NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Visiting a local hospital

This week we took an excursion to a local hospital to learn about some cultural practices and how the hospitals operate here in Indonesia, which is a bit different that the States. One nice thing is that you usually will get everything accomplished in one visit and not have referral after referral. However, you will also spend the whole day there (if it is something big) and have to pay for everything up front, which probably won’t be very much (ex. Ellie’s X-rays and check up ran about 20USD).

Each week we have been engaging ourselves into the Indonesian culture through various “cultural excursions” and then working on the language associated with that event. This is a neat way to learn but can get overwhelming at times. We appreciate your continued prayers as we study.

<>< ZP

Riding a tocar in town

Well, we have been in our new home for three full weeks and have learned quite a bit about the culture and some words and phrases for getting around. One thing that is noticeably different here is that about two to three times a week the neighborhood water will be turned off. . . Not sure why but then around 11am to 1pm it will be turned back on! It has rained every day except for two days that we have been here and it will rain usually in the afternoon for a couple hours on average. With all this water, why does it need to be shut off? I found out that it happens more during rainy season than dry, but not sure why yet. Sooo, we need to do laundry and other cleaning first thing in the morning in order for anything to dry (everything is line/hung dried). This doesn’t work well when there isn’t water. . . Just one more thing to get used to and to be thankful for back in the States

Wow, we have been in Indonesia for just over two weeks and the time has flown! We have been at our home in Central Java for almost two weeks and are just about completely moved in. It takes so much longer to get items to set up house as there aren’t Walmart super stores here and our primary mode of transportation is by someone taking us on a bike or scooter

A Zipper spider in our back yard

We will begin our “phase one” language and culture training next week (the 21st) and are excited to dive in soon to that.

Mommy and tired Mikayla coming back from the market

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to move forward towards reaching out to those who have never heard the Gospel.

The Gospel is really quite simple yet is one of the most misinterpreted and twisted truths in life! That God is righteous and we are depraved – none of us could ever do anything to get right with Him. Here God, in our lowly state, gives us the very righteousness we so desperately need to have a right standing before him! It is by His grace! (Romans 1:16-17) Here is the Gospel summed up in just a few verses: 1Cor 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, . . .” Romans 10:9 explains how we can be saved in the most basic and complete way, which is also good news: “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Jesus never promised life would be easy by any means! Only that he would never leave us nor forsake us. WOW, what a blessing!

I wanted to post this “What the Gospel isn’t” as John Piper illustrates in this short video (See next post).

Out of the country & off to the city

Well, we made it to San Diego. Praise the Lord for a safe trip and an easy move in. Indonesia is just around the corner and we are getting very excited about moving there! Right now we are now working on how we can plug into Shadow Mountain Community Church, Harvest Christian Fellowship our community and how we can reconnect with old friends and family as well as make new ones. It has been over six years since we have lived here though not too much has changed. Please pray that in all we do we will be a testimony to others for Christ Jesus. Thank you. <>< ZP

We received our approval to obtain our visas to go to Indonesia! We are excited as without this, we cannot go.

This gives us a maximum of 120 days for us to arrive in the country, which means early November. At this point, it looks like we will be arriving there on the 2nd of November with a few days to spare. . . Please continue to pray that we will be an encouragement to others while we are here and that we will have more opportunities to witness for the Lord along the way. Thank you, < ZP