Update 2015

Hi Folks,  Well I suppose you never thought you would see another Blog post by us but it is high time we did so. 

Many times in our past trips back home to visit you we have tried to make clear what God is doing in this corner of His harvest field, and that has been wonderful.  We have seen many walking in darkness who have found the light of the love of God and many churches have come into being, raised by the work of God here.  We are privileged to be a part of this outreach and rejoice with you and our heavenly Father over even one let alone the many who have found rest for their souls in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you know our part in this has been the supply of printed materials for the teaching of God’s Word and for literacy in each location.  Your part (for those who support us) has been to be faithful at home, to empower this, we are a team.  Even though we rarely understand the languages we are printing in it is always a joy to see this “food” in the form of God’s Word reaching them.  This literature is not just a starting point but the very meat that they need to know Him and make Him known to others. 

Imagine if all of a sudden all the books that you or anyone else has that have anything at all to do with God’s Word were to go missing from your possession and there were no longer any possible way for you to get any replacement, what would you do?  How long would it be before the knowledge in your minds and the words just spoken stay out of error.  What then?  How would you or others find the truth?  Such is the case with all groups we plant churches in.

I am just putting before you a scenario of how important God’s Word is and of how important the printing of it is.  How vital this ministry is!  It is not our ministry but God’s and we are just the vessels that He is using to perform it. 

Now we wish for you to gain a different picture.  One that concerns us greatly, one that is brought about because of a lack of personnel.  Presently here in Papua New Guinea NTM has 3 areas where there are TRCs (Tribal Resource Centers - print offices).  The amount of printing has slowed in some areas and stayed constant in others but the problem is that all of those staffing these offices are no longer young and closer to retirement rather than having many years left to serve.  Where will that leave this ministry?  Please pray for workers to come into this harvest field.  You may say that we should be handing things over to the national churches.  We certainly agree and so does NTM, however we don’t want to find ourselves caught out short-sighted not having enough missionaries to make that change over or that we fail to consider the preparedness or lack of training thereof of the national believers to be able to eventually move into that roll. 

So, what we need you to know is that missionaries in the church planting support role are still very much needed in PNG and this lack needs to be filled up.  

Love in Christ,

Trevor & Estelle Burns

New Tribes Mission PNG

PNG: Hoskins Centre, P.O. Box 367, Kimbe, WNBP 622, Papua New Guinea

Support: Cross View Australia, 11 Mission Terrace, Lakewood NSW, Australia 2443

(Please INCLUDE A NOTE: Support is for T & E Burns)