NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We’ve been in PNG for one year today! We are encouraged to look back and see God’s faithfulness to our family and we are excited to look forward to see what He has for us next!

After much prayer our family has decided to join the Kaul work on New Britain island. We asked the existing team if they would have us and they said Yes! We are excited to become a part of this tribal work. We will be joining two other couples who have worked with the Kaul people for some time now. Mark’s primary role, once language learning is finished, will be outreach and discipleship. This is a very good fit for his gifts and interests.

The next few months will consist mostly of organizing the move into the tribe. We have some equipment we will need ordered from the United States and hope to see it arrive in January. We are looking to make the move sometime shortly after that!

We are so happy to announce that we have passed our final language evaluation! We are now ready to move on to full time ministry. God has not yet directed us to a tribal location and so we will help out on center here where we are needed as we continue to seek His will. It is still our desire to serve as Church Planters but we will not move forward until we have heard clearly from the Lord. He has directed and led us so far and we have complete confidence He will continue to do so!

Our family spent this Christmas participating in our Bush Orientation. The purpose of this time is to give us first hand experience living in a remote tribal location. It was an incredible time, one we won’t soon forget. We spent three weeks learning many things from the generous, friendly people of that village. We flew in, first by mission plane and then by helicopter. While there, we gardened, built, cooked, ate, played soccer, attended church and literacy classes, and many other events with the people. We won’t sugar coat it, though. It was very hard at times. Everything was so very different from anything and any where we have ever been or done. There was a lot of culture shock! But, over all, we gained valuable insight into the work ahead of us and are thankful for the opportunity!

We are really enjoying learning the culture and trade language of Papua New Guinea. Twice a week we visit with this family, who introduce us to some of their family and cultural traditions while teaching us the language. We love spending time with them and are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here already!!

It has been a while since our last Blog here. But it is true, we have finally made our way over to PNG. We had a two week detour through Australia (and some memorable visits with Emma’s family there), but for the last three weeks we have been calling New Britain Island ‘home’.

We have our flight tickets! How exciting to know we are leaving Canada on September 16th! That’s only 134 days away- PNG, here we come!!

We are so excited! The truck came to pick up our shipping crate today! This has been a big job – deciding what and how much to take, making it fit in the crate and ensuring we still have what we need to live here in Canada. It feels really good to be done this stage of the journey!

After weeks of sorting, packing, unpacking, reorganizing and repacking, we have a full crate of things ready to be shipped to PNG! Today we finally filled the crate. Everything fit, with a little room to spare! (The storage shelves were always going along on the top…). The plan is for the truck to come and pick up our crate by the end of the week. It feels great to get this done. We are praying now that God will get it there safely and send us along to pick it up on the other side!!

Mark finished building our shipping crate this weekend. We used good plywood so we can build furniture or cupboards with it once we get to PNG.  The dimensions of the crate are 46″ high, 87″ wide and 48″ deep. Most of what we will send to PNG will fit in this box! Its very exciting to see things come together and to take care of practical needs! Next to go…. us!