Jemimah's excited to see Aunt "Emiwy!"

The temperature this morning measured a balmy -2 degrees! It is a rather strange to think that in a year from now we will be in Goroka, Papua New Guinea (PNG), where it is currently 77 degrees! The excitement is building for beginning the work of planting churches in PNG!

After graduating from the Center for Pioneer Church Planting, we began serving To Every Tribe as Missionary Appointees. At that point we were looking at a year and a half before we would actually move to PNG, and a third of that time has already passed! Although we are anxious to begin serving in PNG, we are very excited about doing as much as we can right now to prepare for thriving on the mission field. For us, that means a number of things:

Canning pumpkin!

Building Practical Skills: Sarah and I are both taking as many opportunities as we can to build our practical skill-sets while we are here in Baraboo. Any time that a new location is being "pioneered" fore the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there are practical skills needed. Who builds and maintains the missionary houses? Who fixes the generator? Who repairs your cell phone? Who fixes the vehicle? All of these things and many more are the responsibility of a pioneer missionary team.

Raising 100% Financial Support: As we prepare to enter a life of ministry in PNG, a huge component is finances. It takes a lot to live and do ministry in PNG, so we want to make sure we are faithful over this next year to raise 100% of our monthly and one-time financial support. Although this task seems daunting, it is very important to have the proper resources in order to have a thriving ministry.

Caving with guys from church!

Building Strong Relationships with our Home Church: We will be sent to PNG by our home church (Walnut Hill Bible Church) through To Every Tribe. We want to make sure that we have a very strong relationship with the staff at church, as well as the missions committee and many others within the body. These are the people who will be caring for us while we are in the field. I have been doing an internship with Walnut Hill for 4 months now. As the internship draws to a close, I am so encouraged by the ways that God blessed that time and has strengthened our bond with Walnut Hill.

Attending Additional Training: As many of you know, Sarah will be attending a 2-week Medical Missions Intensive course in May. This was a course that has been recommended to us as a great asset for a pioneer church planting team. We will also be attending a program called Compass that is put on by Mission Training International. This program will help us in dealing with key cross-cultural ministry issues and helping us to learn a new language. Sarah will also be attending a class at To Every Tribe in January regarding cross-cultural ministry that is taught by a missionary couple who served in southern Mexico.

Pray for us as we continue to prepare for ministry in Papua New Guinea!