In years past, we’ve looked forward to these days with much
anticipation and excitement… kind of like when you’re single and wanting to be
married. And it is really exciting. I
think we’re in the honeymoon phase still… everything seems rosy and bright and
we all get along great. But, just like a newly married couple, there are lots
of things we have to talk through so we can be on the same page.
There are so many factors that go into planting a church in
a tribe, and, while we can’t anticipate everything, it’s really nice to hash
out some of the details beforehand so we can be unified as we begin this
ministry.
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| Meeting with a veteran missionary couple who helped us through our orientation and are consultants for teams as they go through the church planting process |
Our goal is for a mature church that is growing, is functioning on its own with strong leadership, and is reaching out to others around them. We want to work ourselves out of a job, but not so quickly that the people are left floundering with no clear direction for the church’s future.
So that means we’re prayerfully discussing all kinds of aspects of how we will go about this ministry in Wabuku. Some of the topics include things like:
- How often will we have supplies flown in from the New Tribes base?
- Will we teach in the trade language or wait until we are fluent in the tribal language first?
- What things will we bring in to the tribe when we move in?
- How will we handle all the “askims” (people asking us to give them things… a very acceptable part of PNG culture)?
Believe it or not, how we answer each of these seemingly small questions
will have a huge effect on our ministry and, consequently, on the Wabuku
church.
