To The Ends of the Earth

The afternoon of December 24th found my family and I hurtling toward a grass airstrip at 100 mph in a single-engine airplane. Behind us, thunderclouds stood as foreboding sentries to the entrance of the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Before us, we faced a long and treacherously muddy hike, leading to a primitive village resting seemingly at the end of the world. I looked down at the rolling mountains, the thick tangle of jungles and rivers, and the many rugged trails that wound through it all. For just a moment my breath caught at the audacity of bringing my wife and kids to a place this remote, as quick as that thought came, I was reminded that wherever we go we carry with us the promise of our Lord and Savior; “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
This is an update on our trip to the end of the world…
Because of their remote location, any communication with the church in PNG has been difficult. Imagine my surprise when, about six months ago, a young man contacted me through Facebook and invited me to come to their village as their guest speaker for a Christmas youth rally. At first, I told him I did not think it was feasible, but I promised to pray about it. Over the next few months, we really felt like God was leading us to reconnect with the church in that region and see how we could partner with them in ministry.
The intent of this trip was twofold: be an encouragement to the church in the Simbai region, and assess how we could be effective in Papua New Guinea moving forward.

The Trip

First of all, I want you to know that mission work is not glamorous.
When we read the epistles, it seems as though the apostles lead lives full of adventure, miracles, and shipwrecks. While those things are often present, they don’t stand alone. Often your days are filled with menial work like washing dirty laundry in a creek, struggling to communicate through an immense language barrier, and lots and lots of walking.
Paul tells us that when he came into Corinth it was “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”
When the plane’s engine was finally quietened, we opened the door to find a large group of people who had hiked from hours away to greet us and sing a song of welcome in Christ.
After a sweet reunion with them, we divvied up the bags and took off on a six-hour hike.
There is a reason PNG is not a tourist destination. The Highlands have no roads, and even the trails are slick and riddled with holes and roots. Walking is the only way to get around…and walk we did! About fifteen minutes after we left the airstrip, we came to a small river. Because we were up high in the mountains at this point, it was more of a creek than a river…but we still had to wade through it. My wife and I walked right through, soaking our shoes and socks and making for an uncomfortable hike. (Our kids were barefoot, of course) After the river, the trail became quite steep, and for the next two hours, we were wet, breathless, and very muddy. About every forty-five minutes, the men we were hiking with would stop, and we would gather into a circle. One of the men would say, “OK, yumi pray.” Without waiting for acknowledgement, he would begin to pray at the top of his lungs and acknowledged the goodness and provision of God on the trail so far. After a time of thanksgiving, he would ask for safety and mercy for the next section of trail, often he would take the time to declare the beautiful creation of God that was around us, ask for good weather, and strength in our legs. These weren’t long prayers done for show; it was a group of kids asking dad for help on the hard hike. I loved it! More still, I was affected by it!
After we crested the peak and began the hike down, it became apparent that we would not make it to the village before dark. We paused only to break out the flashlights, then continued walking down the muddy trail until well after the sun had set. When we finally arrived at the village, we found hundreds of eager faces waiting for us in the church. After almost 10 years of absence, I finally got to see my dear friends, Pastor Allen and his wife, Priscilla. The church consisted of thatched walls and a dirt floor with cut grass laid on it so that everyone could sit down tight together. The stage was a built-up dirt platform with carved bush material for a pulpit. We had definitely arrived at the end of the earth…and there was no electricity there. But praise God! Our first meeting in the church had folks holding flashlights to push back the darkness, while we made speeches and greeted each other in the love of the Lord. We were exhausted, sore, hungry, and out of our comfort zone by about 8,000 miles. But the love of Christ was a palpable thing. We enjoyed a hot meal with my old friends and then tucked in, damp and muddy, for our first night in the Mumbai village.
The next morning was Christmas morning. They have no traditions of trees and presents. There are no myths about Santa Claus or reindeer. Christmas in Mumbai usually passes with barely any notice. But this Christmas would be different. The youth rally had between 350 and 450 people, all of them gathered around listening to the messages from the Word of God. News had spread that Americans were coming, and the size of the crowd had doubled from what they expected…if for no other reason than to gawk at the strange looking white people. That morning, I got out the sin robe illustration that I have used to share the gospel all over the world. It’s a very simple illustration that anyone can use to explain the gospel clearly–even across language barriers. I started with an off-white robe over my shoulders explaining that when I was born, I hadn’t yet sinned and my soul was clean. I told them that when I grew older, I told my first lie. I took a little black flag with the word “liar” written boldly across it and fastened the flag to my robe. I talked about hate, stealing, lust, and swearing. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” I said. I then took little golden flags and added things like church, giving, prayer, and preaching, and told them that all my righteousness was also filthy rags.
I then took a red robe, covered my sin robe, and explained that the blood of Christ cleanses me from all unrighteousness. I explained that the wages of sin is death, and that Christ died in my place and through faith in his sacrifice, all sin has been paid for. I laid both robes down behind the pulpit and explained that Christ tasted death for every man, but death could not hold him. I went behind the pulpit and pulled out a shiny white robe, which I hung over my shoulders and explained that Christ’s righteousness is now the righteousness of the saints, imputed by faith in his death, burial, and resurrection. With the help of a translator, I was able to spend Christmas morning sharing the message of hope and salvation with hundreds of people.
Eight souls gave their lives to Christ that morning.
Over the next week, I preached twice a day with the help of a translator. We ate together, prayed together, played together and rejoiced in our common salvation.
By the end of the youth rally, fifty-one souls had committed their lives to Jesus Christ!
Many were baptized, and all strengthened and encouraged in the light of Christ.
After the youth rally, we had a pastor’s conference so that I could answer biblical questions. It was a sweet time of prayer and vision casting for future ministry opportunities.
Last year, I wrote in this magazine about my hope to be part of starting a school in that region. However, after our survey trip I have concluded that we simply do not have the resources to make that viable.

Before the end of the conference, I asked them what we could do for them. I explained to them that the church in America has grave weaknesses, but also many great strengths. We have a rich history of doctrine and education that could be a profound blessing to the church there. The church in PNG is in the full bloom of their first love for Christ and could be a great blessing affecting our walk with the Lord. I asked them how they believe we could work together in a way that we would strengthen our respective ministries in the work of the gospel. After much discussion, we determined that if God is willing, the next work we would engage in together would be an outreach in the coastal town of Madang. They do not have an official church plant there, but they do have a small group of believers that meet together and would like to start a church. That small group of believers has secured a piece of property in town that they would like to use for outreach and, eventually, build their church on it.
This next part is where I would like you guys to get involved:
I have long wanted to be able to take young people who possess a seriousness about righteousness to the mission field where they can participate in the furtherance of the Great Commission and see their tools be used for the glory of God. My time in Papua New Guinea, both as a young teenager and as a father of teenagers, has had profound effect on the trajectory of my life and ministry. I would like to share that.
As wonderful as the PNG church is, it is impossible for us to overstate how encouraging it is for them to know that they are not alone. All around them, are cults and denominations with money and connections trying to woo them and peel off any stragglers. As they labor for the gospel, they face many wolves both within and without. They live in isolation from other Christian churches, most of them without any access to the outside world. We could be a great blessing to them just by standing in solidarity and letting them know that they aren’t fighting alone, and that other Christians are praying for them.
So, following our fact-finding trip, and after much prayer, here is how I believe God is leading us to apply our resources in Papua New Guinea:

Looking Forward

I would like to buy a large circus tent that will seat around 400 people and ship it to Madang, where we will put it up for our first church meeting. I would like to purchase sound equipment, lighting, and printed materials in preparation for that outreach. Once all of these pieces are in place, I want to put together a team of young people and families that would go to the field with me and serve in this outreach. We would split the team up, with half of them venturing into the mountains for a weeklong circuit of the churches in the Simbai region. This team will preach to and encourage the body of Christ in that area. The other half of the team would stay in town, where we would set up the tent, assemble the stage, and preach in the marketplace. In the towns of PNG, most people don’t have jobs or anything to occupy their time. There are constantly crowds of bored men and women loitering in the streets, waiting for something to grab their attention. If we went into the towns to street-preach and invite people to church, we would have an overwhelmingly positive response. The town team would spend time inviting these crowds to attend our meetings the following week. At the end of the second week, we would have a baptism and see the planting of the local church. All of the equipment would be packed up and stored so that this could be repeated annually or biannually in other areas around PNG.
I would like to take people with me that would be effective for Christ, but also ready to be affected for Christ. The last thing I want is to guide unruly teens on a fun adventure. Everyone who goes would need to have a rich prayer life, seriousness about the Great Commission, and an expectation of a lifetime spent in pursuit of God.
We would need to raise around $65,000 to purchase equipment, literature, do our shipping, rent a house, rent a van, and cover the locals travel expenses. Aside from that, anyone who is interested in going on this next trip would need to raise their own money for expenses incurred, just like my kids did on the last trip.
If you would like to be a part of this ministry financially, we are going to have a fund set aside, and when we reach the financial goals, we will begin planning the dates. I won’t begin putting a team together until we are able to plan the date for the trip. Once I do start putting a team together, I am going to have to vet any candidates pretty hard. Everyone who goes must be willing to be pulled totally out of their comfort zone, hike for hours, get dirty, sleep on hard ground, share their testimony, teach Bible stories…and do it all with a smile on their face and a song in their heart.

The Summation

In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that we had two main goals. We entered PNG expecting to teach, spend time answering questions, and imparting knowledge to the local church. And while we did do that, we also found that God had doubled our expectations. Rather than just be an encouragement to the church in Simbai, we found that they encouraged us to live loudly for the Lord. Rather than just doing an assessment on how we could be effective moving forward, we found ourselves greatly affected by the care and love that these PNG saints have for the work of the cross. In some ways, it seems that we flew around the world, not to encourage our brothers and sisters in those primitive huts, but so they could encourage us. During our trip, this small group of Christians had humbled me in ways that I cannot adequately describe. They reminded me that the only thing special about me is Jesus. Where I was born, how I was raised, the skills and abilities that I’ve worked so hard to collect…they are all so temporary when viewed through the lens of eternity. It is the faith of Jesus Christ that gives my life meaning and value: his faith in me, and my faith in him. The villagers reminded me of this—not by telling me the doctrines, but by showing me what it looks like to depend on God for everything. They know what it means to be desperate for his intervention in every aspect of their lives, and it has brought them closer to Jesus than any church I’ve seen in America. As the days passed, I saw myself revealed in a mirror that this passage persistently brought to mind: Revelation 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

The believers in PNG don’t have nice clothes or shoes. They eat barely enough to survive, and live in grass huts on the ground. But, friends, the church in Papua New Guinea is one of the richest churches I have ever seen. They love God with everything; they labor like Jesus is coming back at any moment, and they pray unceasingly. They are far from perfect, I know this. But I also know that if the Church in America possessed half as much zeal as the Church in PNG, our communities would be a very different place indeed.

The world is a very big place, and there is a lot of work to do. It is our intention at No Greater Joy to move where God is moving. I can tell you with certainty that He is moving among the people in Papua New Guinea, and we want to move with Him. I ask that you, my fellow-laborers in Christ, continue to pray for us to have wisdom and direction, and that we would follow God as he leads us.