Faith in the Jungle

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your part in helping to share the love of Jesus with the Hewa tribal people of Papua New Guinea.

Please rejoice with us for the many wonderful things that are happening here in Hewa.

Praise the Lord with us that recently John and Jessie George had a language evaluation by a consultant and they both showed very strong progress in their Hewa language acquisition. This is wonderful news especially now as they are returning to Mississippi for their furlough. They will have a lot of wonderful stories to tell their families and friends about how the Lord has blessed them with tremendous headway while on their first term here in PNG.

Praise the Lord with us that Brian and Rachel Montei (with the ministry called Friends in Action) came to Hewa to fix our tractor. Brian got it purring like a kitten and installed many new parts to make it like new. After that he welded our earth-moving box-blade back together so we can get the ground around the perimeter of the airstrip leveled in order to install a fence. We are praising the Lord for the many ways the Montei family has blessed us.

Praise the Lord with us for how the village believers were able to finish their study through the book of Romans. On the final day of the study we asked if anyone would like to share how the Lord had taught them and we were excited to have some young men read several key verses and explain how the truths had touched them. We are now planning to start teaching through I Timothy for the first time starting in June. This is an important book as it will lay the foundation for future church leadership in the tribe.

Praise the Lord with us for giving us a new hospital where we can take our Hewa friends in time of medical emergency. Now that we have an airstrip we felt the need to look for a “nearby” town other than the closest place we used to take them that proved to be a dangerous option because of continual violence. Eight village men joined me on a 25 minute airplane ride to the town of Tari to explore their hospital. We were pleased with how the Lord went ahead of us in such a way that the main doctor and medical staff were very happy to help the Hewa people. They even gave us a small supply of free medicine and offered additional medicine and training for our medical volunteers!

We also have a few prayer requests to share with you.

We are very happy that Mikayla will be coming to PNG soon to intern alongside the doctor at the NTM medical clinic and to help us here in the village. Unfortunately she has recently been experiencing severe and debilitating neck pain that is making it hard for her to concentrate on her studies at BIOLA. She has had to go to an Urgent Care facility twice because of the severe pain and they have told her if the pain persists she will need an MRI to see what is causing the trouble. Please pray for complete healing or that the Lord will give wisdom and guidance as to how to find relief.

Please pray for Susan and me as we will be without co-workers in Hewa again for the next several months. The Dunns are on a medical furlough in California and the Georges will be on a regular furlough in Mississippi. It can feel very overwhelming to balance all of the pressing needs while living in the tribe.
Please pray that true faith in the Lord Jesus will spread all over the Hewa mountains.
Thank you for your love and prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful.
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna