Arrival on Field

Adjustment

Once we arrive on the field of Papua New Guinea, we will be staying on the NTM PNG3 base located in Madang. Throughout this time, we will begin to adjust to PNG’s way of life and start orientation. During this phase our family will be experiencing a different culture and will begin to adjust to the new cultural norms, such as transpiration, food, shopping, heat, money, medical emergencies, etc.

Orientation

During orientation, we will be exposed to how things function in PNG. We will learn the policies that are in place specific to each region and the country at large, the consultant program, social aspects, field leadership, how the base and field are ran, the big picture and field vision. Orientation is also a busy time filled with culture and trade- language study. This time is spent learning the national language and culture, as it is important that we are able to communicate and interact well in the country before allocating to the tribe and learning the tribal language and culture.


Building Relationships

Throughout our time of CLA4, we will build relationships with other members of the organization. There will be other missionaries new to the field at this time as well, and we will seek to establish a team of two to three family units to partner with.

We will also become established in a local church. It is important to be involved in the body of Christ and we desire to see nationals involved in reaching the tribal people in their own country. We hope to provide them with an opportunity to get involved in reaching these people. If we are privileged with seeing a church planted, we want to be able to connect this new church to the body of Christ at large, and knowing the trade language and being involved with a national church will help this goal. Learning the national trade language and culture is not only allowing us to be accepted citizens in the country, it is also helping in the larger goal of planting a mature church that is not isolated.

Tribal Survey

Tribal survey is a time when we will travel into various tribal locations to locate where we will serve. We will visit tribes that have never had a missionary and will visit missionaries currently working without partners and are looking for missionaries to join the work. There are approximately 850 different language groups on the island of PNG and approximately 300 are without a church or any scripture in their language, it is only realistic to survey a few. During the PGA5 we will try to understand the current need of the gospel, seeking to answer, is the gospel present? If so, is it understood? Do they have access to the gospel? Could they have access to it if they wanted it? Do they have a translation? If so, what is the quality of the translation? Is there a Church? If so, what is actually being taught? Would this people group accept having missionaries live in their village? The PGA is important to evaluate the need for the Gospel. The need is so overwhelming in this country that we are focused on the groups that do not have access to the saving message of Christ, and where the people are willing to have us. There is no sense in forcing our way into a people group when there are many tribes open to having a missionary.

Team Composition

Co-workers are a fundamental aspect of church planting. Without them, one could never accomplish all that is required to plant a mature church, and an unhealthy team will not last. When we arrive on the field we will be diligent to find two other family units that we will form a team with. There are specific attributes and gifts that are helpful to a church planting team. We desire to see many of those attributes/gifts on a team that will complement one another and will help in the task of church planting. Co- workers must get along, be able to work well together and be able to healthily resolve conflict. A big part of our witnessing and overall testimony of the church planting team is done by living out godly lives in a high-pressure context. The foremost reason for having teammates is not to split the workload but to model mature Christian relationships. The team will be modeling believer to believer, believer to unbeliever, wife to husband, husband to wife, parent to child, child to parent, relationships. This modeling will be taking place whether we are intentional or not, so we will strive to represent Christ body well. The ability to leverage this molding years later, by calling on real examples witnessed by the community, will be powerful. Our team may be the only representation of Christ these people have observed and we do not take that responsibility lightly.