Towards the end of our missions training we were asked to come up with a 60 second explanation of what we would be doing, ours went like this:
We enable church planting missionaries to live in villages in remote locations. Many of the people groups still unreached with the gospel are in hard to reach places. A trip that would take days by foot, car, and boat can be done in hours or less by plane. Aviation provides transportation in and out of the village, delivery of supplies, and medical evacuations. Our goal is to help sustain church planters for the long haul as they bring the gospel to the unreached.
The long haul is actually quite long, it’s not measured in years, but decades. Here is an update from NTM Papua New Guniea including people groups you can be praying for:
“As a mission, we would ideally send three units into every church planting location. The work of translation, teaching and discipleship requires maximum effort from each of those team members. When one or more of the units have to leave for whatever reason, the workload does not decrease for those that remain. We’ve made a commitment to those we’re serving among, to teach them to read and write, to translate God’s Word into their language, and to teach them through the Bible.
We have a long-term commitment to finishing what we’ve started across Papua New Guinea. There are places where missionaries have been, but some or all of the team members have left, leaving a still young or stagnating church that isn’t able to completely mature and thrive without further input.
In places like Kaul and Kuman, there has been a small church established, and the New Testament (NT) translation is complete. However, there is potential for further outreach in new locations, and the church needs further discipleship. In Kol, they’ve completed 45% of the NT translation and could use some help completing the task. In Akolet, the missionaries are continuing with translation remotely, but aren’t able to be with the church to continue teaching and discipleship. In Menya a small church has been born, and a neighboring people group has sent leaders in to teach and disciple, but the New Testament translation in the Menya language still needs to be completed. In Kovol, two families are preparing for the first Kovol literacy course and at the same time are translating the first portions of scripture needed to teach from creation to Christ. They have many years of teaching, translation and discipleship ahead of them and could use another family’s help to finish the task.
In each of these existing works, language material has already been developed. New missionaries would have the resources to learn the language quickly and would then be able to jump into ministry and partner with the church to see them really grow up in their faith. Pray for new missionaries to be willing to be a part of completing what we said we would do in each of these locations, so that a thriving church is established, our credibility for the next unreached people group remains strong, and God is glorified.”
Family News:
Travis’s schedule keeps him flying several times a week. I know I said that last month, and I could probably copy that every time I write, as the demand for flights is often higher than the supply of pilots and aircraft. In November Nathan was able to ride along on one of Travis’s flights. It was probably the highlight of his whole month.
We are very thankful that the aviation department was able to obtain most of the funding to update the flight simulator used in training this Fall. Most of the parts have been purchased and Travis has been working on assembling them. For Travis especially, this was a reminder that God knows our needs before we ask, and that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Travis spent a good amount of time researching what was needed to update the simulator, made a list of parts and costs, put in a project request and was expecting to start putting the word out for people to donate towards this fund. Instead he heard back that the request was granted and there was already enough money donated to the aviation department to cover most of the cost of the project!
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for the people groups mentioned above, that the believers there would remain strong in their faith and that the Lord of the harvest would send new missionaries to help in these locations.
Please pray for good health for our family and our co-workers.
Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support as we serve church planters in PNG through aviation!
Love,
Travis & Becky
Interested in teaching in Papua New Guinea or working at the medical clinic? follow these links
Numonohi Christian Academy https://www.ntmpng.org/nca/
Medical Clinic https://www.ntmpng.org/medical/
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