enjoying third grade and gets along well with her classmates. Daniel loves kindergarten and is learning to read. Kathryn is Justin’s little mother all morning long! We thank God for the precious family that he has entrusted to us!

Pray for the Madak; that they would have good attendance during the teaching, and that Karl would have good helpers to complete his lessons.

“We continue to have good attendance. After the lesson on Wednesday of last week, an old man stood up and passionately told everyone that this teaching was very good. He said that everyone in the village needed to come to this teaching. He said that the people didn’t need to just come to the teaching and leave and not think about what they heard and not talk about what they heard. They needed to go home and discuss what they were learning with each other, with their families, with their children and think about what they were learning. It was awesome to hear this. Another woman told me that she knew that this teaching was going to change their community. It is so awesome to hear that people are so excited even this early on."

On Friday there was a skit put on showing how God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s offering…even some of the Patpatar guys got involved in the acting. They acted out Abel offering a lamb as a sacrifice and even showed the "blood" flowing down a white sheet so we could stress the importance of the blood flowing. The people were totally fascinated by this re-creation. Please continue to pray for the teaching each day.

And now, for some news from Madak…(the tribe that we were living in for 3 years) Here is an excerpt from a letter:

"We have officially set a date to start teaching the 70 evangelistic Bible lessons. We talked with the community leader (like a mayor, I suppose) and we have set November 3rd as the first day of the teaching! We will be teaching some pre-evangelistic type lessons that first week, but then starting on Sunday November 9th, we are planning to teach every week, Sunday through Wednesday, for an hour starting at 4pm until the 70 lessons are done… which will be around March 18, 2009.  At times during the long, painful process of learning the Madak language and then the pathetic first attempts at translating and writing Bible lessons into a foreign language, I didn’t know if I could hang in there long enough to get to this point. I can assure you it was NOT because of my great ability in language learning or my faithfulness to God that I’m at this point; it is because of His faithfulness to me, His kindness, and His encouragement through His Word and often through emails and notes from many of you. And now, the opportunity to teach God’s Word to the Madak people in their own language is right around the corner!
Please pray as I will still have to write the latter lessons while I am teaching the early lessons. At this point I still have 35 lessons to write and by estimation, I’ll have around 20 to write when I start teaching the first lesson. Also please pray that we will withstand any attacks from the enemy as we are definitely infringing on his territory. Lastly, a praise. The community leader I mentioned earlier, whose name interestingly enough is Jon Wesley, has been in my office a dozen times or so in the past year helping me write these lessons. Well, he is so hungry to hear more of the lessons and he seems “sold out” on these lessons and therefore wants the whole village (roughly 200 people) to come. And as of 2 months ago, he was voted into the position he now has of community leader and now he is using that platform to encourage…even pressure people into come to the teaching! We’re grateful for the Lord’s timing in it all, even though I would have chosen to be able to teach much sooner. I guess the All-knowing One knows what He’s doing!!"

Please be in prayer for the Madak and the Patpatar tribes; that they will indeed withstand the attacks of the enemy and that there would be a fruitful harvest in the months to come. Pray that they would have good attendance, and that Karl would have good helpers to complete his lessons before teaching.
Thank you so much for being a part of this exciting work here in Papua New Guinea. We are often reminded of the many ways that God has used us here and how he keeps us.

Our hopes that we would be able to have them help out with house building for a couple families that had plans to move into the tribe this summer did not materialize. The lighter schedule and getting adjusted to life here took top priority. It was so encouraging to see everyone step in and help out where their gifts and abilities lay. If it was computer work that needed to be done, manual labor, or helping to organize things for the up and coming conference, everyone pitched right in. It was fun to see the team experience life in PNG for a first, and see the need there is for all sorts of jobs and skills. I think it gave everyone a good view of what is needed to make tribal evangelism possible, a large network of people doing a multitude of different tasks!

We were able to do some side trips on the weekend. We went to an island on Saturday for snorkeling and fun in the sun. Then, on Sunday, we visited a local tribe that has had the gospel for some time and got to know the fellow believers there in Christ. What a joy it was to see this church function without missionaries! The believers were a bold contrast to the people that we were in contact with who have not had the gospel clearly taught to them.

Due to unexpected schedule changes by the airlines the team had made arrangements, back in the States, to leave a day earlier than originally scheduled; to give them enough time to catch their international flight. After much prayer and discussion it was decided start conference a day early; allowing the team to be a part of all of it. What a blessing it was to have the much appreciated help in every area. They ran the children’s programs from preschool through high school, cooked evening meals for everyone (over 200 people) and were involved in many other things, photography, music, computer help, etc.

When it was time for them to leave, Saturday morning, the airline had not made the changes to their tickets. So, they stayed here one more day and unwound! The full week that they were here was just too busy, and we were so glad to have another day to relax and spend some time together before going our separate ways. They left on Sunday, later than the scheduled flight, but the airline then held the plane for them to make their international connections to go to Fiji. They arrived back home on schedule; and with all their luggage. That’s God!

Just a couple days after the team departed school started again for Elizabeth and now Daniel (grade 3 and K.) Caroline is teaching four afternoons a week, so things have been busy here in the Folkers house. School is going well and Caroline is enjoying being a part of the teaching staff again.

Larry has been busy with too many responsibilities, and will be working through setting some priorities to decide what he needs to let go of. Please pray for stamina and strength, and health for all of us. We have eleven months now before we depart for our year of home assignment and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again.

The two families that had contact with the Eastern area of New Britain are in the process of building houses. The two families that have wanted to locate close by are on the verge of getting a land agreement signed! Pray that this will be an ideal location for them to start their house building and begin language learning.

Please be praying that many more would come and join the work!