"Although it's been said many times, many ways..." Christmas is the same year after year, but it is never the same. It comes the same season, the same month, and the same day every year, but children grow older... we grow older. This year marks a significant change in the celebration of Christ's birth as Daniel and Stefanie are 10,000 miles away. We miss them and the rest of our extended families and it is that way with many of the missionary families around us. If we were to celebrate Christmas the same way we normally do the missing members would add a pall to the festivities, so this year we're doing something different...

Before the advent of the hub and spoke system in airline travel, a route like this would have been sheer lunacy. This may not be a bad business model for airlines, but it is terrible in Bible translation! Unfortunately, the "hub language" system persists in translation efforts around the world and the hub language in PNG is English. Most of the New Testaments in this country have been translated from English into the local language and many things that would translate directly are lost. And, what makes it worse is that national translators have learned English as a second, third, fourth, or even fifth language! It is clear that the further you get from the original language, the more molted the meaning....

While I was at CLTC there was a gang in a nearby village that seemed to take special pleasure in stealing from the campus. The gang was led by the notorious Michael. Through outreaches from the college Michael became a Christian and in short order started a Bible study (asking teachers from the college to do the lessons), was baptized, and began leading his gang in an about face. He is now in Bible school. Enter the notorious Terrence. He is Ukarumpa's counterpart in almost every way....

Sometimes God provides beyond what you could hope for. Over the last few weeks I have been working with CLTC to get some of our household goods moved here to Ukarumpa as CLTC frequently drives trucks right past here (well, six miles away). Because we didn't know how much to expect, I arranged three small vehicles to carry everything, if they were needed. The morning before we were to go to meet the CLTC truck at the breaking/broken bridge (If you want to see a picture of it, go to our page on Facebook: Mundhenk's Ministry) and carry everything across by hand, the administrative head of the institute here gave me a call. He said that instead of trying to work out the logistics and expense of using three vehicles, why not just use the training center truck; it can carry everything all by itself. That was blessing number one....

Information is key. These Ministry Updates are intended to give people who are interested in this work that God is doing in Papua New Guinea the broad strokes of what is going on. For those who want more information, our website has photos as well as information on us, the country, and what God has called us to do. For those who want even more news, we are now posting to our Facebook page (Mundhenk's Ministry) almost daily and it is now bursting with new photos ...