NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

July Update

Greetings from Port Moresby,

The focus for the past several months has been building of our house here in Port Moresby. It has been a wonderful journey of seeing God supplying the workers to see the house built. Building continues, but at a much slower rate. Our center worker, Manuel and I are the only ones continuing to build. We want to thank all those who have made sacrifices to see this project completed. It is great to know that we have a team of people behind us.

I am now back in the office and working on government representative issues. Janelle has been working extra in the office while I have been doing the building. The transition now is to go from building a house to building relationships. We will have more opportunity to do that now. Would you pray for us in developing the friendships we need to carry out our ministry?

We have had several people in who are traveling through Port Moresby. We have put up those who have been stranded at the airport. Some are single women travelling alone and do not feel comfortable staying alone at a hotel.

We attend a local Baptist church that we are getting more involved with. It is about 80 percent national people and 20 percent expats. For part of the relationship building process we have joined a home Bible study group that meets during the week. This is one of the opportunities that they offer to get people more involved.

We are also going to be taking a 2 week vacation early next month. It will be something that we can look forward to. This will be the first break we have taken since getting away for 4 days last December. It will be good to relax and do nothing.

We thank all of you for being a part of our ministry. Keep praying for opportunities for us to get more involved with people here in Port Moresby.

In Christ’s Service,
Phil and Janelle Sutton

Chad our son, took time away from his schooling in Central Florida to come and visit us. He spent part of his time at the center in the Highlands attending graduation and visiting friends. He had a great time. He also helped put together a couple of the beds for the house. It
was great to have him here!

Just before Chad came, we could finally move into our new house. Chad was our first guest. We still have a lot to do on the house, but it is good to be in. There are still a lot of boxes to be emptied into shelves that are not built yet!

We were joined by our cousins for the past nine days. Monte, Hayden and Hamilton were with us while their mom was in the Islands Regional Center doing medical work.
Monte took time away from their school break and came to help us build. A special thanks to a special donor for buying 2 of their tickets so they could help us out for 9 days. Monte worked on finishing the kitchen cabinets, and installing shelving.

Hayden and Hamilton, cut, routered sanded, painted and varnished shelving and baseboard and door frames. The last couple of days they were able to install more door framing and baseboards. They were fantastic and worked with great attitudes.

Kim joined us on her way back from the Islands Regional Center and we managed to get in a few games of Settlers and enjoy some time with family.

In Christ’s Service,

Phil and Janelle Sutton

We are so thankful for those that have come to help us build the house we will be living in. Tracy from our church in Minnesota came to help many of our missionaries around the field. He is a chiropractor by trade and he treated over 100 patients during the two conferences in the Highlands. We appreciated his treatments for us when he came to Port Moresby to help us for 10 days before returning to Minnesota. The beautiful counter tops are the results of his hard work.

We are looking forward to being able to move into our new house. We are targeting to be in within a couple of months.

Thanks for praying for us.

In Christ’s Service,

Phil and Janelle Sutton

I am sorry that we keep talking about the new building, but for now it is our life.

We are so thankful for a team of 4 guys from Pennsylvania and Chad a PNG MK working with us for the first week of March.

Dave worked on building cabinets for the kitchen. He made some beautiful slatted doors made from Rosewood.

Chad worked on framing in all the windows. There are 28 openings for louvered windows.

Jaron, Josh and Cam put up all the hardy board on the walls. I am so glad they did the ceiling! Oh to be young again with all that energy.

Manuel and Abe got the fun job of insulating everything.

Gordon worked on putting the exterior vents under the eaves. I worked some on the planer getting the wood ready for the cabinet fronts.

With that many guys working on the building we were able to see much progress.

This week taping and painting is starting. We are so thankful for Gordon, Manuel, John and Abe as we see them putting in long hours and getting a lot more work done on the house.

Continue to pray for us that we can get the building done and move in as soon as possible. We thank those that worked from Minnesota all of January and those who came last week. Without a team of people working together we could never see this done as quickly as it has.

Our co-workers, Dave and Diann arrive on April 25th. Pray that enough gets done that we can move in by then.

In Christ’s Service,

Phil and Janelle Sutton

We continue to see progress made on the building project. We are so thankful for the guys that came from Minnesota to help us. They worked hard and during some extreme heat. It is nice to see the roof complete, this helps us to be able to work inside from now on. Rain will not affect what we do. Gordon, Manuel, John, Abe and myself (occasionally when I can) continue to add something new each day. 

This past month one of our tribal teams presented the gospel to the Papatar people in West New Britain. The two families have prepared for years to get to this point. It is exciting to see people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. One way God is extending what is happening in this tribe, is by me having opportunities to share the story of this tribe being taught with the people I work with. One of these individuals (Peggy) is the person who collects the finances for visas upon arrival at the airport. This tribe holds a special part in her heart because she grew up in one of the neighboring villages where the teaching is taking place.

Updates were collected from the missionaries working in the tribe from January last year until the gospel was presented in December. The compiled stories were given to Peggy every month from about August to December. Peggy waited in anticipation for the story to be completed. She was reading the stories of what was taught and couldn’t wait for the next month’s edition. This then helped her understand what our missionaries teach from the Bible. Pray that there can be fruit from this form of sharing the gospel with those like Peggy. There have been several others that have received this material and I trust this will challenge them as well.

Continue to pray for opportunities for our ministry here in Port Moresby. Pray that we will be diligent to share our faith to those we come in contact with. Continue to pray for the building project. We want to complete it as quickly as possible. Our co-workers Dave and Diann are now enroute to PNG. They will be stopping in Singapore and Cairns on their way here to join us in the work.

In Christ’s Service,
Phil and Janelle Sutton

Greetings from Port Moresby.

We are pleased to have the team here with us building our house. Curt, Bruce and Jerry arrived without delays and lost baggage. They were pretty tired after their long trip.

The first step in the process has been to try to get back fill to be able to pour the cement. That took several days to get arranged. The guys worked on the preliminary setup of forms while they were waiting. It has gone quite well. We were able to pour the cement over several days while dodging the rain. The timing was always right. The rains came at night and for the last part to be poured it started to rain hard, but then it held off and stayed dry for the bull floating and trowel work. We are thankful for the Lord’s intervention in this process.

We have faced challenges because the crate with building tools and supplies was delayed in its arrival. The nail gun and nails are not here, so the trusses are being put together by hand. They will all be assembled before it arrives. We received word that the crate should arrive 23 Jan.

Most of the exterior walls are in place and the building is going up fast. Gordon’s pre wall building has worked out quite well. The trusses on one end went up yesterday.

Last weekend we had an opportunity to visit a Central Province village. We left Saturday afternoon and drove 3 hours. We drove around the village and ended up staying overnight in the translator’s house that is in the center of the village. Sunday morning we attended the Reformed Church. Bruce one of our visitors preached for the service. It was an eye opener for Bruce, Curt and Jerry. Being able to stay overnight gave better insight into how tribal people live.

Keep praying for the progress in the building project. Thank you for your prayers for us.

Phil and Janelle Sutton

Greetings from hot Port Moresby! December 2008

It has been averaging about 100-102 degrees most every day for the past 2 weeks. This is not a normal year. Usually it rains and keeps the temperature down. Now we have high humidity and it’s hot. Gordon has literally been dripping while he builds the walls.

I hate to keep talking about the building of our house, but I just have to share what it means to get a building permit in Port Moresby. In this entire process we can sure see God’s intervention in the process to make it happen faster. When I was told to get a building permit I had no idea how much time it would take to get it done. The first part is getting approval from the Physical Planning Board. It is a 10 step process. One of those steps is hiring an architect and getting the project registered with the Planning Board. In order to do that, we had to find the title and Lands Department drawings of the plot of land. Thus, one of the stories begins:

God prompted me to go with Manuel to an evangelistic meeting in one of the settlements in POM. I rode along and attended the meeting and got to talking with one of the men (Eli) that was there . He is a surveyor. So I talked with him for about 30 minutes about his job, how he got it, what his training was, etc… I just had a good conversation with him. For a couple of days I was working on the part of getting the certified copies of the Lands Department drawings. I was standing in line at the Lands Department, and wouldn’t you know it, Eli walks in and says "Phil what are you doing here?" I told him they were having trouble finding the plot drawings. Eli said, "I don’t work in this department, but I used to and I know where they are, because I did the survey drawings for your property in 2002." He walked in, found the drawings and brought them back to me. Their plot copier was not working so they handed the originals to me and I went and got several copies made for our project. Right place, right time, right people, GOD!

Eventually after working through getting everything I needed for the Physical Planning Board it was approved. Then the next step has to be accomplished. This one is a 21 step process for the Building Board. Right now I am down to just 2 of those steps needing to be accomplished before we have approval. The third to the last step also comes with a story of God’s intervention in the process. I was at the Lands Department checking on the progress of my approval. The secretary tracked it down to being in the Health Department, so I went over there to see if I could find where it was in the process. One of the workers led me to the person who does the approval for building plans. On his desk I saw about a foot and half high stack of building plans yet to be approved and thought, "Oh no, this is not going to be easy." The guy started looking through the stack and found our plans, (Yeah! I was in the right place!) and looked at each drawing and flipped to the cover, dated the form and signed it. Then he said, "By the way I want you to know that I am on holiday leave for three weeks and just came into the office to check on something and I would not normally be here." Right place, right time, right people, GOD!

So now we are waiting for the last two steps to be accomplished. I was told at the beginning of this process that it would take up to 6 months for this to happen. I have (or should I say the Lord’s) been at it for 7 weeks now. Lots of running, lots of prompting and lots of prayer! Keep praying, I still want the building permit in hand before 1 January 2009. Who knows maybe tomorrow I could get it. I will be checking.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Phil and Janelle Sutton

p.s.
The settlement with the Bob Arnold family went well. I have not had any family members come back to ask for anything more of us. This is an answer to prayer.

Our new address in Port Moresby is: New Tribes Mission, PO Box 747, Gordons, NCD 135, Papua New Guinea

Greeting from POM,

This month we purposed to share with you our co-workers, John and Bob. John began working with us back when we lived in Port Moresby in 2005. He moved on to this property when Jacob, the previous owner offered John residence. Bob already was in place, having been here to take care of the grounds for Jacob. Jacob and his wife were missionaries to Port Moresby from Denmark. They had an active ministry and met Bob when he was in prison. Bob accepted Christ as his Savior through Jacobs teaching. Jacob and his wife retired and New Tribes continued to house and employ both Bob and John.

John works with us doing our Government paperwork. He stands in line many hours at the Dept of Immigration and Labour. He also runs errands. He picks up and drops off passport applications at various Embassies. He is a great addition to the team and makes our work possible. John is also learning more each day on the computer. He scans passports, entry permits and work permits. Presently John is entering a lot of hard copy data into a spread sheet.

It is harder to write about Bob. Bob had a stroke last Friday morning. Phil and John found him in bed when he didn’t answer the door. They carried him on a make shift stretcher to our Toyota Surf and took him to Port Moresby General Hospital. Bob could talk, but with effort. He went downhill fast and died by Tuesday noon. This took us very much by surprise. Bob was 61 and seemed quite healthy. We notice all he did now that he is no longer with us. We are in the process of sorting out who Bob’s family is and who should get his belongings and final pay. Bob came from a highlands tribal group. They are a people group who can be demanding. Phil is still dealing with this and leaning on our national co-workers as to how deal with the situation. Pray for wisdom for Phil.

We haven’t mentioned Manuel yet. He was the guy way up in a tree in our last month’s update. Manuel is our handy man. He is very capable at almost anything that comes to physical work. Manuel is the one that discovered we had termites in our office. He carefully pulled out the damaged boards and put a new one in its place. Manuel was part of our workers on the old property. When we moved over here he was glad to join us again. We are very thankful to have this faithful employ with us.

Oh, Bane is our Sunday man. He comes every Sunday to guard our property so we can all go to church. We just asked him to come 2 other days during the week to water and do some general maintenance so Manuel can dedicate his time to help Gordon. He was glad for the opportunity.

Gordon and Lillian are our temporary co-workers. They are here to help us build our house. We are very happy to have them with us. Gordon is first helping Manuel get the shop back together after our termite disaster. We have a whole pile of lumber waiting to be made into walls. That will be what Gordon will start on next. I’m sure you’ll hear more about him later.

Dave and Diann are our co-workers too. They are presently in the States. We are living in their house. We do look forward to their return and working with them. They are hoping to be back in PNG in February. They too are very interested in how our house is progressing.

Hope this helps you understand a bit about who we minister with here in Port Moresby. We are glad to serve here. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Phil and Janelle Sutton

Greetings from Port Moresby.

We continue to work towards building the new house on the property. We are trimming back the trees so they will not be growing out over the house. Manuel is our maintenance worker and is a "Man bilong diwai". He grew up in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and has been cutting trees since he was a kid. All the trimming was done by ax or machete. He can just hop from limb to limb 40 feet above the ground and think nothing of it. I am glad he did it. My part was to cut it up once it was on the ground with a chain saw!

We want you all to be aware of some of the needs for getting this building done. One of our home churches, Cokato First Baptist Church is putting together a couple of crates to send materials out here to Port Moresby. A part of the building is an emergency flat that will house people that need to stay in case of emergencies. This place needs items for the kitchen, linens and curtains. They will be shipping some of these items and construction materials and tools prior to starting the building project on January 1, 2009. These crates need to be shipped within the next 2 weeks. There will be extra shipping and import duty costs. If you wish to make a donation or want to buy something for the crate, send it to Char in Minnesota. Please contact her at dcbakeberg@embarqmail.com or 320-286-2341 (call after 5 pm). She is cataloging all the materials and will be handling requests for the crates. She can give you shipping details.

There also is an opportunity to join a work team that is coming in January of 2009. If you are interested in helping and have the professional skills of building and construction let us know. The cost of a mission’s trip to here in Port Moresby is approximately 2800.00 (To/From Minneapolis) for the plane ticket, 75.00 for the visa and 25.00 per day for room and board during the stay here.

One urgent prayer request for us would be that we can get the building permit in a timely manner. It is a long process of going to a half a dozen different departments and getting our building plan approved. Planning Board, approval of architectural drawings, engineering, fire station, water board, electrical, site, fencing, etc… The list goes on. So we need wisdom as we work through that process.

Our ministry work is going fine. We have started the process of getting several families work permits and entry permits to enter the country. It’s exciting to see more people making the commitment to come and give of their lives to be missionaries.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Phil and Janelle Sutton