Our first survey: this is a BIG DEAL.

We want to thank you all for the many prayers you have prayed for us recently!  As most of you probably know, Nathan and our partner David just recently went on their first survey trip to an unreached tribe.  We haven't communicated very much to all of you since they got back...not because we don't want to, but mainly because this is just SO BIG.  It's hard to know how to communicate all that we are thinking and feeling--we have been busy processing it ourselves!  All that to say--we really want to keep you all updated--so here, I'm going to do my best!  (I will tell you in advance that it's kind of long...but we would love if you read it all!  It will help you to know how to pray!)

Okay, so you might remember the trips that Nathan/David, and then me/Emily took into Hewa back in July?  (Read these posts if you forget: #1, #2, #3).  Okay, anyway, that was a village called Yifki.  Yifki is a village in the Hewa people group, and there are missionaries who live in there, and a church has already been planted!  The missionaries are working on translating right now.  

Well, it just so turns out that Hewa is a BIG people group--and it's actually made up of a few different languages.  So, to finish this Hewa work, there needs to be at least two more teams of missionaries to go in and reach the other Hewan languages.  Does that make sense?  I hope so...

After we started learning more about this, God started working in all of our hearts.  He began to give us this vision of seeing Jesus be made famous among ALL of the Hewa people.  Isn't that an awesome vision?  We still need to pray lots about if this is a good fit for our families, but the desire for this vision is there!

The next step would be for the guys to do a survey of one of these Hewa areas.  What is a survey, you might wonder?  Well, basically the first survey has a couple of purposes:  

1. to find out the peoples' thinking (do they really want missionaries?  why do they want missionaries?)
2. To tell the people exactly what we would come to do.

Point #2 is so vital.  Because many times, these tribes in PNG have very wrong thinking about us western missionaries.  Many times (or most times)--the people think that we westerners have some magic formula, and that we will teach them God's "magic" words--and then they would get tons of material stuff.  And become rich.  Things like that.  Which we all know are just lies from Satan, but these people actually really believe it.  So anyway, it is very important for these beliefs to be dispelled on the survey.  The missionaries tell the people very clearly:  New Tribes missionaries come to do FOUR things.  These four things are:

1. We learn their language and culture.  
2. We teach them to read and write their language.
3. We translate God's Word into their language.
4. We teach them God's Word.

And that's it.  Those are the only things that we would actually promise to do.  (of course, we might end up doing some medical work, or other things like that--but that is not the REASON we are coming in.  We don't promise them this).

After the people hear those four things, then we really want to know if they still want us to come live with them!  We don't want them to have unreal expectations, you know?

Okay, so all of that is basically what the survey is.  Does all of that make sense? Sometimes I wonder how to communicate all of this information to you all back home...it's hard!  I just hope it's not confusing!

So.  We decided to do a survey of the southern area of Hewa.  And this was actually a big survey--because the closest airstrip is about a 10 hour hike away from the village!  Whew.  Emily and I are so proud of our men for doing this!  It wasn't easy, that's for sure!

They left on a Tuesday, and first flew to a town called Mt. Hagen.  

While they were there, they met lots of people, made contacts, etc etc.  They had to stay 2 nights in that town because of the way the flight schedule worked out. While they were there, they bought some pineapples--to quote our guys, it was "the best pineapple I have ever eaten in my entire life!" 

Okay, so then on Thursday morning, they flew into Yifki (remember, the Hewa village that already has a church planted in it?  And missionaries live there?)  Yeah, so they flew into there to pick up Jonathan (the missionary) and Faimpat (a very awesome and strong believer in Yifki).  Jonathan and Faimpat were going to go along on this survey, which was a HUGE help to our guys! 

After they picked up those two guys, they flew to the southern area of Hewa, to a grass airstrip.  They were ready to start their LOOOONG hike.  They met a man named Ishmael who knew the way to their destination, which was a huge answer to prayer!  Because our guys sure didn't know the way :) 

 Here is Faimpat, Nathan and Ishmael--with a vine bridge in the background.  I gave Nathan strict orders to take pictures if they crossed a vine bridge!  So he did a good job of following my instructions :) 

So thankful that Nathan can do this alongside David.  They are both godly men who are PASSIONATE for the glory of God and the fame of Christ!

This area is so beautiful!  And it's up in the mountains, which means no humidity!  (Me and Emily were doing a happy dance at this news--if we do end up going to this tribe, we will gladly leave the humidity here in Wewak!  Lol)

Nathan was able to get some good ideas for our house plans--which was super helpful! ;) 

In many places, they encountered these "spirit gates"...which the people build to keep evil spirits away.  They believe the spirits can't go through these gates...

Okay, so after a very intense hike, the guys made it to their destination.  We'll call it Mali for now. As they came up to the village, they were met with...four old people.  And that's all!  The other people were all off at some celebration a few hours' hike away!  Hmm.  But thankfully the council of the village, Sam, had heard along the way that our guys were hiking to his place.  So he ran back from the celebration to meet them--that was super encouraging to Nathan and Dave.  So this was on Friday--and Sam said the people should return to the village Saturday or Sunday.  (A lot of you were praying for the people to come back--thank you for praying alongside us!) Things weren't going exactly the way we had hoped...

God heard your prayers!  The people started coming back the next day, and then on Sunday, our guys were able to give the BIG TALK (also being prayed about by many of you!)  They sat down with all of the leaders of the village and the area, and they presented to the people the four things that NTM missionaries come to do.  The people were all in agreement--they want us to come!  They said if we come, they would all move their houses closer to live by us--which was encouraging to hear, because the people don't live in one village like we had envisioned.  Rather, they are in little hamlets spread out across the mountainsides.  Not super easy to get to!

The meeting went really well and was a HUGE encouragement to Nathan and David.  The next day (Monday), the guys said good-bye and began the long hike back.  The people presented our guys with gifts--you can't really see it, but there is a live chicken in Nathan's bag :)  That was their gift to him!  Lol.  (It was a sweet and generous gift but we can't really take care of it here on the base...so Nathan gave it to Faimpat.)

 They made it back to the airstrip and hung out there for a day, and then on Wednesday morning the airplane picked them up and took them to Yifki.

The guys were able to talk and process with Jonathan at his house in Yifki that night, and then Thursday morning...

They came home!  

There was much rejoicing in the Mueller and Rimestad households that day :) We sure missed our men!  Ten days was a long time!

 I can't express how proud I am of Nathan--and how much I love him!  This life of living overseas, him being away more, etc...it has strengthened our marriage and drawn us even closer to each other!  I praise God for that.  

So...what now??

Well, we are talking a ton with the Rimestads and our leadership here in Wewak.  Also, next week we decided that our guys should go on one more survey-type of trip, to the western area of Hewa.  The purpose won't be quite the same, because it will mostly just be to see it--if we do end up going to Hewa, we will most likely go to Mali (the village our men just visited).  So this will just be a quick 3 day trip--it will feel like a breeze compared to the ten days they were just gone!

We have just a few details about Mali that we are weighing...things like:

• it is a helicopter access only tribe.  Which means it will be expensive.  Anytime we need to leave the tribe, or get supplies...it would all come by helicopter.  Just something we need to think through...
• There is the thing about the people living really spread out...and HOPEFULLY they would follow through and move their houses closer to us.  But if they didn't...it would make learning their language and doing ministry a lot harder.
• At the end of the survey trip, our guys found out some things about a Hewan guy who is going around spreading false prophecies...about white missionaries coming to their area and then heaven would come to Hewa...some very interesting stuff.  More things to think through!

If you read this to the end...THANK YOU.  Thank you for reading it, for caring about us, and for praying for us.  Please keep praying!  Your prayers are absolutely making this possible.  We COULD NOT do this without your prayers!  

We'll keep you posted!  We love you all!