PAPUA NEW GUINEA – 167 baptisms in one day! On May 4th, down near the village of Mutuvav, the site of the Pal church’s second outreach, 167 people were baptized. We’re praising the Lord for the wonderful response to His Gospel among the Pal people. I’m also thrilled that I was able to get into Pal and hike down for these baptisms in early May.

The local church in Musupum, which went through a rough patch earlier this year, has turned things around and is on a good trajectory at this time. Many people have expressed sorrow and given public apologies for falling away from truth and following after lies. There is a renewed eagerness to seek the truth, listen to God’s Word, and follow after Him.

Another wonderful work we are seeing the Lord carry out here is that the church leaders in Musupum and Nabalume are working very well together. They have been working together for the past few years taking the Gospel down to the village of Mutuvav and shepherding the baby church there. They also crossed another milestone recently. For many years they have taught the Bible lessons we missionaries wrote. We have Bible lesson teacher books for many of the Epistles in the New Testament, and the church leaders would follow those books and teach those lessons on Sundays.

Last year, we finished translating another handful of NT Epistles, and the church leaders would ask us for lesson books for those Epistles. However, my coworker and I have been saying ‘Don’t wait on us.’ We have been unable to make writing those Bible lessons a priority, and we have already spent years working with the church leaders on studying God’s Word and rightly dividing the Word of truth. So this year, for the first time, the church leaders are teaching through a new Epistle (1-2 Peter) without having a lesson book. And they’re doing a great job! The church leaders meet weekly and they walk through the next chunk of Scripture together and pull out the main points and ideas. Then they mark which of them will teach that chunk of Scripture on Sunday (in Musupum and in Nabarume). The men that preach on Sunday do further studying of the Scripture and preparation.

In family news, the Hostetter ladies enjoyed a winning volleyball season the final term of the school year. They finished school in late May, and then we all came into the Pal tribe for a visit. Our oldest son, Micah, is living and working in Indiana for the summer. And our second son, Cole, is working at a camp in Maryland. They will continue their schooling at Liberty University this fall.

Want to get in touch?

Field address:

Chris and Maggie Hostetter

PO Box 1079

Goroka, EHP 441

Papua New Guinea

Website: blogs.ethnos360.org/chris-hostetter

Email: [email protected]

Video: youtube.com/chrismaggiehostetter

References & Disclaimers

• This newsletter was republished with the permission of Chris and Maggie Hostetter, missionaries with Ethnos360. Thrive Christian Press makes no copyright claim on this article.
• Ethnos360 is not affiliated with Thrive Christian Press or The Believer’s Byline and did not sponsor this post.
• The Believer’s Byline fully endorses the Hostetter family and their ministry in Papua New Guinea. We highly encourage continued prayer and financial support for this faithful missionary family.

The Believer’s Byline is a publication of Thrive Christian Press.

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