Hands & Feet

Tradition or Truth?

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:02:23 -0500

Unex, my new language helper

The mountain clouds began to roll in as Unex and I hiked to his pig house, just a short jungle walk from his house. Unex, a new language helper of mine (remember I was having trouble keeping language helpers?) has really turned out to be a great source for learning the Tobo language. As we got to his pig house we sat for a bit and chatted before we went to repair the pig fence that separates his pigs from his sweet potato & cabbage gardens. While we were working I was able to use some language as well as elicit new things that I hadn’t learned yet. It turned out to be a profitable time for both of us. After a couple of hours it was time to head back. As we walked back to my house I asked Unex if he followed the beliefs of some of the other religious organizations that work here. (The other religious organizations here in Tobo do not preach the true Gospel of grace but instead they teach works as a means of righteousness.) He said; “my father was really involved in one of the other organizations here but now he’s dead. I’m really not involved in that organization but I feel if I go to another place to hear the teaching then I would be disrespecting him and my family and I can’t do that.” I thought about that then asked him; “do you think it’s better to follow after man and tradition or to seek the truth of God’s word and follow that?” He didn’t say much. After I got home I thought about what he had said and even though the truth of God’s Word is so close to these people- I mean all they need to do is simply come and hear it- It is a choice that they need to make. Satan still holds on to these people with everything he’s got, deceiving them into following after silly traditions, loyalties, and the works of man as a means of righteousness. It’s such a sad thing to trade eternal separation from God for the respect of your family, however we know that we serve a God who does incredible things in the lives of His people. And we know the Lord is not finished with His work in the lives of the Tobo people- people like Unex who are still in need of the grace of Jesus Christ. Would you please begin to pray for Unex and his family that the Lord would allow me to continue to develop a good relationship with them that will ultimately lead to their salvation? Your prayers continue to play a vital part in what God is doing here in Tobo.

Your hands & feet,
Jason, Nisae, Kadynn, Judah & Eden

Answered Prayer

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:34:18 -0500

Jason with his language helper, Siwala & language consultant Andrew Murray

We’ve seen the Lord at work since we sent out our last update encouraging us by answering our prayers. Many of you have also been an encouragement to us by writing to assure us of your prayers & support. Thanks for reaching out to us!! Thanks for understanding our hardships and being there for us, standing with us to witness the power & sufficiency of God.

The same day we sent out our last update, we got an update from the Mankins, our partners who are waiting to return to the tribe. They finally got word on their paperwork and will be leaving the States Monday night (your time)!! Praise the Lord we won’t be alone for too much longer over here. Thanks for praying!! Please keep them in your prayers as they’ll be traveling with a 3 year old & 7 month old across the globe.

Jason & I survived our language evaluations, and we were very encouraged with the outcome. There are 3 stages in learning language and Jason is right in the middle of the 2nd stage. I think that’s pretty impressive only having studied the language for 4 months!! I’m pretty far behind him, but I was able to get some great advice & encouragement to keep going despite homeschooling & other responsibilities. Thanks for thinking & praying for us!

We also thank the Lord that our other partners (the Knapps) are doing ok despite many health concerns. Jason (Knapp) had surgery done on his heart last week and it was a success. This week Kellie will need to go in and get some skin cancer removed off of her arm. Please continue to pray for their family.

We are also seeing the Lord provide for our computer! What great proof that we serve an all-knowing, caring God. Thanks for sticking with us, you’re a great team that the Lord is using to root us on & keep us over here among the Tobo people!

Your revived hands & feet,
Jason & Nisae, Kadynn, Judah & Eden

Learning Contentment

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:34:21 -0500

“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. “ Philippians 4 12-13

Unlike the Apostle Paul, we have not mastered the state of being content. We are however in the process of learning to be content in our circumstances!! It has not been an easy month for us as a family here in Tobo. We have had one set of partners go home for furlough May 1st (The Knapps) and we have not yet had our other partners (The Mankins) return from furlough because of paperwork. We never planned on having to be alone here in the tribe, but it’s the circumstance that we find ourselves in now which the Lord has allowed- obviously to draw us closer to Himself and to teach us a few things about being content! The weather has not been the best lately. We are coming up on rainy season and we are beginning to experience those colder temperatures & rainier days and nights that our partners have warned us about. We’ve gotten some good use out of our wood stove lately and we’ve had to pull out some of those rainy day surprises for the kids as well! In addition to these things we’ve all been sick. Jason came down with Malaria again and we’ve all had the flu on and off. I think we’re all back on our feet now, but it was not fun. Our financial support has also been down quite a bit for the last few months which affects our food supply & flight frequency, and then Jason’s computer went kaput! Please believe me when I say that I could go on and on about all of the negative things that come to my mind right now about our circumstances. It’s not easy to live here in the bush at times like these! When we are so isolated and the only white people around for hundreds & hundreds of miles only accessible by aircraft, we begin to see that we are NOT in control!! HOWEVER, what an invaluable lesson in God’s sovereignty and available strength that we are learning!!

No doubt the Lord has allowed these hardships to cause us to put our focus on Him. We can relate more now than ever to some of the hardships that Paul faced on some of his missionary journeys. He went through more than we ever hope to go through, but these circumstances caused Him to focus on the Lord and the strength that is available through Him to not only face these conditions but triumph over them. Through our present circumstances we are privileged to see the Lord’s strength seeing us through and bringing us joy in spite of everything. It’s a daily- ok, minute by minute- choice of having to train our minds to think on the things that are true, lovely & praiseworthy (Phil 4:8) - things that are positive, rather than everything that is negative. We have had to choose to pray with thanksgiving, rather than to worry about our present circumstances (Phil 4:6). And doing these things has brought us God’s promise of experiencing His peace which has guarded our hearts and minds in Christ (instead of on our circumstances!). (Phil 4:7) We praise the Lord for His Word and the promises throughout!

Please be in prayer with us over the following things:
That the Mankins would receive quickly their long awaited paperwork from the PNG government and be on their way here soon!
For the Knapps as they have received some discouraging health news since returning to the States
That the Lord would burden more people’s hearts to get involved financially in our ministry and through that see our needs met for a new computer.
For good health and endurance to continue on in language study
For a strong mental focus on the Lord through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in

This Tuesday we have our first language evaluation to help us see where we’re at in the language and to help with problems we’ve been facing. Please pray for a smooth time throughout the evaluation, and that we would be encouraged when it’s over.

Thanks for standing with us through it all and encouraging us along the way!
Your sometimes weary but being strengthened hands & feet,
Jason & Nisae, Kadynn, Judah & Eden

Living Love

Thu, 22 May 2008 11:37:23 -0500

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 2 Timothy 4:2

“I was in my house trying to sleep but the two old ladies next door just wouldn’t stop talking, they where talking about night and day and how we just go to sleep and wake up and never really think about it. Who or what causes the sun to rise in the morning and go down in the evening? I saw this as an opportunity from the Lord to talk to the women about some of the things that I have been teaching in the village. So I got out from my warm bed got my flashlight and headed out the door. I went and saw the ladies and asked them, pointing to my flashlight, ‘whose flashlight is this?’ They laughed and said ‘well of course it’s yours’. Then I told them that because it’s mine I have the power to turn it on and off as I wish. That’s just like our creator God. He made the world and so everything in it;, the sun, moon and stars are His. He controls everything just like I turn this flashlight on and off.” – Kips

Kips, Welsen and Tingon, for the last three weeks have been teaching about who God is, who Satan is, and where sin came from. They are teaching chronologically through the Bible just like they heard it for the first time over a year and a half ago. The believers are excited to hear these truths again and to really cement them into their thinking. Now that they are believers some of these truths take on a whole new meaning. This has also been a time of outreach for them as we are having the meetings up in the village of Denginu. There have been some new men & women who curiously come in to the meeting house and sit down, but not many. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to begin a work in the thinking of the Tobo people here. The believers really have a heart to reach their own people but struggle to know how to do it. I told them that it’s so much more than just teaching God’s word -we have to live it before the unbelievers. Kips shared a verse with me from 1 Corinthians 13:13 “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love”. “We need to show these people we care and that we will make time for them just like Jesus,” he stated. I showed them from Philippians 2:3 that we need to look after the interests of others and not just ourselves, this will show people we love them. It has been a real encouraging time with these guys as they in turn have been teaching me things about the power of God and loving others just as Christ loves us. Please pray for these three Tobo teachers, Kips, Welsen and Tingon for boldness and direction as they look to reach out into their own community.

Your hands and feet,
Jason, Nisae, Kadynn, Judah and Eden

Where have all the language helpers gone?

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:48:39 -0500

Me with my most faithful language helper, Welson.

It’s been roughly three months since I have started learning the Tobo language…and I can honestly say things have been going good. I’m so thankful for the Tobo guys that have been helping me out, and I’ve started building some great relationships with believers and unbelievers alike. But trust me it hasn’t been without its frustrations!

When we left for PNG we made sure to let everyone know so we could say our goodbyes. We spent several weeks seeing everyone one last time before we left. The culture in PNG is so different! One thing I’ve learned here in Tobo is that when someone wants to leave, they don’t worry much about goodbyes. I’ve recently had quite the experience with language helpers just leaving without telling me! Just this morning I got up to go meet my language helper. We had planned to go on a hike to the river and camp out over night. I got up really early, got my backpack all loaded (about 23 lbs) and walked the 25min hike (up a mountain) to meet him at his village. When I arrived, I was quickly informed that the previous day he had gone off to Lae (a larger city 2 day’s walk from here). Of course he didn’t let me know ahead of time, so I could plan something else for that day! Besides that, we had begun to build a great friendship and I would consider him one of my closest friends here in Tobo. I’m not sure when he will be back, often people leave and can be gone 6 months to a year or more.

The thing is that this is not the first time that this has happened. This is the third helper who has done this to me! I had another man come to me and ask me if he could help me with language, so we agreed and decided on a day to meet. When that day came he never showed up. He too had left without telling me! Man alive, what’s wrong with me? Do I smell or something? Do they think I’m a waste of their time? I’ve really been struggling with having consistent people here to help me with language. It’s especially hard when I spend time building relationships and begin to see them as good friends and not just “helpers”. I get excited about how the Lord may use this time as not only a language time but also a time for discipleship. So when they get up and leave it’s temping to get frustrated with them and give them the cold shoulder when they come back. I know that I’m probably looking at this through my culture and to them this is what they do and it’s not a big deal. If they have a chance to go they drop everything and just go, and most of the time their friends and family understand. Pray for me to learn to be flexible and sensitive to the Lord’s direction in finding dependable language helpers. . The Lord uses these things to remind me that He alone will give the grace and wisdom to learn the Tobo language in His way and in His timing.

One of my language helpers is actually on the verge of death. He has been with me for almost 4 years and has been at my side assisting me in almost every thing I do that is language related. Before you get worried and saddened, I will reveal that he is none other than my post-trustworthy Dell laptop. It is almost more unfortunate than the experiences I’ve written about above as I use my laptop for thorough language review, filing and more. We do not have an immediate replacement and are trusting the Lord for his direction and provision in purchasing a replacement, which we unfortunately cannot find in the closest village as with our other language helpers!

We praise the Lord for using you in our ministry whether you give, pray or encourage us. Thanks for all you do to keep us pressing on in language among the Tobo people!

Your hands & feet,
Jason, Nisae, Kadynn, Judah & Eden