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Our Part in Islands Outreach 
Printing &
Publication needs
NTM
works in
22 separate locations throughout the Islands Region of PNG. Each
location
is at a different stage of church planting, some now have fully
autonomous
churches but many have not even heard the truth of God’s Word yet.
Established churches usually have a large range of
printed
material in their own language, however their books
do
not last long in the bush locations and need replacement. The
elders of these church groups come to the NTM Hoskins
Centre to replenish this need and have new teaching materials printed.
Sometimes
book and materials need
updating
during the formative years of their new literature as
missionaries
find new and better
ways to
express something. At times it is nesecary
for a
change to be made in word
usage and that means contact must be made with
the original missionaries
who worked in that
location and the literature is to be re-printed.
Missionaries involved in new
outreaches take from 4 to
6 years before they produce any literature. First must come the long
process
of language learning and translation and eventually they become ready
to
have literacy materials printed. At a further stage bible
portions and
bible lessons will also be needed as they begin to teach their new
friends the truth
of God’s
grace.
Tribal
Resource
Centre
This is where we come
in. Our work is
in a facility called
the
Tribal Resource Centre where we print these literacy and bible teaching
materials
for our co-workers who work in isolated tribal locations. We also need to be
available
to reprint literature that comes into disrepair from constant
use. Part of
this is in an advisory capacity giving guidance on formating and
presentation for printing. Most
material is translated by the “bush missionary” and forwarded to us for
publication
by email as hard copy or sent in on a compact disk. Most books
are what we
call
the initial teaching books and only require simple comb binding,
however
Bible text is eventually printed and bound in a more polished and
permanent
manner by NTM publishing in Sanford, U.S.A.
A new part of our work is to set out all the literature and
literacy
teaching materials and books in order of priority according to the different stages
of
language acquisition through
to teaching. This we hope to do to make our co-workers aware what
materials
are needed next in their work.
Extended
Work
Training
Indigenous Co-workers - It is desirable to train our
national
PNG co-workers to run
the TRC
to establish self-sufficiency in the area of literature
replacement. This has not started yet but as we plan, we trust
our
Heavenly Father believing He will make it happen.
Co-worker
support – Many of our “Bush” missionaries are located
in
very
isolated areas and can
become
lonely and stressed
from difficult
conditions.
We hope to visit more of these who are often the only family in their
location.
We hope to gain a knowledge of what their literature needs are
and
to give a helping hand in what ever way is necessary to give relief on
the
job. This involves us being away from the TRC for
a couple of weeks a quarter and being involved in cooking for bush work
teams building houses, asisting
with construction and building relationships in the process.
Other Projects - Another ongoing
project is the
production
of PowerPoint presentations of the work in the Islands Region. These are to be for use by missionaries
on furlough and in NTM
training
colleges around the world. The next project is to be called "In
depth in the Islands".
Sundry –
Of
course there are always the extra things
we need to be involved in to help in the smooth running of the
Hoskins
Supply Centre. These include: Centre security,
Convention
Planning, Primary Cricket instruction, Finance
Office work and
Medical Clinic
Aid. There are also times when we are needed for the occasional
School Art Teaching, chopper
shuttle operation to help in mooving supplies into
isolated
locations.
We praise our God for His
strength!
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