Grayson's New Ride

Grayson and Brianna: Ready to ride!

God cares about the details. Again and again over the past 5 months, we have seen Him affirm our decision to join Wycliffe Bible Translators and open doors to make going to Papua New Guinea (PNG) possible. Selling our house, providing a rental home without a lease, finding great homes for our dogs, and most recently, giving us this motorcycle.

Matt heard from Andrew Koens, the head motorcycle mechanic at Ukarumpa(http://pngandrew.blogspot.com/) , who gave us a list of suggestions for motorcycles that would be great bikes there. It's often easiest to get around the mud roads at the center with a bike.We decided that a Yamaha TW200 would best suit our needs, so we started looking for one to ship to PNG. Matt searched for weeks, but couldn't find the right one within 300 miles of us! We then realized we hadn't been asking for one  - we were trying to do it on our own. We contacted some of our friends to pray for the right motorcycle for us, and within a week a friend called us...

"I found your bike!", said Doug.

When Matt asked, "Where?!", he said in Deep Gap, which is right next door to us! It was in great condition and we paid less than we had planned to pay.

When Matt pulled up with the motorcycle in the back of his truck, Grayson was standing in the yard and he pointed to it and said, "A motorcycle!". There's not much cooler in this world to a 2 1/2 year-old boy! Matt's "cool dad" points when way up that day.

 

What do all of the people in this picture have in common?

At first, it may not seem like much - other than our good looks, of course! No...we are all ordinary people serving our extraordinary God as missionaries. In August, we had the privelege of being a part of Bethel Baptist Church's Missions Conference in Vilas, NC where we met (from left), Emanuel and Adugna Tahear, Nard Pugyao, and Lisa Kappeler. We shared our testimonies of God's faithfulness throughout our lives as missionary kids all the way until now, in preparing us to serve Him in Papua New Guinea. But, we were especially encouraged by the other missionaries there...

The Tahears are missionaries FROM Ethiopia, TO Chicago! They are working with the international community of Chicago, specifically the muslim population. Adugna is a dentist and has an awesome dental ministry throughout the world.

Nard Pugyao is a Wycliffe missionary helicopter pilot and has an amazing story. As he was growing inside his mother's womb in a tiny village in the northern Philippines, God was calling a young man to become a missionary. That missionary worked to give Nard and the people of his village, the Isnegs, the Bible in their heart language.

"It's because of you missionaries that I have to wear clothes and shoes!"

Nard made us laugh a lot - and his joy and passion for the work of supporting Bible translation is contagious!

Lisa Kappeler is a missionary with New Tribes Missions who has been working in Wabuku, Papua New Guinea for 8 years as a church planter and Bible translator. The people in her village only number 300, but she realizes that each of them is precious to the Lord and He desires relationship with them. Many have come to know the Lord through hearing His Word in their heart language already!

Check out her video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwwXIoT7lGI

We are so thankful for the time that we had with these wonderful people, especially to hear over and over again how faithful God is, how powerful He is, and how He is at work in the hearts of men and women all over the world. It's awesome to see how the Lord is working through our friends at Bethel Baptist Church in the mountains of North Carolina, to impact eternity for people on the other side of the globe through their partnerships with missionaries.