Church Progress

This week has been a bit challenging, but we have great news to share!  We have been assisting a Papua New Guinean Pastor with a new church plant.  The area is in the center of a very 'religious' place, but it is a religion based off fear.  The fear literally controls the people because if they do not follow everything they are told, curses will be brought upon them and their families.  It is truly sad because this all takes place in a church that claims to be Christian yet uses satanic powers as means for control.  When the pastor first started preaching in this area about Jesus Christ people began to throw stones at him and threatened his life.  This pastor was not willing to abandon what God had called him to do.  He continued to come every Sunday and has preached for the last 9 Years to the one or two that would come.  A few years ago there was an arrangement made to purchase some land to put a church building.  The building is very significant because that means you’re here to stay (in the culture).  We were asked a few months ago to help this Pastor and this church get off the ground.  We decided to give it our best and trust that God would come through in the many areas we lack.  It has been a very trying cultural experience so far.  However after several months of debate, deliberations, unearthing underlining motivation, working through family issues, and seeking to do things the correct way, we officially signed the paperwork for the church to own the property!!  God truly gets the Glory as He worked in ways we could not have physically done.  Here all decisions are made by the group and never individually......which is such a foreign concept to those of us from North America.  With so many admittedly against the preaching of our churches (preaching of Jesus Christ and The Bible) it seemed like an impossible task, but we serve the God of the impossible!

While we have taken a big step forward this week, we still face seemingly impossible tasks before us.  The land purchased is not in any condition to build a church structure as it is covered with huge tree stumps and very little level ground.  This does not make sense to most, because "why spend lots of money to buy “junk” land in a drug ridden area?"  It makes perfect sense to us as we are looking through the lenses of Christ.  We are not here to be comfortable, but to share the life changing truth of Jesus Christ.  It does certainly look daunting to us at times, however it is not an impossible task to the God who created this earth and decided to build this church here!  If you would like to partner with us in building this church it would be greatly appreciated as we are investing as much as we can into seeing a bright light, Jesus, come up in this dark place.  Here are the Big expenses we have coming up....

The Land needs to be surveyed in order for the government to recognize the transaction.  This processes will hopefully be started this week but will cost $1500.

Next we need to have the ground leveled and the tree stumps dug out.  This will involve renting a large excavator which will cost approximately about $3500.

Then we would like to begin construction of the church!  This will cost around $6000 to get a basic structure up and hopefully get us out of sitting in mud every Sunday.

While these things seem a bit impossible to us we know God owns everything and if he lays it upon your heart to couple with this work you can at this link Donate Here.

Where Phyllis has Sunday school

Where we hold the main service.

The back part of the property.