20080418 Friday Our March Newsletter!

Dear Family and Friends:

Good morning. We wanted to give you an update of our trip to the deliciously cool PNG Highlands. For our first week in the Highlands, we stayed with the PNG National Foursquare President, Timothy and Salome Tipitap in their home in Wapenamanda in Enga Province. It really was a blessing as we could actually sleep with the cooler weather than we are used to. We visited the U.S.K. Health Center overlooking the beautiful Tsak valley in the area and also visited the area haus sik (hospital) (see attached picture). At the end of the week, we drove to the provincial capital Wabag to visit with the health administrators.

We also spoke both in Pastor Timothy’s church and his wife’s Pastor Salome’s church. It is not unusual for many married Christian couples to have to individually pastor a church because there are not enough pastors to fill the need. This makes for busy lives. But we found the people open and hungry for the things of God and were privileged to see God move in powerful ways. I am always surprised that He will use us – we just have to be willing and available. At one venue, I was able to share about forgiveness and giving God time to work things out in our lives. At Pastor Salome’s church, Victor preached about the Great Commission and 6 people came forward to dedicate their lives to the work of world evangelism. It was wonderful to see the people committing themselves to do whatever God wanted so that His kingdom would move forward.

For our second week in the Highlands, we had to drive across four stunningly beautiful provinces (Enga, Western Highlands, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands) to attend the PNG National Foursquare pastor’s bung (meeting) in Goroka. There, we met many new and old friends (see attached picture). The bung was held at General Supervisor’s Pastor Kauga Balme’s Goroka Sunrise Foursquare Church where a recent church extension had been built. Northwest Church in Federal Way, WA previously and generously funded some of the extension and the facility looked great! While we were there, many pastors came to us there and formally invited us to their areas to do our combined medical and evangelism outreaches.

We returned from the Highlands to a drought here in the islands at the hottest time of the year. All the villages are out of water and so we are unable to wash clothes and have to haul water in our car for six pot-holed bumpy miles. It is physically very difficult.

On March 14^th and 15^th we completed our scheduled medical/evangelistic outreach to a very remote in the South Baining coastal area of Pomeo district here in East New Britain . After previously driving to the region for six hours to do a community entry visit, we decided to hire a boat and travel 3 hours and over 60 kilometers to the region instead (see attached picture). Driving there took us six hours and we had to cross rugged mountains and deep rivers to get there, so we took the shorter boat trip. We held the two day medical outreach at the old Mungou village aid post and the Friday evening evangelism service at the nearby Gar village where there is a new Foursquare church plant. We took 2 nurses, 2 worship leaders, 6 Pastors, 2 boat operators , medical supplies, life jackets, food and supplies, and additional fuel for the return trip. So including Victor, Alex and myself we had a very full boat. But, God provided a calm ocean and we followed the coast for the most part so it all worked out.

One of the PNG nurses, Jennifer, had a vision as we were traveling. As we arrived at our destination, she saw Jesus standing up in front of the boat in a white robe smiling. And along the coast were large angels celebrating that we were coming. This greatly encouraged the Pastors when she shared it later at the service.

We had asked God to point out the people He wanted us to talk to and to help us know what to say before we left. When we first arrived at the outreach , some of us began visiting with the group of children and Mommas that had come to see what was going on. One boy, about 10 years old, was sitting in the middle of the group and I sensed that I should talk to him. He refused at first to answer my questions in Tok Pisin saying “I don’t understand.” But I felt I was not to stop so I kept gently trying to talk to him and finally he just opened up and started talking to me. I noticed a open sore on his leg and told him if he came to the medical clinic I would clean and dress it. I felt I was to tell him that God knew his name and loved him very much. Then we had to quickly go set up the clinic so we left. Later I found out that his Momma had suddenly died 2 days before and he had been so upset the village didn’t know what to do with him. His father had died 2 years ago and he thought he was all alone. Isn’t that like God to reach out to the hurt and broken?

We saw many people. People from the surrounding villages, which included Gar, Mungou, Lat, Marc, and Merai, attended the outreaches. Some walked 12 hours just to come to the clinic. Between all of us, we saw 582 adults and children for medical care and we laid hands and prayed for many (see attached picture). All who attended heard and saw the Gospel of Jesus Christ “fleshed-out” before their eyes. During the Friday evening evangelism service, 26 people went forward to give their hearts to Jesus under the starry night. Many of those that came forward were people from villages very far away, and some were those we had prayed for at the clinic. What rejoicing we had. Victor spoke to the Pastors there about follow-up, water baptism, and discipleship for those who came forward so that these new little ones can learn and grow. Please pray for them. After the salvation call, many people came forward for prayer and healing – very powerful. Three ladies with cerebral palsy babies came forward and received commanding and healing prayer. God loves the PNG people!

Then it was midnight and we needed a bath. So the locals took us on a hike to a river and would intermittently throw rocks into the water to scare away the puk-puks (crocodiles). Alex made tree-sized shadows along the shore in the light of the kerosene lantern and the Pastors laughed and laughed as we quickly washed as fast as we could so we could get out of the water. But oh, did that “wash-wash” (bath) feel good! Then we returned to our village in the dark and tried to go to sleep as fast as possible as the house had many tenants which included rats. In the morning fresh rat droppings were all around our beds. We packed up and headed for our second day of medical clinic. We left that afternoon via boat and ran out of fuel before our destination so we were drifting in a current headed towards the smoking volcano. We prayed and somehow the operator was able to get the motor to run long enough on fumes to get directly to shore. It was God of course that helped us.

We thank you so much for your prayers. We believe that God continues to desire that we serve the people of the PNG islands. In addition to our medical outreaches, we continue to be very active in the ministry building projects here (such as the Bible School shower and toilet facility that Northwest Church funded), in Leadership Training, in the United Foursquare Women’s Ministry, in the planning and implementation of evangelism crusades, in preaching, and in the NGI Bible School planning and soon teaching, just to name a few.

We kindly ask that you will pray for the following:

• Our next major medical outreach planned for Open Bay on the other side of East New Britain Island on April 18-20^th. We will hire a boat for the long sail and take an evangelism team with us to an area that is nicely suited for a church plant.

• Our upcoming Leadership Training series for pastors and leaders. Biblical and Crisis Counseling will be covered and Victor will use curriculum from the King’s Seminary to teach the class. Please pray that God will anoint this class.

• The New Guinea Island Foursquare Bible School planning for the next school year. A new fund drive is currently underway so that the Bible School toilets, showers, and dormitories will be completed before students arrive in February 2009.

• We are very close to being able to order medications and supplies through the area medical store here in Rabaul. Please pray that we will continue to have good favor with the government, medical, and church community here.

• The dust and ash from the nearby volcano has been especially heavy, and is now closing the airport and causing health concerns in the area. Please pray that God would quiet this volcano.

• There has been a drought in the area for over a month now. Everyone’s rain water tanks are empty and food supplies are low. Please pray for rain.

• We moved closer to town this past week where there is an actual water supply and more reliable utilities like power and phone.. Please pray for our transition and for the Malari family who kindly housed us during our first year here in PNG in Ralubang village.

Thanks again for your support and for sending us here. World evangelism is a team ministry and we are glad to be in service to the King with you.

Blessings,

Victor, Lori, and Alexander Obregon

Attempt Great Things For God
Expect Great Things From God
William Carey

20080416 Wednesday Our February Newsletter!

Hello olgeta (hello “everyone” in Tok Pisin):

Our last medical outreach was a one-day outreach to the Kabanga plantation and surrounding villages in January 20th . It was a follow-up visit to an underserved area of East New Britain where we had previously held an evangelism crusade. We had something happen that was very significant. Five local nurses and medical workers from a local hospital, some of who were HIV/AIDS counselors, accompanied us on the outreach (see picture). They staffed most of the clinic and did some very important HIV/AIDS awareness teaching. We were able to share information and laughter and we saw the very hard-working people who were otherwise busy cutting and drying coconut for the market. It was good to see the medical ministry staffs almost entirely by PNG nationals.

A special memory I had of that particular day was when we were taking a break. I saw a little boy around the age of 5 slowly dragging his left foot along the ground. When I went to check him, I saw he had an infected big toe. He was a little afraid of me so I handed out some colorful stickers that Cindy had brought. All the bystanders crowded in to each get a sticker. They like to put it on their faces. As I was crouched down cleaning this tender toe, I felt a little hand stroke my hair from behind. Now, there wasn’t any way I could turn to see who touched me because I was concentrating on the boy. Even though we were outside in a large area, the children were packed all around me – I could barely move my arms to clean the sore. It was strange to be so moved by this gentle touching of my hair, but I felt like I wasn’t supposed to respond. Later, sitting on the ground and watching a skit being put on, I noticed the most beautiful perfectly formed miniature conch shell with a lavender interior strewn among the rubbish.. It reminded me of God’s heart. He is always moved by the heart that is reaching out to Him wondering and questioning much like the child who touched my hair. I pray that God will show Himself strong to this one.

Our village had a large funeral that we attended. The deceased was Pastor Komet’s father from the village we live in. Victor was called to see the man in the village just before he died. He rode with Pastor Komet and most of the family to the local hospital where he died. Victor was deeply moved by the care and love given to this elderly man by all of the family present and the hospital staff. Part of the family are Christians and part were not, so it was a traditional Tolei funeral complete with “dukduks” (men dressed in costumes who have asked the spirits of their dead ancestors to possess them – see picture) and a week of wailing and morning and the giving out of coils and coils of shell money. The heartbreaking part was the awful wailing of the people who have no hope yet.

Cindy and I went to the local hospital and distributed little packages to the labor ward (which is unlike any ward you could imagine) and prayed with some women. Then a couple days later, we went into the bush to check on a lady who was pregnant and I brought our Doppler so we could hear the baby’s heart beat. On the way home we prayed over a young girl named “Lucy” that had survived being struck on the forehead with a coconut. Many people often die as a result of a fallen coconut. We prayed hard and gave her some mild pain medicine, trusting all the while that God would heal her. She survived.

With regard to the pastor’s Leadership Training classes, Keith and Victor began a series in January on Spiritual Gifts which they finished recently. Victor handled the biblical basis and theology and Keith covered the practice of the spiritual gifts in the local church. The teaching was given at the newly completed Bible School classroom (see picture) and was well attended. We have Leadership Training scheduled through June already and the leadership here will participate in much of the teaching.

On a happy note, Alex’s bush cat had some kitties (see picture). On a sad note, though, a close friend Betty Bell and my Grandma Wagner died and their funerals were this past week.

We also wanted to let everyone know that Keith and Cindy Bickley have returned to the U.S. and we will miss them very much. We are praying for their re-entry into the American culture. We are grateful for all they did, both with us and for us, and we already look forward to seeing them again. As far as our future is concerned, we already have major medical outreaches planned through July. The regional and provincial supervisors here would like for us to continue to teach their Leadership Training classes and to be available to help the them in a variety of other ministry activities .

As we write this e-mail, we are in our second day in Mt. Hagen. Soon, we will be spending a few days with PNG Foursquare Timothy Tipitap in Enga Province. Then, we will be in Goroka at the PNG Foursquare national pastors bung (meeting) from 2/25-2/28/08. The PNG highlands are breathtakingly beautiful and the climate is great. Thank you again for your prayers, concern, support and love. We could not be here without you, and we are doing our best to represent you well.


Blessings,

Victor, Lori, and Alexander Obregon
Attempt Great Things For God.
Expect Great Things From God.
William Carey