Hey everyone,

We wanted to update you all with everyday life, but also with a decision we are trying to make and value your prayers. There’s a lot of things happening here in Dem-land and it won’t all fit in 1 post (I mean it could, but it would be REALLY long), so we are going to update you all in chunks. In the next update there will be a video update as well with us explaining some changes with our future plans for our family, but that will be in a couple weeks.

First off, the Dem are continuing to grow in their faith everyday and working through trials and temptations just like we all do. We have 1 more lesson in Ephesians after going through it verse by verse and of course they love the last chapter talking about war and the armor of God. A good friend of mine came to me after I taught the lesson on how “we wrestle not against flesh and blood...” and that we are at war but we cannot see our enemy, and told me about a dream he had a few weeks before.

In his dream he said there was an enemy who was strong and wanted to kill me (J), but I was wearing these strange clothes and strange shoes and I told him in the dream that we, who are God’s children, do not need to fear the enemy and that the enemy has had a hold on this land in Dem for so long, but now the Gospel is here and we need not to fear the enemy.

He said he didn’t understand the strange clothes I had on, but when we taught the lesson on spiritual warfare he saw the picture of a Roman soldier with the breastplate and sandals and he said thats exactly what he saw in his dream. He said during the lesson when he saw the picture and we read Ephesians 6:10-13 his mouth dropped and he was amazed that the Lord would make His word so clear and real for him through this dream. This was really cool to see and hear how the Holy Spirit is working even in dreams of our Dem brothers and sisters.

On the flip side, 2 days after he shared this dream and was on fire for the Lord, the tribe faced a temptation to fall back into their old ways. A man who was a big guy in Dem, who had been out in a small town, was killed in a war and because of his status, lots of the men in Dem were angry and wanted revenge. The Dem culture has always been “an eye for an eye,” so if a Dem was killed by a person from a different tribe, then the Dem would not rest until a person from that tribe died as well.

This was really sad to see some of our believers turn so quickly to the old ways and forget the truths we have learned. On the other hand it was really cool to see some of our stronger believers come together and pray for their fellow brothers who were not holding onto the truths of God’s word, praying that they would not fall back into the old rituals of the past.

That Sunday I decided to not teach on Ephesians, but go back and remind them of the Israelites, who saw many miracles and despite God rescuing them over and over, they would turn so quickly away from the Lord. I then challenged them that they too have seen and witnessed many miracles here and now, many of them were very quickly turning back to their old ways just like the Israelites did.

The Dem are on fire for the Lord, but also dealing and struggling with many struggles just like we all do. Their’s just looks a little different then ours in a western context, but our enemy is always out looking to seek and destroy God’s children. Our enemy attacks us with flaming arrows and we need to shield ourselves just like Paul said in Ephesians 6. Please continue to pray for your Dem brothers and sisters.

An exciting thing that we will briefly update you on, but will give more details in a future update is the Indonesian school that has started in Dem-land. Long story short, a Christian business man from Jakarta wanted to use the money the Lord has given him to help remote locations in Indonesia (mainly Papua) to provide them with education and from a Biblical perspective.

They were ready to open a school here about 3 years ago, but we asked them to wait. We wanted to make sure the Dem had time to be grounded in God’s word, to grow in their faith and focus on that before having any outside distractions come in. Even though this school provides Christian teachers and not run or funded by the government, it is a huge time consumption and excitement here, and we wanted the people to have a solid foundation first, instead of taking away from the most important thing, God’s word.

The school started fall of 2024 and we will give more details and info about that, but it has been a huge blessing. The 4 teachers are really amazing and love our Dem kids. The school has been using our church building temporarily for the 1st year and also living in our previous co-workers house, but they are wanting to build their own classrooms and houses and so the Dem have been working hard on preparing land for the permanent buildings the school will use for many years.

It makes you take education for granted. The desire the Dem have for a school here, so they can continue to hear God’s word in the Dem language and also receive education and learn the national language is pretty evident. They have been cutting the wood for posts, carrying rocks from the river, cutting down trees, digging up roots, moving tons of dirt, all with their hands, and few shovels and wheel barrows. They continue to thank the Lord for making the trail for His word to enter Dem-land, and now for the school to come to help them learn.

Upcoming trip and decisions-

This below is filling you in on an upcoming trip and kind of the reasoning for the trip and also for you to pray as we make a decision on what to do. This below is from Bri…

Where do I start this update? Time is flying by and so much is happening these days.

I guess I will start with letting everyone know that Eden and I (Briana) and now Noelle will be attending Eden’s best friend’s wedding in the end of May in Indiana. I am sure many of you are wondering why we would travel across the world for this wedding. It’s a big trip that will cost lots of money and we don’t take these things lightly.

Let’s rewind back to 6 years ago. Eden was 10, and growing up in a remote tribe, didn’t have many opportunities for friends in her language and culture. She did have our coworker’s daughter thankfully!!! But Raquel was almost 3 and a half years older than her, and sometimes, the age gap was felt and a longing left in her to have a friend her age. When we came on furlough in 2019, she didn’t fit in with any of the girls in the states her age, still left feeling very lonely. One sweet lady asked me how she could be praying for my kids, to which I responded “Will you please join me in praying for Eden to make a true friend? She is getting to that age, where she really just needs a friend.” Someone who she actually clicks with, someone who will be able to keep in touch with her, someone who will be a good friend to her and encourage her…. Well it didn’t take long after we were back that she found that friend, in a rather miraculous and unexpected way actually. It was a COMPLETE and TOTAL ANSWER TO PRAYER. It was all God.

Through some random church travels we took to Indiana after our normal Michigan church visit, we met the Leeman’s and their church. Emma was their daughter who was 12 at the time. Eden and Emma really hit it off, and were able to stay in touch over the years, and their friendship grew a lot, even though long distance. It turned out to be exactly what Eden needed living in such an isolated place. It was a God send!! I have thanked God for providing this friend for Eden so many times over the years now. We made every effort for them to see each other when we were back in 2022/2023, but they still have only been able to be together in person less than a handful of times, and sometimes that is really hard for Eden.

Well fast forward to 2024, Emma gets engaged to a boy from her church who she has grown up with and is getting married! It was a bit shocking for us to process this all from here as the last time we had seen her she was 16, and now she is 18, getting married young, and Eden processing she will never get that one on one friend time she had hoped to get with Emma one day when Eden moves back for college. And yet, we are SO happy for her. She is a Godly girl, who is very mature and has just been such a blessing to us all. Eden doesn’t want to miss out on this monumental life event for Emma, and I don’t blame her. We would do just about anything to make sure she was there for this special day. Eden often has felt as though she has missed out on things, like seeing Emma more, and being torn between 2 worlds, but she overall has handled it very well and is thankful for her rich life here too. SO we want to make sure she gets to be there for this big day.

We planned on paying for Eden and I to go since it would be too expensive for the whole family to go back for just a summer, but I was feeling so sad about leaving Noelle as she has 3 new baby cousins she is dying to meet, and she misses her grandparents and is such a Momma’s girl, that that time here while we are gone would be so hard for her. Grandpa and Grandma graciously offered to pay for Noelle’s ticket to join us. We have been preparing for this trip coming up in May and looking for best options for plane tickets, etc.

But as it gets closer, I now am heavily considering what it will look like, if Jericho doesn’t go back to the states, his passport country for 4 years. I know he will be just fine ultimately, but it becomes more and more like a foreign country to him, and one he will have to return to when he graduates from here. So, I am left wondering if I am doing him any favors leaving him here and should we all come back, even if it is just for a short trip (could be 8 weeks)? Please pray with me as we wrestle through all our options. We thought we had it settled, but it’s not feeling quite right now. I am feeling guilty for leaving Jericho and J here now, as it will have been 2 years since we came back to Indo, and we won’t be coming back until after Eden graduates in 2027. That is a long time. And with parents getting older and retiring to different states (Washington and Florida!!) next year, it all feels a little bit overwhelming not wanting to make the wrong choice. I don’t want to look back and wish we would have just spent the money. I thank you all for your prayers, support and gifts to us. We try to weigh everything out heavily, instead of making decisions lightly.

If anyone would like to contribute or has questions about the trip, feel free to write us. Thanks so much for your continued prayers.

Eden and Emma when they met in June 2019 and when they saw each other last in June 2023

Hey friends,

Sorry for not keeping you all in the loop more the last couple weeks. It’s been a very busy, stressful, emotionally draining few weeks. The last couple months have been busy draining with lots of medical emergencies and trying and trying to navigate different situations that have come up.

2 weeks ago while Petut was at the hospital our co-workers asked him if he had any talk for people who are praying for him, or for his family in the tribe and so our co-workers took a short video. I plan on translating the video soon for all of you to see but for now I will paraphrase what he said in the video.

“To all of you in Africa and America who have been praying for me thank you. Before the Gospel came into Dem I was not a happy person, I was in darkness, but then God sent 4 families to come and tell me His word. They taught me from the beginning all the way to the end about what Yagwe and His son did for me. I believed and I am so grateful. My body is sick, my time on earth is coming to an end but I know that Yagwe is preparing amazing things for me in heaven. He has them ready for me, so whenever I die I will go up and receive all the many amazing things that Yagwe has prepared for me because He is very good. I am so thankful.”

We know many of you have been praying for Petut but we no longer need to pray for Petut and his health as he passed away last week late Wednesday night. Just last Monday Petut told our co-workers the Curries that he would like to remain in town another couple weeks to get the fluid build up in his abdomen drained one more time and then he would like to fly back to Dem-land to die. The doctor had just told our co-workers he thought Petut would make it a few more months and so we were making plans for him to stay a couple more weeks in Sentani, get fluids drained one more time, then fly back in.

On Wednesday morning we got word that Petut wasn’t doing well and so our co-workers went and picked him up and took him back to the hospital and it was clear he didn’t have much time left. We worked hard at trying to arrange a flight for the Thursday morning to get him into Dem-land to die. The missions planes can fly a dead body but due to regulations and permissions its extremely expensive so we were trying to get him in ASAP.

We were able to get a mission flight scheduled for first thing Thursday morning but Petut went to see his Savior Wednesday night around 11pm. Thursday he was buried in town and we are thankful for our co-workers and friends in town that were able to organize and handle all the details of a funeral and finding a burial sight and everything else.

Our family was already planning on heading to town on Friday for a short break but Thursday we spent going around in the tribe to cultural mourning locations and the difference between the way the Dem mourn the death of someone now, to how it was before the gospel is unbelievable. Before the gospel, the Dem would mourn for 2-3 weeks, never leaving their yards or houses as they cried and talked to the spirits as they feared where the “spirit” of the person who died went.

Now they mourn for 2-3 days. I was talking to Petut’s brother in law and he told me, “J, we dont need to mourn long. We are sad he is gone but we know where his soul is, we know that he is with Yagwe, in a great amazing place. Before we didn’t know where the souls of the dead went so we were scared of death, scared for our friends who died but now we know the truth and so we just cry/mourn a little and then we are done.”

The Lord has done amazing things in the Dem and His Holy Spirit is working and moving everyday. Like most things in life that you see everyday or things that become “normal” they tend to loose the amazingness (If that’s a word) but then things like this happen and remind us just how incredible the change is in Dem that we get to experience and see first hand.

At the funeral Tirinut stood up and said,

“Petut was my very good friend, I cared very much for him and when he got sick it was very heavy on my heart, and now that he is gone I am sad, but I’m not sad for Petut, I am sad for his wife, and for his family but not for Petut. My friend was very sick and in a lot of pain but now the moment he died, his spirit went up to the amazing place. His body is so good right now, his body isn’t in any pain, he is looking at the amazing things that Yagwe has prepared for him and he is so good right now. So all of us here need to remember, while on this earth we have hardships, thats because of our sin, but the hardships we face here on earth are just temporary. Some things are very hard but what Jesus did for us was much harder. He died for us, and Yagwe’s talk is so big and true so listen to His word, read His word, follow His word and the day that we die and leave this earth we will be with Jesus, with no more hardships, in an amazing place with Him forever. So Im sad my friend is gone, but I will see him again.”

There was many things like this said at the funeral that I cant share them all right now but the power the Gospel has made on a land that was so full of darkness and now a language group have changed from darkness to light is incredible to witness firsthand.

So thank you all for praying for Petut and his family. His wife flew back into the tribe the next day when we flew out on friday. Petut is no longer in pain and we who are Gods family will see him again (or meet for the first time) one day.

*Side note- Many have asked about finances for our team account and these medivacs. Thank you! Many have given but if anyone else would like more info on this please email.

Hey everyone,

Today marks 3 weeks since Petut has returned home to Dem-land knowing that he has a sickness that there is no medicine that will heal him. Since then, the Dem church have blanketed him and his wife with prayers and continue to pray for a miracle but also for peace and comfort.

Petut continues to tell others that he is not sad and not afraid as he knows when he passes from this life he will be in the presence of his “Egingo owe ta enakme.” (His Redeemer) This past week he has been in pain and the fluids in his abdomen continue to build which causes more discomfort but considering the situation he remains in pretty good spirits.

We continue to share with him that people from all over the world are praying for him and that many people are sad but also rejoicing that he knows “Yagwe.” (Dem for YHWH)

We will keep giving quick updates every couple weeks as we know many of you have shared that you are praying for him and the Dem church. Thank you!

*Oppurtunity to help-

The last several months we have had several medical emergencies and although we were able to recieve a little help from a local medical group for flight costs, these medical situations are paid for by our team and with so many medi-vacs, hospital bills, medicines purchased for the patients, etc… our team account is back in the red.

If anyone would like to help with these costs specifically or like more details about this please email us. Please do not send funds directly to us, but rather they need to go to our team account which I can give you the information for that if interested. Some of you are already contributing monthly to our team account and we thank you for that.

As a reminder… the team account funds go directly towards medical costs, literacy supplies, Dem church materials, airstrip maintenance, and anything else that comes up directly helping the Dem. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone,

We want to thank everyone for their prayers. So many of you have been praying for the Dem guy who received the news of late stage liver cancer just over a week ago and we want to give a quick update.

The hospital in town couldn’t offer anymore help and advised Petut to come back to Dem and spend his remaining time with family. Before leaving the hospital they were able to extract almost 20 liters of fluid from his abdomen which was a praise and definitely helped alleviate some discomfort he was having.

Petut flew back into Dem land on Friday and the Dem church has been amazing with trying to encourage and pray for Petut. This past Sunday after church one of the other men who have gone through the training alongside with Petut stood up and encouraged the church by wanting to have a tribal wide prayer gathering for Petut at his hut on sunday afternoon. He stood up and said, “Those of us who are Gods children need to gather and go to his house together, and pray for a miracle. The creator is good and knows if our brother Petut is going to live or die but we need to trust the Creator and prayer is so important and lets all go and pray for him together.”

Since Petut has been back, almost everyday countless Dem believers go and visit and pray for him and that he would be comforted by the Holy Spirit and if it is God’s will for Petut to be healed then He can easily do that, but if not, God is still good and His character is good.

It has been so encouraging to see the Dem church be so faithful in praying. On Sunday while Bri and I were sitting with Petut I asked how he has been sleeping and he said, “My pain isn’t bad. It hurts a little so I have to move around but I can’t sleep well because there is so many people in the hut throughout the night talking and praying that I cant fall in a deep sleep.”

The Dem are keeping him up cause they are praying too much!! lol

We praise the Lord that Petut pain isn’t too bad right now. Please continue to pray for his pain and strength through this process. We don’t know how much longer he has but the Lord does and we are trusting in Him.

Hello friends,

In the last update we mentioned how we started training 5 men and 2 ladies to be the first trained Dem Bible teachers/evangelists. One of the men’s name is Petut. We are asking for you to pray for a miracle for Petut. I will give you a lil background first…

Petut and his wife Tenonggolina have been faithful followers of Yagwe since they heard the gospel in their langauge for the first time back in 2021. In 2021 when we started the chronological Bible lessons they had a healthy young son around 11/12 years old who became sick and with what we believe was either Meningitis or Tb that went to his brain and resulted in their son ending up in a vegetative state. They were in town at the hospital for about a month and then returned to tribe for a time. Their son required around the clock care and so after a month or so in Dem-land they decided he needed to go back out to town to try and get help. While in town their son passed away.

When they returned to the tribe their very new faith was unwavering. They would say “The Creator is good always. Even though our son has died, the Creator is in control and is still good.” This was so incredible to witness first hand their faith in the Lord and it never stopped.

That was in 2021 and since then they have been so hungry for God’s word. They never miss an opportunity to hear God’s word and Petut leads a study/prayer meeting in his area every week. Petut has a hunger to tell his family and others the truth and share the goodness of the Lord. Hence why he was one we felt would be great for the first Bible teacher/evangelism class.

We finished the training a few weeks ago and Petut was excited to keep learning and get an opportunity to teach in larger gatherings. The last week we met (about a month ago) he mentioned he was having stomach pains, and was uncomfortable with some other symptoms. This is very normal as so many of the Dem people have bad worm issues but we had our Dem medical workers give him medicine we thought might help. Fast forward to last week it was obvious something else was going on, he was in a lot of pain and stopped eating and Bri and I felt like he needed to get medical help in town.

Petut flew out to town last friday and was rushed to hospital to get USG and other tests as there were some concerning symptoms. After tests and scans they discovered that Petut has late stage liver cancer and doesn’t have much time left. The Doctors here have said there is nothing they can do as his condition is just too bad and he needs to go back to his home and spend his remaining time with his family. This was so hard to hear and also to make sure he understood what the doctors were telling him as his first language is not Indonesian.

Ive been able to communicate to him through another Dem guy who lives in the town who has been going to hospital everyday, along with the Teall’s (our co-workers who used to live in Dem-land) and also another Dr friend who has been going and making sure he agrees with the local doctor’s assessment.

When I asked Petut what he wants me to tell his sisters and his mother who are here in Dem-land worried about him he said, “Tell them I’m very sick and there isn’t any medicine for my sickness and Im coming home. (which culturally means he is going to die) Tell them to not be sad because the Creator has planned this with my life, and my life is in His hands.”

We are trying to get him back into Dem-land ASAP, hopefully this Friday. Please pray for his family and for Petut. Bringing him back in here to spend his last days/weeks/months are not going to be easy. Please pray his pain would be minimum, please pray for the Lord to do a miracle as we know He can. But if He chooses to not save Petut’s life, that he would go quickly and as painless as possible.

We are heartbroken by this but so encouraged by his faith and we know that when he gets in here, he will continue to praise Gods name and trust His plan. We appreciate your prayers for Petut and his family. We don’t know if he has days or months left so please pray! Thank You!

Some super exciting news we didnt share in the video update is we started a teachers training course (so to speak) with 5 guys and 2 ladies. This is a hands on training for us to start working with and training them to be teachers and possible evangelist for outreaches. This is super exciting to see how the Lord is going use these people to be the first Dem teachers/evangelists so please pray. The names of these people are below in the picture. These are 7 people who we prayed about for a while and felt they showed the characteristics of a teacher/evangelists and have shown growth in their spiritual walk and a desire to tell others the gospel.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the lack of communication the past few months. We moved back into Dem-land in December and our internet was horrible. Emails didn’t load/send and it was barely working up until just this past month because we were able to get a new internet system. So in this update we will try to fill you in a little with what’s been going on in Dem so far in 2024 (And end of 2023) and add some pics and videos since everyone usually likes those. lol

As I mentioned, we moved back into Dem in December and celebrated Christmas with the Dem, along with another baptism of 25 Dem believers, (We had another baptism in February of another 25 people and have another 25 planned in a couple weeks. PTL!) also partaking in communion for the first time with the Dem Church. This is something that was very special as we have been carefully teaching on what communion is Biblically. The Dem have had a distorted (or as the Dem would say “crooked”) view of what it was, so we as a team took time to make sure they truly understood why believers partake in communion.

Our co-workers who are living in town right now were able to come in during school break and we celebrated Christmas in Dem-land together, but then they had to go back to town after and that left just us living in here full time for the remainder of the school year. Many of you have been praying for this transition as life in the tribe is very stressful at times, and very demanding also, so we appreciate all the prayers for our family during this time of a “new norm.”

The Lord definitely went before us and these last few months haven’t been as stressful as we anticipated. Don’t get us wrong, the people have had a lot of medical issues that we’ve had to arrange medivacs for and talking with doctors to get the needed medical assistance for the patients. We’ve seen some victories with some of these medical issues, however last week 3 babies passed away which was very sad. It was encouraging however to see the difference in the mourning/grieving rituals now, compared to in the past before we had believers.

Our kiddos are doing well being back in the tribe. The little 2 enjoy playing with friends just like before. Eden has been having a harder time as it’s more difficult for her to spend time with a couple of her old friends that are still here (because they are married and pregnant now) and she is missing all the social things in “town” to keep her busy. She’s been very helpful around the house, doing school and still able to spend some time with her old friends every now and then. The kids are excited for the school year to almost be over as Eden is finishing up 9th grade, Jericho 6th grade, and Noelle 2nd grade. None of them enjoy school even a little bit, so that makes homeschooling a challenge, but we are so grateful for the gift and opportunity it is to do school at home here. Just if you think of it, prayers appreciated for all with school!:)

Translation of scripture continues as Dylan and Jared have been translating full time still and in March they both were able to do some language checks with our translation consultant. Acts is officially finished and the first 8 chapters of Mark as well. This is such a blessing, and exciting to have more Scripture translated and now finished going through all the steps of making sure the scripture is clear & accurate. Please continue to pray for Dylan & Jared and they continue on with the translation. Jared is working on the rest of Mark and Dylan is working through Ephesians.

This past week I taught the final lesson of Acts and finished off Paul’s final missionary journey and death. The people were sad to hear about Paul’s death, but also amazed at all Paul did for the Lord even while in prison and suffering persecution. The thing lots of people love the most about Paul is once he was a murderer (which lots of our guys can relate to), but then Yagwe changed his life and he began to follow Jesus and it gives them hope that the Lord can save, forgive, and redeem anyone and draws them to Himself.

The next couple months we will be going back over some earlier lessons and hopefully in August start teaching through Ephesians, which we are very excited to start! This will be good for them to hear Biblically how a husband should treat his wife, kids, and different roles the Lord has given to us to live in unity. Please continue to pray as Dylan finishes up the key verses and key terms in Ephesians so we can begin teaching in August.

We know many of you have also been praying about the security issues for us being back in the tribe. We have to be really careful what gets shared on a public platform like this, but as many of you know the pilot that was taken last year still hasn’t been released and there are many rumors that spread throughout the mountains as far as when/if he will be released. We know these groups can show up any time really and a few weeks ago we heard rumors of some of the people in the “group” coming our way, but it never happened and we are just trusting the Lord and grateful for our Dem friends who are constantly listening to rumors, and wanting to protect us if anything should “pop off” as they say. lol But thank you for your faithful prayers.

There’s much more we could share but I’ll keep it short for now and just use this as a little “check-in”. Please know your prayers and support is never taken for granted or forgotten about. We thank you all so much for the faithful support over all these years & with this new norm of being in the tribe “alone” we know we are never “ALONE” as we serve a God who “…never leaves or forsakes us”.

*Below are some videos of the local market in town when we do supply shopping (not in Dem). When we go to town and buy our supplies, buying fresh produce looks a little bit different then at Walmart or local grocery store and thought some of you might wanna see for yourselves.

*One more side note- (Kind of a long note) for any of you who might have asked in the past about how you can help. The Lord has been so gracious in providing consistent support over the years here on the field for our family & our team. Now that our team is translating scripture more, and our literacy program is booming with so many students that want to attend (3 classes at a time have been going!), we (our team) have usually paid for all these materials ourselves, which includes getting portions of scripture printed, literacy curriculum printed, more recorders for people to be able to listen to the lessons at home, and many other things, our team account is in the red.

If anyone out there would like to contribute monthly or just a 1 time gift to our team account please let us know. These gifts would go straight to our team account and go directly towards printing of literacy materials (Curriculum, school supplies for the people) also portions of scripture that have been checked and get it into the peoples hands. Also airstrip tools, (lawnmowers, gas, etc) supplies for working on teaching building, equipment to install some lights in the teaching building for night meetings, and anything else that will directly be benefiting the Dem. If anyone would like more info on this please email us and we can tell you how to do so.