COLLYS UPDATE
“Hello from me, Colly. Guy and I have been together since 2009 and we have four adopted children, I say children but three of them are now adults with only one remaining child. Lin Lin 28, Amram 26, Mercy 19 and lastly Talitha at 8 (9 in July). The two older ones have de-facto wives and one child. Lin Lin and Dexi with one boy who Guy calls ‘the Bruiser’ but whose real name is Aubrey and Amram’s defacto is Lydia, they have a girl who was born last New Year’s Day and they called her Helene after Guy’s mum.
Education is much later here than in the West and Mercy is completing her Grade 10 which is about the same as third form in an English secondary school. Talitha is doing her Grade 2.
We have just entered the wet season for Milne Bay Province as the SE trade winds are amplified by high pressure in Australia which brings cooler air from the South to mix with the warmer moist air from the North, ie the Doldrums, So a lot of rain attends our lives. Because we get long term power cuts in which we only get about half a day of power each day, we have generators to make up the difference.
Guy and I are the principals of LWM which has been established here in PNG for almost ten years now, since 2014. For nearly five years since our return from the voyage we made from England in 2019 this time has been a really challenging one, we have the bad experience of criminals breaking into our 3 containers which we brought from England, One 20ft container and three 40ft container which they stole most of our household things plus some of the charity tools from Tools With a Mission in England.
The other need we face is finding land to set up our mission base. Land is a very complicated issue in PNG, both for accommodation and ministry. So we live in a rented house owned by Guy’s friend the late Sir Christopher Abel which is now owned by his sons and we rent a small shack for our office. Until now the finances have been met through the operation of Kwadima II which, we have been told by the owners, JAARS, will cease at the end of July but are awaiting affirmation from them as they are considering whether this is what God wants.
Despite this we are not troubled as we are depending on the Lord as He promised in Romans 8:28. Also at this time Guy’s application for Permanent Residence, despite being qualified and fully documented with the fee paid; the PNG Immigration Authority as been dragging its feet and now for 15 months and they have done nothing about processing it. So Guy has to leave PNG or be illegal and he must wait outside the country until the PR is granted. So he wanted to be ‘useful’ and he has decided to go to Israel to help the ‘Olim’. Olim are Jews making Aliyah, that is to say to leave the countries they reside in and ‘go up to Jerusalem’ which we recognize is something God really wants to do at this time. Jews are beginning to realize that they only have one ‘home’ as they, despite their blamelessness of any wrongdoing, are not welcome in the rest of the world. Some nations like the Netherlands honour them but others like Britain and the USA simply allow their police forces to exercise ‘indifference’ at best and prejudice at worst when they are assaulted by Muslims, and other often illegal immigrant Hamas supporters. God is using this to bring them to their ancient home of which they are the indigenous native people.
LWM STAFF
So while he waits, he wants to help the Ebenezer ‘Operation Exodus’ to bring them home. I will be going with him to share in this endeavor and we have five weeks to set up our crew and office with Elsie as well as our home to ensure the family and ministry is well cared for. We have an excellent new engineer in Jerry Mike who is very serious about his walk with God and has done many jobs for us ashore and aboard. In fact the whole crew have already been prepared for our absence and Guy will still be able to oversee everything by email and get and send spares when needed from the Netherlands.”
We may face uncertainty but it will certainly manifest in accordance with His will for
us. We cast ourselves into His loving arms trusting and knowing that we will
overcome the uncertainty and the existential threat that hovers over us.
Colly
GUYS UPDATE
KWADIMA II
When we arrived here in 2019, God provided for us through the restoration and operation of a 42ft vessel called Kwadima II, which we were to have received from the Summer Institute of Linguistics or SIL who owned the boat and had concluded that operating boats was a ticklish business which produced administrative problems and was a financial liability they were keen to pass on.
So SIL contacted us as a maritime boat ministry to see if we would be interested in receiving Kwadima II as a ministry gift and to continue the work of transporting translators to and from their islands and they asked us for a business plan about how we would operate the boat. This was supplied and we made an agreement which merely awaited signing. Because we were delayed in getting back to PNG while Colly and I were in England caring for my mother. During this time, JAARS – Jungle Aviation & Radio Services (now Relay Services) whose work has been invaluable in receiving and sending support to the SIL translators; intervened to take over the boat as their own asset and offered a leasing arrangement to us instead.
The boat would now be owned by JAARS in the USA, So we entered a non-contributory leasing agreement which would perform the same thing except that they would be the owners of the asset, rather than us in PNG. This would be reviewed every three years. This review took place last August and they gave us one year more. They recently appointed local manager who told us they intend to take the boat away from us and place her under his management w.e.f. 27th July. In this way, God’s current means of provision would, at a stroke, be removed from us. As you all know we are not missionaries on a salary but live by faith which we are happy with as we know, it pleases God (Hebrews 11:6).
Since taking the boat on in 2020 we have restored her and have been operational for 3½ years, fully meeting the needs of the translators, especially in the area of the Louisiade Archipelago and with those at Goodenough and Ferguson Islands as well. We suffered pirate attack near Normanby Island which has discouraged some translators from going there, at least by sea.
Their new manager tells us that JAARS are changing their modus operandi towards aviation skills rather than translator transport. With proper foundational teaching, people here will understand and search out the scriptures so diligently translated previously by SIL and the purpose of God for them which faith in Christ really means, will become clear.
TRAINING
We do agree with JAARS on the need for training which although secondary to the ministry of the Word, is needed in order to procure competent mariners but for this we need an auditorium to teach RYA Day Skipper level courses and these need to be a Milne Bay version as the boats carry cargo and passengers in much less trying seas than those experienced in higher latitudes. Native skills in boat handling are second to none but they have no knowledge of IRPCS (rule of the road) GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress & Safety System) DSC VHF R/T, AIS (Automatic Identification System) EPIRBS and SOLAS. GPS plotters are becoming more familiar but paper charts and the use of a hand bearing compass to get a fix is completely foreign to them. Much of this is due to their excellent pilotage skills and that most captains know most of the offlying dangers, reefs and passages so well that they almost think chart navigation is superfluous. To remedy this we need to train experienced crewmen both on shorebased and a practical courses followed by examinations of both. Of course all candidates must have completed the Christian foundation BCC (Basic Concepts Course) to be eligible. To do this training (ministry and nautical) we need a classroom and base for our ministry here. We have tools and equipment to carry this out but no land or buildings to house our ministry. (SIL has some little used buildings and land at the SIL regional centre here in Alotau) As most of you know we have our schooner Living Water at Misima but still need the specialist attention of an engineer to free the rudder. Our MP Isi Henry Leonard who is also the Minister for Tourism, has offered to pay for our rudder repair including bringing her to Alotau if need be.
THE POWER OF SCRIPTURE
Our politicians are keen to display PNG as a Christian nation but the level of corruption, crime, promiscuity, abuse of women and children defies imagination. 49 years of independence but instead of progress there is regression. The state of the nation was so much better in 1977 than in 2024, two years after independence that I have seen myself in this time. I am convinced that if God’s Word is taught and the people receive it, it still has power to change the nation. Churches mostly have Sunday services and social programs but don’t actually teach the life-changing Word. Youth listen avidly to instruction given and only to have it crushed by seeing their church leaders siphon away money. Other ministries and missions need to understand that foundational teaching (Heb 5:12-6:2) must be delivered and served to new born and old. Young males especially need to be given Biblical teaching on manhood and respect for women and congregations about marriage. At present most pastors here in PNG see young people who have had sex together as being married rather than fornicating. Most children are fatherless and go on locally to form feral gangs like they used to do back in the cannibal days. The situation is dire and I grieve to think that we are patting ourselves on the back for being missionaries in faraway places but not delivering the goods. Remember the gravity of Malachi 4:5&6.
It is not only mission organizations but the new Christians too have a part to play. Those who respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and love God, readily acknowledge the problem but I grieve because the people do not allow the Word to penetrate their lives as Jesus mentioned in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:17,18. We explain that genuine repentance is the switch that turns on the light of Biblical Christianity in their lives through which salvation finds its way and obedience to the Word the eternal destiny (2 Peter 1:3-11). All of this applies to every hearer and believer of the Gospel in the whole world. Forgive me if this sounds pointed but I must speak the truth. The needs here in PNG are very great, firstly spiritual then governance, Rule of Law and material and it seems that modern Christians are more concerned with everything else and are majoring on the minors but minoring on the majors, but the very thing the Lord instructed us to do is to make disciples. Many are looking to material development, medical and practical but these, valid as they are must never take precedence over the Great Commission and it is worth remembering what the Lord said “What shall it profit a man if he gain the world and lose his own soul?”
PRAYER POINT
The prayer point here is for translators like SIL to begin to get involved with direct ministry like the early missionaries did, laying hands on the sick and teaching that true salvation is accompanied by repentance as well as their important translation work. I would go as far as to say Evangelism should immediately be backed up with foundational teaching based on Hebrews 5:12-6:2, if not, these precious souls will drift backwards into sinful practices and as we well know. The wages of sin is death Rom 6:23, and for all our efforts and celebrations we will lose them and God, rightly, will hold us accountable.
THE LORDS RETURN
We are at a point of the imminent return of the Lord to remove us from the world. (1 Thess 4:17) but at the same time we must be busy with what God has told us to do (Luke 19:31). Part of that is reflected in God’s plans for Israel as well as His plans for our participation in that by prayer and support. There are still some believers who ascribe to the notion that we have replaced Israel, mainly because we readily see that there is salvation in no other name that Jesus Christ, which is true. However, Jews are both secular, Judaic together with a number of Messianic (followers of Yeshua Mashiach, Jesus Christ in Hebrew Jews who are one with us). God’s plan for the Jews are so clearly set out in the Scripture during the 7 year Tribulation; but for now our attitude to Israel must be conformed to God’s admonition for us in Romans 11:1-36.
Ezekiel prophesied over them from the dry bones (of Nazi concentration camps) to being brought into their own land in Ezekiel 37:1-14, and again in Ezekiel 38:1-8. The drawing out of Russia, (Gog, Meshech & Tubal), Turkey (Togarmah) Persia (Iran & proxies), Sudan (Ethiopia = African Muslim nations) Gomer (Cimmerians-Ukraine) to be brought by God to the mountains of Israel for war. For further study on this very important subject go to Behold Israel https://beholdisrael.org/ and listen to Amir Tsarfati who teaches specifically and scripturally on this subject and gives regular news on the present conflict in Israel/Gaza too.
For us the Lord told us to occupy until He comes. Occupy with what? Whatever He has instructed us to do rather than what we think we have to do. He promised to lead us into all truth which has to include the foreordained good works for us to do (Eph 2:10). That could mean calling to the five-fold ministry, particular place to influence His plans, raising and giving finances, flying aeroplanes in the mission field, military roles that work His purposes, sharing God’s plan of redemption with everyone and leading them to salvation in Jesus Christ. To this end we must all be faithful in our God-called ministry because after we meet the Lord in the air we will stand before the Bema seat of Christ for how faithfully we lived our lives on Earth and receive reward or loss. This is not the Judgement of sin because that has been dealt with by Jesus at calvary and we are in Christ. This is an assessment to see if we have obeyed the Lord in our personal ministries and been faithful and obedient, for this we’ll be rewarded an eternal reward. This is not ‘works’ based but ‘works of obedience-to-God’ based as to how we obeyed God for this life. Did we do our own ‘thing’ or did we do God’s revealed works.
So I don’t need to say more or give you a prayer list for you yourselves know right well that the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. By now you will have picked up what to pray for and what do. Thank you for supporting us-
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.
Love
Guy, Colly and all of us at Living Water Mission