Disoriented or Oriented? That Is The Question…

Hiking With A View

Learning About NTM in PNG

This past week has been yet another unexpected week; this week has been used to be yet another validation and affirmation that God brought us to PNG (Papua New Guinea). NTM (New Tribes Mission) PNG works entirely different than that of all other fields, this field is the largest field in which NTM has missionaries. With such a large team, they have been forced to develop and grow several bases and build up their infrastructure (NTM has been in PNG since 1950!). God distinctly brought us to PNG rather than another field as we were studying and reading HIS Word. We saw the pattern of Paul and Barnabas being sent out by the church of Antioch and how He used the church to direct their sent-ones, we too had our home church leadership direct us in “where” to go and serve. Our hearts were greatly encouraged when our church leadership chose PNG because we knew that the team and infrastructure here in PNG was amazing.

For the past week we have been at the main base in Lapilo (Goroka), where there are a multitude of support workers, it is overwhelming. The main purpose of us being here at the Lapilo base is for us to learn how NTM PNG operates and functions. So many welcoming people, all understanding and loving (and great cooks too 😉 ). We have really felt so cared for by so many people from those who do our paperwork, set up our internet, purchase supplies, language consultants, medical needs, even people who are willing to come into our tribe to help build our house, staff at the boarding school for 7-12^th grade (Lord willing when we have kids), and a plethora of other roles that help get us and keep us in the tribe. We truly see the Body of Christ working, as it ought to, no one looking at the situation as if being a part of the Great Commission were an option. All hands on deck, everyone doing their job to the best of their ability unto God, and all of them looking at us as church planters saying they are encouraged by us, and they are doing their job so we can be free to do our job to the best of our ability, they are rooting for us and want us to succeed. What a great team to be a part of!

Job Openings

            Speaking of jobs and opportunities, the NTM base here in PNG is always looking for workers, anyone who can come for several weeks, to 3 months, or even longer, there is always a void ready to be filled for anyone who wants to come and give aid. There are infinite options in administration and secretarial, construction, maintenance, teachers for the school, nurses, and SO MUCH MORE! If you are interested please contact us and we will direct you. God is able to use any of you and your gifts to build His kingdom here in PNG, no matter how much time you may or may not have.

NTM Lapilo Base

In 5 Days We have Our 1 month Anniversary in PNG!

            We have been tremendously blessed meeting many of our co-workers, all ready to impart wisdom and encouragement, and to give us the tools to succeed. It has been great to see “how” we get our visas, what it looks like to pack supplies as they get sent to various tribal works, and to hear the expectations from the field leadership. We have a couple more meetings and modules this week to finish it all off. Then we get back to our house in Madang, we start right back into national language learning (NCLA). Because of the meetings here at Lapilo, we have only been able to put 5-7 days of actual language learning in, and we have our first language evaluation at the end March. On a side note, Seth was given the opportunity to administer an I.V. and practice on one of the nurses here at the base, he was not as smooth as a professional, but was able to do it! That is a skill we hope we never have to use.

Madang From The Plane

So Much Work, So Few Hands

While we were on deputation, we shared with several people of how 14 tribes are ready and waiting for the Gospel. This was and is a true statement, but it still does not share the gravity of reality. The field here is truly ready for the harvest, many more tribes are ready for the Gospel. There are so many tribes that they cannot keep track of them all, 14 is just the number of tribes they can support as an organization, if there were more support workers who come, they could do more! Tribe after tribe, ready, and waiting, so the question has to be…who will be the ones to reach them? Who will be their missionary? Where are the missionaries to answer the call? There are fewer and fewer missionaries worldwide, missions as a whole for long-term missionaries is decreasing. Short-term trips are increasing. Pray that both young and old people will take the call of missions seriously and reach these people with the Gospel (the innumerable tribes here in PNG), before commercialism and Satan blind them and ensnare them more and make them resistant to the Gospel.

Right now, there are many tribes ASKING for missionaries; pray we can answer the call. For the time being, God has allowed PNG to be wide open and we can get 5-year visas, what more could you ask for? A people who are hungry, freedom to preach, long term visas (we literally get to walk through the PNG citizen line at the airport), and a well established organization…truly we are without excuse before our Lord to answer this call to missions.

Pray:

• Praise we received all of our bags and nothing was missing!!!!
• Pray/Praise for the many tribes right now that are getting translations worked on here in PNG, we personally got to see over 5 people who are currently doing translation and have a maturing church. This is so exciting! People who have never heard the deep truths of scripture for the first time, seeing things connect and understood in their own language. It was such an encouraging thing to see eyes and hearts light up hearing things that they can understand!
• Pray for the visa process for NTM PNG as an organization happening THIS WEDNESDAY; we have yet to have problems getting visas, but it is always a very thorough and stressful time going through the process, showing 3 years worth of information to affirm NTM’s purpose in PNG.
• Pray for our language check at the end of March, we want to keep progressing.
• Pray for us to have wisdom as to which region we should pursue, so that we can answer the call of one tribe to give them the Gospel.
• Pray for us as a couple, we see this time has been used by God to strengthen our relationship, but we do not want to be deceived and miss an opportunity to grow with one another and grow closer to our Lord and Savior.
• Pray for veteran missionaries in PNG the Stewarts, Mrs. Stewart has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and has not been given long to live, they have two young children.
• Pray for more missionaries to be raised up: missions to-date has a 47% attrition rate of those who leave by their first 5-year term, less than 30% of them have been for health reasons. A sad statistic that we learned as we looked at all the works here in PNG, that with all the tribal works that have been done and are being done here in PNG, only a handful of teams (typically 3 families per team) have stayed together from start to finish. Truly we wrestle not against flesh and blood, pray for us, other missionaries you know, and anyone who is going through training and heading to the field, they desperately need you prayers.

Your feet in PNG to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes