25 thousand steps, almost 17 kilometers of distance, 5 hours of sleep – a day in the life of a missionary in one screenshot. The claws of a rooster and rubbery stew made from pig intestines – the breakfast of a missionary that won’t be served in a restaurant. A pitch-dark night, everyone on duty, and you, the children, and two Papuan guards armed with bows and arrows at home: the electricity goes out and everyone together tries (in vain!) to start the old generator, keeping an eye out for armed bandits – but the missionary’s night is summed up in one sentence.
You try to prepare a lesson plan, but thousands of flying ants crawl over you, the walls, the ceiling, sleeping Miroslava, the Bible, and the lesson plan itself: there’s no salvation from them, you just have to endure it – the weekdays of a missionary. Morning/lunch/evening/night – at any time – please, do something, my mom is bleeding. My uncle is very ill. My neighbor fell from a tree. My grandfather is paralyzed. My daughter is convulsing. My child is “sick,” please, help.
And you drop everything, forget everything, and rush headlong into a race with death. Because maybe you’ll be able to save at least one more. Maybe another life will be gained for eternity. Maybe your sermon today will act like a penicillin shot. The life of a missionary is hidden in death. Dying – daily for oneself, we have the privilege of living His life!
At this time, a youth congress is taking place at Promise Land, where young people from all our daughter churches have gathered! Please pray that the Holy Spirit works among the youth and awakens them to new life. Also, please pray for peace among the three villages surrounding “Promise Land”: Mamarai, Tompetaka, and Kamanda. These are long-standing enemies, and there is an ongoing war between them that periodically flares up. Each of these villages has our church, and for the past few years, there has been peace between them.
However, recently, just before the congress, a confrontation escalated into tribal warfare again, and the situation is exacerbated by the fact that there are Christians from our church in each of these villages who have now become enemies. The residents of the Kamanda village have fled into the jungle. Pray for peace and for the bloodshed to stop.
Also, please pray for our team of teachers, these dedicated individuals who work with the children in the “Promise Land” kindergarten.
Thank you, everyone, for always praying and supporting our ministry!
Greetings to you, our co-workers of “New Fields.” Thank you everyone for your loyalty and warm hearts, inspiring you to serve with us to the ends of the earth! We have come to the end of an amazing three months that we were able to spend at the “Youth with a Mission” base in Koné.
There, I (Ira) was able to study in the “Foundations in Education” course, and soon, if the Lord allows, I will have the opportunity to apply this knowledge in practice! Immediately upon arriving in Papua New Guinea, I plan to conduct a seminar for teachers – not only those who work in our kindergarten but also many others from the entire region.
It may be necessary to hold two sessions of a week-long seminar, judging by the number of interested participants – and there are already many invitations to visit other provinces of PNG and conduct teacher training there. I am very excited about this because the knowledge I have gained in school, I will gladly pass on so that His name may be glorified. We ask for prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in preparation and also for the financial support of these trips and all materials for the training.
Blessings to you, dear ones – and greetings from Papua New Guinea!
Greetings to you, our dear colleagues. We thank the Lord that we can perform this service to the ends of the earth – together with you. Regardless of whether we are surrounded by painted Papuan warriors or (often no less painted and even more unattained) inhabitants of stone jungles, we are grateful to the Lord for every opportunity to serve – in the place where we are.
After all, it’s not always necessary to be a preacher to be a missionary. Singing well doesn’t mean knowing how to worship. And not everyone needs to cross half the globe to be in the center of God’s will. Dear friends, there’s a great opportunity to serve! We ARE LOOKING FOR CARPENTERS AND PLUMBERS for a SHORT TERM (from 2 weeks to 3 months) to help us complete several construction projects in Papua New Guinea. This is an excellent opportunity not only to try oneself in cross-cultural mission but also to serve the Lord with the gift that He has placed in each of us.
Let us know if God is leading you to come or to support this financially. Please also share this information in churches and among friends. Let’s spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, together!
As I mentioned before, the Papuans are eagerly awaiting our return, but they are not wasting any time. This month, the youth with Promise Land organized a music congress.
And all the churches are burning for the Lord and actively engaged in prayer, worship, and evangelism – and surprisingly, the more remote the church, the more active it is. Our vision for the next three years is to establish five more churches within PNG and send two missionary families from our main church to plant churches in Indonesia. We ask for your prayers alongside us!
Since new staff members are planning to join us on the mission next year, the need to move to our own house has become more urgent. As you know, we started building a separate house on Promise Land about a year ago, but then the priority shifted to building a clinic, and the interior work on our house was postponed indefinitely.
But we need to move before Christmas – we’re not complaining, but we simply don’t fit in a 3×3 room, with the bed taking up most of the space, and that’s with two teenage children. At the moment, we have bamboo walls, an iron roof, windows, and interior walls – not bad, but we are praying for electricity, a rainwater barrel, and at least minimal furniture to be in place by Christmas so that we can move out and allow other staff members to take our room.
Thank you for joining us in the labor of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. As our grandmother Sharon writes, there has been no electricity on “Promise Land” for a week now – not uncommon for Papua New Guinea. Often here in America, I smile when I simultaneously turn on the stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator because in Papua New Guinea, when the kettle boils, the entire house loses power. And if we want to plug in an electric guitar downstairs in the church, we have to turn off all other electrical appliances.
I tried baking cookies in the electric oven (as any housewife knows, cookies are usually ready in 11-15 minutes), but the voltage is so low that after waiting for two and a half hours, I turned off the oven and went to sleep. Reading in the evenings is always a “pleasure” because the light bulb constantly flickers – there’s not enough voltage.
During this time, we also had a generator that we use to charge our phones and computers, but it’s not sufficient to power the equipment in the church or use multiple electrical appliances simultaneously.
Therefore, at this stage, we have decided to start gathering finances to purchase a transformer that will provide us with uninterrupted power supply – and perhaps even allow us to use a projector during the services. Please let us know if the Lord prompts you to participate in this need. Blessings to you!
