Dear Family and Friends:
It is hard to believe that it is November already. The tropical climate and being so near the equator means that every day is pretty much the same climate-wise. It is almost always sunny in PNG with sunrise at 5am and sunset at 6pm. It feels like a perpetual summer. We have had a busy and exciting month since we last spoke with you. Keith and Cindy Bickley and Victor and I did a “well child clinic” here in Ralubang (the village where we live – see picture) as a sort of thank you to the villagers for welcoming us into their community. (Currently, we are the only “white people” that live in this village.) We examined 63 primary school aged children and even some teachers and their families. We prayed and spoke to them about how much Papa God loved for them throughout the outreach. Later that same week, we were invited to do a children’s evangelism crusade for about 400 kids in a large school Primary School (Malacuna) located in the jungle. As a family, we did evangelism and discipleship skits, and Keith and Cindy did an evangelism puppet show. We brought a local Foursquare pastor to help with worship and prayer. It was so wonderful out in the jungle, under the shade of that huge tropical tree, as we listened to the many voices giving their hearts to Jesus. It sounded like beautiful music. Afterwards, we saw some sick people that needed medical attention.
Later in the month, as most of you know we were graced with a team of two ladies from our sending church - Mary Schell and Kathleen Norcross. With their help, we were able to do a United Foursquare Women’s (U.F.W.) Provincial Retreat that started on a Friday night and ended the next day (see picture). After the Friday night session, many women stayed overnight to pray and fellowship. Many area Foursquare churches were represented. The Holy Spirit was very present and powerful and many women responded for prayer and the desire to go deeper into the things of God.
On October 22, our team of seven sailed to a remote area of New Ireland Island and stayed in a village for two days called Lambom (see picture). We did a children’s evangelism program and presented “The Jesus Film,”(a Tok Pisin film based on the Gospel of Luke) that night. Although the movie started late and was 2½ hours long, everyone marveled at the Person and Work of Jesus and all stayed until the end. It was amazing to sit in the back and see even the smallest kids totally involved with the film. Many responded to the Gospel after the movie ended. At night-time all of us slept on small mats on the floor beneath mosquito nets. Four women were in one room and three men in the other. It reminded me of that children’s song, “There was four in the bed and the little one said, ‘roll over, roll over,’ and they all rolled over and one fell out….” We four ladies slept in the space of a double bed, but no one rolled out because all we wanted to do was to stay under the mosquito nets! We had seen a huge brown spider earlier that evening which was carrying what appeared at first to be a white biscuit under itself, but in actuality it turned out to be her large egg sack full of hundreds of baby brown spiders. The spider was on its way to climbing into our room to make her deposit before Keith sprayed her and Victor squashed her. The egg sack broke and hundreds of little spiders came pouring out which Keith also sprayed. So, although we were rather grossed out, we were grateful that Papa God was watching over us and protected us from a spider invasion.
The next day we crossed the bay in our banana boat (see picture) and held a day-long medical clinic at the Lambom Island Aid Post. Before we saw the patients, the outreach was begun with worship and a Gospel message followed by prayer all in Tok Pisin (see picture). It was so good to see our old friends and new ones! Later that afternoon, Keith and Alex went fishing and Alex hooked a large mackerel and Keith reeled it in (see picture). That was a real blessing because not only did the guys have a great time catching the large mackerel and telling the story about catching it, we also were able to have protein that night with our rice. Keith and Alex were dubbed the “protein procurement engineering” team. That second evening, we were able to pray over the leaders and elders of the Foursquare Church in there. They have endured much persecution and it was a great privilege to lay hands on them and pray and encourage them.
The next morning we packed everything up and traveled further up and around the south end of the island to an even more remote village called Udam. It took us about 2 and a half hours sail there. We landed where we could due to the rough surf and traveled by foot about 40 minutes through a single dirt jungle trail up to the jungle village (see picture). Local people helped us carry our supplies and it was quite grueling at times traveling over large unstable rocks near the water’s edge. I was praying for God’s angels to protect the team as we were tired, our feet were wet and the terrain was rough. Thankfully, God did protect us and no one fell or hurt themselves. Then after a potty break, brief snack of various fruits, we set up for a half-day afternoon medical clinic. After worship and prayer, Pastor Keith explained about Papa God’s great love for the them in Jesus Christ. Then, we began the clinic. We were able to see 183 people in that long, hot afternoon (see picture). Later that night, “The Jesus Film” was shown and many responded to the truth that God sent Jesus to reconcile the world to Himself. Cindy and I went with a couple of local ladies and bathed in a cool jungle river under a full moon. I didn’t realize until later that the two women were guarding us from poisonous snakes that come out at night. One lady walked in front of Cindy and one lady walked behind me waving and looking around. The night was full of bright stars and God’s beauty. Early in the morning I woke up and saw the bright Morning Star – you know the star that comes out in the darkest part of the night, just like Jesus who is the bright Morning Star that comes to us in our darkest times with His light. Well, during early dawn it was so unbelievably beautiful that I went out and sat in the corner of a field not far from where we were sleeping and was quietly singing worship songs to God. As the dawn slowly came up, I opened my eyes and saw 7 men walking in different areas in the same field and all of them were worshipping and praying. It was so moving to see men praying to our God as the dawn light came across the field. We packed again, leaving our mats and what we could spare for the people there as they have very little. After a breakfast of tea and biscuits, we were able to pray for the leaders of that area including the Udam Foursquare Pastor Emmanuel and his wife Kathleen and their baby Sharon.
At our departure from Udam village, the people helped carry our things back down to the beach and we were off back to Kokopo Town via our banana boat (see picture). We had brought along a barrel full of fuel for the trip but due to the rough surf on the way over we actually ran out of fuel on the way back. But because papa God watches over us and your prayers (we really sensed them), we were able to land at an area not too far from Kokopo Town and disembark there. We are so grateful to have been able to go on this trip and that Mary and Kathleen were able to come with us. Thank you. Cindy and I are hoping and praying to be able to return soon to strengthen the contacts that were made. I really wish you could have seen what we did. Little girls scrubbing blackened bottom of pans that were cooked over open fires with the white sand by the ocean. Young boys getting into their homemade canoes to paddle to school. Mary Schell laughing as she is chunking kids into the ocean. A young women telling us her desire to be like “Deborah” from the Bible. Kathleen Norcross as she is sharing stickers and smiling at all the young people as she cleans their wounds. Leaders calling out to Papa God to move with power and change lives and hearts. Small children glued to “The Jesus Film” movie listening and not moving a muscle. The Holy Spirit drawing people to the Truth of God’s Word.
A few days after Mary and Kathleen left, Joan Allen came. Joan was a great help and shared her life story at a remote jungle church and many responded. One little girl in particular, name Antonia, was sobbing and sobbing after Joan related her heart’s desire to know her natural father when she was a little girl. This young girl came forward and gave her heart to Jesus and now is getting to know her heavenly Father who will never leave her or forsake her. Joan also spoke at a United Foursquare Women’s Provincial meeting that represented many different local churches. She was a real encouragement to trust in God as He is faithful and trustworthy. It was wonderful to both watch God flow through Joan and watch the women receive the encouragement that they so need.
Again, we would like to thank you all for your prayers and support. We also would like to give Northwest Church a special thanks to helping us with the medical outreach to New Ireland Papua New Guinea.
Blessings,
Victor, Lori, and Alexander Obregon
Attempt Great Things For God.
Expect Great Things From God.
William Carey
It is hard to believe that it is November already. The tropical climate and being so near the equator means that every day is pretty much the same climate-wise. It is almost always sunny in PNG with sunrise at 5am and sunset at 6pm. It feels like a perpetual summer. We have had a busy and exciting month since we last spoke with you. Keith and Cindy Bickley and Victor and I did a “well child clinic” here in Ralubang (the village where we live – see picture) as a sort of thank you to the villagers for welcoming us into their community. (Currently, we are the only “white people” that live in this village.) We examined 63 primary school aged children and even some teachers and their families. We prayed and spoke to them about how much Papa God loved for them throughout the outreach. Later that same week, we were invited to do a children’s evangelism crusade for about 400 kids in a large school Primary School (Malacuna) located in the jungle. As a family, we did evangelism and discipleship skits, and Keith and Cindy did an evangelism puppet show. We brought a local Foursquare pastor to help with worship and prayer. It was so wonderful out in the jungle, under the shade of that huge tropical tree, as we listened to the many voices giving their hearts to Jesus. It sounded like beautiful music. Afterwards, we saw some sick people that needed medical attention.
Later in the month, as most of you know we were graced with a team of two ladies from our sending church - Mary Schell and Kathleen Norcross. With their help, we were able to do a United Foursquare Women’s (U.F.W.) Provincial Retreat that started on a Friday night and ended the next day (see picture). After the Friday night session, many women stayed overnight to pray and fellowship. Many area Foursquare churches were represented. The Holy Spirit was very present and powerful and many women responded for prayer and the desire to go deeper into the things of God.
On October 22, our team of seven sailed to a remote area of New Ireland Island and stayed in a village for two days called Lambom (see picture). We did a children’s evangelism program and presented “The Jesus Film,”(a Tok Pisin film based on the Gospel of Luke) that night. Although the movie started late and was 2½ hours long, everyone marveled at the Person and Work of Jesus and all stayed until the end. It was amazing to sit in the back and see even the smallest kids totally involved with the film. Many responded to the Gospel after the movie ended. At night-time all of us slept on small mats on the floor beneath mosquito nets. Four women were in one room and three men in the other. It reminded me of that children’s song, “There was four in the bed and the little one said, ‘roll over, roll over,’ and they all rolled over and one fell out….” We four ladies slept in the space of a double bed, but no one rolled out because all we wanted to do was to stay under the mosquito nets! We had seen a huge brown spider earlier that evening which was carrying what appeared at first to be a white biscuit under itself, but in actuality it turned out to be her large egg sack full of hundreds of baby brown spiders. The spider was on its way to climbing into our room to make her deposit before Keith sprayed her and Victor squashed her. The egg sack broke and hundreds of little spiders came pouring out which Keith also sprayed. So, although we were rather grossed out, we were grateful that Papa God was watching over us and protected us from a spider invasion.
The next day we crossed the bay in our banana boat (see picture) and held a day-long medical clinic at the Lambom Island Aid Post. Before we saw the patients, the outreach was begun with worship and a Gospel message followed by prayer all in Tok Pisin (see picture). It was so good to see our old friends and new ones! Later that afternoon, Keith and Alex went fishing and Alex hooked a large mackerel and Keith reeled it in (see picture). That was a real blessing because not only did the guys have a great time catching the large mackerel and telling the story about catching it, we also were able to have protein that night with our rice. Keith and Alex were dubbed the “protein procurement engineering” team. That second evening, we were able to pray over the leaders and elders of the Foursquare Church in there. They have endured much persecution and it was a great privilege to lay hands on them and pray and encourage them.
The next morning we packed everything up and traveled further up and around the south end of the island to an even more remote village called Udam. It took us about 2 and a half hours sail there. We landed where we could due to the rough surf and traveled by foot about 40 minutes through a single dirt jungle trail up to the jungle village (see picture). Local people helped us carry our supplies and it was quite grueling at times traveling over large unstable rocks near the water’s edge. I was praying for God’s angels to protect the team as we were tired, our feet were wet and the terrain was rough. Thankfully, God did protect us and no one fell or hurt themselves. Then after a potty break, brief snack of various fruits, we set up for a half-day afternoon medical clinic. After worship and prayer, Pastor Keith explained about Papa God’s great love for the them in Jesus Christ. Then, we began the clinic. We were able to see 183 people in that long, hot afternoon (see picture). Later that night, “The Jesus Film” was shown and many responded to the truth that God sent Jesus to reconcile the world to Himself. Cindy and I went with a couple of local ladies and bathed in a cool jungle river under a full moon. I didn’t realize until later that the two women were guarding us from poisonous snakes that come out at night. One lady walked in front of Cindy and one lady walked behind me waving and looking around. The night was full of bright stars and God’s beauty. Early in the morning I woke up and saw the bright Morning Star – you know the star that comes out in the darkest part of the night, just like Jesus who is the bright Morning Star that comes to us in our darkest times with His light. Well, during early dawn it was so unbelievably beautiful that I went out and sat in the corner of a field not far from where we were sleeping and was quietly singing worship songs to God. As the dawn slowly came up, I opened my eyes and saw 7 men walking in different areas in the same field and all of them were worshipping and praying. It was so moving to see men praying to our God as the dawn light came across the field. We packed again, leaving our mats and what we could spare for the people there as they have very little. After a breakfast of tea and biscuits, we were able to pray for the leaders of that area including the Udam Foursquare Pastor Emmanuel and his wife Kathleen and their baby Sharon.
At our departure from Udam village, the people helped carry our things back down to the beach and we were off back to Kokopo Town via our banana boat (see picture). We had brought along a barrel full of fuel for the trip but due to the rough surf on the way over we actually ran out of fuel on the way back. But because papa God watches over us and your prayers (we really sensed them), we were able to land at an area not too far from Kokopo Town and disembark there. We are so grateful to have been able to go on this trip and that Mary and Kathleen were able to come with us. Thank you. Cindy and I are hoping and praying to be able to return soon to strengthen the contacts that were made. I really wish you could have seen what we did. Little girls scrubbing blackened bottom of pans that were cooked over open fires with the white sand by the ocean. Young boys getting into their homemade canoes to paddle to school. Mary Schell laughing as she is chunking kids into the ocean. A young women telling us her desire to be like “Deborah” from the Bible. Kathleen Norcross as she is sharing stickers and smiling at all the young people as she cleans their wounds. Leaders calling out to Papa God to move with power and change lives and hearts. Small children glued to “The Jesus Film” movie listening and not moving a muscle. The Holy Spirit drawing people to the Truth of God’s Word.
A few days after Mary and Kathleen left, Joan Allen came. Joan was a great help and shared her life story at a remote jungle church and many responded. One little girl in particular, name Antonia, was sobbing and sobbing after Joan related her heart’s desire to know her natural father when she was a little girl. This young girl came forward and gave her heart to Jesus and now is getting to know her heavenly Father who will never leave her or forsake her. Joan also spoke at a United Foursquare Women’s Provincial meeting that represented many different local churches. She was a real encouragement to trust in God as He is faithful and trustworthy. It was wonderful to both watch God flow through Joan and watch the women receive the encouragement that they so need.
Again, we would like to thank you all for your prayers and support. We also would like to give Northwest Church a special thanks to helping us with the medical outreach to New Ireland Papua New Guinea.
Blessings,
Victor, Lori, and Alexander Obregon
Attempt Great Things For God.
Expect Great Things From God.
William Carey
