From the Moon

February 15, 2016

From the moon, the tribal village on the Central Range of mainland Papua New Guinea was a picture of serenity, silvery blankets of cotton candy clouds slowly swirling to embrace the mountain peaks. A perfect picture of glowing peace and calm. From the clouds, the upraised fingertips of the jungle canopy were visible, the fog […]

Alimpu’s Baptism (From November of 2008)

December 19, 2015

Sitting in the darkness of the smoke filled tribal hut, I shifted positions, trying to get more comfortable on the woven bamboo floor. The only light in the jungle hut was from the smoldering fire in the center of the floor, but even that was suppressed by a thick blanket of smoke trying to […]

Celebrating Christmas Along with Us

December 15, 2015

The Greatest Gift of All Christmas is just around the corner. The time of year when we give gifts in remembrance and honor of the greatest gift of all — the gift of salvation that came through God sending His only Son. They didn’t know Him. Last year the Tangguat people of Papua New Guinea […]

Ostman Thanksgiving

November 23, 2015

Thanksgiving - more than an American holiday! A time to thank God.

Literacy Primer Production Improvements

September 17, 2015

Thanks so much for your prayers while we were in Bolivia at the missionary candidate center. How we appreciate these young people preparing for missionary service! There were students from Chile, Argentina and of course, Bolivia. So what do we do when we are not collecting stamps in our passports? Office work! Now, office work […]

On the brink of something HUGE!

June 30, 2015

Imagine that your family lives in one of the world’s toughest environments and has lived and died for centuries, worshipping and yet fearing the physical objects around you, eking out a barely livable existence with little hope to ever experience anything else. Imagine you’re given the chance to hear the absolute TRUTH of God’s word […]

Transitions

June 4, 2015

Transitions are hard. Harder for some than for others. As we transitioned from the Missionary Training Center in Missouri back to Michigan for the summer, we noticed a difference in how our kids handled the move. Titus revels in change (when he was a baby, his favorite word was “Go!”). Ivan, however, had a miniature […]

Seminars, workshops, coming and going…

May 12, 2015

Biannual Seminar. It’s a very quiet week here in the village. Most people are either at their farms or at the biannual seminar that is in a neighboring village. At the seminar, the church leaders are discussing church planting strategy. Before they left, they showed us a map of where they are in relation to […]

Where is the church?

May 1, 2015

An avalanche of data. Information overload. Culture immersion at a whole new level. These are just a few of our experiences over the last few months as our assignment has come down to a simple, vital question: Where is the church? The process of People Group Assessment (or “Surveys”) is the first step in seeing […]

Let us shine the light of the gospel to the ends of the earth

January 20, 2012

God loves all the people of the world and desires all people to be saved. But about 2,000 of the world’s 6,500 people groups have never heard the gospel. Our Lord commands us to go and make disciples of all nations. Just presenting the gospel and planting a church is not enough to accomplish the […]