Ministry Summary

It is truly a privilege to be serving with the team of Gospel Fellowship Association missionaries ministering in the highlands village of Kiari, located in a remote area along the eastern border of Simbu province, Papua New Guinea. Our goal is to establish a strong, biblically based indigenous local church that will someday thrive without missionary presence. In order to accomplish this goal, our primary burden is to minister to the great spiritual needs of the people of Kiari and the surrounding villages through the two-pronged approach of evangelism and discipleship. We endeavor to be faithful in personal evangelism and discipleship and are also involved heavily in the ministries of Kiari Baptist Church. Jeff regularly teaches and preaches the Word of God for Sunday School, church services, and evangelistic outreaches, and is involved in training men for church leadership. Elizabeth’s ministry is also primarily Bible teaching as she oversees/teaches children’s Sunday School, holds ladies’ Bible studies in our home, and organizes Bible clubs for children. She also teaches music to the choir. We were both able to go along on a church mission trip to the village of Yowai, several hours’ walk from Kiari, and hope to participate in similar trips in the future. What an awesome privilege to share the glorious light of the Gospel with people, many of whom have been living in spiritual darkness for many generations.

 

A secondary burden is to serve our coworkers. Part of Jeff's ministry is to keep the physical aspects of Kiari Baptist Mission operating smoothly. Because of the remote location and nature of the ministries along with the lack of many modern conveniences in Kiari, much valuable time and energy is consumed by supply trips to town, vehicle repairs, building projects and many other daily responsibilities. Although taking hours or days to accomplish, each of these tasks are all a necessary part of maintaining ministries in the bush. Our desire is that as Jeff takes care of many of these tasks, other missionaries will be able to concentrate their efforts and energy more specifically on the ministries God has given them.

 

Our time has been overfilled with church responsibilities and the physical aspects of the ministry while our coworkers have been on furlough, but after their return we hope to devote most of our time to learning the unique village language, Siar-ha. Though the Lord has helped us to become more or less fluent in the trade language of Melanesian Pidgin, we are more and more convinced that in order to effectively minister to these people long-term, we must learn their heart language.

 

An updated ministry presentation should become available soon after we return to the States on furlough. Click here to view Jeff’s old ministry video presentation (2007) or here to view Elizabeth’s old ministry video presentation (2009).