Different Skin...Same Family

Today a group of us had the privelege of driving an hour away to join in on church with the Fellowship of National Bible Churches (FNBC).  Years ago a tribal church was begun by missionaries amongst the Yagaria here in the Highlands.  Over the years that church has grown and expanded into a thriving body of believers who have begun their own church plants in neighboring areas.  The last Sunday of every month believers from several different denominations within FNBC get together so we decided to take the small group of believers from our local Bena area to the service to hopefully encourage them.   Often at meetings like these the speaker will say, "Our skin is black and your skin is white, but in God's eyes we're all one family." :)

The national believers unload after arriving at the FNBC base.

This base used to be an old New Tribes Mission training center.  I remember re-painting that building on the left when I was in High School!

Me and my buddy Kelsey.

This little guy wasn't born too long ago (to a couple from our area) and this was my first glimpse of him.  In Papua New Guinea it's customary for several people to give different names to newborns.  Often the parents will ask a missionary who they're particularly close to to name the baby for them, so one of my co-workers named this boy Daniel (fitting, as his brother's names are Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego).  His family then gave him the name Paulina (yes, that's right), and another lady in the village named him Spencer. 

Not sure how hundreds of people keep their flipflops straight, but we all seemed to go home with our own.

There's little Daniel again with his mom, Anita...he had a few cameras on him 'cause he was just so cute!!  (I just noticed the guy's shirt in front of him "4 da las time...no pain, no gain")

After the service we all talked outside for a bit. 

Me and my close friend, Janet.  My heart is heavy for Janet when I so often see her making choices that don't honor the Lord and are harmful for her and relationships around her.  Then I remind myself that the believers in our Bena area only have portions of the Bible so far in their own language, have had very little teaching recently (the missionaries in their village left on home assignment and the believers have had a hard time continuing on with the teaching) and are much like new believers.  Please pray that I would know how to encourage Janet and others like her.

Judy is a friend of mine from the FNBC center that I like to touch base with whenever I'm in the area.  That's her son with her...in the pink dress. :)

Here's Janet with her son (Barney) and husband (Heti) along with Anita's baby.  Heti is one of the main teachers in the Bena church and could use a lot of pray for this responsibility that's on his shoulders.  Often tribal churches will thrive until the missionaries leave on home assignment and the believers realize how much they were depending on the missionaries instead of the Lord.  It's a tough transition for them and they are often easily pulled back into their old ways.  As easy as it is to depend on man, we know that we have the Holy Spirit who is our Guide, our Counsellor and our Encourager...we would love for the Bena believers to truly grasp this!  Janet talked to me after the service today and said "Today I really understood what was said...I've been looking into my life and wondering about some of these things and today I finally got it good."  Praise the Lord for the understanding that He's given.   We long to see the believers here grow and understand more about the amazing life that they have in Christ, and we're encoruaged by each little step they take.