November 2025

Thanksgiving time!

The past few weeks have made for an exceedingly full month! Thanks to your prayers we have seen numerous answers to prayer! So much to PRAISE the LORD for!!!!!

• In October the central heating & air system was installed! Retirement funds fully covered the cost. We are now enjoying the benefits of NOT having to crawl under the house to relight the gas pilot whenever it goes out! Thank you, Lord!
• Early November we “got serious” about finding a car for my niece Naomi. She basically only drives her son to school each day, makes trips to church, plus an occasional jaunt to Walmart. The registration on her CA car expired some time ago though making even those outings stressful. The police had stopped her twice saying that if they stop her again they can impound the car. Meanwhile the CA DMV has yet to issue a “lost title” for her vehicle so …….. after much prayer and a few trips to the car lot – she now has a reliable, licensable set of wheels! The funds Faith got for the foreclosure sale of the CA house covered the purchase! Again – a BIG THANK YOU, LORD!!!!
• Our friend Sandy remains in a hospital in St. Louis. Long story, (see last month’s update) but suffice it to say God intervened on her behalf and for that we Praise HIM mightily! The social worker assigned to Sandy said that hopefully a public administrator will been assigned “soon.” It is questionable whether Sandy has anything worth salvaging at her shambles of a shack but the sooner the public administrator can get on to dealing with that, the better! There’s a nursing home here in our town, or one about 25 miles away where Sandy will eventually be moved. Prayers for Sandy are much appreciated! For Sandy’s spiritual understanding, too.
• My great-nephew Julian has been on a couple of overnight camping outings with the Boy Scouts. He is so excited to be a part of the group, making new friends and learning new things. Homesickness does play into it when he’s away, but so far he is very excited and persevering in regard to anything related to Scouts. He needs the “male input and companionship” so much in his young life! We are thankful to the LORD for this Scouting group, especially since the Scoutmaster is an older sibling of children my mother babysat a generation ago! Another big THANK YOU, LORD!
• The tote of Iwam New Testaments and spiritual terminology booklets that I shipped last January has finally arrived in PNG! It is awaiting transport from the central part of the country up to the coast where the materials will eventually be put in Iwam hands. Still waiting for the final fiscal details and looking into how to get the long horded $$ from my account in the USA to PNG now that I no longer have an account there. Thankfully God has that too already planned out! THANK YOU, HEAVENLY FATHER!

What else do we praise Him for? A BEAUTIFUL fall season …………

And back in PNG: Most of my past “meanwhile, back at the ranch ……..” segments have focused on the tribal missionaries working out in the jungle areas. This time I want to present another side to missions work: the support missionary team.

Missionaries John & Christina Hutteman recently arrived back in PNG after their Home Assignment time. Since their years of commitment to seeing a tribal church established at Malaumanda, they have been working at our mission’s regional center on the northern coast of the country. The center there is CRUCIAL to supporting the missionary teams still serving in the “rural” areas of the province. I was privileged to live and work there my final years in the country and yes, I still miss that “Home, sweet HOME!” In the 6 years I’ve been away, so many changes have come about — especially in the personnel. I recognize so FEW of the tribal teams in this recent photo, below!

John wrote saying: “There have been a lot of changes that have taken place over the past two decades of ministry…. But one thing we have realized through all of those changes, God continues to bless and provide for His work as we faithfully trust Him. So here we are again, needing to trust the LORD. This time, it is for wisdom and grace to manage our mission centre here in Wewak (Christina as guesthouse manager and John as Centre manager). Although we have been involved as part of the team here for years, finding ourselves responsible for managing not only all of the facilities on campus but also all of the employees is intimidating. We are thankful for our local team, employees and missionaries. Everyone works really hard to keep the churches and church planting going. Please pray as we continue to evaluate needs and prioritize projects. Please also pray that as support ministry levels out a bit, I would be able to increase my time and involvement working directly with the churches. There continues to be a tremendous opportunity to equip and encourage for meaningful partnerships that strengthen the churches.”

Support missionaries have many various duties –

• “being there” for the tribal missionaries whatever their needs, things they have no means to take care of in their remote locations
• buying supplies to ship to missionaries in the outlying mission stations;
• coordinating training workshops for the national Christians from the rural areas;
• Hospital visitation when a patient from a jungle village needs medical care in town;
• overseeing finances for the region
• meeting with the tribal Christians who find their way to town (for various reasons) and need help in countless forms from the support team
  doing surveys to language groups still needing missionaries;
• Etc., etc., etc. THE LIST OF THEIR DUTIES IS ENDLESS!

John will most likely be the one too who will deal with getting the tote of materials I recently sent to PNG into the hands of the May River Iwam people!

Missionary life, regardless of the specific duties, runs on prayer. Please do be praying for all the missionaries in their various life and ministry needs. For families like the Huttemans that includes home schooling their youngest son while their oldest is stateside in Bible School. By God’s grace and faithfulness folks like these can carry on thru whatever hard situations God brings their way. Yes, life HERE can be hard. Missionaries face many similar situations as we do but with the added challenges of being in a foreign (usually less developed) country, far from family, familiarity and their home based network of friends. We can certainly uphold them before the Throne of God!

My thanks for your part in my life, too. Through you, your prayers and other evidences of support, God continues faithful, just as He promised. We can certainly praise Him today – and eventually in His very presence, face to face! Perhaps today! Because Christ came and is coming again, we have HOPE !!!!

Hope Sharp – Retired NTMPNG