Ben and Tabea’s nine-month home assignment is already coming to an end. They are also looking forward to returning and getting back into ministry. The plan is to leave the UK this month and spend some time in Germany before returning to Asia-Pacific in May. Thankfully, Tabea has been granted “Settled Status” for the UK, which overrides the need for a visa and has no restrictions of how much time she needs to spend and where she needs to spend it. A huge blessing.
There have been so many things during their home assignment that they have been thankful for: Daniel’s heart check-up, surgery to Noah’s hand, Esther’s birth, dental care and more, including having the opportunity to attend the REACH conference at the New Tribes Mission training centre in March. They were invited to share some updates about what God is doing in the area of Asia -Pacific, where their team has been working. It was really refreshing for them to be able to catch up with old friends and have some good fellowship, as well as listen in on some of the other talks during the conference.
God is not limited to just working in the UK. While Ben and Tabea have been away, their team has been busy surveying different locations on one of the many the islands of Asia-Pacific.
There is one particular location where their team feel God is opening the door for us to work there. It is up in the mountains, where a people group of about 50 people live.
The language group may be as large as 4000 speakers according to old Wycliffe surveys, including people that live on the coast. The people in this remote village do not have any access to God’s Word in their heart language. Their language does not even have an alphabet! Their ability to speak the trade language is very limited and their culture is very different.
The village is very difficult to reach, taking the team of guys about nine hours the first day, and five more hours the second day to arrive at their destination, totalling around fourteen hours of difficult and dangerous hiking.
They hope and pray for a helicopter to be available, to make if possible for their families to live in the village up in the mountains, which would otherwise seem impossible.
The three guys from their team plan to hike up to the tribe again soon. Please pray for them as they are hoping to ask the elder of the village if the team would be allowed to live with them and serve among them.
Moving into the tribe is still a couple of years away, but it they are sure that the villagers are open to them moving there, they want to move onto that island and initially live on the coast, where they might be able to start learning the language and culture while praying for a helicopter.