Purpose Asia

What do you think of when you hear the word “missionary”? Adventurous? Crazy? Super spiritual? Sacrificial? Brave? These are a few that I’ve heard on my journey. But do you want to know what word I think of when I think of when I hear the word “missionary”? Human. We missionaries are intensely human and need God’s grace for every day just like any one else intent on following Christ. This month I am experiencing the great privilege of attending a training course designed to help very human missionaries deal with very human problems. They’re teaching us things like language and culture acquisition, tools to use when trying to integrate into a new country, key attitudes for cross-cultural teams and ministry, how to use our personality strengths to build up and not tear down on ministry teams and much more. However, what I’m most grateful for is their emphasis on spiritual vitality to prevent emotional and relational shipwrecks. Strangely enough, it’s easy to get busy wi...

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Several people have been asking me about what God is doing in Papua New Guinea (PNG), what life is like there, what impact Bible translation is having on the people, how they're using the Bible, how they are training to be pastors/ministers of God's Word and so many other things. So, I've decided to start sharing at least one story a month (and probably more) with you so you can see the amazing things God is doing in PNG. Enjoy! Passion for Stories (shared with permission from the PNG Experience: Volume 2. For more stories see: http://thepngexperience.wordpress.com/) For much of the workshop, Susan, a Kwomtari speaker, at unobtrusively at her table, often resting her chin on her hands as she listened to the lectures. One of 30 participants from seven languages, Susan was attending the third of four workshops on Oral Bible Storytelling (OBS), a course that teaches Papua New Guineans how to memorize and retell Bible stories i...

I've always firmly believed that prayer deepens your love, heart and passion for a person, place, work or people. As a result, I decided to follow Wycliffe's prayer blog so that I can stay up to date on what God is doing around the world in Bible translation. Recently they sent out this wonderful update on the Pacific -- the region where Papua New Guinea is located. I wanted to share it with you so that as you pray for me your heart and love would be deepened for the work God is doing in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea specifically. Please pray for the Papua New Guineans and Wycliffe members working on translations and training (for translation work, scripture use, oral Bible storytelling, and leadership to name a few). Pray that God would guard His work and that He would give wisdom and understanding to His people in Papua New Guinea.