Dear Praying Friends,
As I look back over this past year I am amazed at how God has directed and protected us, showing us how to accomplish the goals He has put in our hearts. Some things are much different than what I anticipated a year ago - and yet the work progresses!

 She is not here!

In mid-June we traveled to Avoro’s funeral service and burial in her village of Huruta. It was well attended and we saw many of the Orokolo believers there, along with others from Kerema and Port Moresby. Trina gave a testimony and sang. I had the honor and privilege of preaching both the service and graveside message. At our next opportunity to access the website, we will upload pictures of our 5 days there and share more of this story. For now, Brother Jerry and his son, Lakobob, are staying in Huruta. Please pray for Jerry during this difficult time of mourning.

These months are our ‘’winter’’, and, no, that means nothing in relation to ‘’cold’’!! It is a time of rain and wind and a troubled sea. As soon as calmer waters prevail a builder from the Kerema church will be moving the water tank to Ihu and completing work on the pastor’s house. This will also serve as the meeting place for the church plant. Pastor David, who lives about a 40 minute walk from the Ihu station ground, is open to holding services there. He has already been discipling the five young people previously brought to Christ.

As you know from our June letter, the Bible Institute will not be based in Ihu, but in Baimuru, where God provided all the necessary buildings - although they have need of some repair! What a blessing that one of our supporting churches anticipated this need and sent a generous gift. We have received applications from two Baimuru men. Orokolo pastors Murphy and Maisa still believe God is directing them to school, but have yet to submit applications. Both are making plans for the care of their churches in their absence. Please pray for these men. 3 would be coming to school with families. I will share more about each in future updates.

  We visited a village named Kenipo in need of a gospel preaching church.

Last month our engine and dinghy arrived! Our first real trip with it was to the village of Varia. It was a great blessing to spend a week with Pastor Ilaia. He is a former graduate of Baimuru Baptist Bible Institute, here during the time the school was operating under missionary Ted Mullins. Praise God for the work Brother Ted did, and “fruit that remains”!  We have already shared many of the blessings of the week! We visited a village named Kenipo in need of a gospel preaching church. Pastor Ilaia has preached there several times as an outreach, and seen some saved. I believe just as the Ihu work is our first church plant among the Orokolo, working with Pastor Ilaia to plant a church at Kenipo will be our first new ministry among the Baimuru!

I will close this letter with two prayer requests. We need a born again dinghy driver burdened for ministry. Although I will learn to drive and navigate these back waterways, we need an experienced skipper for travel on the open sea. A lost man named Sam was our driver for the Varia trip.  He plainly heard the gospel through preaching and personal testimony, and was in church this past Sunday! Maybe he will be our man!

Secondly, the size of the ministry vision here is big! Along with the everyday teaching and training in the Bible Institute, there are so many possibilities for outreach and evangelism. We will need a missionary partner with a burden for training men and women for ministry in a classroom setting and a desire to accompany students to areas of new outreach. I believe it will take at least two of us to effectively care for the BBBI students, support and encourage existing Orokolo and Baimuru churches, and start new works.
As I have mentioned previously, we are not able to access our website from Baimuru. Although I am not a big fan of social media, our local digicel phones are usually successful at sending a picture to Facebook! We encourage you to “friend” one of us on this site.

We love you all and would be blessed to hear from you!

Presenting the Person of Christ,

Wil & Trina