Prayer Letter - New Guinea News

October 13, 2004

Tribal Co-Workers

This is the last “NGN” on Co-Workers. We started out this series by saying
that in tribal missions we have several kinds of co-workers that are
necessary for our ministry to continue. We have supporters, support
workers, partners, and tribal co-workers. In this last email we would like
to focus on tribal co-workers. The Patpatar people are the reason we are
here. Without them we would not have a ministry to the Patpatar tribe and
without their help we would not get very far in our task.

One of our main objectives during this time of learning the Patpatar
language and culture is to develop relationships. In doing so many have
opened up to us and helped us gain insights into their lives, their beliefs,
and their thoughts. Many have also given of their time and even their food
to help us. In this e-mail we would like to share a little bit about two
tribal co-workers (pictured above) that free us up in some areas so we have
more time and energy to put into learning the Patpatar language and culture.
These two individuals not only help us in learning language and culture, but
also with some of the tasks around the house. As a result, we are able to
give them money and food to help with their physical needs.

Maria is a young lady who comes to our house two mornings a week. Maria is
about 19 years old. Her mother died when she was young. As a result Maria
is responsible to look after her father, and siblings still at home, as well
as to help her married siblings with their families. She helps Lori with
various tasks such as washing and hanging up the laundry, occasionally
sweeping and mopping our floors, yard work, and answering Lori’s many
language and culture questions. Avalon and Sierra enjoy being with her, and
this is a help to mom, too. She is a valuable help to our ministry, and
does her work cheerfully. Without her, Lori would not be able to study
language and culture as much as she is able to now.

The other individual that helps with our physical tasks is Ben. Ben is
around the age of 40. He has two children He comes about every other week
to help take care of our yard. When Aaron mentioned to Ben that we needed
someone to help us with our yard work, Ben asked if he was “enough.” Ben
cuts our grass regularly with a machete, weeds our garden and shrubs, and
removes the logs from our beach area. Right now, Ben is helping us to build
a small pier of rocks to help us with getting our boat in and out of shore.
He is very busy helping us but still finds time to talk with us and teach us
his language and culture. He, like Maria, has a great attitude about his
work and takes it seriously. We are so thankful for him and have found him
to be more than “enough.”

We praise the Lord for how he has provided us with excellent tribal
co-workers that help us in so many ways. They have been a tremendous help
to us individually in doing the work here, as well as to our family as they
enable us to have more family time.

Thank you for your part in the Lord’s work in the Patpatar tribe as you pray
for us. We appreciate each and every one of you, and could not be here
without you. Please be in prayer for Aaron as he takes his 2nd language
check (of 4) from October 14-16. This marks the half way mark in his study
of the Patpatar language.


ALL for Him,

Aaron, Lori, Avalon, and Sierra