|
|
| New Years Party
For the past few years in our village, our team has put on a New Years Party with our people and each year the anticipation has grown. It was a fun a way for us to show our gratitude and just enjoy being with our Lembena friends. The festivities included a cake walk, ring toss, balloon toss, slingshot contest, 3-legged race and we finished the day with an archery contest where the winner got a live pig! Our people love games and especially love it when there are prizes involved. |
|
|
| Urgent Need!
New Tribes Mission has missionaries serving throughout Papua New Guinea, from the island of New Hanover in the northeast to locations close to the Indonesian border in the west. In order to serve all of these missionaries, the tribal locations are divided into three service areas: Western, Central and Eastern. There is at least one support center located in each area to support tribal missionaries with services like supply buying, guest housing, and business operations. We could not make it here in the jungle without the faithfulness of fellow missionaries who work at these centers and right now they are severely understaffed.
Some of the more pressing needs are a full time doctor and school teachers for next year. In addition, normally a guesthouse facility is run in the capital city to assist missionaries as they travel, receive medical and dental care and to provide an opportunity for a break, although this has been closed temporarily due to staff shortage. This is a vital ministry that also assists in bringing and keeping missionaries on the field through government representative work.
We need people who have skills in business, maintenance, hospitality, teaching, management, and logistics who also have the gift of service. Please consider how you might be able to use your experience and gifting to keep tribal church planters serving well in their remote locations. Email our Personnel Director at personnel-director with any interest. Short-term and long term volunteers are needed.
Check out the video below and others like it here to see how you could be a part of the team here in Papua New Guinea! |
|
 |
| How can you be involved? |
|
|
Life in Lembena
The last few months have flown by here in Lembena. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and Declan’s birthday with the Hughes and we are so thankful for the company and friendship we have in them. We have been gaining tons of new cultural insights as we continue to experience situations such as deaths, domestic disputes, clan quarrels, and sicknesses in the village. The longer we are here, the more people have opened up about the reasons behind why they do what they do, think what they think, and believe what they believe. They really are trapped in darkness, and so much of what they do is tied to their animistic beliefs.
We are thankful the people are beginning to open up more about themselves and their beliefs to us. When we first arrived, they tried to hide a lot of areas of their lives and beliefs from us, because they thought we might disapprove of them and these beliefs. The hard things that have come up in the community have shown us things they had first tried to hide, as times of crisis have a way of bringing out a person’s beliefs. We are thankful that God has been using even the hards times in our village to help us better understand our people and be better equipped to share the Gospel with them. |
|
 |
- Pray: For our team to be filled with the Spirit of God in our interactions with our people. That we can be building anticipation now for the message we will one day share with them.
- Praise: Medical workers from a nearby medical facility were able to come put on a clinic in our village and restock the medical supplies for the small aid post in our village.
- Pray: For our home assignment in June. Pray for us as we make plans to be home and connect with churches and families.
- Praise: We have housing for our home assignment! We will be staying at the parsonage at our sending church in the Lake Tapps area.
- Pray: For an upcoming language evaluation we have in the next few months. Pray that we can be faithful in language and culture learning.
- Pray: That the Lord will provide people to fill the personnel needs at our support centers in PNG.
In His Strength and Power Alone,
Micah, Laura, Adalia and Declan |
|
|
|
Micah and Laura Myers 
Hi, Micah, I know it has been Entirely Too Long since I wrote – anything! – to you. Please forgive my laziness (but be aware that there really are a few other faithful correspondents who have waited(?) longer than you to hear from me). I confess to my shame, brother. If it’s any help, Micah, I pray for you and Laura several times each week. I’d be lying if I said it was every day, though I really wish it could be. the Your letter didn’t mention the Fergusons. Are they now in the States? If so, will they return before you leave, or will the Hughes be there alone for a while? Your coming to the States (I was going to say “coming home” but am not sure where your heart’s home really is, in PNG or in Washington) excites me; it raises the prospect of seeing you and your family this year. Wheee! How long will you be “here?” I have to believe that you’ll be traveling anywhere from quite a bit to a whole lot during your time here. I’d love to have a copy of your schedule when it’s established. I expect to be in Washington at least once, perhaps twice, this summer, and to make a midwestern, maybe even further east, in the Fall. Since I’ll be driving, i’ll have the ultimate flexibility to move around. BTW, are you aware that the Browns, now retired from the Mission, live and have a missionaries’ guest house (really, a complete 2-or3 bedroom 1700-foot apartment in the basement of their house) in Branson, in southwestern Missouri? It can be a great place to take a week – or more – *away from the demanding burdens of . . . well, everything. With greatest confidence I can assure you that you’d absolutely be welcome there for as long as you could stay; your visit would be one of their highlights of the year, if not the brightest. Might even be kinda fun, as well as a thrill, to see you there; in fact, a great blessing for me. (They have plenty of room to sleep me upstairs while you, or any missionary, are/is there. In case you don’t have it: *pat_luannbrown@ntm.org pat_luannbrown@ntm.org
Thanks for the prayer list; I’ll keep it in front of me . .. somewhat. But will be praying for you in all sincerity. Between us, what is your *greatest *prayer need? From an earlier comment, I had surmised that it was to develop great(er) love for the Lembena people. So knowing nothing to the contrary, that has been my most common request, maybe even above health and safety, for you and your family.
I’m sleepy (only 9:20PM, but had a sicky day), so won’t drivel (much) further.
Your update was a thrill to see, even if it has taken nearly 2 weeks to tell you so. Knowing that you’re above busy there, do not feel a need to respond to this, Before I forget to say it, the entire prayer letter, composition, great pictures, inserted info, just everything, is magnificent. Do you do all that there, or have supporting help somewhere? Whatever the answer, the product is above noteworthy.
Stay faithful, to Him, to your family, and to your mission, brother! In His love, mine, Warren Hunt II Cor. 5:9
LikeLike