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!
We sincerely thank everyone who continues to work with us to the ends of the earth, making it possible to spread the Gospel in remote areas of Papua New Guinea. As we prepare for our move and three-year term of service in PNG, we are acquiring some things now to use upon arrival.
As many of you already know, one of our ministries in Papua New Guinea is medical. We not only have a clinic that serves up to a hundred Papuans every week, but we also make outreach visits to remote villages to share the Gospel and help the sick who cannot reach the clinic.
We have the opportunity to connect with a mission that collaborates with missionaries and distributes medical tests for typhoid, malaria, hepatitis, and other diseases. The cost of one test is one dollar, and each one is a potentially saved life. The number of tests we can buy depends on how much we have financially, so we humbly request your participation in this need.
One woman from a village who had to walk for eight hours to reach the clinic did not make it with her sick child. Her child died six hours later – she did not make it in time. Unfortunately, there are many unknown cases like this in PNG. Thank you for your open heart!
We never cease to thank God for those people who bear responsibility for the churches in the villages of Yonki, Asas, Atuka/Anditapa, Tompetaka, and Obura.
Reaching villages, like Obura, for example, is not so easy. First, you travel to the city, then change to a truck and drive for another 2 hours, clinging tightly to the handrails and quietly (just in case!) whispering a prayer of repentance: the road is long, the cliffs are steep, and the sticky clay under the wheels constantly tries to test your faith. Anything can happen on the way: a bridge breaks, a truck breaks down, the road collapses, a river overflows, or most often, the road is filled with an angry crowd with spear tips, arrows behind their backs, and ash-streaked faces – a sign of tribal war. In short, you are lucky if you manage to reach the village and not forget the entire sermon, which you so diligently prepared, out of fear.
One of our pastors was almost stoned, and hostile villagers threatened to burn his house down. Churches don’t gather in beautiful buildings, and for example, in Atuka village, there isn’t even a building yet – the congregation gathers on the street, and regardless of any weather conditions, they joyfully praise Christ in simplicity.
Please pray for each of our pastors and their families in our five churches in PNG. Pray for new souls for Christ and the spread of His name where it is still unknown.
We thank the Lord for this year, the reloading and preparation for further service in Papua New Guinea. Not only was I finally able to translate the first book into English and Ukrainian, and write the second one, but as a family we were also able to seek God’s face more and receive a more accurate vision of our service in PNG. Although we are still waiting for confirmation of our three-year visa (please support us in prayer for this), little by little, we are starting to prepare for departure and further service on the edge of the earth.
As part of this, I (Ira) plan to take MMI (Missionary Medical Intensive), a short course for missionaries without medical training who have to handle medicines. The cost of this training is 1000 USD, and it will take place next March in the USA
A little about how we carry out medical service in remote villages in Papua New Guinea, I write in this book my book, and of course, we plan to continue doing it, hopefully even more effectively. Thank you to all who sacrificially support us!
Eugene and two ardent brothers, whom the Lord put on their hearts to spend these 5 weeks in ministry at the ends of the earth, are preparing to leave for Papua New Guinea! Pray for them, they all have families, children who have remained on prayer support here in the States, while the ministers will carry His Word to the ends of the earth.
Eugene plans to camp and encourage all of our (five) churches, trips to remote villages – They won’t be bored, that’s for sure. Please support those brave men in prayer. Also, we hope, we will be able to extend our volunteer visas in order to return to Papua New Guinea again soon.
Pray for a speedy resolution of this issue as well. I’m in the states now, sitting on an easy chair with a mug of steaming black coffee. It doesn’t matter if I have a microphone in my hand, a pencil or a cutting board. If my heart is right before God, it is equally important to Him.
Therefore, breathing in the aroma of American coffee, I pray for Eugene, who will be at home on “Promise Land” this Sunday.
