16-Year Learners

 

Us circa September 2007. Ready for departure to Papua New Guinea. 

Our latest prayer card - pretty much the same, right?

Learning more.

It's hard to believe that the 16th anniversary of our arrival to PNG is fast approaching. We remember some of those first days on the field, how strange and different life here felt, how exciting it was to experience new things, to hear different languages spoken, and how hard some of the adjustments were. In the intervening years we have learned so much, fit into many new places, and become connected in deep ways with so many. 

Counterintuitively, in the midst of the connectedness and comfort, we still feel so much like students. We are constantly entering into new situations with new dynamics, called upon to do our best to walk with the Lord as we take our best shot at living out the truth that we believe faithfully. Below are a few glimpses into our learners' life.  As you pray for us, please remember to pray for humility and grace to be worked out with wisdom and truth in our service in PNG.

Udivuluk and family - photo from 2014, before Lagan, his wife began struggling with mental health.

At a loss for words.

The other day, Udivuluk, one of the Mesi church leaders, called me up to share a concern and ask for help. He, more than the other men in Mesi-land, has a way for bringing God's Word to life for His church. I was actually pretty certain for some years that he would be the first Mesi elder. That plan was derailed in 2018 when his wife began to deal with significant mental health issues. If she were in our home country, it is likely that she would need to be in a full-time residential health care center. It hasn't been an easy road for Udivuluk, he found himself stretched to do extra work to take care of his family while also living with an anti-social and sometimes openly hostile spouse. To put it plainly, this situation has significantly challenged his faith and he needed to step away from serving the church for a time. Over the last year though, he has slowly been taking on responsibilities again to teach the Mesi church and guard the truth. Then, he called me on Friday and told me that he is tired and struggling with temptation. "I want to continue to serve the church," he said, "but I am struggling and afraid of falling." We talked for an hour and prayed together. I left the conversation thinking,  "What he really needs is something that You will provide him, Lord. I can encourage, but my words are feeble and cannot empower and love like you can. Will You teach me to better point your people to depend on you?"

Spending time with a local church leader friend.

Engaging well.

As we have added to our responsibilities here over the last few years, we have been more and more in contact with believers and churches from all over Papua New Guinea. Several times a week, I (Nate) end up spending time with local pastors or representatives from the many churches that we are connected with. In the context of those relationships, we regularly get requests for help with training, teaching, or to join with them in some form of ministry. Believe it or not, we spend a lot of time trying to discern the real need of the church. Is it a clear need? Is it clearly something that we should be helping with? For example, a church might request that a missionary come and teach for a Sunday. Meeting that need might be just the right thing for us to do (as we are doing tomorrow) as it would encourage the church and increase our interconnectedness with the indigenous churches here in PNG. Then again, the pastor might be trying to use us to add to his authority in the church or to cover up an inter-church conflict by associating with the "knowledgeable missionary." So, we are challenged every day to engage carefully and to be humble learners as we try to do the best thing for the church. Lord, what the church needs is what You provide, not the feeble efforts of a man that thinks he knows what it needs. Teach us to listen first and listen well to You as we join with your people. 

Teaching during a worship service for missionaries here at Lapilo.

Leading.

I read recently that there are more than 60,000 different books on leadership currently for sale on Amazon. Everyone, it seems, has a strong opinion about what leadership is, what it is not, and how we should implement it. Right now, Elizabeth and I are in the remarkably complex position of sharing leadership responsibility in a parachurch organization with 3 other couples. While responsible legally for the running of the organization, we also feel the weight of spiritually caring for our missionary members. We are living together as neighbors, co-workers, parents, fellow-believers, and aliens in a foreign country with missionary purpose. Setting priorities, upholding standards, and assigning tasks are normal expectations of the leadership of an organization. Caring for the people, listening and loving well, teaching, praying, maximizing gospel impact, and serving faithfully are normal expectations for the leadership of a church. Lord, the churches of New Guinea, the mission that we serve, and our co-workers need You as their leader, not us. Please teach us to discern what is best, how to keep Your purpose in focus as we strive for excellence in the work and love Your people at the same time. Please teach us, bring unity to the believers here, and lead us to steward well the mission and its people that You have entrusted to us.

A local church that we have connected with here in Goroka.

Entrust to the Lord.

Would you please continue to pray for us and with us this month?

• As representatives of the leadership team, and as church planters, we will attend conferences in two different areas of the country in October. (5-9 October, and 19-23 October) This means some travel and lots of conversations. If you haven't noticed, the theme of this email so far is that we are learners and desire that the Lord teach and lead us in this task.
• We are blessed to have a boarding student with us this year. It has been a real joy to get to know him a bit over the last 5 weeks. Please pray for he and his family as they are able to spend some time together here over a term-break in the school.
• Elizabeth continues to enjoy teaching at the mission school here. As a first-year-in-a-classroom teacher, she feels the weight of teaching well and at the right speed for her students. She is enjoying the challenge, but also finding that she needs to be careful to balance her time. 
• Our two boys in the USA are doing well. Tim is doing great in his engineering classes at Cedarville University (would you be praying for a good job for him, the one he had lined up fell through). Noah is doing well at William Jessup as well - and is working on all of the prerequisites for acceptance to medical school after he finishes there. Please be praying for both of them that they would be built up in the Lord in the midst of busy schedules. 
• Elias is a great companion for us here. Between classes, sports, music, friend time, and discipleship groups he is keeping pretty busy. We are super thankful for him.
• We are organizing some meetings for the training of national church leaders here in town. Would you please pray for wisdom as we seek to provide that which is helpful for the church - building it up and not causing divisions or encouraging individuals to function in pride or independence. Pray for finances for the churches as well as they gather and send their delegates.
• Pray for the Mesi church as we have had much serious illness lately and some of the key people in the church are weary and appear to be needing care. We would love to know what would be best for us to do to care for them at this time.