A Short Ministry Biography Tom Palmer arrived in the Territory of New Guinea September 16, 1953, and Corinne Mansker on July 9th, 1954. They were married on April 19th, 1956 in the Hamtai tribe, where they both were serving. Initially their main task was to learn the...

The Lord blessed us with four children, all born on the field. Corinne home-schooled the first two until furlough. While we were away, our boarding school for missionary children was established in the highlands. At that time mission policy was that it was obligatory...

From their initial site in Weganda Village Chuck Driver worked hard at learning the language and wrote a short grammar and prepared a tentative Hamtai alphabet. As other personnel, including us, arrived, our first task was to learn the Lingua Franca, Melanesian...

New Tribes Mission Enters the Hamtai Chuck Driver with a village leader In 1950 Chuck Driver was sent by New Tribes Mission to begin tribal work in the Territory of New Guinea. On arriving, he went to see the District Commissioner in Lae, the town on the north coast...

  People show their former weapons during a dance. The Hamtai tribe (pronounced Hahm-day) was a primitive, Stone Age group tucked back in the isolated, mountainous interior jungles of the Territory of Papua & New Guinea. The first of their villages were located...

While we were interior learning the tribal language, some came to know the Lord in the Watut Valley through teaching done by our other missionaries in the trade language, Melanesian Pidgin. These believers were baptized and grew as they were discipled in Pidgin....

Being in the early stages of development the Hamtai area did not have any government schools. Learning to read and write was something new to the people. Even holding a pencil to write was elementary to them, unlike our western children, who are practically raised...

Each dot represents a Hamtai local church The Lord did a real spiritual work in the hearts of the early believers. They were eager to share the Good News with others. Many of them had relatives interior in the Kapau, Aseki, Karepa, and other areas of this large tribe....

It is a joy to see them using their New Testaments Bible translation is an important part of planting indigenous churches. It is vital that local churches have the Scriptures in their own language in order for the believers to grow in their faith and to keep them...

We are amazed and so thankful for God's protection as we look back on many incidents which could have ended up tragically. Here are a few examples. "Get out of here!" Have you ever had those words spoken to you? In l954, Peter Banfield, Al Cole, and I moved from the...

Of Finances: During the 50+ years since Corinne and I arrived in PNG, the Lord has faithfully met all our needs. In the early years money was short for all of us missionaries. It was not an affluent time in our home countries like now. For example, no one could afford...

Tom and Corinne Palmer Working with the Hamtai tribe in Papua New Guinea Tom and Corinne Palmer