In early January, our family took the long flight from Wewak to Papua New Guinea’s island of New Ireland. We spent a month among the Tigak people where New Tribes has been working for many years. There is a small group of believers on the Island who are growing in maturity and are learning what it means to walk faithfully with our God. We spent our time continuing our Tok Pisin study and learning more about church planting and discipleship from the missionary family that is currently living on the Island and working with the Tigak Church.

It was such an awesome time getting to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and being able to encourage them to continue to walk with God. We were definitely encouraged by their faith as well! We made some really good friends with the people and got to live life with them as they showed us what life on their beautiful island was like. We learned to fish, cook, garden, weave fans, gather firewood and many other things that they do on a regular basis. Addy loved island life and made some good friends as well.

It was so hard to say goodbye to our dear friends but through the tears they encouraged us that this is not goodbye forever: though we may not see each other again in this life, we know we will be together again on that Day. We learned so much from our time in Tigak and left so encouraged that though this work of planting a church is hard, it is so worth it. We cannot wait for the day when we are able to see the people of Lembena hear and understand the Gospel in their own language like the people of Tigak and learn how to walk with our God.

These past few weeks have been so busy with missionaries from all over the Western Area of Papua New Guinea coming out to Wewak for the annual “Sepik Conference”. It has been an incredible time of meeting fellow missionaries and seeing old friends. Each missionary team is at a different stage of ministry (some with a maturing church, one having just presented the gospel, others hoping to start teaching in their peoples language for the first time soon). Brooks Buser, president of Radius (a missionary training center in Mexico), was the conference speaker and was so encouraging (and convicting) to us all. Brooks planted a church among the YembiYembi people of Papua New Guinea and has been working to train up new missionaries for many years. He encouraged us to be faithful to the end and that no matter the hardships that we face, this is worth it.

Conference was complete with a kids carnival, trips to the beach, sports days and a skit night. We had a blast getting to know our Sepik family more and Addy loved it as well. It was a time for the missionaries to take a break from bush life and get motivated again to do this work. We were so thankful to be a part of it and can’t wait for Sepik Conference 2021 next year!

On Wednesday, March 18th (tomorrow morning), Jason, Adam and Micah fly into Lembena for two weeks to mill the lumber needed to build our house. This will be a very physically demanding trip working with chainsaws and massive trees. The guys will be continuing to model discipleship by training the Lembena people how to use chainsaws, mill lumber and frame houses. As the guys are teaching the people to use the tools and entrusting them with these tools, they will be modeling discipleship principles that we will use later in planting a church.

Our two co-workers houses are already framed up and the plan after this trip is for the guys to go back in sometime in April and frame our house. Lord willing, all three families will be able to move into Lembena near the end of May. There is still a lot to do and many things that could go wrong or cause delays, so please be praying for safety for the guys and that even if things don’t go smoothly they are able to show the love and peace that comes from Christ to the people.

Ways to Pray for us

• A huge praise that Micah has checked out of Tok Pisin language study and Laura just has one level to go!
• Pray for a smooth milling trip these next couple weeks and for the chainsaws to continue to run smoothly.
• Pray for the ladies and children on the team as these next few months the men will be spending large amounts of time away.
• Pray for team unity during this stressful time and that we can even now start showing the love of Christ to the Lembena People even though we don’t speak their language yet.

In Him Alone,
Micah, Laura and Adalia