NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

The Atbalmin survey was successful as Ben and I feel we accomplished all we set out to do.  It looks like a very promising place as the people were very receptive at all the villages we were in.  We were given the ok and verbal invitation in every village to come and start a work, but we had to leave it at we’ll write a report and send it to the bosses in the highlands support center before we will know anything:-) We had to use a translator in all five villages that we were in.

Thanks for all your donations and time given to praying for us.  A huge thanks to John, Carol and Hope who really helped make this survey go off well!

General people group overview

The Atbalmin people group live in the mountains in the central range of Papua New Guinea.  Their name comes from the tok ples word asbal.  As=tree and bal=people.  They live in small huts off the ground on stilts.  They cook and keep warm at night by the firepits built right into the middle of the house.  Fairly common for the men to take several wives.  If you’re a hard working man the women want to marry you.   Our guide Thomson had four wives.

We found that the language is broken into three similar dialects according to our own findings and the SIL ethnologue.  They are a mountain people with tremendous gardening ability.  They walk all over their tokples territory and regularly visit Tabubil, Tumolbil, Telefomin and Yapsi.  Very few of them have been farther afield than that.

They are predominately illiterate because of a lack of teachers to man the community school in Munbil.  No school since 2001.  We found the majority of the population to be monolingual.  Western clothing was the norm, but in poor condition and in limited supply.  Bush knives, axes and cooking pots were prevalent but other utensils like bowls, cups, spoons etc were in short supply.

The Asbal people Live by planting gardens.  These are no small gardens either.  As you fly through the valley that they live in you can see rather large gardens dotting the landscape.  Other than gardening they also live off of the surrounding jungle, from the fruits and nuts that they collect.  They also do some hunting of wild pigs and cassowary and other small game.  They carry their bows and arrows everywhere.

A typical day consists of getting up cooking eating and then heading out to the garden by 6am.  They will stay in the garden all day and come home about 6pm at night.  Garden food consists of Banana, Taro, Kaukau, Onion, Pumkin and several different kinds of greens.  They also have a bit of sago palm, but it is not a staple, just something they eat once in awhile.

They believe that if they follow the ten commandments perfectly that they will be straight in God’s eyes.  They also say they don’t think that anyone can follow God’s commandments perfectly.  Which means they are stuck in a quandry of trying to please God to try and be good in His eyes.

Pray for God’s leading in who might be led to church plant among the Atbal people group!

Tony

We are thankful to be a part of directly helping the tribal missionaries stay in their Locations and continuing their church plant ministry! Pray for us that we will continue to serve them well. Recently one tribal work was handed over to the tribal church leaders. The Siawi church leaders have been functioning on their own and it is time for them to begin functioning on their own without the missionaries full time on location with them.  Thank you Lord that you are building your church. We are glad to be a part of seeing new churches planted.

Thank you for being a part of this great job of seeing people reached with the Gospel!!

Your PNG Sutton’s

Wow! I guess we haven’t been very good at updating our blog.  We aren’t that old, but it does take a little getting used to, all this technical computer stuff that is!

Praise the Lord with us as the Inanbimali church turned 3 years old just a couple of days ago.  April 21 2008 we presented the Gospel and witnessed some of our friends become believers.

It is wonderful to be able to sit down with these believers and talk with them so openly about God and their own spiritual journey.  Their focus and the things they talk about now are so different from just a few years ago.  Pray for the believers as they meet together during this Easter weekend and worship our Wonderful Lord and Savior!!

They are growing in their walk with the Lord.  For example,  a couple of months ago, Edward one of the teachers in training decided to remove himself from the training as his wife is not a believer and they had been having some pretty serious disagreements in public.  He decided that the example this situation was setting for the believers was not Godly and that the testimony to the unbelievers was definitely not what it should be, so he went ahead and removed himself from the teacher training.  Well I just ran into him in town the other day and he told me that ever since then his wife has been very faithful coming to the teaching, and that he is very positive that soon she will become a believer herself.  They are getting along much better and her is back in the teacher training course.  Please pray for my Inanbimali clan sister Miriam’s salvation.  Edward would be my Inanbimali  Father/Brother in Law, as he is also considered Tara’s clan dad, hhmmm…we’ll leave that one there.   I would love to be able to call her my sister in the Lord also! ! Please Pray

Tony, Tara, Scarlett, Logan and Ava

Hello Friends,

Here we are trying to get back into the groove of getting regular updates sent out.  After we finished teaching through to the Gospel, all of us have spent a lot of time seeking out individuals, to sit down with them, and basically try to go through the teaching on an individual level with them.  This individual time has really given us some good insight into where people are at in their understanding of God’s plan of salvation.

 As of now, we are teaching once a week on Saturday evenings, which we are slowly turning into more of a worship/believers meeting.  We are doing an overview of what we already taught during phase 1 teaching  from Creation to Christ.  There are about 14 lessons that we will be teaching and last night we just finished teaching the 4^th lesson so we have about ten to go.  In these lessons we go through the redemptive analogies in the O.T. and look at them from a believers perspective.  We are teaching on a few new things, mainly on the importance of believers meeting together regularly and prayer.  Singing and the studying of God’s Word are on the horizon so we are excited about these things. 

 Because of their former religious background it is taking many of them a long time to sort through a lifetime of trying to get to heaven by doing good works.  So each week, we keep hammering home how the law, is just like a mirror, there to show you that you are a sinful person who cannot do a thing to save yourself.  We need God to save us!!  He just wants us to believe in the way He has provided, and He will do the saving!!  It is very encouraging to sit and talk now with ones who have understood this and believe.

 Last night, my partner, Tim taught on God sending Adam and Eve out of the garden, Cain and Abel, and then we finished up with Noah.  The story of Noah really hits home with a lot of people.  All Noah, his wife and his sons and their wives had to do, was to believe that what God had told them about the flood coming, was true.  So they built the boat, and then walked into the boat when it was time.  They believed first and the actions came afterward.  Not only that, God shut the door!  And once God shuts the door there is no one on the inside or outside who can open that door.  What a picture of the assurance of salvation that we have.

Another area we have moved into is the giving of testimonies.  Most of us six missionaries have given our testimonies over the last 3 weeks and it has just been another avenue to reinforce how it is that we were all saved.  There are several people who are itching to give their testimonies.  We told them they can give it any time but they really want to have a time marked to do it so we will start having them give their testimonies this next week. 

 Last night after teaching, we had a time for questions like we always do and some people were asking questions about the law and is there really nothing that they can do to help themselves get to God’s side.   Peter, one of my brothers, was a little frustrated with their questions because it showed that they were not understanding things.  So he took it on himself to explain the Gospel and we were so encouraged as it was the clearest explanation of the Gospel that we have heard yet from someone here.

There were also 5 or six other guys standing behind him encouraging him on, and feeding him little comments to add in.  Overall, it was a huge step for the believers here to just kind of take a stand and publicly talk about how good works cannot save you,  and that it is only believing in the work that Jesus accomplished for us.

 Keep praying as God is definitely doing a work here!

* Pray for those especially that are on the fence trying to work through understanding how it is that they can do nothing to help themselves to be saved. 

*Pray also for those who are now believers and that they would get the teaching that they need over the next weeks, months and years for them to be able to grow and mature into people who walk with the Lord on a daily basis. 

*Pray for us as we continue teaching, translating, and learning language and culture.  Currently the book of Mark and Acts are both in the translation process and we are hoping to have them done this year and possibly printed and in the hands of the people.  The book of Mark is actually almost finished so keep your ears open to hear about the printing of the book of Mark.  

 Thank you again for standing with us in this ministry!  You are a vital part of this new Yembiyembi church!

Tony, Tara, Scarlett & Logan

Dear Prayer Partners,

By God’s grace His gospel has now been clearly presented in the Inanbimali language for the first time ever!!

This is very exciting as we now have brothers and sisters in the Lord.

We started teaching Saturday evening at about 5:00 pm and the lesson and questions went until about 7pm. We had over 95% of the village population there and by the grace of God it was incredibly quiet, which is absolutely amazing. Imagine about 300 people gathered with small kids, fighting dogs, chickens and many other distractions I will leave to your imagination. It was the quietest teaching session that we have ever had!!

Each of us 6 adults have gotten to spend individual time with a few folks and we have had some very clear testimonies of faith. We have a lot more people to get around to and spend some time getting to know where they are at though. Here are some of the testimonies:

Stanley, Tony’s brother: Right at the end of the meeting he turns to me and asks me very seriously if someone had missed a lot of the lessons if they would still be able to understand the gospel and be saved. So I asked him how he thought that he was saved and he told
me, “I know that I am a rotten person and that there is nothing I can do to get to God’s side, I just have to believe that Jesus took my place as the sheep and that he is the last sheep that will ever be needed.” He then went on to say, “I am very worried about my wife because she has not been coming to the meetings and I have to make her understand as quickly as possible.” Also I heard from other people who live in his house say that Stanley told his dad yesterday that, “I am extremely worried about you dad. I know I am on God’s side and
I am really worried that when we die I am not going to see you again.” Jeffrey, Stanley’s dad, only came to a very few of the meetings. He is a quiet man who doesn’t like crowds. Pray that he will see a real difference in some of his family members and also want to understand and know the truth.

Anastasia told Nina right after the meeting, “ I have wasted my life. I have been believing lies. I can do nothing on my own to get to God’s side.  Jesus did that for me.” She kept having to walk out of the teaching house because she was crying so much. I am looking forward to getting with her soon and hearing more of what she believes now.

Margarat….right before the meeting she had asked me about praying to angels and praying to saints. She said, “Tara, I pray to the angels and then they pray to God for me. Is that right and what do you think?” So I told her to really listen to the lesson tonight and to keep her ears open so that she understands clearly. Then she went up to Nina right after the teaching session and said, “ I now know how I can go directly to God. When Jesus hung on the cross the temple curtain split in two and that means that I can go directly to Him. Jesus was my sheep. He is the last sheep.”

Kelley…said that when he heard the lesson on the Pharisees that it “courted him”, which means it convicted his heart. He said a lot of us here are Pharisees..
I and others here didn’t think that anything was wrong with us. But now I see very clearly that we are dirty(sinful) on the inside. Jesus was the last offering that ever
needs to be made. And I believe that he was the sheep that took my place.  There are still SO many people that we need to get with alone and see how much they understand. Saturday night, after the lesson there were
both men and women up here at our houses till about 3 am just FULL of questions. They have been deceived and in darkness so long that it seems like for
some of them it will be awhile before they sort all of this out in their minds. We know that getting with each person one on one will be the KEY! Even if there is one other person present they begin to be reserved in their talking. Gloria said to us on Saturday night after the lesson…” When I saw Brooks eye water come down (get tears in his eyes) I knew he wasn’t crying for himself, because he is already on God’s side. He was worried for us.”

DON”T STOP PRAYING NOW!! This is when your prayers are critical. We have babies in Christ that need discipleship and then we have unbelievers that still
need that one on one time to help them understand clearly. This will also mean a lot of time out in the village during the day & at night.

Please continue to pray for our families. Especially for the kids, because during these next couple weeks we will be pulled in so many directions and we probably won’t have a normal schedule for awhile.

Pray also for our health as a team.

Pray for these next few days, weeks, months as we transition into a group of believers who will be meeting for teaching. There are folks already asking how it is that God expects us to pray and does He want us to sing and the questions just go on and on. We more than ever need God’s wisdom now!

Thank you for partnering with us. Not really with us but with God as He is the one who has enabled all of this to come about. We have just been imperfect, willing vessels.

Praise and Glory be to our Almighty God
Tony, Tara, Scarlett and Logan Sutton

Praise the Lord for sending a third couple our way.  We are so very grateful for Tim, Courtney, Elijah and Judah Shontere. 

They have just in the last two months moved into the Inanbimali tribe and are already moved in and studying language.  It has been very good and exciting to go from being alone in the village for 5 months without any coworkers and then to have the Buser’s back and also gaining the Shontere’s!

These certainly are exciting times in Inanbimali land, as our partner Brooks Buser has begun the translation of God’s Word into the Inanbimali language.

He is currently the only one who has finished language study so he is on his own until Tim Shontere and I are able to achieve language fluency to the point where we will be able to work with him on Bible translation and lesson preparation for teaching for the very first time in Inanbimali.

Kerobim is a Inanbimali village leader who is steeped in his animistic views of life, but not only that, he has mixed his beliefs with some western religions/beliefs and regularly jumps from one to other depending on which one seems to fit what he wants to happen.  He lives in fear and does his best to manipulate the spirits and people around him to make things happen as he thinks they should.

Please be praying that he would believe once the Gospel is presented.

Kerobim is only one of about six men who can be pretty influential with the rest of the people in the Inanbimali tribe.

Please pray that we would be building good relationships with these men and others so that we have a willing to listen audience once we begin teaching the truth from God’s Word.

YOU HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE!!!

 Thank you so much for being part of the team to the Yembi people of Papua New Guinea.  Without you as partners this job of church planting would be a very lonely job.  We would like to give a quick overview of what has been accomplished in the work of planting a church in Yembiyembi, and more importantly, what still needs to be done.

Praise the Lord our houses have been built, and the airstrip is finished.  Those were two rather large barriers that needed to be hurdled and boy, are we glad to be done with them.  Between those two projects it took one and half years to complete them.  We left one week after the official opening of the airstrip and have now been home in Minnesota, on partnership development, since November of 2005.  We will be back in PNG on the 17^th of September 2006.

The next couple of years in Yembiyembi will consist of finishing up the Culture and Language study, start translation of the Bible, and Bible lessons for teaching, and then start teaching.  There are obviously a whole lot more details and work that go into all of this, but there isn’t space to tell it all.  These tasks will definitely take more time than the houses or airstrip did and they are infinitely more important.

 Please be in prayer that as we jump into full time Culture and Language study that we will be disciplined and most of all walking with the Lord and being sensitive to His leading day by day.

And thank you for your part!!

SCARLETT’S CORNER:  Hi this is Scarlett here.  I am now 8 years old. I am happy to be going back to Yembiyembi.  I sure enjoyed school in Blackduck, MN.  I also got to do some other special things like to visit the Mall of America in the Twin Cities, and just recently I got to go to the local county fair.  I am going to be starting 3^rd grade soon.  One thing I want to do is learn Tok Pisin, the trade language of PNG.  I can understand a lot but I want to learn how to speak it much better.  I also look forward to making Yembiyembi friends. Love, Scarlett

 LOGAN’S CORNER:  Hi this is Logan now.  I am 5 years old.  I learned how to ride my bike while we have been in MN.  (with no training wheels!!)  I am so happy to have a sister.  I really like to play computer games like pinball.  I like to write and draw and I really like to ride on the four wheelers with my dad.  It has been so nice to live only one mile from Grandpa & Grandma. 

Love, Logan

 SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:

-You have made it possible to buy our plane tickets back to PNG.  PRAISE THE LORD

-We will be back in PNG on the 17^th of Sept.

-Scarlett will be starting 3^rd grade and Logan will be starting kindergarten

-Brooks & Nina Buser, our coworkers, come back to PNG in February of 2007

 THANK YOU FOR PARTNERING WITH US!!

Tony, Tara, Scarlett and Logan

 Dear Friends,

 Here is a short update on how the work on the YembiYembi airstrip is going.  It’s amazing to think that we have only put in 6 weeks of actual work on it.  True we started back in November 2004, but Jan. through June is flood season and sure enough things have been flooded for the greater part of the last six months so we could accomplish almost no work whatsoever.  Praise the Lord dry season is here and as soon as we can get the tractor here (hopefully at the end of July or beginning of August) we should be able to wrap things up in about 4 to 6 weeks of solid work.  We will be needing some tractor operators to work full time for those weeks.  It looks like there are a couple of support missionaries who will be able to come and do the driving for us so that we will be able to continue on with our culture and language study. 

 We hope and pray that all of this work will not be in vain, but that soon we will be teaching the gospel to the YembiYembi people. 

 Thank you for your partnership in this endeavor to give the gospel to the YembiYembi people in their own language. 

 Your coworkers in PNG,

Tony, Tara, Scarlett and Logan Sutton