7 Years in the Making

Adding a protective layer to the underside of the house.

As I sorted through our stacks of files and old papers yesterday, I came upon a stack of receipts and notes from a trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG) that I took in the summer of 2009. There was also a CD with old pictures from that trip in this stack. As I looked through them and took a bit of a walk down memory lane, I was reminded of the joys and sorrows of that particular trip. The trip lasted 3 months, and was one of the hardest and most joy-filled things I have ever done. For the first month there were three guys from Wisconsin that were there with me. After that it was just me, a translator from the town of Wewak and the PNG nationals. The goal for the trip was to finish building and bug-proofing a ministry house for the short-term ministry teams to base out of. Even though we did end up finishing that project, much more than that was accomplished. I grew to love and respect the people in the tribes that I lived in and my understanding of the great need for more missionaries grew immensely.

One of the ladies in the tribe bringing in a load of fish she
caught that day. 

I often share with people that my passion for unreached people groups began on my first trip to PNG, which I took in early spring of 2009. I walked onto the plane thinking that I would enjoy the trip, but that I wouldn't end up living and working in PNG long-term. As is often the case, God had other plans. As I traveled with the team from To Every Tribe to several different tribal locations in PNG, I began to fall in love with the country. More than that, God began working in me a heart for tribal peoples with no access to the gospel. We visited a tribe that was totally unreached, and it blew me away that those people had no access to the hope and joy that I have in Christ and His saving work on the cross. I walked away from that trip saying “God, if you want me to be a part of getting the gospel to the unreached in PNG, I'll do it!”

A list of the projects that consumed the last
few weeks of the trip.

While I was still on that trip I was approached by a couple of the To Every Tribe staff members about coming back later that summer to work on a building project that was underway. I told them I liked the idea and I would talk to my parents about it when I got home. God opened the doors for me to take that trip for three months. That was the first of many steps toward being faithful to God calling me to be a part of reaching the unreached in Papua New Guinea.

As I write this now, Sarah, Jemimah, Sawyer and I are making our final preparations to move to Papua New Guinea as full-time church-planting missionaries. We plan to leave mid-January 2016, almost 7 years exactly from when I first stepped foot on a plane headed to PNG. We are very excited (and a bit nervous) about taking this huge step as we strive to be faithful to God's call. God has given so much grace throughout these years of preparation, and we are very excited to be able to share the gospel with people who have never even heard the name of Jesus!

Josi made sure I stayed alive during those 3 months. She
translated, cooked, did laundry, and so much more!

Some scrawled notes from a study in
1 Thessalonians I did with some of the guys
in one of the tribes. 

Cool milestones! God gave us many opportunities to minister
on this building trip.

A to-do list for one of my trips to town, which
was ten hours from the tribe I lived with.

Expanding foam and lot's of it!

For those of you who know me, you know
Jimmy Johns is my favorite place. I brought
this menu and taped it up in the hut I lived in.