July 2024

Gone a Lot and Going Nowhere

I sat in a meeting with the Aviation CEO, Chief Pilot, Maintenance Engineer, and another pilot crunching numbers who stated, “By the end of the month, we will hit our emergency trigger point on jet fuel stock. We need to start pulling out our missionaries from the bush because we don’t know how long the country will be unable to provide fuel.” From there we navigated a multi-faceted plan to secure remaining jet fuel drums in our outstations, bring in drums from another country under the “emergency protocol” of PNG because of the shortage, supply some teams in the jungle with food for the long haul, and evacuated other teams to wait out the situation on our center because there is not much flying without fuel.

The fuel shortage was solved briefly but we have continued to navigate a difficult nationwide shortage. As managing director, this situation and many others like it both on a small scale and a large scale come across my desk. I’ve had the privilege and challenge to work through these with a fantastic team to continue our mission to reach the unreached, plant and nurture churches that continually glorify God, and empower national leaders to do the same (Matthew 28:18-20).

Despite the fuel shortage much of my year has been traveling away from home. Out of the first 190 days of the year, 107 were spent away. Lori has accompanied me for several of the trips which has been wonderful as we love doing ministry together when we can. My trips included two trips back into Patpatar, helping lead a curriculum workshop across the border in our neighboring country, speaking at the Island’s annual conference, taking part in a PNG church leader’s meeting, meeting with mission leaders throughout the Asia Pacific in Thailand to learn more about cross-cultural and cross-generational teams, being part of the Interface program for college students in PNG (see video), hospital time in the capital of PNG (see below), and a trip to Australia for medical and a family break.

Patpatar:
We started this calendar year as a family in the village of Patpatar. Our neighbors caught a pig in a trap on New Year’s night and we got to celebrate with a feast, hike up to a waterfall, and sport flower crowns. What made it so sweet was the fellowship we had together laughing, sharing truth from God’s Word, and encouraging each other in the difficulties we were facing.
 
One of those challenges is the third Patpatar location inland with a very low literacy rate where the church continues to minister. Some of the literacy teachers from both the coastal and the mountain locations got additional training to teach not only in the Patpatar language but also in the trade language of Tok Pisin with the hopes of teaching a class. On the day the two churches traveled inland to build the literacy classroom with the timbers that had been milled and set aside, they discovered that all the posts for the building had been stolen. So instead of spending the day building they spent it in fellowship with the new believers and then went back to their villages to scrape together more money to get more posts milled.

Family:
In April, Avalon graduated from Ethnos360 Training Center with her bachelor’s in Intercultural Studies. She will be joining the MK Care team based in the USA to serve Missionary Kids and their parents globally to help cultivate healthy families, enabling them to fulfill their role in establishing indigenous churches. She is now in Partnership Development to raise financial and prayer support. We will be doing a special update with her about her ministry soon.

Sierra and Ben celebrated their first anniversary and they both completed another year of school in England. Sierra has one year left to complete her child’s nursing degree.

After two weeks of our family helping out at the Interface program, Kylee had an appendicitis attack while we were traveling back to the tribe. The Lord’s timing allowed it to happen while we were transiting through the capital city and a couple hours later instead of boarding another flight, she was in surgery. She has recovered well and is ready to begin her senior year of high school.

Briella is often seen with a smile and with friends. Fifth grade ended with some special programs including a presentation for the parents of the skills learned in drama class.

Across the field:
Translation – In addition to the Simbari New Testament dedication at the end of last year, a few months ago we celebrated the Malaumanda New Testament dedication and we have two more coming up in the next few months. That’s four more languages with God’s Word written in their language.
Allocation – We have been able to send missionaries into two more people groups. One is Uruwa, on the mainland of PNG, and has three families allocated who have begun to learn that language. Another one is Mamusi in the islands and has one house built and another one to be finished and is simply awaiting travels and logistics for the missionaries to move in.
Begining to teach – A family in the swampy area of PNG in Uriay has finished their language study, prepared Bible lessons, and will be teaching chronologically to the village beginning in just a few weeks!
God is so good to allow us to continue working towards our vision to see a thriving church for every tribe, language, and people in Papua New Guinea (Revelation 5:9).

We love being a part of what our God is doing here in PNG and we are grateful for your part in it.
Aaron, Lori, Kylee, and Briella