Thank you so much for your love, prayers and gifts! We are deeply grateful for your partnership with us in reaching the Hewa tribal people with the love of Jesus. Thank you!
We have arrived at ‘home’ for the summer! In early May, Susan flew to be with her sister in Arizona and her parents in South Carolina, while Mikenna and I (Jonathan) finished off the school year in Papua New Guinea. We then departed PNG in late May and stopped in California to visit Mikayla and her husband, Tobia, before driving up to see my parents in Idaho. We then drove to see Micah and his wife, Sallie in Colorado and eventually, we joined together as a family again in South Carolina where we are currently with Susan’s parents.
Susan’s father’s health has continued to deteriorate which has caused a physical strain on her mother. We feel it may be best to stay in the States for the next few months to help her parents. Please pray the Lord will give us wisdom and clarity. If we stay, I will continue pressing forward with Bible translation which, depending on how long we stay, will hopefully include short trips to PNG. While here in the States I would also like to locate some volunteers that would be able to assist in constructing the next double-classroom building for the village Christian school.
If we stay, Susan will continue with her job of Educational therapy from here in the States. Before she left PNG, she was trained to do therapy via Zoom so she will be able to continue teaching a few missionary bush students over Zoom while here in the States.
After a short break in their hometowns, our five teachers flew back to Hewa to continue teaching about 90 children in the village Christian school (teachers pictured above).
Sarah with her students
Manu’s wife, Hazel, with her kindergarten class in front of their house
Though we are currently in the States, we received a report from the lead teacher, Manu, saying the first half of the year went well for grades K-5. Although the teachers and students experienced challenges (including the female teacher’s cooking shack burning to the ground!), all five teachers persevered and were eager to return after their break to continue investing in the lives of the kids. In addition to the five full-time teachers, we also hired two student teachers to help them gain teaching experience before they graduate from their Christian college. Please pray that the village students will continue developing a passion to know the Lord and to serve Him.
We are longing to know how our Bible teachers, Faimpat and Kaifas are progressing with their evangelistic outreach to our original ministry location in Hewa. We have heard little snippets of news, both good and bad. The fun news is that Faimpat’s wife gave birth to a healthy second daughter! The difficult news was that soon after they finished teaching through the death and resurrection of Jesus, a fight took place in a village about a six-hour hike from them where one man shot another in the face! This could potentially disrupt the teaching because relatives of the one who was shot would traditionally grab their weapons and run to that village to attempt some sort of payback injury or murder. I have been trying to find ways of hearing how things are going since I left PNG but so far the only news I received from Yanis in Hewa was that, “the fighting is going okay.” I’m not sure how fighting can be okay, but I assume what he means is that the trouble in that village has not disrupted the evangelistic outreach or the church & Christian school. The teacher, Manu, told me during his school break that they refuse to be afraid of rumors of warriors coming to the village and are asking the Lord for protection as they continue teaching. Please pray for safety and that Satan will have no success in derailing the beautiful things that God is doing in the Hewa Mountains.
Thank you for your love and prayers,
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna
If you would like to donate toward the Christian school you may send your gift to the regular Ethnos360 address in Florida (312 W 1st St Sanford, FL 32771), and include a note to have it forwarded to the Jonathan Kopf Hewa Ministry account in PNG # 416228.
Kopf Sponsor address- Ethnos360 312 W 1st St Sanford, FL 32771 w/ note for Jonathan & Susan or NTM web site Ethnos360.org
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