“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” – Psalms 119:105

Greetings everyone!

Where do we start???!! We’ve been wanting to send out an update for a while now, but there have been so many changes and things going on that we kept waiting for things to settle down for us to have more of a “certainty” before updating.  Even though things still aren’t “certain”, we feel we need to update many of you with developing issues on our island that directly affect our team and the Dem.

Before getting into the update, the verse above is such a familiar verse to many of us.  It’s a verse many of us memorized when we were little kids and the verse is so true.  However, we recently were challenged to understand the context of what it was actually like when this verse was written.  I think we hear this verse and just automatically picture a giant lantern or a flashlight illuminating the path and how God’s Word is that lamp unto our feet.  So naturally we picture when walking in the dark with a big lantern or flashlight you can see several steps ahead of you or a good bit down the path.  But when this verse was written a traditional “lamp” it was actually like the photo above, NOT a flashlight (duh moment for us!)!  It was a very small oil lantern or candle that would be held down by your feet so you could see just where to take your next step.  And then after you took that one step, you could see where to take your next.  One. Step. at a time.  

That is SO hard for us because we like to see the path illuminated for our next several steps and where we are going! But when taking that verse in context it made so much more sense to us. Trusting the Lord, His Word as a lamp unto our feet is not being able to see the whole path ahead, but rather trusting him for your very next step, and then the step after that, etc. Not able to see the path ahead, but deciding to trust Him for our very next step and then what lies ahead after that.  As you’ll read in this update this is very pertinent to our current situation and we definitely cannot see the rest of the trail, but the Lord can, and we need to trust and rest in Him and that He will/is going to guide us, and it may look very different than we had planned or hoped, but we just need to take the next step. Proverbs 16:9- A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

To keep things brief and because of security reasons, we need to be a bit vague here, but this is what we can tell you.  Papua is so much different from the rest of the country of Indonesia. Everything such as their culture, ethnicity, beliefs, speech, ideas are so different from the rest of the country and because of this, Papuans have wanted to be their own country and have wanted their independence from the country of Indonesia for many years, with no success. Because of this there is a group of rebels that have been at war with the national government. This group has never had any issues with us who are in Papua to help local Papuans as their issues are with the government. Before our team moved into the Dem, we knew that our area was kind of a “hot spot” for encountering this group and over the years we have never had any problems as they know we are there to help the Dem. However over the last 2 years this group have become much more “bold” or “brawny” as we like to say in Indonesian, and a few months ago they took an expat pilot hostage where he still remains. (You can find info on this online)

There have been some other things that have transpired that we don’t want to talk about on a public platform such as this, but long story short our team has had to leave the area.  

At this moment, our leadership and even local leaders have stated that our team cannot go back into Dem any time soon. We do not have a specific time table so our team is basically just waiting on the Lord and praying for changes and continuing to do what they can, like translation. We are hoping the tension and threats can subside, although it may not be any time soon and once that happens our team will be able to go back to living with the Dem Lord willing. Our family was planning on going to back to Indo in June, but since this disruption has arisen, we will change our departure to July.

This is very hard on our team as we try to navigate what the future may look like for our ministry, for our family and the Dem. As we mentioned, our co-workers are still working on translation while off site, and we will continue to serve as we can. There is so much more to this, but it’s hard for us to put on paper all the different ways this negatively effects and changes our ministry for the foreseeable future. If you have questions and would like to contact us directly, feel free to do so and we can try to explain more.  Our hearts are WITH the Dem as we were so excited to go back home and to see them, hearing about how they are growing in their faith and understanding of God’s word, but until the Lord makes a path for us to go back, we wait. HE CAN MAKE A WAY, like He did with the Israelites and the Red Sea! Whether He chooses to do so or not, we know that He is good, His ways are better than our ways and we will rest in Him.

 I was reminded by friend when explaining this situation of 2 important truths. 1- What a blessing it is that this unrest and situation has taken place AFTER the Dem have heard the Gospel, and the birth of the church has taken place. 2- We know from scripture that all things work together for HIS good. Our team can’t see what that “good” is right now, but we are going to walk by faith and head back to Indo in July and just take 1 step at a time. We may have to live in town for a while and do other types of ministry we weren’t planning on until the tension eases up and our team can get back in, so please pray for our team and our family in the coming months. Also PLEASE PRAY for the Dem, for spiritual and physical protection! Pray for them that they would continue on growing and sticking to these truths they have heard and that this would be a time that leaders would step up and lead the Dem church and continue on in their faith, that they would only grow stronger.

As far as time in the states goes, our kids are almost finished with the year in Christian school.  It has FLOWN by!! It really was so good for them and we are very thankful for the school and the experience. They have enjoyed making some good friends, playing sports and just being “normal” kids who aren’t looked at as foreigners every day and stared at which can be annoying (Especially when you’re having a bad day).  They have truly done amazing. Such answers to prayer! Transition is hard no matter who you are and that’s no different for our kids. They did not want to come to the states (so much unknown for them). They were upset when we left the tribe, especially when we told them it was going to be for a year. However the Lord knew we needed this time as a family to process and work through some things, a time to rest as the last term was incredible and amazing, but also very hard on our family, and this time was very beneficial in many ways. It flew by and we are so grateful to have done and experienced all we have.  

With us sticking around an extra month, our kids will get to summer camp and even get to take part in VBS which of course are not necessities in life at all, but some extra fun and more experiences they weren’t expecting before we head back to the unknown in Indo. And soaking up some more family time and memories!

There is much more we could update on, but we wanted to let you all know the situation with our team and ministry. The foreseeable future is very unknown so please, PLEASE pray for our team, for our kids as it was already going to be hard enough to head back overseas for them, but now heading back to probably living in a guesthouse for a while and living out of suitcases for some time and then hopefully housesitting for people on furlough and not being able to go back to their home. And PLEASE PRAY for the Dem, they continue to grow in their faith, they are still running 3 literacy classes without us there, but please pray that the Lord would protect them from sicknesses and serious injuries too as we have no way to get to them to help.

We will try and update when and if we get the go ahead to go back interior. We are putting together an Amazon wish list of stuff we need to take back for those who have asked, and we dropped the ball with not getting this out sooner, but we will begin packing soon so if you would like to help, we will be putting the list up soon. Thank you all so much for the faithful support and care and please continue to join us in prayer for the Dem and this rebel group and that God would make a way for our team to get back to our home in Dem-land.