I start by saying a BIG THANK YOU to you guys for your help and supporting us as we are working here in Papua New guinea! I am sharing this news with you today because there is NO WAY how we could ever do what we have done, this past year and years if it was not for you! So spend some time to read through this and allow us to share our appreciation! All honor to God who continues to restore His image in this world, and on these Islands, even during these crazy times. God has been gracious, and it has been amazing to see what God is doing amongst the unreached and the churches here on our islands. And what has been more amazing is to see how God is growing His Team in completing this work. He is adding national leaders, expat missionaries and you guys at home! Thanks!
– Thanks for supporting us and our ministry financially!
– Thanks for praying for us!
– Thanks for encouraging us!
PARTNERING WITH THE EXISTING CHURCH IN PNG
If we look at the Bible we see that God from the beginning of time had a plan for His church in that he wanted her to be a reflection of Him as a unified body to His Glory. This is what we are aiming at establishing in PNG. And, according to our Core Ministry Focus and our Purpose Statement here in PNG, NTM exists to assist the ministry of the local church. A question I had over these last years, was, “How can we move toward a better connectivity with the national believers who already are or should be part of the work that God has given the church to do?” This has been a question in our minds and amongst the churches I am working with in New Britain and New Ireland.
We are learning more that the job of world evangelism is given to the entire body of Christ and that we truly do need each other. Our partnership with you guys has helped us tremendously in this, but we are needing to engage better with the church planted here in PNG as well.
So, since 2016 I have been engaging closely with the national church in learning from national co-workers about ministry, as well as understanding the national church to see how we might mutually benefit from each other’s ministry.
CO WORKERS
One of the greatest privileges I have is to work very closely with some men and their wives who are an inspiration and example to me! They are now living with us in our support center and we have been doing this for a year now. They have been sent by their churches as missionaries to come and live and work with me, and are fully being supported now by the national churches in New Britain. We have been building relationships with each other, sharing, and encouraging and learning from each other and partnering in working together.
DEVELOPING VISION AND CURRICULUM
Kewaka and Kaiko and other leaders are working with me as we are developing the vision to see a national leadership team developed for the churches in PNG. We are also developing resources that the churches could use in addressing their needs.
TEACHING AND DISCIPLING
We travel together to teach this material to the church leadership, and we teach them to use it. This is the best part of my ministry as I get to engage with the team, and the church leadership in the different locations. Recently we traveled to the following places:
Ata – We spend a week in Ata working with the leaders from Mengen, Mamusi, Nakanai and Mangseng and taught through the leadership overview.
Lamogai – We travelled to Lamogai where we met with representatives from all the churches in New Britain – Here we got some feedback on how the meetings went in their own language groups where they themselves taught the leadership overview. We also spend time helping one of the churches going through some difficulties and planned some of our work for the rest of the year.
Mamusi – We then had the leaders only travel into Mamusi where they shared the same teaching with the Mamusi leaders and some of the believers.
New Ireland – We also traveled to New Ireland where we shared with them the teaching on the Church being the Image of Christ
Surveys and PGA’s – During this year we completed a few trips to a location in which we are thinking off starting a new work. It takes allot of work to open up these new areas, and this one has taken allof out of us and the team here. There is still a bit that should be done but we are praying that God will open up the doors soon.
NATIONAL CHURCH PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT
Over and above the work of developing curriculum and teaching and discipleship, we also have a team of people working on developing the support structures and systems the church needs to support their own work. These last months, we have worked on developing the property on which we host allot of our national church work right here on our support center. We are close to completing the new guesthouse we build. This has been done through donations from you guys and the work has been done by believers from the national church here in New Britain. Part of the process is to train national deacons into maintaining these properties but also to print and make available the materials the churches need to continue their work.
MENGEN CHURCH STEADILY GROWING
Since our return after our furlough in 2019, we had the opportunity to work together with our co-workers, Simon and Annika Flanagan. Even though the dynamics have changed, and we are full time ministering amongst the churches on the Islands, with the Flanagans full time in Mengen land, it’s been amazing to again have them as part of our team here in the Islands. Simon and the leaders in the church continue with literacy, leadership development, teaching, discipleship, inductively studying God’s Word, youth meetings, and ladies meetings. It’s been encouraging to hear about the young people that we know as kids now starting to take the lead. It’s not been easy, and the church has been going through allot of growing pains, but it’s not uncommon for God’s church to grow through such struggles. Many of you help us starting this work and continued to financially provide into our Translation fund and Evangelism and literacy fund. I just heard this week that both these funds have received all the donations that has been asked for. And this means its set to provide financial support to the Mengen work for many years to come. THANKS VERY MUCH
NEXT STEPS.
– These coming weeks, we will be having meetings with the rest of the leadership team form New Britain to plan our work for next year.
– We will also be working on completing the resources to help the church understand better their role within the support ministries they have.
– Next year we hope to be able to host some new national missionaries that are planning to partner with an expat family into a people group here in New Britain. We hoping to give some additional training focusing on cross cultural missions and thus helping them to team up, enter and work with a people group that’s foreign to them. Therefore, the leadership team is working on developing some modules that would assist these families. We are hoping to teach these modules to a couple of families this year.
– We are planning on completing the new guesthouse structure, than work on building one of three houses for the leadership living with us on center.
PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING US!
Thank you for your part in this huge process of seeing the Gods Church planted and developing in Papua New Guinea. Your prayers and financial support and making a tangible difference in life’s and communities. Would you consider supporting us financially?
These key leaders are carrying the burden of the work financially, but we are trying to support them in some ways from time to time, as we work with them and disciple them and they likewise disciple us. Please consider contributing towards this church leadership fund we have to help support some of these leaders and events. There are a variety way you can support this ministry. Please contact us for more details, or following this link and specify it as for “the national leadership development in PNG”.
“Supporting the national leaders in PNG“
For our SA supporters: Lourens Laureti
Standard Bank Savings Account number: 238403122 Branch: Cresta
Blessings
Lourens for the church in PNG.