{"id":639,"date":"2026-04-26T00:27:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T05:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/?p=639"},"modified":"2026-04-26T00:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T05:27:07","slug":"what-did-you-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/2026\/04\/26\/what-did-you-say\/","title":{"rendered":"What Did You Say?!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
APRIL 25, 2026

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen you for a long time, so now I don\u2019t like you.\u201d \u201cThis afternoon, I threw my baby on the ground.\u201d \u201cIn America we watch a sport where people kill each other on a field.\u201d

Those are all things I mistakenly communicated when I was first learning Tok Pisin.

One of our values in NTM PNG (New Tribes Mission, Papua New Guinea) \u00a0is clear communication. We have a God who communicates with us. As Hebrews 1:1-2a says, \u201cLong ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.\u201d Therefore our missionaries seek to communicate clearly by teaching in people\u2019s heart language, and teaching through the Bible chronologically.

In our work in member care, a lot of what we do is try to help people communicate clearly. So many misunderstandings and hurts come from poor communication. However, different personalities, different cultures, different perspectives, and different experiences all contribute to a lack of clear communication. Sometimes our fears, busyness, hurt, or pride keep us from even trying to communicate.

We experienced the importance of this lately personally. The past few months we were really struggling with some things, and realized we needed to talk about it with the individuals involved. We had some meetings with them, and left with encouragement and clarity. Just through communication, God worked to totally turn around a situation. Currently we are working with some people who are having some conflict. Our hope is that through communication they can come to a point of reconciliation. Over the past few months, we have sat in on many meetings between individuals in order to help facilitate understanding and good communication, and it has been helpful to the parties involved. The main part of what we do though, is just talking with people, listening to their hurt, encouraging them, and letting them know that they are seen and loved.

Throughout history, God has bent over backwards to communicate with His people, because through communication, love is displayed. So, a lot of our ministry is \u201ctalking,\u201d but I would never say it\u2019s \u201cjust talking.\u201d Please pray for us as we seek to help people communicate, and through this work display the love of God.

Till all know,
Matt, Karissa, Ty, and Wyck

WHAT ARE WE SUPPORTING? THIS MONTH\u2019S TRIBAL FOCUS: Pray for the Mamusi team
The Hughes and Pav families have been preparing to go into this new location for a long time. In fact, the first posts for their houses were put in the ground in 2022, but obstacle after obstacle has prevented them from being able to move in. The Hughes\u2019 house is now completed, and they are in the process of building the Pav\u2019s house. This is the team I was working on making meals for last month, because this building time is a stressful and intense time. Pray for rest and hope for the team, and pray that God would be preparing the Mamusi people to be hearing His Word for the first time.
\"\"
NCA students at a special event

Please Pray:
– for reconciliation between people we are working with
– for good communication in meetings
– for wisdom in some upcoming ministry decisions
– for our boys as three of their good friends are leaving soon

\"\"
A house being built in Mamusi

Praise God:
– Our home church sent some money to help pay for Matt\u2019s conference trip
– for good clarity brought in our meetings
– the meals we sent in for the bush build have been a huge blessing to that team
– people have been reaching out to us asking for help (this is an answer to prayer because if we know about needs, we can help!)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APRIL 25, 2026 \u201cI haven\u2019t seen you for a long time, so now I don\u2019t like you.\u201d \u201cThis afternoon, I threw my baby on the ground.\u201d \u201cIn America we watch a sport where people kill each other on a field.\u201d Those are all things I mistakenly communicated when I was first learning Tok Pisin. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/matt-long\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}