Mission Trip at Last

Several weeks ago I told you of a mission trip that our church was planning to an area about a day's walk away from our village. After several delays for various reasons, it appears that this trip will finally take place this coming week (June 29th to July 2nd). There is also a good chance that I will be able to be a part of this trip. At present, there is only one national lady going who is qualified to lead the children's Bible clubs, so it looks like I will be going to assist in that responsibility. We are currently on school break (between 3rd and 4th quarters) so I do not have that work at present. Also, I was already planning to take a short town trip starting July 2nd, so the clinic was scheduled to be closed.

At any rate, whoever is going will leave from our village on Tuesday, June 29th, and walk down our mountains, cross the river, and walk back up the other side. In the late afternoon, they will have a preaching service and Bible club in the first village and spend the night there. In the morning, they will leapfrog down the road, preaching at every other village until they reach the home village of one of our national preacher's wives. They will sleep there on Wednesday night, then return by the same road, preaching in the villages that were skipped on the inbound trip. The last service will be held Thursday evening and they will sleep in that village. On Friday, most of the team will hike back to our village of Kiari. I, along with one of the national preachers and his family, will hike to the nearest "bus stop" and catch a ride into town.

Please pray for the Lord's abundant blessing on this trip and for Him to be at work even now in the hearts of those that will hear the Word preached. Pray especially for freedom from the bondage of Satan's deception, as this area is very entrenched in works-based religions.

Teachers

The good news for the week is that Elizabeth (the new short term teacher) not only has her passport in hand but has also purchased her plane tickets. She and Tara (another teacher headed to another village) plan to arrive in Papua New Guinea on June 20th. Needless to say, we are very excited. She will spend a few days in Goroka to do shopping, set up a bank account, etc. and then, Lord willing, will fly to a grass airstrip about a 2-3 hour drive from our village. That airstrip has been closed for repairs for several weeks, so please pray that it will reopen in time for her arrival.

While having Elizabeth come will definitely be a huge help to the school, we still have some needs that I want to share with you. The most immediate is for an experienced teacher to come out this summer, even if just for a few weeks. Ideally, we would need someone that is experienced in using the Bob Jones University Press curriculum with the elementary grades. We mainly need someone to compare the BJU curriculum with the curriculum used in the PNG schools and develop a placement test to determine the PNG grades that are equivalent to the grades in our school. We know that our students are several grades ahead of their counterparts in the PNG schools, but it is hard for us noneducation people to evaluate this accurately.

In addtion, of course, we are still in great need of more teachers for next school year. At present, Randy Smith, the senior missionary, really doesn't have peace about me continuing to teach in the school as that is not really the ministry that I came here to do (and actually is occupying time that I would prefer to devote to other ministries). We have also recognized that it really is not wise, especially for a non-teacher, to teach more than one grade simultaneously. So, with our present personnel, it looks like we might only be able to offer one grade next year in the school. Please pray that the Lord will provide more teachers, ideally an experienced teacher to meet this need.

As I've mentioned before, if you feel the Lord directing you toward either of these opportunities that I've mentioned, please contact Gospel Fellowship Association for further information.