My current Bible Study, about the character of God, has been different than the ones we normally do about a specific book of the Bible. I can see God’s guidance and graciousness in pointing me toward this study for this season. There seems to be a lot that God is trying to teach me experientially right now. Reflecting on His character while I’m learning these lessons is just what He knew would be needed. At the end of each lesson, we’re meant to write out three attributes of God that were significant to us in the scripture reading that week.
Each week, one of mine is that God sees us and knows us. That’s a big deal for me right now, as so many who I felt seen and known by have left. We’ll look at Psalm 139 next week at the ladies’ retreat and talk about how, not only does He know us and see us, He goes before us and behind us and guides us with His hand upon us. He is faithful to do it if we seek Him and ask.
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
Psalm 139: 1-5
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
I’ve been able to start hosting ladies’ dinners again. While this isn’t a part of my actual job here, I feel like it is one of the most significant parts of my ministry— giving ladies an opportunity to have a night out to share with and be encouraged by other ladies, some they’ve never met before and some they’ve known for years.
I like to leave it as a surprise—who will be there. It’s kind of a joke that I won’t tell people ahead of time. I try to invite people who are new to the field or who are just traveling in from a church planting location for a short time, to give them an opportunity to meet others.
We were able to celebrate the country’s 50th year of Independence on September 16th, by inviting our co-workers and their families over for fun and games. It was a beautiful day . . . which also means lots of sunscreen and water! I took photos and helped out with the parachute activity. I’m a little rusty both in my pidgin and in my knowledge of parachute games, but they still had fun.
The next big event is the Central Area Conference, at the beginning of October. This has always been one of my favorite events of the year—an opportunity to hear updates from all of the church planters in the central area of the country, surrounding the headquarters where I live.
Another thing I love about my ministry is meeting with our church planters as they come through to pray with them. My friend Cathy here serves with the Wusuraambya Church and has been for close to 40 years. Please pray that they are able to finish the translation of the Bible into the Wusuraambyan language.
I’ve been asking you to pray for the Encounter group that came to experience church planting in Papua New Guinea, and I believe the trip was a huge success. We can still be praying that the Lord will use the experience in their lives and direct them clearly on what steps are next. You could also pray for wisdom on whether or not we can offer a similar experience next year, since we will be increasingly short on personnel, including the one who organized the trip and many who taught the classes.
For generations, the Dinangat people were steeped in traditional belief systems that held them in bondage to fear, self-righteousness and sorrow. In recent decades, they have mixed these beliefs with forms of western religion, resulting in even more confusion. Christ has made all the difference! In 2003, New Tribes missionaries moved in among them to learn their language and culture and by God’s grace, presented the Gospel to them through chronological teaching for the first time in their own language in 2008. Nearly the whole village voiced their trust in the Savior who came to die for their sin and rose again to new life, and they have been at work taking this message to the rest of their villages since then.
Looking Back . . .
The pastor of Faith Chapel, a small church I went to in my high school years, took the time to interview me, right before I returned to PNG. You can listen to it here.
What’s Next . . .
Thank you for your prayers for me and my ministry! This will be a busy month. I’ll be attending the Central Area Conference to take photos of the sweet time the families are able to have as they gather together to be refreshed and renewed by the Lord through the service of a visiting church team. Then I’ll jump into facilitating a ladies’ debriefing retreat here at Lapilo for five days.
Following that, I’ll fly to our Western Area Support Center, Wewak. The last time I was there was in 2019. This is an exciting opportunity for me to get to know the families of this area better and serve them by helping with food prep. I’m praying I’ll be able to share a bit about the Communications Resources available to them as well, while I’m there.
When I return, I’ll start the 17th Missionary Care Discussion Group with five or six churches who have missionaries in PNG. I also have one more Prayer Video I’d like to create for the Iski people.
