Thank you for your love and prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your part in sharing the love of Jesus with our Hewa tribal friends here in Papua New Guinea. Thank you!

We have been asking you to pray the Lord will provide a tractor for our future airplane runway, but you will never guess how the Lord has been answering your prayers! Last month a ministry called Friends In Action informed us they are going to donate a small Kubota 4X4 tractor! Then, on top of that we just received news from friends from Green Valley, Arizona that they are going to contribute toward the cost of flying it by helicopter into our village by donating $5000! We are so excited to see the Lord answering your prayers. Thank you!!!

The task of clearing an airstrip from the jungle is enormous, but we are very pleased by the progress the Lord has already granted. In the picture you can see that the Hewa men have already cleared the required 600 meters (above our houses) and have dug out most of the stumps as well as cleared the logs and debris.

They then planted the entire site with sweet potato and corn (the picture shows Mikenna standing in the middle of the airstrip) to provide erosion and weed control (not to mention food!) while waiting for a tractor to arrive.

The cost of building an airstrip is huge, but we are very encouraged that the Lord is already demonstrating his power to provide. It is almost impossible to guess how expensive the project will be, but we know we have many things that will need to be purchased such as a hydraulic grader blade, fencing to go around the airfield, a tractor shed, fuel for the tractor, cone markers, wind sock, a brush-hog type grass mower, plus the cost of flying everything into the village on a helicopter. Please continue to pray with us for the Lord’s provision for everything that will be needed to bring this project to completion. We can’t wait for the day when we can use an airplane for our travel needs rather than paying the incredible cost of chartering the helicopter. If you would like to contribute toward this project, please go to NTM website or send a check to NTM 1000 E 1st St. Sanford, FL and include a note that says, “PNG FF Hewa Airtsrip”. Thank you!

Our new co-workers the Georges have started into Hewa language studies and the Dunns are in the process of purchasing construction materials to build their house here in the village. In the meantime Susan & I have continued pushing forward with NT translation as well as teaching through the book of Philippians for the first time. We have also enjoyed times of relaxing and fun here in the village, especially on January first when the entire village erupted into the annual New Year’s morning mud fight. In the above picture you can see the women and girls pulling Mikenna into the mudslinging. We appreciate how the Lord provides events like these to help us continue to develop our friendships with the Hewa tribal people.  

Thank you so much for joining with us in this effort to share the love of Jesus with the Hewa tribal people. Thank you!

Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna