Hope for Tariknan

Tariknan was the very first place the Mibu church decided to start an outreach back in 2006. The teaching went well with a great response to the gospel message. Like Mibu most of the village who heard the gospel message came to believe that Jesus paid the price of death for their sin, thus restoring a broken relationship between them and their creator.

But relatively soon after that, as the bible teaching began to progress toward the growth and maturity of these new believers, something happened that has been a heavy burden on the heart of the church in Mibu ever since. Several key influential people there joined the opposition that came from the predominant religious system in that area. These influential people made it difficult for the teaching to continue, even frightening much of the rest of their community away from continuing to hear God's word. As a result, the teaching in Tariknan fizzled out with no one left to continue it.

Since then, over the years, there have been a number of folks in Tariknan who have said that they want the teaching to come back despite the opposition. The church here in Mibu has shared this burden with them and has tried to find a way to get the teaching jump started again in Tariknan. But each time the church found that they just didn't have the people in place to send. But this didn't stop them from revisiting the idea again recently. A couple months ago an exploratory visit to Tariknan was made by a small delegation from the church here in Mibu. They wanted to assess whether or not, after all this time, there might be some way to bring the teaching back. They needed first to find out who all is interested and where the teaching might be able to happen. What they found there was amazing! Publicly, a huge number of the people of Tariknan were asking for the teaching to come back. This includes those influential folks who originally led people away from the truth in the beginning. In fact, the one person who exerted the most negative influence back then publicly admitted that he was wrong for doing so and that he too wanted the teaching to come back. The people there said that they know they heard God's truth, but pulled away from it. Over time, they realized that their continued commitment to that other religious system was a mistake, and they thought they might not ever have the chance again to hear God's word. The overall sentiment was of great gratitude for God not having given up on them and continuing to pursue them through the efforts of the Mibu church!

The problem still remained though. Who would the church send to continue teaching in Tariknan? The solution; The church in Mibu has begun a new round of teacher-training. About 10 guys are being trained and discipled in their desire to be a part of the ongoing teaching needs both here and in Tariknan (and possibly other areas someday). Please be in prayer for these gentlemen as they are groomed for service by the church here in Mibu. Pray for their ongoing persistence in being faithful with the task that is being entrusted to them.

Quick update on Geoff's illness: Geoff returned yesterday (wed) to Mibu since being medevac'd last week. He seems to be completely recovered and we're not expecting any more complications. We're all super glad to be back together as a family! Thank you all so much for your prayers for us during this last week!

Slight medical scare

You may have heard through our family that I (Geoff) was medevac'd out
of Mibu early Tuesday morning with symptoms that were consistent with
meningitis. Since all this happened so very rapidly we really only
managed to keep in contact with our family and pastor John. We know that
you may have already been informed of these details and have been
praying for me. For that I want to extend a huge thanks! What a blessing
to have such a wonderful group willing to maneuver their already busy
lives in such a way as to come together out of concern for us and to
pray! But just in case you may not have gotten the information and now
that things have settled a bit I'm wanting to update you on what happened.

Monday morning I woke up with a really bad headache that continued to
get worse through the day. Later that afternoon, the pain was much much
worse and also accompanied by fever and a stiff neck, typical signs of
meningitis. We contacted our doctor on the radio and asked what he
thought. After asking us more detailed questions he said that I needed
to get out to the clinic as soon as possible. He had Shannon give me a
number of injections and other medicines (which we were thankful to
actually have in stock in our little 'Husa Medical Cabinet'). We were
going to have to do what we could to get through the night when the
helicopter could come get me.

The next morning the helicopter flew me to Lapilo where our clinic is
located. By then I was starting to show some signs of improvement. But I
guess you don't mess with meningitis. The medical staff worked rapidly
to narrow down the possibilities. Everything continued to point to
meningitis. A spinal tap sealed the deal, showing that it was a viral
meningitis (rather than the much more dangerous bacterial meningitis).
That's what we really needed to rule out was the bacterial kind. So,
though I've still got a few more days of discomfort left, things are
looking like they'll continue to improve on their own and there's no
significant danger. Whew!

We're always amazed to see how things can come together during scary
moments like these with logistics and the skills necessary to discern
what's going on and people praying... even though we weren't able to
keep up with our normal means of communicating with you! We see this
fine tuned machine all come together and make it happen and you can just
see that God has all the right people in the right places! Awesome. Body
life!

At this point, Shannon and the girls are super thankful to have the
Osborns with them in Mibu (don't know how we'd do it without you,
Osborns!) and they're looking forward to my return hopefully in the next
3 or 4 days. For now, the doc wants to see things continuing to get
better and make sure we're in the clear. I'm still getting frequent
headaches through the day, but overall they seem to be getting better
and better; it kind of cycles though.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers during this! You can especially
pray for Shannon, the pregnant mom, taking care of 3 energetic little girls!

Geoff for the Husas

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Husas in Mibu

Welcome Osborns

It all came together kind of last minute, but we've been able to welcome the Osborn family for an extended stay of six weeks here in Mibu. The Osborns (Joseph and Elizabeth, along with Belle (4), Lucy (3), and Everet (1) ) are here staying with us in Mibu for what is called 'bush orientation'. They arrived in Papua New Guinea in August, have been getting acquainted with things here in Papua New Guinea, and have also been working hard to learn the country's trade language, Pidgin English. They arrived here in Mibu last Wednesday, the 14th and are planning on heading back out to town with us on January 25th.

Bush orientation is one of the final steps of preparing a family for ministry in a remote location. The idea is to finalize their study of Pidgin English language and to gain their first longer term exposure to what life is like living in the bush. This also affords them the opportunity rub shoulders with the believers here in Mibu as they spend time in their world. One more step toward preparing the Osborns to begin serving wherever it is that God directs them. So please be in prayer for their time here, that this exposure would give them wisdom and insight and that they'd sense more of God's direction through this experience.

As for us, it's been a blast getting to know Joseph and Elizabeth and the kids. We've been enjoying helping them get settled in and giving them the 'lay of the land' as it were, showing them how life in the bush looks for us.

Update on travel logistics

(Our apologies for the random picture that just showed up in your inbox yesterday. Here is the text that the picture was supposed to accompany. Our email system sometimes tears our emails apart and decides to send just one little part. Ironically enough, the content of the picture is still rather random :)

Over the last few weeks, our busyness seems to have gotten in the way of keeping you updated. There are several things that we'll be trying to catch you up on here over the next several updates. So stay tuned!

For starters we wanted to inform you about where things are at with our plans to return home for Husa baby number four. We're super thankful to see that so far about $8300 of our needs for this trip has been graciously provided! The total needed for travel and medical expenses is estimated around $15,000.

Currently the plan is to be returning home on January 27th, sometime in the afternoon. The baby is due around the end of April. Then we'll give enough time to process paperwork, entry permits, passport, etc and return to Mibu on July 20.

Please continue to pray with us regarding the health of the baby and also for Shannon who typically experiences a great deal of discomfort and pain associated with pregnancy. Please also be in prayer for our housing needs when we're home. If anyone happens to know of a house that needs house sitting during our time home, we're still looking for something that fits our small budget within reasonable proximity to the Tempe/Chandler area.

As the time for travel approaches, we've got much work to finish up here in Mibu as well as packing up our house which will sit unoccupied during the months that we're home. It's hard to believe that the time is so close already! We're really looking forward to seeing you and hopefully having a chance to visit and share about the wonderful things God continues to do in Mibu!

(here's a random, fun picture of Skyler, Maddie, and Abby all enjoying some imaginative play time)

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The attached file was originally sent with another message.

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Follow up on Bapake

You may remember in the recent report on the outreach areas that Sesi expressed concern about Bapake (see picture) and his family. Bapake is the main teacher in the outreach areas. He works with and trains a number of other teachers between Yongem, Titirapok and Langgane to faithfully teach God's word. He and his family are fully invested in service to God and have even relocated from Yongem to Titirapok in order to carry on their work. While they still spend some time in his home village of Yongem, they mostly live in Titirapok. This has its effects on him and his family. Since they're away from their own land and gardens a lot more, it's changed the dynamics of their survival. Sesi points out that he has no money to get clothes or blankets as well as a number of other necessary items.

Recently Sesi and others here mentioned the need to the church in Mibu asking if people would be willing to help Bapake. The response was overwhelming and unprecedented here! Over a period of several days, people pooled together over 140 Kina (about $60). One person alone gave 50 Kina! It may not seem like much to us, but it's a lot by Mibu standards (equivalent of about 28 days wages). That 140 Kina ought to easily take care of the needs of his family for some time.

Adding more to what was clearly God's Spirit at work here was the joy with which people gave! They really were happy to help Bapake and his family! There was no pressure, no compulsion; just hearing the need and out of concern for Bapake and his family as well as the work that God is doing through them, just feeling good about being able to help!

Again, a sign of growth in the church born out of a real love for God and the joy of being his people.