Project Mibu Team Update
We hope to send you news every couple of days or so about the progress of the Project Mibu Team as we work on the Langueage Learning Center in Papua New Guinea. We can send pictures, but because we are very limited in email size while we are in the tribe, they will mostly be small.
Updates will be posted here in their original format with the most recent update at the top. Click on any picture for a higher resolution version.
Mibu Project 2003 update for Saturday, July 12, 2003.
Oh, how blessed we are. What a great experience this has been for all of us on this Mibu team. God has blessed every moment of this trip for each of us and allowed us to experience something that few people ever dream of. As you can see in the attached photo we have built relationships with each other and with individual Mibu people, and have been blessed by these people in return.
We have finished the project we were sent here to do and completed everything on our list, and some. The project seems to have been a success from a building standpoint but more importantly God has just begun building something in each of us. He has ignited a spark of interest in us for these people we never knew existed a few weeks ago. We expect he has used us to ignite something in them as well. Even though our physical work in Mibu is now complete, our real commitment is just beginning. We must continue to pray for the individuals, the families, and the leaders of this small community of lost people, as well as the Tartaglia’s, the Walker’s, and the Husa’s. After meeting the Mibu people face to face we can see that God is using these families to reach them. We know without a doubt that they will be reached.
The sad farewells came and it was time to say good-bye to our new friends. This time was very difficult and as you can imagine, many tears were shed, even by us men… It is tough to know exactly what was going on inside the minds of our Mibu friends but we are certain that they feel sorrow the same as we do. We can only thank God that the sorrow is but a moment in a lifetime of rejoicing over the friendships that He has created and the lives He will change eternally.
We are now in Madang with Joey, Brooke, Shiloh, Marietta and Solomon, resting up before our long journey home. We have truly enjoyed our time with them and will miss each of them infinitely. To describe the work that this family is doing in Mibu with the Walker’s is impossible to put into words. We can simply say that God is absolutely being served through them and the work that He is accomplishing here is boundless.
Tomorrow will be a long day of travel to Sydney, Australia, and after a day of sightseeing we will complete the final leg of our trip with a 15 hour flight home. What an adventure this has been for us. You can rest assured that we have plenty of stories and photos to share with you all when we return home. We hope to hold a reception in the near future where we can share our experiences with you. We will notify you soon of a date and time. This will be our final email update so we want to thank each of you for your commitment to praying for us, and your interest in this project. However, please don’t stop praying for the Mibu people.
The Project Mibu Team
Mibu Project 2003 update for Wednesday, July 9, 2003.
"Hep kamung" (Good evening) from Tibu (The missionary site near Mibu).
Today is day nine here in Mibu. This is our last day of work before heading out to Madang tomorrow. We arrived last Tuesday and have had a great time building the Language Learning Center and getting acquainted with the Mibu people.
We have seen God work in amazing ways during our stay. We have accomplished far more than we ever thought possible…. plumbing (complete bathroom) and most of the electrical. We hope to finish the doors and windows today and have started some of the siding. In all of this hard and sometimes dangerous work and doing multiple things simultaneously, we have not suffered any injuries beyond a few splinters. We have developed some good relationships with Joey, Brooke and the kids as well as many of the Mibu people. In all of this work, there have been no quarrels, no major setbacks from the weather. Your prayers have been instrumental in all of this. Satan has been held at bay the entire trip.
Tonight, we are told, the people from Beng (a hamlet of Mibu) will have a "sing-sing" for us (probably starting between midnight and 3:00 AM and lasting until dawn). This will be held in honor of Cheri and Mike (Cheri played on their basketball team and helped them almost beat the dominant team of Mibu). Hopefully we will get some great pics of the event.
Please continue praying for God's protection as we travel by helicopter and plane to Madang. Please continue praying for the ministry here. The work yet to be accomplished includes language and culture learning, development of alphabet and written language and then translation of Bible lessons and ultimately the Bible. The Mibu people desperately need to hear the truth to gain freedom from their chains of darkness.
The Project Mibu Team
Mibu Project 2003 update for Monday, July 7, 2003.
Bapang! (Sounds like Bapong) …. or Good afternoon in "Ma". Yesterday was our Sunday which began with a great breakfast, then a wonderful church service with singing and Danny giving the message. Then, we went on a long hike down (600 feet in elevation) to the village of Mibu where we were overwhelmed by the beauty of Mibu which is beautifully decorated with yellow/green Kovutt plants and many flowering shrubs and trees. The friendliness and curiosity of the Mibu people captured our attention for the entire stay. They love to have their picture taken and interacted with us as if they have known us for years. A thing that seems to get them to really open up is when they observe us laughing at ourselves. They watch for our reaction to things (I guess to see if we are human). When Tingneyu (usually very shy) arrived in traditional garb, all of the people rushed to see and laugh at his out-of-character behavior. I think he risked being humiliated to honor our presence with his display of colorful (and scanty) attire.
The Mibu kids play a form of soccer and dodgeball and the women play basketball. Cheri and Brooke played on opposing teams which provided great interactive competition. They are serious about their basketball. They have male officials (with whistles) and a court in the dirt (no shoes allowed) with boundaries only the official can discern. When a key shot was scored we cheared to the surprise of the Mibu spectators. Brookes team, Mibu, won by a narrow margin after a catchup rush by Cheri's team, Beng (the other Ma speaking tribe).
God has truly blessed us in this entire trip. The hard work as well as the devotions and seclusion from civilization have been soul cleansing to say the least. God is doing a great work here. Joey, Brooke, Chris and Angie have a love for these people that you only hear of, but rarely get to see first hand. We are even more committed to this work, not only in prayer, but also in action in whatever way we can in the years to come. Please pray for the Mibu people. Add them to you daily prayer list. We look forward to the day when the first Mibu people receive Christ as their Savior.
The Project Mibu Team.
Mibu Project 2003 update for Sunday, July 6, 2003.
Hep Jim to everyone! (Good morning)
This will be a quick update to all of you on our visit here in Mibu. We are doing very well and learning many things. Joey and Brooke are fantastic hosts and treating us like royalty with great food and conversation. We all continue to be amazed at the work that God is doing through Brooke, Joey, Angie and Chris. The work that they have committed to is very involved and difficult but their desire and interest in doing God's work make it fun and enjoyable for them. They really make it look easy. We all should have such a spirit.
The building project is going very well and we are making incredible progress. In only 4 days of work on the building we have built the floor structure, all of the exterior and interior walls, the roof rafters, and installed the wiring. As you can see in the attached photo the building is really taking shape. You can also see what a picturesque area this is and the beautiful working environment we are in.
This morning we will be enjoying the teaching of Danny in a church service over at Chris and Angie's rejoicing in God's grace. After lunch we will be hiking about 600 feet in elevation down to the village of Mibu to visit the tribal community and to learn lots of new things. We are all looking forward to a relaxing day of fellowship and building relationships. God is so good!
Please keep praying for us and for God's work to be done here.
The Project Mibu Team
Mibu Project 2003 update for Friday, July 4, 2003.
Wow, where do we begin with today’s update? Should it be celebrating Shiloh’s birthday or the beautiful weather we’ve been having? Should it be the progress we made on the LLC or the great food we’ve enjoyed at Brooke and Cheri’s expense? Maybe it should be the great teaching from Danny, Joey, Brooke, Chris and Angie. Well today we’d like to tell you about how we see God at work here in this tiny remote corner of His world.
We began the day shortly before dawn at the sound of crowing roosters. (They start here at 3:00 am). As the guys went to the LLC to get set up for the day Brooke and Cheri prepared a great breakfast. They’ve been working hard at keeping our “energy” up… Over at the LLC 5 of the local men, David, Wari, Nuka, Guni, and Sivie, were already waiting for us. I don’t know how they know when we will start but they are ready none the less. They have been incredibly helpful in the building. In fact we estimate they are doing at least half of the work on this building. Through them we see God working at building their relationships with each other and easing any tensions that may exist within their own tribe. But, who is being blessed here? Each of us on this team has seen how relationships can be built across this huge cultural expanse with the smallest of effort. This can only be the work of God. Even though we cannot speak to them in intelligible words we can communicate with showing interest and a desire to communicate. They appear to yearn for relationships and to communicate with us as well.
But, how do we see God at work? We see that these people desire these relationships out of a desire for getting physical things from them but God is doing so much more. He is using the Tartaglias and the Walkers and even us to show them His love. He using the relationships that they see between us to show them something they can’t even define yet. They are drawn to us by something they don’t even know exists. This extends even farther than they will ever understand. It extends to all of you who God is working through to send us here and who are praying for both us and Mibu people. It is so “dagai” (awesome) to see God at work here. It helps us realize how God values every individual in the world and desires that they have the opportunity to hear about Him and the possibility of a relationship with Him. He values them so much and has used an endless amount of His resources to reach this small tribe of 300 people. How important are we to God? He has numbered every hair on our head, and even the hair of each of the Mibu people.
The Project Mibu Team
From left to right: (back) Russ, Danny, Joey, Jim, Mutrie, (sitting) Nuka, David, Sivie, Mike.
Mibu Project 2003 update for Thursday, July 3, 2003.
Hepjim! That’s Ma (the Mibu language) for ‘Good Morning’. Wow! A lot has happened. Where do I start? The two-engine plane trip from Madang to Saidor, our first interface with the local people, the helicopter trip to the mission site, the warm greeting from all of the Mibu people, the amazing progress we have made, the “Sing-Sing” in our honor (at 4:00 AM), the wonderful food, the relationships we are developing with each other and the Tartaglias and the Walkers and the Mibu people, are all overwhelming! God has been involved in every aspect of this trip down to the finest details of getting us here and the relationships we are developing. We had the awesome experience yesterday of being invited into Joey’s tribal father’s house.
The Mibu people are soooo gracious and kind. They are friendly. They greet you whenever you pass them. They are very eager to help. When we arrived, they took all our luggage to the Tartaglia’s house for us. Throughout all of the construction they have been extremely helpful. Their ability to sense what you need or what you are going to do next is something unbelievable. We exposed them to some new tools and methods and they only need to be shown once. After that, they understand fully the concept and inter-train each other as we go. Without their help, we could not have made nearly the progress made so far.
Project Mibu Team 2003.
Mibu Project 2003 update for Monday, June 30, 2003.
Hi from beautiful Papua New Guinea . praise God we made it! We had a wonderful, uneventful trip and, believe it or not, we are not having jet lag. God has been good to us. All of the transfers between planes went smoothly. From the beginning it seemed like God was paving the way for a great trip. He ushered us ahead of a long line at Sky Harbor, He gathered us into one section on the 747 to Sidney, and, the most amazing event was when we sailed through immigration and customs in Papua New Guinea without paying any duty on all of the items we brought to leave.
We are overwhelmed by all of the sights, sounds, and smells of what we have seen here in Madang. The variety of buildings range from small huts inter-mingled with larger/newer structures. The fragrance of wood-burning fills the air and they drive on the wrong side of the road.
The trip from the airport to the Madang resort was truly eye-opening. It seemed as if all of the locals were out and about. We saw several large groups playing soccer and many people socializing. Many waved as we drove by and appeared to be very friendly.
We are experiencing things uniquely different. The smell of wood-fire is prominent in the air everywhere. The vegetation closely resembles a rain-forest in variety and size and the animals here are vastly different from what we are used to. The first to greet us was a huge Horn-bill bird who hangs around the guests at the Madang Resort. Once we made our way to the resort hotel pool to get some much-needed relief from the humidity we were surprised by the size and number of fruit bats hanging in all of the trees. We fully realized their presence when they began flying about in search of their evening meal. Hundreds of three-foot wing-spanned bats clouded the sky. This place is truly God's doing.
We are blessed to be here. We know that it will be tougher up in Mibu. We have a lot of work to accomplish. This trip has been a restful precursor to what lies ahead. Pray for us as we travel to Mibu today and for the work in the days to come.
The Project Mibu Team
