Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

“Nate, time is so precious. I feel every fleeting moment, especially now as we we get ready to leave. There is still so much to do.”   - M.M.

A singsing group travels to do a show for an end of year celebration here in the highlands of PNG.

All of us feel the speedy passage of time to some extent. Here in PNG, the needs of the community and the church are enough to overwhelm every day - and that is the temptation that we all struggle with to some extent isn't it? For us, even though we know better, our tendency is to jump in with both feet to try to produce change in our strength and within our own, Nate and Elizabeth time-frame. We make the mistake of looking at our own work as the primary factor in building His church. 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” - Solomon

“…I will build My church.” - Jesus

Pray for us then, as we listen to the Lord and seek to walk in obedience to and dependence on Him in service to His church here.

Our team meets to plan the logistics of moving into the Uruwa people group. It takes builders, pilots, load-masters, community liaisons, flight coordinators, and church planters coming together to make the 5-month building process happen here.

Just because we are dependent, that does not mean that we are stationary:

Over the last months, we’ve been hard at work connecting with missionaries and churches. In October, we traveled to Wewak to spend time with missionaries from our Western Area. It was the first time that we have been able to get there for a conference. We were encouraged by the church reports from many different bush locations and were also blessed to be able to get to know and to pray with the teams there. We will be visiting another mission center to encourage the folks there the second week of January 2024.

Please pray for our mission support centers. They are short staffed and are often trying to do well at balancing relationships in their local communities and also supporting remote church planting efforts.

Sidop and his family came to visit us in town for a bit. They were dealing with health struggles and general weariness. He and Numa are carrying a big part of the responsibility for caring for the Pal church and community.

We and our coworkers are still connecting with the Mesi church regularly. The church is facing some pressure from outsiders that would like to focus on business ventures. They are also facing pressure from some that would call themselves believers but are still looking to ancestor stories and rumors to try to find the secret of wealth and prosperity. Along with that, they are feeling the weight of their personal commitment to bring the evangelistic teaching to M village in 2023. We have spent hours talking with and strategizing with the church leaders about these things. We will be in Mesi-land the first week of January 2024.

Please pray for the church - especially that they would love the truth and that they would love each other and serve each other freely. There is much struggle with jealousy and mistrust left over (even after 8 years) from when the seven local clans all competed with each other for land and power. 

Nate substitute taught for a bit in November, here some chemistry students take a test.

 We also have been busy serving in the mission school. Elizabeth’s classes have been such a joy for her. She loves to connect with the students, stretch their understanding of the world around them, and to connect big ideas with good critical thinking skills. She is now halfway done with the school year and is working hard at planning out the next terms. Nate was also able to spend a couple of weeks at the school substituting in the Chemistry classroom while the normal teacher (who is also the principal) attended his son’s wedding in the USA. 

Please pray for our school and those that its ministry serves. We need high school teachers for the 2024-2025 school year in order for the work to continue well. https://vimeo.com/893612467

Happy New Year to you all!

Nate and Elizabeth