Learning the Ropes... again.

Elias's face helps us express how much we love the awkwardness of learning new responsibilities...

How often have you found yourself as a learner in your life?  Yup, taking on new responsibilities here has us back feeling inexperienced and seeking to figure things out again.

Here’s a ‘bullet point condensation’ if you just have a few minutes: Please pray for us!

*Pray for the Mesi church to continue to be strengthened and encouraged as they get ready for their first ‘off-site’ outreach into a new Mesi village.

*Pray for wisdom and multiplied time and energy in Nate’s new role as Coordinator for 20 church-planting works in our area of Papua New Guinea.

*Pray for our kids as they transition into regular classroom life.

Newbies…yet again!

How can we come alongside church-planting teams in their various areas of need?  How does our local mission center, the one that helps support those teams, function?  How can we help and support new church-planting teams as they prepare to head out?  In early January, Nate took on the role of Area Coordinator here in the New Guinea highlands. We are now part of the team that is responsible for overseeing and assisting 20 tribal church planting teams and the running of a mission support base. People, meetings, and the inevitable emails fill our days. Everything from resolving housing difficulties to helping church planting teams in crisis to assisting new tribal teams to think through their strategies and goals.

Are we feeling overwhelmed?  You bet.  The learning curve is steep, we are finding that the transition back to ‘learner’ (away from the ‘doer’ role of the last few years as we’ve shepherded the church in Pal!) is intense.  Our areas of responsibility have increased exponentially.  Something we’ve said again and again over the years is that we always want to be in a place of DEPENDENCE on the Father.  We can’t do it in our own strength – but He is able!  We are praying for an enlarged team to share the work with, as well.

“HE says, “Be still and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”  Psalm 46:10

Our Mesi friends continue to grow in the Lord and are working with the Hostetters and Fachners to prepare for an outreach to the next Mesi village later this year!

How’re the Mesi believers doing?

We had a great 3 months with the Mesi church!  Believers reviewed the Book of Ephesians – how are things going as they put truth into practice? And they heard 1 Timothy for the first time, “God’s Instructions for His Household.”  Evangelistic outreach teaching, led by Mesi believers, was encouraging and challenging. We’re praising God that our co-workers, who faced grave health difficulties last year, are seeing improvement and that Maggie has been able to hike again.  

A view of the area around our home here in the highlands of PNG.

What’s it been like at the area center?

We’re thankful for time to adjust to a new way of life here in town.  Actually, this center is pretty rural, but the fact that there are roads (that’s a fairly loose term for one giant pot-hole after the next) and cars takes our mobility to a new level!  This center houses both support personnel (think: the terrific family that helps install solar and technical systems, the lady who works with the national church to produce resources in the national language, the couple that organizes housing for church-planters when they come for a break, the coordinator who helps make sure all of these are functioning smoothly…) and church planters who are getting ready to move IN to the tribe as well as several who are completing Bible translation and need to be near secondary schooling for their teens.

All-school picture day! Pilots, accountants, carpenters, mechanics, medical staff, and church planters all benefit from the great education that our mission school offers here. 

What about your kids?  What do they think?

The big transition from homeschool to Christian mission school is settling down.  Tim (14) and Elias (12) miss getting to sleep in til 6:30 or 6:45 (the ‘bus’ (a Nissan UrVan 15-seater!) leaves at 7:15 each morning!) and they don’t *love* having homework, but overall they are really enjoying the challenge and fun of classmates and their varied subjects and classes.  Elias’s class is designing ‘air rockets’ for a competition and Tim’s is having a ‘build a campfire’ event (only in PNG) using Tok Pisin, the trade language, which the junior-highers are studying.  Noah (16) loves getting to play rugby in PE and loves the classroom.  He’s thriving and we’re so thankful.

We’re so thankful for the team that prays for us and supports us back in the USA!  We couldn’t do this without you.  What a joy to be working to MAKE His Name known in Papua New Guinea. 

With grateful hearts,

The Claasen family