They Have a Name

Survey Update

From September 25^th – October 3^rd, Bart, Benjamin and Dave (the men on our team) hiked rugged mountain trails in order to visit many of the villages in the language group that our team is targeting.

The goal was to share with the people the work that New Tribes Mission does and gauge their interest in having us come.  As the men shared in each village the four main things that New Tribes missionaries do – learn the tribal language, teach the people to read and write their own language, translate the Bible into the tribal language and then teach them the Bible from the beginning – the overwhelming response was “Yes, we want you to come and do that here!”  The people were especially excited that the wives and children would be coming to live there too and that the message we will be bringing is for everyone.

It is amazing to know that these are the people to whom we will be ministering in the years to come!!  It seems like we’ve been waiting a long time to get to this point!

Thank you so much for praying for the men on this trip.  It was physically exhausting and they were pushed beyond the limits they thought they had.  Many days they hiked 8 or 9 hours and the trails were very steep and slippery.  They started at an elevation of about 3,500 ft. but had to climb over mountains that were 7,000 ft.  They all came back with various scratches, rashes and bruises but nothing more serious than that.

We praise the Lord for the safety He gave as well as the success the men had in accomplishing what they set out to do.  The wives and kids back on our mission center managed the nine days without the dads, but everyone was certainly happy to be reunited!!

They Have a Name!

Back in June we shared with you that for security reasons we were not yet able to broadcast the name of the people group with whom we will be working.  Well, we are happy to be able to share a name with you now!!

They are the Amdu people (pronounced “Ahmdoo”).  This name accurately describes them, as “Amdu” means “mountain” in their language and they certainly are mountain people.  Feel free to use this name in connection with our family and our team.
We are missionaries to the Amdu people of
Papua New Guinea!!!

       

Moving into Amdu – What Will It Take?

Currently we are in Australia to await the birth of our baby (due date is November 28).  While we are gone, the Hatton and Parry families are moving ahead with plans to build their houses in the tribe.  Right now they are very busy organizing building supplies, lining up work teams and scheduling flights.  Please pray for them as they walk through this important but also stressful time.  While part of us wishes we could be there with them, we also know that the Lord has something different for our family right now.  Before we know it, we’ll have a new little baby and we’ll be back in PNG getting ready to build our house in Amdu.  We think that will most likely be sometime mid-January 2013.

As we look ahead to that time, there are a few things that we would like to ask you to pray about with us.  Over the past few years, the Lord (through individual supporters and churches) has provided a large portion of the money needed to build and outfit our tribal house.  What we are still lacking is sufficient funds to get everything into the tribe.  So, here are some details of what we are asking the Lord to provide in order to make living in Amdu a reality for our family.

The flight time from our nearest NTM center into Amdu is almost 2 hours by small mission airplane.  For the larger cargo flights needed to get building supplies and belongings into the tribe, the cost will be about $4,000 per flight – estimated total cost being $16,000 – $20,000.

In addition to those one-time expenses, we are facing the reality of the added cost of being regularly supplied in this remote location.  We are praying that the Lord would provide an increase in our monthly support so that we can adequately minister in Amdu.

**For those who would like to be involved in helping with these needs, the easiest way is to visit the Give page here on our blog to see the different options for giving.

www.ntm.org/bart_allen/give

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We are so excited to watch the Lord continue to open doors and move us along toward finally getting into the Amdu tribe and beginning our ministry there.  Many of you have been with us on this journey for many years.  Some of you have just recently gotten to know us.  We appreciate all of you very much!!!

Please check back soon to see more photos of Amdu!