NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We just returned yesterday from a trip to the other end of New Ireland. We have never made the trip before so it was fun to be able to see another bush location. It is a long trip by truck down the length of the island. I was missing the interstates in the USA as we bounced through potholes, rivers and dirt roads for close to 6 hours each way. Yesterday on the way home the truck started stalling on us and we were not even half way back so that was scary but thankfully we made it! With the rain and high winds we have been having, we almost couldn’t make the last part of the trip via boat until the water calmed down right before dark. I have been helping organize the school testing for our area and that is why we made this trip. We had 12 – 1st to 7th graders to test for this year. While I was administering the tests, Ned was able to do an translation check for another missionary in the Patpatar language. So, we made good use of our time. The fellowship with our friends we rarely see made it special.

We have had a great time this past month with Bethany and Savannah home for school break. This was Bethany’s last time on the island. We tried to go to all her favorite places in between the wind and rain. Hopefully she has some great memories to take with her as she transitions to life in the USA. Paska brought us all to tears as he shared at her “kaikai” (meal) what a great part of our ministry our kids have been, saying that he could see the gospel being played out in their lives. Paska had also caught eight octopuses to make our favorite national dish which you can see in the round pot at the front of the picture. Even if you don’t like octopus you would like this! He does an amazing job cooking.

“May the celebration of Christmas cause us to rejoice like the angels… hear like the shepherds… follow like the wise men!” Roy Lessin

We are excited to celebrate Christmas once again! It is such a fun time of year – to relax with family, enjoy good food and celebrate the birth of our Savior! We were able to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Our main substitution was eating chicken instead of turkey. We will probably do the same for Christmas dinner. Even a chicken is a treat since the price is about $14 for a whole chicken.

We have our presents wrapped, our Christmas tree decorated and lights up! As a result of having weak batteries and having to run the generator more in the evening – we can have our Christmas lights on more! So, there are advantages to running a generator.

Chris and Erin Lujan are in our tribe right now checking the progress on culture and language learning for Aimee and the Carltons. They are just making sure they are making progress and on the right track. They are also available to answer any questions they have about how to make the best use of their time each day.

Ned is working hard on checking the book of Acts, Jonah and Old Testament portions of Scripture for the Mengen and Lusi tribes. He will be helping with a translation workshop and traveling into these other tribes for the month of January. We are hoping he can finish before Christmas so we can have a week of family time before the marathon month of January begins.

Have a VERY MERRY CHRIST-MAS!! Never forget Jesus is the reason for the season!!

Thank you for praying! It has been an encouraging month. Ned has finished his marathon month of checking translation for several different tribes and having his own translation checked by a consultant from the USA. The final totals were – almost 2700 verses checked for Akolet, Siar, Lusi and Maleu tribes combined and over 500 Tigak verses checked and approved. We are thankful to see this leap forward in verses that are available to the tribes of Papua New Guinea in their heart language. This puts Ned at 48% of the Tigak New Testament that has now been completed.

The check was stressful for Paska. It was up to him to give back each verse of Revelation, Philippians and Philemon in the trade language to make sure everything was accurate and understandable. The day before the check began a situation arose with Paska’s son on the island and it was hard for him to not be there to be a peacemaker. He was thrilled to be out here though visiting with his Christian brothers from other language groups!! It was fun to see the excitement for Paska and his friends to be reunited once again.

Tomorrow morning we will be making the trek back to our home from our regional center where we have been working the last month. We will purchase supplies and head right into the tribe. Our kids have loved being at our regional center with lots of friends to play with but it will be nice to have a few weeks left of summer break to be together as a family.

Aimee now has all the wood needed to complete her bush house! The first work team was able to get the framing done and the roof on. The second work team arrives July 2nd and will be there for three weeks. We are thankful for the sacrifice these 9 men and 1 woman are making by coming over to help with the construction work. As soon as Aimee’s house is functional she will be able to begin the long process of learning the Tigak language. Our other new partners, the Carltons, are still in the USA waiting on baby #2 to arrive.

We know these are challenging times for all of you. We trust that the Lord is showing Himself faithful in meeting your needs. We find ourselves shocked at the rise in prices each time we buy supplies. We are thankful to be serving a faithful and loving God who never fails to know what our needs are.

We greatly appreciate your prayers. Ned has finished all his translation for his upcoming translation check. He is also caught up on the Scripture portions he is checking for missionaries in other tribes. The rest of us are just trying to finish up the school year before we head out on May 17th (Josiah’s birthday!). Ned’s first stop will be the Siar tribe. He will be checking all the Scripture portions they have ready for starting to teach the Creation to Christ lessons for the first time in Siar! The missionaries there plan to start on July 4th so it is exciting to be a part of their preparations. One of the missionaries in the Siar tribe has been doing the translation and Ned will be doing a “kick-off” with one of the other missionaries getting him started on being a translator also. Ned’s next stop will be the Akolet tribe. They have just taught the Creation to Christ lessons for the first time and a brand new baby church has been started there. Next, Ned will check translation for the Maleu tribe and the Lusi tribe. It will be over 2300 verses. His work as a translation consultant requires a lot of traveling.

Continue to pray for our new partner, Aimee, as she starts house building this weekend. There will be four men coming for three weeks. Pray that the wood is ready as promised this week. Pray for good weather – rain at night – sun during the day. Also, pray for one of the team members who is having passport/visa issues with little time to resolve them. It has been fun to watch the Tigak believers work together and help Aimee gather everything needed for making cement, clearing the ground, digging out stumps, whatever needs done. They are excited to have Aimee here and want to help in any way possible.

We are so excited to introduce you to our new team members! When we returned in January from the USA we were met by Tom and Beth Carlton and Aimee Hedrick. They have been living with us in Tigak land the last two months working on improving their Melanesian Pidgin (the trade language of PNG) and learning how to survive in a bush location. As a result of this time they have spent in the tribe and spending lots of time talking about team strategy and getting to know each other, we all feel the Lord has led them to join the ministry here among the Tigak people!

I thought you might like to know some of their background. Beth spent her early years as a MK (Missionary Kid) in Indonesia and then her family returned to the USA where Michigan is home. Tom grew up in Oregon but they now claim Michigan as their home base. Aimee is a California girl. They all met through the NTM training and came together to PNG last fall. They are currently sharing our past partners’ house. The Carlton’s son, Jude, will be two in April and they are expecting their 2nd child in June. They plan to return to the USA in April to have their new baby and return to PNG in September to begin language learning. Aimee will be here with us during this time. She plans to have a couple of building teams come to help her build a house so that she will be ready to begin learning the Tigak language and culture around the time the Carltons return.

We appreciate all your concern during the tsunami warnings. We had someone monitoring the wave that evening and giving us updates via our HF radio. We did have some very strange tides but nothing that was dangerous – just about a 2 foot tidal change every 30 minutes for 24 hours. On our sand island there is not really anywhere to run and hide except the roof of our house!

Please pray for Ned as he is under a big time crunch finishing up translating the book of Revelation. We found out that the consultant checking his work will not have email access after the beginning of April due to being in a remote bush location so Ned needs to be finished by then.

Thank you for praying. The Lord was faithful to answer your prayers! We are not the only ones enjoying the full water tanks.

Ned is making good progress on translating the book of Revelation. His translation helper had been told in the past not to read Revelation since “no one could ever understand it”. So, Robin is really enjoying working on the translation with Ned and amazed at what he is learning.

We are slowly adjusting to the heat and humidity of Papua New Guinea. We are thankful to now have a full tank of rain water. We have been on water conservation since we got back. It is nice to be able to flush the toilet when we want to and not have to reuse the wash water when washing our clothes.

We have really enjoyed having some other “white skins” in the bush with us. Tom and Beth Carlton – along with baby Jude – and Aimee Hedrick are living here in the tribe with us completing their bush orientation. They are currently seeking the Lord’s wisdom in which tribe he has prepared for them to join and be a part of. Please pray that they would have a peace and know exactly where the Lord would have them.

All of our traveling went smoothly. We left early Weds morning, Jan. 5th, and spent about 30 hours in the air to get to Papua New Guinea. We didn’t have much time to wait between each of the four flights until we arrived in PNG. We raced through customs and were able to make our flight. We were so proud of ourselves for being fast but as soon as we sat down on the last plane we were told the plane needed to be worked on so we spent an extra five hours in the airport waiting for the plane to be repaired.

It was very hard saying good-bye to Kara Linn and Josiah. Kara Linn has started back to college and Josiah will head back this weekend. Please continue to pray for them as they adjust to not having parents to call on.

We are so thankful for friends that helped us clean the house in Texas when we moved out! It was not easy to have everything packed and ready to go so soon after Christmas.

Our bush house appears to be in good shape so far. Ned is ready to get back into full time translation work. He also needs to figure out how to split his time between translation consulting and his own translation work. There is much to be done in both areas.

Pray for rain. We have some water in our tanks since we have not been there to use it but the rest of the island is dry. They are having to make trips off the island to get fresh water. Ours will go fast if it does not rain.

We are thankful to be back and able to minister among the Tigak people once again.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a special time of celebrating the birth of Christ! We are excited to be able to be in the USA for the holiday season. We are enjoying the cooler weather even though you can’t really call it cold in Texas. It is cold enough for our blood after many years in the Tropics.

We can’t believe we only have one month until we get on the plane to head back to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Our flight leaves early on January 5th. We are trying to get all our buying and packing done before Christmas so we can enjoy the week after Christmas with family. Bethany is looking forward to having her best friend from PNG here the week before Christmas. She is currently living in California and won’t be returning to PNG – so we are thankful Bethany is able to spend one week with her before we head back. Our kids seems to have gotten behind on school the last two weeks with Thanksgiving and time with their cousins – so hopefully we can catch up before we leave for PNG. It seems to be easier to stay on schedule with home schooling in the tribe. There are not as many outside activities to distract our children from school work. ☺

Please be praying for teachers for the New Tribes Mission high school in PNG. There is a desperate need for teachers for the 2011-2012 school year. If you or anyone you know is qualified as a high school teacher and would be willing to spend a year or more overseas teaching, please let us know and we will put you in contact with the right people to get the ball rolling! The school is in a beautiful, mountainous area with spring like temperatures – unlike the hot, humid temperatures we have on our island year round. You would probably be teaching two of our girls! We are very thankful for Numonohi Christian Academy. The two years Kara Linn and Josiah spent there made a huge difference in their ability to readjust to American culture and college life in a dorm.

I wanted to share with you some of the things the tribal people of the Madang region are thankful for this year:
Thankfulness for the fact that God wrote down his Word so that we can still be saved by it to this day.
Thankfulness that under persecution in Rome, Paul still was writing things like the book of Ephesians for people like us.
Thankfulness that Paul had a burden and went to the Gentiles.
That Paul wrote about family and marriage and child training.
Thankfulness that when we receive things now – food, rain, material goods, we know who to thank for them.
Thankfulness for God’s wisdom and that he knows everything. Each new lesson, God knows exactly what to teach our livers.
Thankfulness that in that huge wind storm that we knew that God was in control even when our houses were blowing around. The lady was sleeping with her children and was afraid at first and then just thought, “This is not out of God’s control. This is not evil spirits. This is God and if he wants to take us home right now, he can do it.”
Thankfulness that we are no longer controlled by the evil spirits. We are children of God and He has given us His own Spirit to lead us. He does that by convicting our stomachs when we do wrong and helps us to ask for forgiveness.
Thankfulness for the Spirit who lives inside us. He is really strong. When we sit down and read God’s Word and pray, His Spirit teaches our thinking about who He is.

Let us not become complacent with all we have in Christ! Join with us in rejoicing over God’s free gift of His son Jesus. Jesus is here for you! Thank you for standing with us to reach the Tigak people.

We have finished most of our major traveling. We only spent one week in Fort Worth from the time we arrived in Texas, June 15th until we returned back to Texas on Aug. 16th. We put many miles on our van and Josiah was able to get many hours of driving practice. He wasn’t real excited about driving a passenger van but at least it was hours behind the wheel. We are finding that our kids really struggle with directions and knowing their way home after spending the last 11 years on an island ½ mile long and ¼ mile wide. We are working a lot on map skills. We have found that the GPS we use in PNG to find our way around without hitting the reefs with our boat has been VERY valuable as we travel cross country.

It has been a joy to catch up with family and old friends and even to meet relatives that we have never met before. We are so thankful for the time to reconnect with family and friends. Now that we are back in Texas we are trying to make sure our kids have opportunities to make friends and feel a part of life in the USA. This will be helpful for them when the time comes for them to transition back to life in the USA after graduation. Bethany has joined a volleyball league and will be taking dual credit classes at the local community college. All of the kids will be part of a Homeschool co-op every Friday. We are looking forward to meeting new friends and getting to have class together with other students one day a week. We also hope to let some of the kids work on musical instruments and sports. Linn is just hoping to keep up with the rigors of taxiing kids all over the metroplex. We know many of you have been doing this for years but it is new for us.

We have not heard any news from our tribe in PNG. We did hear of pirates stealing a boat near our island so we are hoping that is not an on-going issue! There have been many earthquakes in PNG since we left. We do not think any of them were close enough to us to do any damage.

We hope to return to PNG in January. Please pray with us that we will be able to tell in the next month or so how Josiah is doing at school and be ready to commit to return airline tickets. We want to be here for our kids as long as they need us and we also want to continue on with the ministry with the Tigak people. Also, we would appreciate your prayers as we share about the work among the Tigak that we would have wisdom in sharing with supporters, potential missionaries and kids of all ages.