That’s how Becky’s language helper describes salvation. We trust that Jesus’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins and “no additives.” It’s not we trust Jesus. . . and we do a certain amount of good deeds or only worship on a certain day of the week or quit smoking (or in PNG quit chewing beetle nut).
Ephesians 2:8-9 “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (That’s from the New Living Translation in case you were wondering.)
Additives to the gospel sneak in to the message in every culture and Papua New Guinea is no exception. Our church planting missionaries work hard at language and culture study, translation, and discipleship to make sure the message is clear and there are ‘no additives.’ It’s good to take a minute and reflect on your own understanding of the gospel to see if any additives snuck in while you weren’t paying attention.
Daily Life Here
We are still in the midst of language study. In early May we had our second evaluations and moved up to ‘Progressing Low’ (Travis) and ‘Progressing Mid’ (Becky). Our next evaluation will either be in July or August, depending on when a language consultant is available. A couple of the consultants are on home assignment and a few others are busy with church planting works in different tribal locations. In the meantime we’re continuing to study and meet with our language helpers. We’ve also had opportunities to help out with different things here at the support center. We are helping set up two apartments for new families arriving in July/August, Travis has helped out with audio visual work for the school and some small repairs on machinery around campus.
In July we will fly to the capitol city of Port Moresby (there’s no road from here to there, so flying is the only way) and Travis will take the written flight exam for his PNG pilot’s license.
Then we will continue on to Australia for a one week break and also to take care of some yearly medical tests that aren’t currently available in PNG.
Remember the fuel pump project?
The fuel pump/battery box that Travis spent a lot of time developing and building last year is in use in three countries where Ethnos360 flies helicopters. Last month it also helped build relationships with the local police and fire department in a South American country where Ethnos360 works. They’ve been graciously loaning us space in their hangar for our helicopter and were impressed with how easy it was to refuel the helicopter in remote locations with the electric barrel pump. Ethnos360 was able to donate one of the fuel pumps as a way to say thank you for their kindness.
Prayer Requests
You can pray that we would be diligent in our studies and we would pass our language evaluations in August.
You can pray for wisdom in raising our children.
You can pray that our flight to Port Moresby would run on time so that Travis can take his flight exam (we built in 24 hrs of wiggle room in case the flight gets delayed).
You can pray that the good news that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and that we can live free from the bondage of guilt, shame, fear of death, fear of witchcraft, the need to retaliate, and all the other lies that Satan uses to enslave us, would spread clearly among the many people groups of Papua New Guinea.
Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support as we serve church planters is PNG through aviation!
Love,
Travis & Becky
P.S. If you would like to see more frequent updates and photos, you can join our closed facebook group “Lesickas in PNG” with this link: https://fb.me/g/5oBhjJXSO/bCat7USi
(My apologies for giving an incorrect link in the last newsletter.)
