When we arrived in Ok Ao to live among the Ningerum people it was little more than an airstrip in the middle of the jungle.  We were willing to just about anything God pointed out us but we were a bit confused when He made it clear that our first task we to build a home. Although He helped us build a great dwelling, we soon saw that the real purpose of the project was to build relationships. It was during that time that we began to learn both the language and culture as well as form lasting relationships. Only afterwards did we learn that relationships are the fabric of the Melanesian society and that they were necessary for the ministry to succeed.

After working with the people it became clear that their greatest need was teaching. So, immediately after completion of the house, another missionary and I taught a one-week course on salvation. Not only did I find out that I absolutely love to teach, the people also recognized that their greatest need was for teaching. When we returned from our first home assignment they asked us to open a Bible School and I was only to happy to oblige! The rest of our time there was spent teaching the people that they must follow God exclusively.

When we returned to Papua New Guinea God moved us to Christian Leaders' Training College, perhaps the foremost institution of Evangelical learning in the country. it has a long tradition of quality training and consistently turns out good church leaders and teachers. The teaching provided is increasingly important as false teaching spreads across the country. The people of Papua New Guinea recognize thier need for quality Bible trainingbut it can be hard to obtain. Because of housing limitation, CLTC must trun away between three and four applicants for every one they accept. There is clearly a need for more teaching. We returned to PNG in July of 2013 and we are partnering with Wyclifffe Bible Translators (known as SIL) to expand thier traing center to helpfill this void.