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Thanks for popping in and please remember to check out the other links on this page. We have a few prayer points and a photo album with much more photos! Also you can get some info on our work here in Papua New Guinea.
Tribal Supply.
I am currently helping out in support at the Tribal supply department. I am coordinating the process of receiving all orders from the tribal people and making sure it is collected at the various stores, packaged and send to the Aviation department which flies it out to the tribal locations. This is a lovely ministry and puts me into contact with so many people. I work with many national co workers at the base and missionaries. I really think this is an excellent opportunity to learn to serve and to prepare myself for a tribal work later this year.
Handling all mails coming in from missionaries
Stuff packed and ready to go
Highlands Conference.
Just last week we attended NTM’s annual Highlands conference. A Pastor from America was our conference speaker this year and He challenged as from the Epistle of 1 Peter. He gave five messages here that were very encouraging but challenging as well. We were challenged in the areas of obedience, sacrifice, and commitment. I am sure it hit close to home with many men and women living and experiencing the struggles and challenges of a missionary in PNG.
Missionaries gathered at conference.
We also got a chance to meet many of the missionaries in the Highlands we never met before and we were very much encouraged by their testimonies. they are people just like us, with similar struggles, yet they are persevering through real tough times. seeing others walking the walk truly encourages me!
Paul Boothby sharing on the work in the Gende tribe
Also we had opportunity to spend time with Regional leadership. They help make sure that our strategies and efforts are in harmony with NTM’s overall church planting vision. I have to say that so far I have been impressed with the leadership here. They seem to possess a humility that is difficult to find in the leadership of most organizations.
During this time we experienced Good teaching from the Word, Good fellowship with our co-workers around the region and Great activities for the kids.
Challenges
Let me share one of our fears with you. Often I think of our future ahead of us and I realize that learning a tribal language is going to be a huge undertaking! Even though I did not do to bad with learning English in School, a bit of Zulu at Adullam Mission, and getting Pidgen in 4 months, I know that this is another ball game altogether!
Often I hear people say, it is not to hard, First things first. Let’s get some greetings and leave takings under our belts. Then move on to simple everyday nouns and maybe a few verbs. Then maybe we can start connecting some simple phrases together. After that we can get more and more complex. The whole process should take about 2-3 years of full-time study. Ha that sounds easy, yet I know of people working more than 10 years and still they don’t have the language.
What is it that motivates me? I know that the best way to communicate God’s word would be in the peoples’ mother tongue; the same language that they grew up communicating with. It’s the language in which they think and rationalize and in which they express their emotions.
Please continue to pray for us that God may enable us to get into the right people group with the right team and learn the language quickly!
Family
Through God’s grace our family is doing fine! We are getting the opportunity to really spend quality time with each other and it is wonderful to see the kids blossom under all the love! Marie is doing fine with the pregnancy and we hope that we will soon know where we can go to get the baby! Marie is doing a great job at home and I can’t appreciate her enough. She does not have a help at home and even in pregnancy and through homeschooling she is doing great. Please pray with me that God may bless her and strengthen her daily!
Therefore pray with us for miracles!
Thanks for giving, writing and praying, may God richly bless you!
And as the Papuan’s would say:
‘lukim ju sampla taim‘
Most People are brought to faith in Christ, not by argument for it,
But by exposure to it.
Please follow the link to our photo album for more photos.