inapangministries

from Home…and still waiting for Home.

“O Lord, you have been our home in all generations.” 
Dear Prayer Warriors,

Happy first day of 2022! Bill and I are both, indeed, safely home in Papua New Guinea! Bill made it back the first week of December and I made it back yesterday with my coworker, Marissa. We are very thankful for this as there were many opportunities for paperwork and air travel difficulties along our 3-day long travel itineraries. He has been very kind and I am writing you from our little PNG home. 

“Home”
is a funny word for us. At first, home was our place of birth and origin. All the sights and sounds and rules of the new culture were foreign, and we were required to submit ourselves to being taught by it if we were to become part of and be able to tell God’s Story in this new place. Then, somewhere along the last 19 years, time and “being” in this new culture become our new reality. We feel his presence when we work here. He gives us joy and a kind peace to continue living and working in a place that is all but forgotten by most of the world. He somehow gives us a passion for it and presses his Great Commission ever to our faces, never letting us forget what He has called us to. He makes himself our “home” here. And yet, when we travel back, for a moment we also feel ourselves in another familiar place called “home.” Living between two worlds is not at all comfortable. Our hearts are constantly torn in two distant parts and then three as we push the other two worlds away to focus once again on the one that will hold us for eternity. Choices. Worlds. Lives. Homes. Transitions. We are all moving toward a day when we will finally rest in an eternal home and that brings us both remarkable joy.


The “First Home”
was amazing! It was so good to catch up with daughters, sons-in-law, grandbabies, parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews & nieces, life-long friends, supporter (old and new) and more. My highlight, of course, was meeting my one-year-old grandson and realizing that his 14-month baby face matched a photo of mine from 14 months old taken back in 1975! Living with my girls and their families was also a highlight and a means to praising God for his faithfulness in their lives. They are both recently moved into new locations (still in Louisville, KY) closer their church families and community and are moving their families towards Christ in their daily walks and routines at home. We treasured up many memories from day to day and my sister even printed a book to allow us to hold memories literally in our hands. Our tribute from home goes to our parents, Jack and Jane Housley and Ken and Gail Taggart, though. These four men and women of faith have been a faithful part of this ministry in their prayers, encouragement, and their financial giving and we are so thankful to have them as our heritage. They are constantly pushing us to continue in the work of the Lord and reminding us to keep our hand to the plow, even when we want to give up until He takes us home. First Home is doing well, and it was good to be part of it again. My favorite part is that most of the people in this First Home of mine are people that I will see again. We will spend a very long time in an eternal home together one day.

The “Second Home”
is a sweet place to land after three days of travel. As we stepped back into the warm, balmy air and joined in the push and shove of crowds moving in one direction or another, we were given a SURPRISE…Bill had flown to the capital city to rent a room for us to shower & sleep for last 8 hour layover before escorting us home. We finally made the last leg of our flight. A friend picked us up and we made our way to our little truck and finally back to our home and front porch, which was a lovely sight. Since we have been gone, there have been good and bad events take place here as is true in every place.  We do live in a dangerous place and bad things happen, but we can’t focus there. We choose to find the positive about this place that the Lord has placed us to work. We find sight and sounds and people that can help lead our hearts to praise. Calls come in right away from the village church…checking to see if we arrived. Calls come in from students in the remote areas who hiked up to call and report that they have paid their school fees and are ready to get back to school. A student shows up on the porch with a big smile, a hug and his school fees and welcomes us back. These are things that bring us joy in this, our Second Home.

Second Home in 2022
will be busy. We will have another 16 students joining us and we are thrilled! Twelve students will be coming from four of our Inapang tribal church plants. One student will be from a town location as his father is from our home village of Itutang and he is a nephew of one of our church elders. Another two will be coming from the local area around the school – the son of our local Council who is also our “Papa Ground” and then a nephew of our local Magistrate. The last student is an exciting one for us. Our dear friends on the Dinangat team began church planting in Morobe province right before us in 2002.  Our churches and tribal elders have met many times before to encourage each other or help each other and now, we will be enrolling one of their church elder’s daughters in RVA! We are excited to link the churches together in this new way and to serve the Dinangat church! Please pray for these girls and boys as they prepare to begin their educational journey with RVA! Pray that their hearts will be soft towards us and towards the gospel. Also, pray for our little RVA team as we are back on the ground and have a lot of practical work to get done to be ready!

Home Team
Thank you so much for praying for us. Thanks to those of you who complained about my lack of emailing this year and have prompted me to get back at it. Thanks to those of you who are giving financially to us a family or giving consistently to the Ramu Valley Academy or have chosen to make the six-year commitment to sponsor a student.  These things are such an important role, and we couldn’t be making progress with these students and their families if you weren’t giving in these ways. We are so thankful for the team that is working together with us to see Christ made much of in this next generation of the local tribal churches here in Papua New Guinea. We will be posting pictures of the arrivals and the orientation week when it happens the end of January, so if you have facebook or are able to check us out on a friend’s account, then you can follow their journey online. 

Hope of Home
Lastly, I just want to give glory to Jesus for setting my HOPE and my ETERNITY through his blood payment for my sin debt. His word tells us that any follower of himself will have eternal peace in heaven, but here on earth he has promised that we will leave some loved things behind, we will find hardships and trials and we will face persecution for even desiring to live a godly life while in this world. We see this truly happening in our “First Home” and in our “Second Home.” But, it’s okay because none of these places here on earth are truly anyone’s home. And, we don’t get to be here long. Soon, we will open our eyes wider and we will see the King himself will welcome us…. SAFELY HOME. 

By God’s Grace & For His Glory~
Bill and Kelley Housley

As we come to the close of 2020, I think all of us would agree that there have been better years. These are the times when it is good to remind ourselves that our God is GOOD and He is SOVEREIGN – all the time and that there is nothing outside of his magnificent plan, which will culminate in the Return of the King. As we review the year’s events, one of the things that impacted us most was, of course, CoVid19. Personally, the virus took a dear family friend and supporter from us just days before CHRISTmas. We absolutely rejoice that he spent CHRISTmas with THE LIFE itself and in all of his new glory as a citizen of heaven. But, our hearts are heavy for his family who are long and faithful friends as they continue here on earth without their sweet husband and dad. The travel bans also delivered the biggest punch to our RVA team and timeline as we cancelled four building teams that amassed to about 480 man hours of work that fell heavily on the shoulders of Bill and our co-workers, Eric and Joshua. However, we added two of our PNG friends to our building/landscaping team and are thankful for those strengthened relationships. The travel bans also kept us from meeting our little grandson who is Bill’s namesake and still to this day our arms ache to hold him and see him face to face and to wrestle little Ansley up with some floor time that she seems to love so much these days. It’s true. Sometimes missions really hurts to the core and you have to dig down deeper into those Scriptures that give the living, breathing truth your soul is searching for. Meditating on verses about peace and about our eternal home brings reason back to our life here on earth away from things that our hearts treasure as we make our journey “home”. One of our missionary friends has a Richard Baxter quote on the wall of her little house in the tribe that asks us the question….is not eternity long enough for your rest? So, with our eyes lifted off CoVid and fixed on eternity,  here is what is going on in our little corner of the world right now.

Inapang Churches The churches continue to meet and grow and struggle and grow some more. We are thankful for the elders who are on the ground everyday dealing with the messy life of the church and those who are opposing it. Please pray often for the Inapang believers and the leadership in the churches. Also, please continue to pray for the other Ramu Valley churches in the area who are fighting the fight of faith in Kaje, Tangguat, and Iski.  We are thankful for the missionary teams around the Valley who are working to strengthen the churches that they have planted and disciple them as they walk together towards heaven! The Inapang churches are also preparing to send students out to the Ramu Valley Academy on January 20th from the churches  and have already begun the selection process and interviews for next year. We are so excited to be working with them in this way. Pray that the future of the church is strengthened by the efforts of RVA!

RVA Team & Timeline Progress Our RVA team is geared up and ready to teach! Many hours have been spent thinking and writing curriculum specifically for these transitional days and we are thrilled to be on the precipice of teaching our first classes. The schedule and curriculum includes daily habits, spiritual disciplines, Bible teaching, logic and the normal educational endeavors. Please, please, please pray for our first RVA students.  Pray that the Spirit would be working to bring things into their lives even now to make them ready and willing to hear the gospel if they haven’t already heard and believed it (especially a few that are joining us from town), to walk in obedience if they have and to be willing to put new disciplines into their lives that will make them ready to walk in the good works that the Lord has prepared for them.  We will send a student list soon so that you can pray for  specific names. For more details on specific ways we have been watching the Lord work in our lives and theirs, request the latest update from Marissa Myers, our newest addition to the RVA teaching team. She did a beautiful job of remembering some of the Lord’s graces the past two months in detail. If you would like to read more of how the Lord is working, please request her latest update: marissa_myers@ntmpng.org

RVA construction has finished up most of Phase 1, with a couple more smaller builds outstanding. Time and Labor have made it hard to finish up everything for staff houses and library, but we are sitting pretty with the things we need to get started teaching. The washhouse got a PNG mural added and is just beautiful and we have decided to add a small shower house running on well water to help keep everyone clean. Pray for this last project as we try and finish it up in the coming weeks before classes begin. There are a lot of little last minutes to clean up and we would appreciate your prayers that the Lord would make our time “fat”.  This is a prayer we have prayed since our early village days and have seen him answer and get things done that we never thought we’d have time for – so pray with us and let’s watch how He does it again!

RVA Students are starting to form a team here at the school and work on some projects together.

Urban  Students– We have 4 community students living here in town. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Cletus (Itutang church elder) and his family moved out to “Grace Place” (much more fun to say in tok ples….”Sugum Mpəga Mpara”), which is another small lot of ground next to the school property where we have built sleep houses for the Ramu Valley kids coming out for school.  We also built a “Watch Papa” house and the elders and deacons will take turns coming out to be living and mentoring the kids in the evenings when they come home for dinner and sleep. Cletus’ daughter will also be in our class so she has joined in with the four town kids and it has been so cool to see them all work and play and serve this CHRISTmas together as we did different awareness projects in the surrounding community. They served a beautiful dinner with us for the RVA student families and the local leaders and we practiced some music together as entertainment for the dinner, which ended up going really well. (See more pictures on facebook at the Ramu Valley Academy page.) We are so excited to have the Lord begin to knit all of our hearts together as a team. 

Rural Students from the Valley – The students have paid their school fees and are getting ready to move to our Grace Place in town. They each have a prayer partner and sponsor from our home churches and we will begin settling them in on January 20th.  Please pray for us as we make all the last minute preparations and get ready for “Welcoming Day” and the first days of RVA orientation. 

RVA Kick Off & Grand Opening!

The school’s first day of regular classes will kick off January 25th! The first term will be super intense for our staff team as we work through the newly written RVA FOUNDATIONS curriculum, which reviews concepts from grades 4-6, allowing us to isolate areas of deficiency in each individual student’s education and catch them up on those specific areas. This will make it easier for us to move into the PNG curriculum as a class team, not leaving anyone behind along the way. It will also be an intense time for the students as we use this first term to move them into full time English usage (their government language). Pray for all of us to be ready and willing to work and for brains that can keep up. Again, it sounds like a lot of work, but our  teaching team is ECSTATIC to BEGIN! We LOVE this job!

RVA Friends & Sponsors We can never open a monthly support statement or write an update without thinking about all of you at home who work so diligently and give part of what you earn to make a difference in lives here in PNG and ultimately in ETERNITY! We love being your hands and feet and a steward of your gifts to the Ramu Valley Academy and the students here. Please know that you are a HUGE part of this team and that you are loved and appreciated! We are thanking GOD for you all today as we move into a beautiful New Year that was planned long ago by a Very Good Father! Excited to see how he  grows all of us more into his likeness this year. 

By God’s Grace & For His Glory~

Bill and Kelley Housley

 “…but what JOY for those who take refuge in Him!”
Psalm 2:12

Dear Praying Friends,
 
We are FULL of thanks this morning for God, His Word, and each of YOU. It’s been a busy couple of months and most of you follow our facebook page or the Ramu Valley Academy page and have seen the progress, but we wanted to write a longer update here for those of you who are praying faithfully for us and this ministry.
 
HUGE PRAISE of PROMISE! Thanks to God for opening doors and bringing Promise Vaughan back into PNG. Promise is safely back in PNG and in quarantine for the next two weeks. After that, she will return to our little village of Itutang to continue her work with the Itutang elders in. supporting the Tangguat village church from there with her ongoing translation project.
 
The INAPANG CHURCHES’ GROWTH and THIS WEEK’S CONFERENCE!!! The churches in the Inapang language group are continuing to grow amidst many difficulties. The elders from our local Itutang village church came out to visit last month for a translation check here in Madang. Besides checking almost 2,000 verses,  it was encouraging to catch up and hear how things are going there. They called again yesterday afternoon to ask us to pray. SO, WE ARE ASKING YOU TO PRAY WITH US!  There will be a Bible Conference in the Valley and men and women from the various churches will be gathering to STUDY, READ & PRAY together. Please pray for their time together to knit them closer together as a BODY as many of the churches are several hours hikes away from each other. Also pray for those who would like to disrupt and destroy. No culture is without its people who despise good. 
 
The RAMU VALLEY TRIBAL CHURCHES IN FOUR LANGUAGE GROUPS Please continue to pray for the bordering churches in the TANGGUAT, KAJE, and ISKI language groups as well. Pray that the Spirit of the Lord would bind them together and that they would seek unity and to mutually encourage one another through the WORD as the trials of life come. 
 
The RVA TEAM GROWS!  The RVA team started with us two Housleys and grew to include Joshua and Amelia Awangin, our Itutang co-workers. Then, last year, the Lord added the Kitchens family from our Kentucky home church to our little team. Both families have been a blessing in many, many ways and have helped encourage our hearts and propel the work forward. Now, it is with GREAT HOPE & JOY that we announce the coming arrival of MARISSA MYERS from Maryville, TN! We are thrilled to have another teacher joining our team as we move towards the opening of the academy in January of next year! Please pray that all her paperwork will be completed by the government agencies in the next week or so allowing her to move forward…..to PNG!
 
The RAMU VALLEY ACADEMY Grows!  The Progress Report
It’s fun to watch the work go forward in photos and video, so we encourage you to check out our facebook page called Ramu Valley Academy to see the progress documented there. But, for a quick overview here, we will say the LORD HAS BEEN GOOD. The workshop, teacher house and well/septic have been completed under budget. Bill and Eric and Joshua have almost completed the classroom building with only some minor projects left inside the two upstairs classrooms, the washroom is in progress and the village churches are coming soon to build their student houses. The curriculum has been established with the local and national Education Department personnel. Kelley has written a 9-week (one term) curriculum called RVA FOUNDATIONS, which catches the student up to the level of curriculum that they will be jumping into for Term 2 of their first year. Although the students coming are some of the top students in our villages, the local educational systems have not prepared them for the 7th grade curriculum that RVA offers in conjunction with the PNG government. She has done research to see where the “below average” areas are in the incoming students and has tailored a foundational introduction course that catches them up for a strong start into Term 2 curriculum. There is much paperwork to be done when starting a non-profit school in another country legally and we are thankful for the members of the RVA Board of Directors and the NTM Business Manager and his department for helping us navigate through the legal waters and receive official government acknowledgement and approval for our academy!!! It truly takes a team and we have been blessed with a team of excellence. We also prayed and asked the Lord for some noble contacts to help encourage us along the way and he has answered. Besides the provincial and national educational advisors he has brought into our path, we have also received encouragement from our local community Council, the local Magistrate, and friends throughout this community and the wider Madang town. We began doing awareness projects for our academy last year which have consisted of assisting with COVID-19 and health awareness campaigns, building a local community bus stop on the corner of our property, and financing a local group of artists to paint the bus stop with a mural celebrating the local culture. For a closer look, please go to the Ramu Valley facebook page and check out the pictures and video. Please continue to pray that the Lord would grant us favor with the local and national governments as we move forward in helping the underprivileged find quality education here in PNG.
 
JUST US TWO
So what about Bill and Kelley? How are you two really doing? To be honest, this has been a very tough year. Lots of new things, lots of turnover on the NTM Centre next door that we still work with and teach in. Lots of changes in the local community, burdens for our local friends and what they hear about the Bible each week. Bill is currently teaching 4 times a week on top of the translation project and the RVA building project. He loves this part of ministry very much and is energized by his time out in the community Bible studies. Kelley has worked this year on the drafting of the book of John in Inapang, curriculum development and government paperwork and proposals and PR as well as mentoring a young girl from the village church who came to live with us for a while beginning in January. Turmoil across our home country and the global pandemic and the reporting of that overseas has added to the burden of living away from family. Our family at home is doing well amidst the turmoil and we are blessed from afar watching their ongoing, growing faith. We miss our girls and their families every day, but are thankful for their faith and their godly husbands who are seeking the Lord and seeking to lead well in these unprecedented days. We are truly blessed. We have another sweet grandchild on the way very soon and in the past, (besides a very long flight) getting home to our kids when we need to be there has been fairly easy. ENTER COVID. Our hearts are torn between leaving and being home   to help  for a short while and the concerns of travel bans that would keep us blocked out as the opening of the school encroaches. This year has been incredibly challenging on many levels. It has been a year that is sweet and full and exhausting and trying and magnificent and terrible. It has tested our faith, our physical stamina, our love for each other and even the Lord Himself at times. It has been all those things but in one word it has been GOOD. We serve a Good and Sovereign God who never called himself “safe”. We are anchored in his Son Jesus Christ. Our hope is there. Our love is there. Our obedience is there. It is where we are learning to live more dependently day by day. It where we are learning to love more, love deeper, love better and grow old gracefully. It is where we find him all-sufficient and where fixing our eyes on him truly makes the world around us (and those who seek to discourage) grow strangely dim because of the light of His glory and grace. We are good….because we serve a God who is GOOD.
 
How to PRAY
I’m sure you already have your list together after reading through this email, but specifically we would ask for YOU, our PRAYER WARRIORS.  We need you to consistently pray for us. We need your prayers so much. We pray for YOU the same that we are praying for ourselves…that you would not be distracted as the nations rage. That you would watch less news and turn into the WORD more for your perspective. That you would not be sidetracked from accusations and rages that aren’t anchored in the. gospel of Jesus Christ. That you would stay focused and dedicated to the Great Commission although the ENTIRE WORLD is telling you that there are more important things going on globally. There is not. Souls and their eternity have always been the priority of our Father and His Son. Do not lose hope. Do not lose focus. People need you around the world. Guys, we need you. More than ever. Thank you for your faithfulness in being part of reaching the unreached with HOPE. May you find your anchor freshly attached to the HOPE again today. 
 
By God’s Grace and For His Glory~
Bill and Kelley

Dear Praying Friends,
What an incredibly life changing week for so many people around the globe. Our hearts break for those souls who are dying from the sickness of this fallen world and for those who are facing these fears without the hope of the gospel. We pray that this time is a time when the Lord uses you to reach out (with good hand-washing of course 🙂 to the lost around you who need hope. So much has happened here in the last few weeks. To save you time, words and space, we have put them into bullet points below. 

December 2019

• Christmas in Itutang, time spent with the churches in Itutang and Tangguat

January 2020

• We came back to Madang with Lydia, Anton’s daughter to help her with some educational needs for a few months.
• We moved into the new RVA teacher house and spent a few weeks completing the final projects inside the house.
• We began the His Story Bible lessons here in the Local community and was blessed to see many of our friends attend and take notes week by week

February

• Dad joined us in February to get ready for two teams and just be an all-around encouragement
• Our RVA team prepped food and lodging for the incoming team from Broadway Baptist in Maryville, TN and then the senior class of Numonohi Christian academy here in PNG

March

• The teams arrive and for 2 weeks we had non-stop work, food, fun, and fellowship.
• These guys raised the roof on our four-classroom building with such joy and zeal it hardly seemed like work!
• While we were hearing about the CoVid19 pandemic, it still seemed very far away until we heard my mom had flown through Paris (which was now an epicenter) on her way to Africa for their team’s work there and wouldn’t be able to return through Europe. She re-routed through another African country and arrived home safely, but with fever and cough. Of course, she had to be put through quarantine and viral testing but came back negative for both malaria and CoVid19. Praising God for that!
• It seems from that point on, things began to cascade here.  As international borders began to close, we began having to change plans and get people home. The NCA team got back to Goroka as planned. The BBC team got back to TN and we got my dad on one of the last flights out of PNG to Australia and then one of the last flights out of Australia.  He and mom are back home together now.
• The PNG government was proactive in shutting its borders internationally and then this week enforced a provincial lockdown, closing off any borders and travel between provinces. To ensure Joshua and Amelia, their children and Anton’s daughter stay safe in the face of a lot of uncertainty, we along with the RVA team and the e2 students contributed to get them up the road and back into the tribe. Since schools has been cancelled, when Eric drove them up the road, he was able to pick up the other Itutang students who would be stranded in town with the school closings. They should be in safely by now, but unfortunately the tower must be down as we have heard from no one in the village all week, which isn’t normal. Thankful that we were able to get them back up the road and they were sent with some educational flyers to help our friends in the village understand what is happening in PNG and around the globe.
• Our provincial government has also posted notice to stay in our houses or localities for the next 14 days. So we are.  After catching up on some rest and getting the house cleaned from all the team and travel, we are getting to a few lingering projects and to our translation and office work. Everyone here has food for a couple of weeks and essential stores and services are still open in Madang town. We are proud of how the government has handled things so far.  The new Prime Minister even called for a Day of Prayer and Fasting to ask for God’s protection. There was one case diagnosed in PNG and treated and then transferred back to Australia.

• Health and Protection of those us living in a third world country with grounded domestic air travel and provincial border closures.
• Pray that the cellular tower would work and we could get word from the Itutang village about the safe arrival of Joshua and Amelia.
• For the village churches scattered throughout the Ramu Valley – including the new baby Christians in Kaje!
• For Promise Vaughan and her plans as she is stuck outside the country wit closed international borders now.
• For the lost around the world to be drawn to the hope within all of us as the Body of Christ globally as we react without fear to the unknowns around us.
• For RVA construction. One team for June is already considering cancelling.  We have another lined up for July and a possible fall trip. We need manpower to finish current projects and start up the next line.
• For physical health and stamina for Bill and I.  We are hitting the 50 mark and as a friend of ours says, “The engine lights start coming on.” We are both battling with ongoing “thorns in the flesh” and want to be faithful to the end, not set back by little sufferings or by our desire to just “have it easy” for a while. Pray that we would continue in the hope and joy of the Lord.
• For Marissa Myers who will be joining us in the fall as an RVA teacher.  Pray that she would still be able to come as planned.
• For Kitchens and Awangins (Joshua and Amelia), Marissa and us as we work together as a team.
• Pray that Bill and I would communicate the Vision of RVA well as our team forms and that we would keep the local Ramu Valley churches in mind as we communicate that vision.
• Pray that those who join would be true learners who ask lots of questions and purposefully work to understand the rationale behind the philosophy and decisions so that they can adapt and fully support the Ramu Valley Church plants as we educate their children.
• Pray for our local community here in Madang as we postpone church, Bible study, and other community meetings for the next 14 days in compliance with the provincial and local notices.
• Pray for the kids who will be attending our first RVA classes next year.  Pray that the Lord would begin working in their hearts and making them open to what He has in store for each of them in the years ahead.
• Pray for sponsors for each student.  We are working on an information sheet to send out explaining why we feel it is important for each student to have a spiritual sponsor. Pray for those who will become part of these students’ lives via distant communication/support.

A Praise from Yesterday:
One of the men in the community who has been attending the weekly His Story Bible study contacted a friend of ours on campus here and let him know that although we wouldn’t be meeting in a big group, that he would be gathering his family together to sing and to review the lessons that they have learned so far. This was honey to everyone’s heart. We pray that God would raise up men and women in this local community who love Jesus and are willing to be spent for his kingdom.  Please pray for the Kananam community here where the RVA school property is on the outskirts of Madang town.

Guys, we love this job.  And we love doing it together as a team with all of you. Please know that we are encouraged in the work here in PNG.  And, although there is much uncertainty with the lockdowns, the state of the healthcare centres, closed international borders now, and a thousand others changes from day to day….that it is well with our souls. We are especially meditating on Psalm 46 and relishing the thought that we can be still and know that He is God and will be exalted among the nations. We are not in fear of an untimely death.  We know that the one who marked our birth day has marked our last day and that both days were written with the purest ink flowing from an unconditional perfect love. 

By God’s Grace & For His Glory~
Bill and Kelley Housley

“He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” 1 Corinthians 1:2

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Happy New Year! We pray that each of you had a blessed time of reflection and rest over the holidays. We certainly did! Most of you know that Kelley had a strange virus that was causing excruciating muscle pain every night and then disappearing in the morning during the month of December. We still don’t know what it was, but after 14 days, it disappeared. Thanks for praying her through that. The last painful episode was after we arrived in Itutang for CHRISTmas! So thankful for all of your PRAYERS for our family and ministry here!

CHRISTmas Day with the ITUTANG Church

Our trip into Itutang was such a needed refreshment for our souls. It was so good to meet with the church elders and the believers and to sing in our little village church together again. (Kelley will be posting some pics and video on fb) We spent CHRISTmas morning with the church at a special service they had planned and then we were able to hike over to visit the Swensons and the Tanguat church about 2 hours away. We were able to hit their afternoon CHRISTmas service there and enjoyed being with them.  Our RVA coworkers, the Kitchens, spent their holiday break in Tanguat for bush orientation so we were able to catch up with them as well. It was good timing as there were some “heavies” floating around the village and church and we were able to meet together with the Swensons and the Bible teachers there and work through some of the complications together.  Please keep praying for the Tanguat church as they wait on the Swensons and the Chens to get through their language study and begin full on discipleship with the men there. So thankful for these two families and for Promise who after putting many, many hours into literacy and translation is taking a well-deserved rest at home with family!

Back in ITUTANG

Guys, we can’t even explain how much we enjoyed sitting under the teaching of our Itutang elders this time. Their teaching is truly coming from hearts that are spending time in study of the Word and that are in love with Jesus and have their hope fixed in their belief that He rewards those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6). Our souls were fed and our bodies got much needed rest and we were cared for and encouraged by the Body of Christ there. Other happenings while we were there…This year Kelley and the Itutang literacy supervisors produced a complete revision of the literacy program. The first program was written by our team back in 2006 and was targeting unbelieving adults. This program targeted the children who are growing up in our churches. The new stories are educational and spiritually enriching and were written by the literacy teachers there.  Kelley tried it out on this 13 year old who had already been through the program and she read right through the first primer without hesitation. 🙂 Also, the guys were able to meet and finish drafting the book of Hebrews! Bill is excited to get back into his early morning translation schedule as we settle into our permanent place for a few years. THANK YOU FOR THE PART YOU HAVE PLAYED IN BRINGING THE GOSPEL & TRANSLATION TO THIS PLACE! We are coming out encouraged in our plans to help them educate and disciple this next generation.

Ramu Valley Academy

Now, we are back in Madang at the school site and are moving to the TEACHER HOUSE very soon….hopefully before Kelley’s birthday this Sunday! When we picked up the e2 orientation hat again unexpectedly this past year, we put down the work on the house as we mentioned in our last email update. When we counted up the actual working days on the calendar, we found that today as I write, we are on day #82. It was encouraging to see what work has been done in 82 days. J Please keep praying that we will be able to focus full time with the Kitchens family on RVA and that our teams planned for this year will get all their paperwork in and be able to come. We are excited to see how He provides once again for 2020. The SCHOOL BUILDING for the first four classrooms has the posts in and is ready and waiting for construction with all supplies in a nice neat pile.  First, however, we will work with some of the community here to put a SECURITY FENCE around the fairly large area that we will use for student houses.  We will also clear a place for the village churches to come and make some gardens for the students so they will have food next year.

So, things are moving along.  Not as fast as we’d hoped, but we have learned that His timing is never off and we are resting and counting it all JOY.  J

 (just a screenshot, not a video 🙂

Our PEANUT Gallery

I know you didn’t sign up on these email updates to hear our personal family updates and grandparent ravings about our little peanut, but we are thankful for our kids today who grew up in Itutang village and who loved these people as much as we did. This visit was during rainy season and so while being without a fridge and cold water wasn’t a big deal, the cool evenings made the cold showers were a bear this time. As I turned on the water and held my breath the last night in there, I thought of my girls and the Moore boys on our team who also grew up there. They grew up happy. They never complained about life in the bush. Our team purposefully said no to some nice things and restricted ourselves in other areas to keep our homes from being tiny sanctuaries where we could escape the people outside who we came to serve and their world of dirt and heat and all things hard.  We wanted to continue to “be” in the Itutang world on purpose and wanted our kids to learn how to live for something besides themselves. Our team kids never complained. We asked for prayer for them and you prayed and we saw the fruit of it in our family. Then, they all grew up and they all went back to passport countries and they are all in love with Jesus and loving people in sacrificial ways.  Now, Maddie has a little one of her own and she and here husband are teaching her the gospel in real life – through good days and bad days and days that you never want to re-live.  The same gospel that Anton clings to when he loses a child and the same gospel that Nguaintam clings to when she is berated by an unbelieving brother and told that she is sick because of her belief in God. The same gospel that YOU are hanging on to for the struggles in your life today. Guys, the gospel is our strength and power and gives us vision and purpose for this very day. For this month. For this year 2020. Thanks for sticking with us through a long road and hard work and for continuing with us as we serve the next generation here in PNG. Pray that RVA will produce men and women of God who catch the vision for the Great Commission and use their education and gifts to join us in FINISHING the TASK. We love this job…and all of you! Happy 2020!

By God’s Grace and For His Glory~

The Housleys

Update from the Trenches…

 “We keep looking to the LORD our God for his mercy…” Psalm 123:2

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Hello from Hot & Steamy Madang!  It’s not looking a lot like CHRISTmas here on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Temperatures in the shade on our porch are over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the past week or so. The weather may not be “delightful”, but thankfully our JOY is anchored in something much more solid than weather and HE really is the reason for this holiday season!  It’s why we live and breathe this life while we have it! And, we couldn’t do this job we love so much here….if you weren’t doing your job there…so THANKFUL for all of you this holiday season!

The way to get around town cheaply in PNG is on a PMV (Public Motorized Vehicle).  This could be an old van, an open back truck, whatever you have to register that moves people. One thing that they have in common is they are usually decorated a little and always bear a name.  The one that I love passing on the road here bears the name “Simple Dust.” Every time we pass it, it reminds us of two things.  1) Madang is probably IS one of the top ten dustiest towns in the world and 2) we are truly simple dust – created from it, returning to it, living in that humility as we serve Him today.

So here’s the Simple Dust Update and a quick catch up on the ministries that you are supporting here in PNG:

Our PLANS/His PLANS Our plans for 2019 went something like this and was admittedly fairly aggressive:  Bill and Kelley and their teams build the teacher house this fall, move in by October, start the school building in the fall and be finished by the spring ready to start the washhouses and the second RVA house. HIS plan for 2019 went something like this: Bill and Kelley finish the teacher house halfway and have a great time connecting with their teams.  In August, Bill and Kelley step back into the e2 Training program here at NTM and fill in a needed gap and do LIFE with seven very cool families and 3 single girls (who each took turns living with us from June-November.) In September Kelley returns home to spend the month with a daughter who is struggling through a long miscarriage.  Bill and Kelley’s parents come in November to kick their backsides into gear again and now…the first week of December here we are …hoping to finish the house to where it is livable before we go to the bush for a 2 week visit with our Inapang churches. We knew this could happen…Our plans aren’t always safe when we put them into his hands. The words of Mr. Beaver of Narnia come to mind, “ ’Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King I tell you.”  He’s the King.  Period. And we live where he has us today with JOY because we know that He is GOOD!

 INAPANG Churches In 2 weeks’ time, we head into the bush again to spend CHRISTmas with our little Itutang church family.  We are excited to see them again.  Many have visited off and on the last 6 months, but it will be good to spend time altogether in the Word again. Bill will check the book of Hebrews with his language helper again while we are there and we look forward to getting more translation checked off this coming year. Kelley will be taking in four sets of literacy resources for 4 of our literacy schools that are still going strong there in the local villages.  This past year, we ended up re-writing the whole entire literacy course to make it more kid friendly.  Lots of work, but now that it’s done, we are praising God for the strength to have made it through that long process.  Please pray for us that we will be a blessing to the church family there during our visit.

 The RAMU VALLEY NTM WORKS ~ The fire is spreading through the Valley!! MUCH EXCITING NEWS THIS MONTH.  The first comes from the Kaje tribe which is just a few hours hike from us.  The Itutang have been praying for this group for many, many years since they first heard the gospel as many of them are married into families there. This week they are hearing the end of the four months of Creation to Christ lessons and many are beginning to believe!  When we first moved into the Ramu Valley there were no other NTM works nearby.  Now, the Tanguat, the Iski, and the Kaje churches have been born.  This is GOD’S POWER at work!!!! The other super exciting news is that the first Tanguat Bible portions have been printedwith the updated grammar and orthography and are being used!  This has been a huge project and we are thankful for Promise Vaughan’s faithfulness and dependence on the Lord to keep moving forward in difficult circumstances. Praises for part of God’s word in yet another language!! Please pray for our teams and the local leaders as we look to help them join together to hold on to the gospel and continue spreading it across the valley!

The Ramu Valley Academy Our passion for this school is only growing as we spend more time understanding the educational system and the needs.  Our aggressive schedule had us shooting for beginning school this year, but it has been very clear that next year will be much more doable at this point with our present reality. Please pray for our building teams that are set to come this spring and summer. Pray that they will be able to make it happen and bring the needed physical help. Pray for our Itutang building teams who will also be helping to get temporary housing and gardens ready for the student who will come next January!

The RVA Team The Kitchens family is here and full on into language and culture. They have been able to dive in as a family and seem to enjoy the country. Pray for them as they continue on in language study so that they can be effective in their ministries here.  We are so thankful for them and how the Lord has brought them alongside with a passion to see RVA thrive. Joshua Awangin (from Itutang) is now full time in ministry with us here at RVA.  Thanks to Broadway Baptist families for making that happen!

Our FAMILY/His FAMILY The two of us are doing great and enjoying this stage of our lives very much. We do notice that we can’t move as fast or do as much as we used to, but I guess that happens when you’re pushing 50.  J We miss our girls and sometimes nostalgically long for those days together around our little table in our bush kitchen with the red checkered curtains. But the nostalgia is always gets cut short by a twinge of guilt and a breath of thanksgiving… because the girls have their own very sweet little families are thriving there in Louisville, KY.  God is good.  He is holding them through good and bad and even allowing them that gift of suffering that he gives his children to train their hearts and souls and ready their spirits for heaven. Little Ansley is as cute as a button and it hurts every day not to have her nearby, but we don’t plan on letting distance stop the Facetimes and the chats anytime soon.  So thankful for the communication abilities these days! Our Body of Christ families here and abroad have continued to be in prayer for us and have continued in their strong support of Inapang Ministries and RVA and for that we are truly thankful today!

The Ugly Truth about the Housleys We love the line from the movie The Count of Monte Cristo where the old priest is asked if he really did hide the treasure map all these years. He turns to Edmund Dantes and says, “I’m a priest, not a saint.” Maybe not theologically correct, but sometimes we totally feel what he’s saying.  We want to say, “We’re missionaries…not bullet-proof spiritual giants.” Simple Dust.  For fifteen years, we have written you updates about the power of God and the amazing things that he is doing here on the front lines with His Word and His Spirit. For fifteen years, we have signed each update with the words, “By His Grace and For His Glory” and that is the truth…HIS GRACE. As we push into a brand-new realm of starting a school and finishing a translation and filling in gaps where needed, circumstances have sometimes pushed our buttons and challenged us NOT to find JOY in the day. Sometimes people are the trials and sometimes it’s just trying to get a simple order from the Hardware House in town…those things that sneak up on you and show you the little “rats” hiding in your cellar (CS LEWIS). We have definitely been stretched these past 3 years and sometimes we thought we were going to break completely. We were often amazed at how quick a bitter or cynical attitude springs up when we were emotionally and physically tired…even when we have literally seen God’s miraculous salvation with our very own eyes many, many times. So often, we reflected on how much like the children of Israel we really are. But God…what a sweet Father. We have been praying to “grow old gracefully” toward our Savior and not away from him like so many of the kings of Israel did. And when we pray these kinds of prayers, we must remember that He is not safe. He will answer in His way. His time. Usually through suffering. But, we also must savor the fact that He is Good.  In the end, He exposes, cleanses, and destroys those little “rats in the cellar” who so craftily hide in the dark corners of our hearts because of his deep love for us. He is goodness.  He is strength.  He is Sovereign overall.  We are simply dust…just sin-ridden missionaries, made into saints daily through the washing of the same Savior that we proclaim to the unreached here in PNG.  We proclaim Him and give every ounce of our being to His church and to His Commission because He first loved us and because He and only He is worth all of our lives, our daily breath, our energy and our time. So pray for us as we live and work here in PNG.  Pray that our hearts would continue to find our strength in his Word daily.  That we would love each other and others well.  That we would be quiet enough to hear His voice and to Respond to his leadings…wherever they may take us. Thanks for all the love and support.  We LOVE this job and LOVE being part of it with YOU!  Merry CHRISTmas!

By God’s Grace & For His Glory~

Your Simple Dust Missionaries here in PNG,

Bill and Kelley

“Wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul”  Pr.2.10

Dear Praying Friends,

As we write you today, we are half way over the Pacific Ocean headed back from the US and a short break with family and friends.  We will arrive back to our home in PNG very soon.  We are thankful for a short visit home and that we were able to hit a few milestones…three birthdays and two of three graduations!  Our daughter Sabra graduated with honors from Boyce college with her Bachelor of Science and our granddaughter, Ansley, graduated from crawling to walking while we were home. The third graduation we will sadly miss this week, but our son-in-law, Austin, will also graduate with honors from Southern Seminary with his Masters of Divinity. We are super proud of our him and the rest of our family and thankful for God’ grace in each of their lives.

When we arrive home in PNG, we will hit the ground running with building prep for our teams coming this summer.  We are so thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed to come and be part of building a school in support of our Ramu Valley churches. We are excited to keep you all posted on how the progress is coming as we get started.

Thank you to everyone who prayed and loved on us while we were home.  You all know who you are and all of your love, giving, encouraging, help and friendships make our hearts smile when we think back on our time with you all.  We are truly blessed with the most awesome sending team we could imagine.  We pray that the Lord continues to focus your eyes on Him and give you an ever growing concern for the Task Unfinished!

Please continue to pray for our Co-Worker Promise who is stateside for a dental emergency and has been in the middle of full-on revisions of literacy and orthography of the Tanguat materials. Please pray that she will be able to return well and refreshed to finish this long process she has been working through. Thank you.

Please pray for our US teams who will be traveling, for my dad and a young lady named Corey who will be living/serving with us this Sumer and for the students who will be arriving for the opening classes of RVA in January.  We are in a place where we need your prayers and the Lord’s strength once again and we are sure that He will continue what He has so beautifully started in the Ramu Valley.  Thank you for being part of our team.  We love this job so much and love having friends and family alongside for the adventure.

By God’s Grace and For His Glory~

The Housleys

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Ephesians 2.19

BUILDING the Ramu Valley Academy ~ An Update

Hello again from the RVA team! It has been a while since we wrote a long update, but please don’t misunderstand our silence for a lull in the plans for RVA or for our family.  We have been beautifully busy in a blessed kind of way! Let’s get caught up!

RVA THANKS

We are thankful to announce again that the funds for the Phase 1 buildings of the RVA project have been raised thanks to the matching grant that we were blessed with last fall.  Thank you to everyone who has given so generously.  We know that there are many good charities that you could’ve given towards but you chose to make a difference in the lives of the kids of the Ramu Valley and we are THANKFUL!!!!  They have no idea what the Lord is doing on their behalf at the moment!  What a loving Father to provide for his needy children through his other children who he has blessed with so much!  It must please Him very much. So THANK YOU!  Thank you for DOING SOMETHING about a real need in the universal Body of Christ!

RVA PROGRESS

As most of you know, as soon as the funds were promised and met the Phase 1 goal, we began to order some of the supplies that would need to come on a container from overseas and we are anxiously waiting its arrival.  While we waited, we began building the workshop and a small guest room above that work shop (see picture above). This build took from January 15th – February 20th and will be the staging area for all other builds that will happen over the next 2-3 years. We are thrilled to have completed this workshop within budget and with a water well, a guest room, a water tank and power!  Praises to a God who brought needed help from NTM, from Australia and from the national church next door to be an encouragement and to show his love through them to us. What a beautiful testimony! Thanks to all who stopped by to encourage, talk, and work with us!

FAMILY

Once we finished the workshop, we were still waiting on the materials on the container from the US for the first school building.  So, we took the rest of the furlough that we skipped out of last year. 🙂  This put us home for two months (March-May) and allows us to hit three birthdays, Sabra’s college graduation and her husband, Austin’s, graduation from seminary… and Mother’s Day! So, we are currently writing from America where we are getting plenty of granddaughter snuggles and enjoying seeing our family on a more regular basis. The girls are both doing well in their marriages and lives and this gives us great joy. Our parents are all still faithfully serving the King as they walk with us towards the finish line.  We all want to hear him say, “Well done” and we are undeservedly blessed.

INAPANG CHURCH

Please continue to pray for our church elders and believers there in the Ramu Valley and for Promise Vaughan as she faithfully works at connecting believers back to the Word and to each other as the Body of Christ.  This is hard, long work and we are thankful for those who are praying for wisdom for each day’s worries. Anton and his family are doing well after the loss of his adopted 4 year old son last December.  He has been able to move around and encourage the churches again and is looking to adopt another son in the coming year.  Right now another matter for prayer is a big “hevi” with Promise’s main translation helper.  She is a very sweet and godly woman and is married to a very unbelieving and promiscuous man.  I think only the Lord truly sees the struggles this faithful woman has been through.  Please pray for her and for the Itutang church and Promise as they seek to encourage and help her and her children.

SUMMER PLANS..and TEAMS FROM THE U.S.ofA.!

After Austin’s graduation, we will hit the international road again and head back home to PNG. We cherish the time with our family and friends here, but we are blessed to have been given a joy and passion for the work the Lord has so kindly given us with RVA.  So, it is with both tears and excitement that we will transition from “home” to “home” as we continue our sojourn here on earth. Once on the ground in PNG, we will be busy gathering materials and supplies (and hopefully receiving our container!) and making preparations for our first work team.  We have FIVE teams of different sizes and from different states getting ready with passports and visas as we speak.  These teams will be rolling in one after another from May to September. Please pray for these guys and gals who are coming from Middle TN, East TN, California, Georgia, Kentucky and  Indiana. We are again SO blessed. Pray especially for our co-workers who will be joining us full-time as RVA staff this summer.  More about their journey and how you can help in our next update. So, we have much work ahead of us to do and many hands will make it lighter for sure.  There will still be more space for YOU to help this coming fall or in the spring or summer of 2020.  He left all of us only one job…”Make disciple of ALL nations” and all of us are supposed to be DOING that someway, somehow. So, if you know someone who isn’t sure what they are DOING to reach the nations and wants to know HOW to be more involved in either GOING or SENDING, please contact us and help them get in touch with the Great Commission in a more intimate way this year!

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Pray for the individuals and teams coming to serve this summer – visas, safety traveling and on the job, health, and for attitudes of service and JOY in their lives from seeing the needs that can be met through what the Lord has blessed them with.
• Pray for The Kitchens family who are joining us full time this summer as they are raising their support and transitioning their family of 6 into a brand new culture and life abroad.
• Pray for Wisdom as we buy supplies and build.  We are building as low maintenance as possible which is sometimes more costly, but we are thankful for all the excellent expert advice we are gathering along the way.
• Pray for the first students of RVA, that the Lord would prepare them in heart and soul for what is ahead and start now giving them a passion for the Harvest Work in their backyard.
• Pray for us as we begin to weave and design the curriculum we have to meet the remedial needs and “catch up” our students to a seventh grade standard. (HUGE PRAYER REQUEST)
• Pray for Meetings this summer and fall with provincial government and educational personnel to get our school certified as its own entity and to comply with national government standards.

Friends, we couldn’t be DOING this here without you all SENDING us from there.  THANK YOU.  Please continue to ask the Lord for grace and mercy for us as we walk forward where he leads. We want more than anything to see men and women of the Ramu to be equipped and empowered to work alongside us interdependently to see JESUS CHRIST and HIS SAVING POWER ALONE proclaimed from one side of PNG to the other.  He is Worth it!

By His Grace and For His Glory,

Bill and Kelley