Adam & Julie MartinTribal Church Planting with the Akolet of Papua New Guinea

P&P - March 28, 2007

Please pray:

• For Joseph, the Coleman's 5-year-old son, who is struggling with frequent ear infections. Â Pray for wisdom for Ryan and Nicki as they seek to know how to best help him.


• For us as we return to our routine of Akolet culture and language study, and that our minds continue to absorb all that we're learning. Â Please also pray that the next 3 months in the bush until our next time out would be profitable and that we would not go stir crazy being "stuck" out here!


• For God to continue providing the needed finances for the house-building expenses we incurred over the past several months.


• For our hearts to be captivated with the love of God, and that we would long for more of Him daily.


• For wisdom in dealing with the sometimes complicated relationships with the Akolet people. Â Please pray especially for certain "Big Men" (village leaders) who often have expectations of us that we just cannot fulfill.

Praise God:

• For Ryan Coleman's health. Â Apparently it was just a virus that was over quickly, not malaria.


• For safe travel to and from Hoskins, and for a nice time of reconnecting with many of our other missionary friends during our week of conference.


• For nothing out of the ordinary upon our arrival home - we were concerned about thefts taking place while both us and Colemans were gone, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that nothing had happened while we were gone.


• For the upcoming visit of Julie's parents in July!

P&P - March 16, 2007

Please Pray:

• For our co-worker, Ryan Coleman, who is feeling run down and we think may have malaria.


• For a time of refreshment and encouragement as we and Colemans go out to Hoskins for a week long conference with all the other missionaries in our region of PNG.


• For our minds to be absorbing all that we're learning in Akolet language and culture study.

Praise God:

• For many good friendships that we are forming with the Akolet people. Nicki and I are especially thankful for some wonderful lady friends here.


• For the amount of information we've already learned during our first few weeks of language and culture study.


• For some good rain that helped to fill our water tanks after a long dry spell. Â (Please also continue to pray for regular rain.)

Language and Culture Study Update

Thank you so much for praying for our language and culture study; it's going well.  While we aren't able to actually say much yet, I will admit that every time my brain is not consciously occupied by something concrete, I have phrases running through my head thanks to the copious amounts of recordings that we listen to everyday as part of our structured learning time.  Unfortunately the phrases that get the most stuck are not anything terribly useful.  They are random bits like "Is this your water?" and "Wait for me!" and "I got my knife and now I'm just walking around".  Sometimes I mutter things almost unconsciously as it is already playing in my head, which must look funny if you were to see me washing dishes and repeating, "Where is the fire?  Where is the firewood?  Where is the fire..."

One big answer to prayer:  the Lord has given Nicki and I some great ladies here that we really enjoy being with.  There are those of course who just want to use us for what they can get out of us, some that want to help us with language but just aren't very good at it, and some that are just frankly a little obnoxious.  (They have this habit of kind of slapping you when you say something they think is funny, which because we're still relatively new EVERYTHING we say is funny.  But you have to consider how bulky most of these ladies are, so quite often it really hurts and you're trying to laugh and carry on like you're having a grand time while bracing yourself for the next blow.  The other day I had a whole group of ladies slapping me because I greeted them with "Good morning, my name is Julie."  I personally didn't think that was slap-worthy, but they all sure thought so!) All that to say, there are some great ladies here and I feel like the Lord
has answered our prayers for friends.

Later this week we head to our mission base in Hoskins for a week long conference with all the missionaries in our region of PNG.  We are grateful for this time out of the bush - it has been 3 months since we were last out in civilization and a short break will be wonderful.  We appreciate your prayers for our spiritual encouragement during this time.  (As a side note, this will be the first time that we and Colemans are both gone from our homes at the same time, so we'd also appreciate prayer that nothing major would get stolen in our absence.  We know it's just "stuff", but stealing certainly creates bigger issues for us and the people than merely replacing the items that were taken.)

"We lift our eyes to Heaven; We wrap our lives around Your Life."
Adam & Julie Martin
Akolet Tribe
Papua New Guinea