Sadly, the girls were disinclined to be enthused about news today, though immediately after the video, Anya and Mira started racing up and down the bridge…
We’re looking for 19 partners in 43 days! Sounds impossible! Then again, we serve a God who sent his Son to earth for you, me, and people from every nation and tongue.
Partner with us!
Partnership opportunities graph below video if you prefer that.
Katie’s got a birthday coming up! Milestones make me reminiscent, and I couldn’t be more blessed than to have Katie as my traveling buddy these 12 years. This cross-cultural life has its challenges, often experienced very differently by each spouse. Here are some of my highlights with Katie:
The truth is, this depends every bit as much on Katie as it does on me:
Anyone who knows our story knows that what I’ve told isn’t even a tenth of it. What’s exciting is that that there’s still more of this delightful story to come! Thank you Father.
And Happy Birthday Katie! May the Lord grant you many more years of delight in and faithful service to him.
Our girls were quite a bit younger when we started Carter Action News. It typically airs when we want to share life from their perspective – which would be valuable to do more often! For those who’ve seen our presentations in-person, you know we like to give the girls a chance to share.
The update below includes our financial partnership status as of Nov 5, see video starting at 0:54. Partner with us!
Language research is about people. It’s easy to talk about the adventure – the heat, the bugs, the mountains, the mud. Or about the work – facilitating group discussions on language vitality, collecting wordlists. But ultimately it’s about getting to know the people and discover opportunities to serve them.
A 2012 survey was particularly memorable, being more adventurous than most trips. Here are a few of the people we met along the way:
These people remain without vernacular Scripture. They are family, or could be. Some need a clear invitation. Probably best to give that invitation in their language!
For groups like this one, our research’s conclusion is clear: they’d benefit enormously from the Bible in their language! Pray that people would answer God’s call to serve this group and many others like them.
72 days until our return to PNG!
We shared about Papua New Guinea 11 times during two trips this month. From ten minutes with an excited group of kids to an hour-plus with a group around a fire, what we shared was different each time. We enjoy and are blessed by these opportunities to connect with others and focus on PNG.
However, my overriding sentiment by that fire was frustration with trying to communicate cogently about the people of PNG. Why frustration?
Jesus’ call is to radical faith-lived-out, to sacrifice, to being transformed each day into the new being he originally designed us to be. His commands to Pray! Give! Go! are for you, me, and the people of Papua New Guinea too. For PNGans, ‘the ends of the earth’ is places like America, which needs Jesus’ saving and sanctifying every bit as much as PNG does. Disciples of Jesus should expect to crisscross the globe – and other earthly barriers – until Jesus comes.
Feeling frustrated brings reminds us of Jesus’ words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30) And so we pray that the urgency appropriate to the task be paired with the peace that passes understanding (Phil 4:7).
I’ve been around Bible-less peoples my whole life, and the question below still don’t have good answers. There are some answers – we’re not without hope, and God has his ways – but the lack of vernacular Scriptures in a huge barrier!
Praise God for the work he accomplishes in hearts and minds even where vernacular Scripture doesn’t exist! Pray that he would be swift to rally his children to translate Scripture for all peoples.
May Jesus “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Indeed, may it be in PNG, the USA, and among every tribe and tongue, that “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” (Eph 3:20-21).
78 days to PNG!
See more pictures from the PNG gallery at beautiful PNG. Other galleries at the Carters and survey trips.
As fall colors sweep in waves across northern forests, we rejoice in the sacred rhythm of seasons, Creator-sanctified by an eternal God. When chill chills, we think fondly of PNG, where the changing of seasons is subtle, and green persists year-round.
Enjoy PNG’s splendor below, and see the full album at https://carter-pathways.com/?page_id=120. We are 85 days from return!
Heaven’s glory, expressed on earth
Tree stone flower, divine mirth
Ballet of temporal splendor
Timed tune, eternal metaphor
“Let there be light” – the first command
Climax creation – woman, man
Dare we dance to heaven’s voice?
Maestro plays, joyfully noise!
Psalm 19 and others speak more on this topic. How does God use creation to speak to you? What is he saying to you? How are you responding?
God gives us everything. EVERYTHING, not least these precious and incredible bodies. How is your body his temple? How do you use your body to seek first God’s Kingdom?
Our generous Father is delighted when we praise him for his goodness, and when we worship him by revering him with the resources he has given us. As I reflect on this, I perceive we’re doing fairly well in the longer-term redeployment of the resources God’s given us stewardship of (see this recent post), but less well at being ready to be generous-without-notice: with cash, possessions, or time.
PNGans practice relational generosity regularly. We continue to learn from them.
Fire-side story time! I wrote this story in 2015 imagining one PNGan’s life and his perspective on Bible translation. How different PNGans see and experience Bible translation varies widely across PNG.
Imagining life from another’s perspective can aid in relationship-building, especially across cultures. Of course, such imagining is inevitably imperfect; assumptions and conclusions should be checked and rechecked.
Dream Pig is also flawed, and there are things I’d change about it now, 6 years after I wrote it. If there weren’t things I’d change, I’d be concerned, as that would indicate I’ve stopped learning.
As I look at our list of financial partners, I find it remarkable that this model works for cross-cultural work all over the world.
Money and time are precious to people. They worry and labor and toil to preserve and increase them. Jesus addresses those concerns in Mt 6: “Do not be anxious.”
Jesus counsels to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Our partners are the most ordinary of people (see the post on Tikvah for thoughts on ‘ordinary’). As I look at the list of 83 individual/family partners, I see:
And the list goes on. In the 11 years we’ve been in PNG, these partners have experienced deaths and births and job changes and relocations and… you name it, it’s happened. Each partner has many reasons to have stopped giving. But they’ve chosen to trust God and to seek first the kingdom that God is building. What a miracle! What a marvelous testimony to the transformative work of God in their lives! What a privilege for us to be the bridge between these partners and PNGans.
I started with, “I find it remarkable that this model works.” Oh, it’s isn’t perfect and has its pros and cons like any strategy. But at its heart, it is relational – these partners and their relationships with us, our relationships with PNGans. Those relationships aren’t perfect either; there is much opportunity for iron to sharpen iron (Pro 27:17) as we journey together! But this approach reflects Jesus’ prioritization of relational approaches. The result is a delicate-but-resilient network dedicated to God’s kingdom work.
Praise God for prayer and financial partners! They’ve chosen to trust God with their time and money, and God is using them to make disciples in PNG. “Your kingdom come!”
Pray for us as we engage in these relationships with partners and with PNGans. It is an immense privilege, a solemn responsibility, and hard work.
If you are a partner, I ask you to invite others to this network! If you need ideas for how, we can help.
If you’re not a partner, consider joining. It’s fantastic to be part of what God’s doing in PNG.
This weekend we’re headed to Ohio to connect with a new church there, and we’ll send a newsletter today. Let us know if you want a copy.
On a research trip in 2020, the survey team sits together under a leaf shelter. It is attached to the jungle-materials house belonging to one of our guides, which we will sleep in. We had hiked from the coast along a narrow ridge to his village in the mountains, which we were to conduct research. From within the shelter’s shade, we see a great deal more mountain above us. The breeze blows chill and there’s a hint of rain in the air, but no running water of any kind on the ridge.
The fire in our midst grows in prominence as sunlight fades, and ease settles over the group as strangeness wears off. Our hands are busy with a mundane task: separating the leaves of what would be our supper from their stems. A huge pile of a garden plant had been brought – it looked far more than we’d need – but between getting rid of the stems, the leaves boiling down, and our hike-induced hunger, we would do justice to our verdant repast.
As the light dies, I listen as the mama of the house gives instructions related to the food. Watch with interest as the old man in the traditional loincloth sits for hours without saying a word. Enjoy my PNGan teammates joking and laughing with each other and our hosts.
I reflect on the trip thus far:
After supper it rains. Sky-water becomes ground-water, sending probing fingers into our shelter. Ditches are dug to channel it away.
As we sit together, faces barely lit by the fire’s embers, the future in uncertain. It’s likely that life will go on much as it has for these people. Living in small communities, eating from the land, looking for education and business opportunities where they can.
The big question is: will they continue to see God through the clouded lens of another language, or can that barrier be removed by producing vernacular Scripture? How much better that they can see clearly, so they can follow well! Unfortunately, one might argue that their view has always been blurry, and that they need opportunity to “taste and see” without that distortion to discover how much better it is!
Put another way, perhaps vernacular Scripture is like a new food; you don’t know it’s wonderful until you’ve tried it. Soul-food.
Several days later we learned that our participation in the preparation of our supper was perceived as remarkable. Properly dignified guests would perhaps have excused themselves from such duties. But our incarnational savior Jesus set an example of service, and demonstrated that he was very much concerned with – even focused on – society’s outcast, or those deemed unimportant. Pray for these people of the misty mountains, and those on the sandy coasts, and all those everywhere to see God. Pray, and look for a way to participate in God’s care for them. See Call to Action for suggestions.
“God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:36-39
I’ve preached on “light” at two churches recently. Light makes for an interesting Scripture word study. When you explore verses that talk about the Father God and Jesus being light, other characteristics of God became clear. For example:
Psalms 27 speaks of the salvation offered by God – both an eternal inheritance and a stronghold on earth. John 8 promises guidance for a life leading to eternal life with him. Isn’t it good to have a God who lights the way and walks with us?
Three times I’ve been in a helicopter that got lost.
Our heli pilots are amazing and are essential for accomplishing research and Bible translation in many of the remote parts of PNG. I’m sure I was just lucky to have been on three trips where we got “lost.” As Daniel Boone said, “I can’t say I was ever lost, but I was once bewildered for about 3 days.”
People today experience a significant degree of lostness. They’re “walking in darkness.” As I reflected in my sermon on light, one way PNGans experience lostness is in the changes brought to their communities by contact with the outside world. Without speaking about the pros and cons of such contact, many villages had systems which were largely functional before contact (also dysfunctional in significant ways, as one would expect in all human societies…). Contact with other technologies and ways of thinking has created complexity and confusion. Of course many cultures experience disruption, but for communities in PNG, the contact was often abrupt and therefore more disorienting.
You can think of many other kinds of ‘lostness’ experienced by people today, including in the West. How can people get found?
We believe in a simple answer: a supreme Creator who made humanity and the universe – “God’s Playground” a friend calls it. This God desires to be in fellowship with humanity, but humanity chose (and chooses) to go their own way, turning from their Creator and seeking to find meaning elsewhere. Jesus provided a way for humanity to reenter relationship with God by bearing the consequences of sin at the cross, proving his power over death by rising again.
More poetically: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:4-6).
In my sermon, I reflected that the worst situation is when you’re so lost you don’t even know you’re lost, don’t know that you need to be found. The most lost may be the most fringe, or the most absorbed in following another god (e.g., money); it can be intimidating or difficult to be around these people. That didn’t deter Jesus, and it shouldn’t deter his children.
Jesus’ work shows us the way to God and allows us to be with him. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:19-25).
This is the ‘simple answer:’ to turn (repent) and reenter relationship with our Creator and Father. Mt 4:16 …“the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Good news that needs spreading! Even with wayward helicopters.
One of our pilots – someone we play ultimate frisbee with when not being transported in his heli – has a YouTube channel if you want more heli action.
