Introducing... (Part 2)

Meet Malai, Kati, and Brigita. These 3 adult siblings live just outside of the New Tribes base fence with their families. They are from the area, so they have been very involved with helping the missionaries here for years. Clint got to know them well when he was here in 2011. We have enjoyed some sweet times of fellowship with them, whether it’s been cooking a meal together or just telling stories. All three are believers with strong testimonies of trusting Christ alone for salvation.

Kati with some of her kids and Kyler

But even though they are saved, they are VERY immature in their faith, and they are literally begging us for more teaching and discipleship! They own a Bible in the trade language that they read, but they don’t understand a lot of it. They keep asking for missionaries to teach them. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough missionaries to send!

Please pray for these three families that we would be able to encourage them as they help us learn the trade language and that someone would be able to help disciple them further in their walk with Christ.

Introducing... (Part 1)

New type of blog post for a bit! Maybe it’s hard to visualize our language helpers… who they are, what they are like, how they are helping us. We want to introduce them to you, so you can know them and be praying for them!

So today, we’re introducing our friends Oscar and Grace. 

Oscar and Grace are a young couple from the Sepik (the northern province of Papua New Guinea). They have one 7-month-old daughter, Nevia. They are really good helpers and enjoy teaching us new information. We can ask them any questions, and they will gladly explain. They love having fun, telling a good joke or story, and taking us to do things with them.

Please be praying for us as we interact with them! As far as we can tell, they don’t truly understand the Gospel. They live in a lot of fear. Oscar has told us numerous stories of things they have to do or not do to please the spirits. He is very afraid of sorcery being worked against him by others to cause him to become sick and die. Grace attends the local church, but we aren’t sure if she’s saved or not. Just like America, many people that live in town here attend church because it is a “good thing” rather than to know God better.

You can be praying that their hearts would be softened towards the Gospel, and that we would be able to be a witness as we spend time with them.

Headed Out!

I always feel so strange on the last day before a move. So many last-minute details. So many memories that will be left behind. So many goodbyes and tears. So many "lasts". 

I can hardly believe it... we're leaving today. Our hearts are excited, our minds are prepared for travel, and our eyes are full of tears. It's a bittersweet day.

Later this evening, we'll be flying down to California, where we'll spend a few days with my (Ashlyn) grandparents. Can't wait for them to meet their great-grandson! Then we fly out to Papua New Guinea on Monday, July 27.

We would really appreciate prayer as we head out! Here are a few requests you can keep in mind.

• That we would have safe travels with few luggage hassles or delays. You never know how things will go when you travel internationally!
• That Kyler would travel well. On Monday, we have a 14 hour flight to Australia, so we're hoping for a happy boy rather than a fussy one. :)
• That we would find comfort and strength in God as we leave family and friends
• That we would be able to get settled in on the New Tribes base and get ready for our orientation which starts August 3.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We are excited to finally be going, but we will miss all of you! We'll definitely make sure to keep you updated on our journey!

An Awesome Present

Hands down, I'd have to say the best earthly present I've ever received is my family. But tonight's birthday present was a pretty awesome one too.

Yup, that's right! We've finally got our PNG visas!!!

We are so excited to see how God has brought each detail together on this journey so far. It's hard to believe we're actually about to go to PNG. It's been a dream for so long. But as I looked tonight at our visas attached to our passports, it really hit home. We're really going!!!

It's not going to be an easy road ahead. Language learning is going to be tough. Culture shock is always difficult. Our stress levels are going to increase.

Yet through it all, we're so excited to have this opportunity to take the Gospel where it hasn't gone. And we know God is faithful and is strong when we are weak. He has done such amazing things already!

Approved and Amazed!

Attention ladies and gents! We have a very important and exciting announcement to make!

We have reached our required financial support level (they say we're at about 79%), and we are officially approved by New Tribes Mission for going to Papua New Guinea in July!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are absolutely thrilled with this news (in case you can't tell)!!! :) One (giant) step closer to being able to take the Gospel to people who haven't been able to hear it!

So as soon as we receive our visas (our passports are on their way to the embassy as I write this), we will purchase our plane tickets, hopefully by the first week of July!

Thank you all SOOOOOOOO much for your prayers!!!! It's so surreal... we almost can't believe it's really happening... we're really going! Praise God!!!

A Lesson from a Birth Certificate

"I don't have a birth certificate on file for a Kyler Laine Teele. You're going to have to bring all the paperwork in to the office before I can order one for you."

Our hearts sank. Those were not the words we wanted to hear on our answering machine. What in the world was going on? Just the day before, we had made a special trip to Portland to drop off the required forms for Kyler's birth certificate. We were hoping to get it as quickly as possible since he still needs a passport and visa for going to Papua New Guinea.

We discussed our problem. Had we left out some paperwork? Did it somehow get lost between offices? Would we have to fill out all the paperwork again (groan)?

God left us in suspense over the weekend. I love how He does that sometimes... how He gives you time to come back to truth and remember that He is in complete control.

Today, we received an email from the same lady who called. She said she mailed the birth certificate for Kyler yesterday!

God sees. He cares.

Just over 2 months left before we leave for Papua New Guinea. I'm so grateful for yet another reminder that God is with us on this journey!

He's Here!

After 42 weeks of waiting and a long, hard labor, we finally got to meet our little son for the first time! Kyler Laine Teele was born on April 30 at 1:38pm. He was 10 lbs and 20 inches long...big boy! We are so grateful that he is healthy!

It's been so fun getting to know him over the past week and getting to see his personality appear. We love staring at his tiny, adorable face... holding his tiny little hands. He's an incredible, precious gift from God, and we are hopelessly in love with him already!

Don't worry, many more pictures to come! :-)

Departure Date!

I love having concrete dates for things. When I was younger, I remember my dad would always give me a new calendar for Christmas, and I would immediately start looking up the dates for holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving (the Fourth of July was a pretty easy one usually). For some reason, I always liked knowing what those dates were, even if it was months away from the holiday.

A tribal Church worshiping together

So you can imagine my excitement when we heard from the Papua New Guinea mission leadership this past week about arrival dates. I thought I'd share it with you so you can be excited with us! :) They said that we can arrive any time July 27-31, but July 29 was the best day to get there. So we will most likely be leaving from the States somewhere around July 25-27 (with all the travel and the time change, flights arrive 2 days after you leave). It's so exciting to have more of a concrete date for our departure! We can't wait to get back to PNG!

If you'd like, you can join us in praying that all our paperwork comes through on time and that God would continue to raise up our supporting team. We have to have at least 75% of our recommended funds before we can purchase our plane tickets. So glad for a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills!

He Has Done Great Things

God has been doing incredible things in Papua New Guinea recently. I thought I'd share a few, and hopefully they will encourage your heart as well! To read more about any of these, check out New Tribes Mission's Facebook page.

Hewa people:
4 tribal women were sentenced by their people to die after they were supposedly convicted of witchcraft. Yes, sadly, this kind of stuff still happens in many places around the world that are without the hope of Christ. But God miraculously intervened, and their lives have been spared!

Missionary with some of the Hewa people

Pal people:
Missionaries have been working amongst the Pal people group for several years already, but just now, they are starting to see some incredible growth among the tribal believers. The church is meeting 2 times a week to study God's Word, and they are hungry for it! The missionaries are excited to be able to train some of the Pal believers so that they can take the Gospel and share it with other villages in the Pal tribe.

Our brothers and sisters in the Pal tribe

Wantakia people:
These people don't have the Gospel yet, and they are still living in fear and darkness. But a new missionary team (3 couples that we went through missionary training with) is just beginning the process of moving into this tribe. They are currently building their houses, and as soon as that is done, they will begin learning the Wantakia language and culture so that they can share God's Word with the people. So exciting!

House building begins in Wantakia

Man, we are SO excited to get to be a part of the work God is doing in Papua New Guinea! This is just a small taste of what's been going on over there, and there are dozens more stories that I could share from all across PNG!

And yet my heart breaks for the hundreds of tribes that are still living in darkness with no hope. Many are begging for missionaries to come. One man recently told a missionary "If you don't come live with us...then...then I'm going to cut off my finger." And he was serious.

"He told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" - Luke 10:2

He Has Done Great Things

God is able

He will never fail

He is almighty God

Greater than all we seek

Greater than all we ask

He has done great things

I absolutely love the lyrics to that song, "God is Able". If you haven't heard it, you should go listen to it. It's so rich. So powerful. God will NEVER fail! 

And He has done great things. Awesome things. Just in this last month. If I went back further than that, I could write volumes about the great things He has done in my life.

He has brought us 3,000 miles across the country in a little car that is still running.

He has provided us a place to live for the next 6 months. A place that is almost fully furnished with everything we could need.

He gave us the words to share during the week of Family Camp. When we didn't have strength or inspiration, He gave it.

He has continued to raise up a support team for us. We're at 32% of our recommended level.

He has completely healed my nephew, Jaeger. Such a beautiful baby!

He has provided for all of our daily needs.

He has done great, mighty, awesome things. What an incredible God we serve!

There are still things that He hasn't done. One of the biggest things on my heart right now... He hasn't yet healed a loved one who just discovered a possibly malignant tumor. But I have seen His goodness, and I know that He indeed is able. 

He has done great things. He will do great things. He always does. 

Thank you SO much for praying! Both Clint and baby Jaeger are doing fine, praise the Lord! Clint was able to get a root canal yesterday and, after 3 hours, the offending tooth was taken care of and he was feeling tons better (he was also smiling crooked because his mouth was numb... I wanted to take pics but I felt to sorry for him). :-) And baby Jaeger is far more stable now! He's still in the hospital, and we're still waiting to hear official news on how he's doing, but as far as I know now, he is doing much, much better! What a HUGE miracle from God!

Thank you so much to all of you who prayed!

I wanted to attach a few more pictures of the baby... I hope you don't mind, I just love baby pictures!

When You Don't Know What to Say

I don't know what to say. My heart hurts, a deep, searing pain for a little tiny person I've never even met. My new nephew, Jaeger, was born just 3 days ago on my birthday, so I already felt a special connection with him in my heart. I was so thrilled to have a nephew that shares my birthday! And now, this precious little boy is in the hospital with doctors fighting for his life. They don't know what's wrong, just that he's a very sick baby. Please pray. Please, please pray!

And then yesterday, my incredible husband who is always so strong and capable was laid almost flat on his back for most of the morning with stabbing pain in his mouth. Come to find out, he has an abscessed tooth, and has to have a root canal done, hopefully tomorrow. Please pray for him too!

I don't know what to say. I don't know how to comfort my sister-in-law and her husband who have already had so much loss in their lives with other children. I don't know how to comfort my husband who drifts in and out of throbbing pain in his head.

When I don't know what to say, God does. He says He's in control. He's all-powerful. He has a reason. He knows the pain I feel, that my sister-in-law feels, that my husband feels. He is there. He cares. He's my loving Daddy.

I'm so grateful for that, and I choose to trust Him, even though I have no words of my own.