The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. Some of you may know of HeartCry through the ministry of Paul Washer, and Paul Snyder has labored in Indonesia for ten years. God has brought him through a tremendous health ordeal. You're going to share a little bit about that too? Okay. Paul has two children, Lane and Marianne, and is married to Patricia. And it is an absolute delight. I had the joy of meeting Paul's dad, Mark Snyder, who's been a pastor for many years, when I was preaching in Minnesota. And I have to say that you and your father indeed could be twins, although it would be a little weird because he looks like he's about 25 years older than you. Come on up, brother, and share with us your ministry, and there will be some time for questions and answers at the end. My name is Paul Snyder. My wife Patricia, my son Lane, my daughter Marianne are of course not with me this morning. They're back in Virginia which is where we're based until we, Lord willing, go back to the field in January of 2023. Up until that time I'll be traveling and sharing our passion for the ministry in the Korowai tribe and We're also sent out by Bethany Bible Church in Big Lake, Minnesota. We have some Minnesotans here today. So also been working with HeartCry since 2014. I'm their coordinator for Papua, Indonesia. Now if you've seen, you've all heard of Papua New Guinea. I mean, there's a lot of missionary history there that would just, You could submerge yourself in so many biographies and so much history there about the missionary movement. We are actually on the other side of the island, the Indonesia side, and I'll be showing you pictures of that here shortly. I've been working with HeartCry since 2014, and we're looking at branching out into Papua New Guinea. We have heart cry men and women that we train, that we go through the scriptures with, and we are now seeing faithful men that the Lord is bringing up in the New Guinea side. We're also looking at some other islands across the Malay region. HeartCry supports over 240 missionaries. We train that many missionaries. And of course, you know Paul Washer, that he established that organization in the early 2000s. It's been over 20 years now. So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to work with HeartCry because of their conviction for the scriptures. and for the passion that they have to reach the unreached tribes through these indigenous men and women that are laying down their lives. We have men and women that I work with that the biography should be written about them. Not about me, not about other missionary expats that are from America or from Australia or from New Zealand. It should be written about these indigenous men and women that have left their own culture and moved into these isolated, animistic, hostile areas to just simply tell them the good news of Jesus Christ. So I wanna introduce those people to you this morning. I wanna show you the ministry of the Korowai. Really, my goal this morning is twofold with you. For just a few minutes that we have. I want to share with you what God has done over the last 10 years in the Korowai tribe, but I also wanna make this a plea, because listen, time is short with you. You're my brothers and sisters in Christ. I probably won't see you again for another three to four years. Time is short, so I want to make a plea because I'm convinced that there are probably people sitting in this room right now, whether young or old, that can go and that can send. And so I want to make this a plea and show you the joyful opportunities of serving in these types of environments, of these types of peoples. So let's get started with this. We have been serving in Indonesia, Papua Indonesia, for 10 years among a remote tribal group called the Korowai tribe. Indonesia is pretty much the same population as the United States, over 300 million people, from the island of Sumatra, the most unreached island in Indonesia, in the world, the most unreached island in the world, full of Muslims. Who's gonna go tell these people? There are, you could just put your finger on the map and just, in Sumatra, and there would be people there, and you could just submerge yourself within these people groups. Who's gonna tell them? We have been given so much. So much, even as Ephesians 1 talks about, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You and I have been gifted with so much having our own scriptures in our own language, having great theological education, knowing how to preach the gospel when we evangelize and when we talk about it in our homes and out in the workplaces. But who is gonna go to these unreached places with that same good news that you present to your children in your home? Indonesia is 88% Muslim, and when I first went there in 2009, it was 2% Christianity. Now, Indonesia has a phrase called katepe, which means that your identity card has your religion. And so it'll say Muslim on there, it'll say Christian, or it'll say Hindu or Buddhist, whatever. And after surveys in 2009, it was estimated that there were 2% Christians among the population. A survey was just done last year in Indonesia, and that has risen to 10.7%. Praise the Lord. There are missionaries going, there are faithful indigenous believers that are faithful in the task that God has given them, but the work is not yet done. There are so many unreached tribes. There are 17,508 islands in Indonesia. 6,000 of those islands are inhabited with a population. I work on the island of Papua. Now, if you can remember this by this way, the island of Papua, Indonesia looks like the turkey head. So if you remember, Paul Snyder works on the turkey head side. That's a good way to remember that. We have, when the Lord saved me, I was, you know, privileged to be mentored and groomed and discipled by a local pastor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And he invested in me. And as I began to serve in this church, and I was, who's ever eaten a Little Debbie snack cake? I had a Little Debbie snack cake route. And so I could make my own schedule. And I would sell these cakes to grocery stores and to convenience stores. And I just wanted to tell people, here's what Christ has done for me, he can do for you. And I just love telling people, he saved me and he can do this for you. And it was through the efforts of this ministry of the local church with this pastor that I one day said, I want to take this gospel to the most remote place I can find, and I want to plant myself in it. I want to find a place where they don't even know how to turn a doorknob, where there's nothing but just people, rocks, and trees. I want to find that place. And as I shared last night with the elders, I believe we found that place. We have been working in the lowland swamps in this area after World War II or during World War II when the planes were flying over the highlands, this orange area. the pilots and the people on the aircraft saw, oh, there are people living here in these highland remote regions. And so after World War II, that opened up the flood for the missionary movement to begin in Papua, Indonesia. And so the highlands had the gospel preached to them first. And now what's happened is these indigenous believers are wanting to take the gospel from the highlands to these remote regions in the lowlands. And we get to work with these men and women. Here is a village, our village of Danawage, if you can see that pretty clear. This was a village picture taken in 2014. Now, because of infrastructure, I mean, this is, once the plane takes off, that's it. There is no way out. I mean, what happens when your daughter gets malaria, or you have a cut with a machete, or you have a med vac? It's very difficult to get out of these types of places. But praise the Lord, because of infrastructure and after 10 years of ministry, we now have an airstrip, paved airstrip. My wife loves it because it's the Cadillac of airstrips in the lowland regions. We also have a school. We planted a school. We have 66 children. In our school, we planted a clinic. When you go to these types of places, you're automatically considered the doctor, no matter if you have medical experience or not. Praise the Lord that we had some medical training before we left, and I'll show you what it's like to be able to be the doctor in some of these lowland regions. Who are the Korowai tribe? The Korowai tribe have had a lot of national and worldwide attention. You can just Google Korowai on YouTube and you can get thousands of videos. The Korowai tribe are about 4,000 people in this lowland swamp area. There are two dialects, the Northern dialect and the Southern dialect. Basically we have, it's a split line, 2,000 in the North and 2,000 people in the South. I went in there and we planted ourselves in the Northern region because for, since 2000, Nobody was allowed to enter this northern region. There were some Dutch Reformed missionaries in the 70s that went into the southern region and did a work, a linguistic work, learned the language and made a dictionary and wrote a book about the culture of the Korowai. But these Dutch Reformed missionaries weren't able to go up to the north because the northern people would stop them because they were afraid of outsiders. And why they were afraid of outsiders was because they had local tribes coming up from the South headhunting them. And they would go to war with these people. So they would say no to any outsider. But praise God, because of his providence, in 2000, the first Donny Christian missionary went in from the highlands, and he planted himself in a tree house for six months, teaching them the good news of Jesus Christ with only the clothes on his back and a little bit of medicine. And he just recently died, and he was such a father, a spiritual father to these people. You can see here in this picture below, there are now 24 villages within the Korowai region, which is about the size of Delaware. This is a region that, having villages like this is not their culture. They are called the treehouse people. They build their houses in the trees. They are very animistic in their practices. You can see here a man coming right out from the tree house. Most, a lot of people still don't want to live in the villages because they still practice their animism. They are afraid of living within a communal group. So these clans separate and you can have scattered treehouse clusters throughout the Korowai region. And so I went into a feast and this man came out of his treehouse and we were able to, praise the Lord, talk with him and preach the gospel to him. Here is Yawoke in our village. This man in 2013 through 2016 was a thorn in our flesh. He would come in to the services while we were preaching. He would be painted in his animistic ash, and he would lay down on the front, try to disrupt the services. He would march around our homes, threatening us with bows and arrows and machetes. He would physically abuse his family. In 2016 and 17, something changed in Yawo. No longer was he coming in disrupting the services. He was actually walking with his wife and carrying his children. He was actually friendly. Now, he still begs. He would come by my window at 5 a.m. almost every morning and blow snot out of his nose just to get my attention, because if he wanted something. Tribal ministry is a 24-7 job. It's really, when they want something, they'll come to your house and, hey, you better get up and do what I want. But Yahweh changed, and I truly believe that when he heard the gospel, I believe Yawap was regenerated and we now see the fruits of Yawap's character has changed. I believe he's a converted man. He has the mind of probably a third grader or fourth grader when you talk with him. It's always that he wants something and that you can provide for him. I need some rice or some noodles or soap. But praise the Lord, this is evidence that, listen, when the gospel comes into a place, no matter where it is, no matter if it's in a first world country or the remotest animistic tribal group that you can find, the gospel changes everything. It changes everything. Now, whether that is, and it's not because of me, I'm just an instrument in the hands of an almighty God. It's all of the Holy Spirit's work. He's the one that does this work through instruments like you and I. And so we have the greatest opportunity, a joyful opportunity to take this good news to people that have never heard. Who's gonna go tell them? There are 42 tribes to my south, villages, that still have no gospel witness. Still have no gospel witness. The treehouse people was the coin phrase by National Geographic. They came out and did an article and some, what do you call it, BBC came out and did some documentaries. Smithsonian has come out and done an article called Sleeping with Cannibals. They were a cannibalistic tribe. I believe the last confession for cannibalism was in 2006. We believe that that has now stopped. Even among the treehouse people that have not moved, to the villages, we don't believe that that's practiced anymore. These are the treehouse people that live, usually they build their treehouses between eight to 10 meters off the ground. And the reason they do that is because, for several reasons, they still believe in their oral culture that a flood is coming. Now that's very interesting. They believe a flood is gonna come. They also believe that witches roam the jungle floor, which is called kakua. They believe that it's easier for their enemies to not, it's easier for them to stay away from their enemies if they're higher in the trees. So a lot of, and plus the mosquitoes aren't as bad. So, which is, I hate mosquitoes. Listen, I had malaria three times. Dengue fever once, chikungunya fever, and after chikungunya fever, I contacted Guillain-Barre syndrome, which paralyzed my body. I thought the Lord was done with us in this ministry. And it's just by His grace that I'm standing before you today, because several months ago, just to be open with you, there's no reason not to be, I was in my room crying uncontrollably, wishing that my life was over. and thinking there's no way that I'm going to be used anymore. But God is so kind, so kind. We finally found a doctor that understood what was going on and he gave us the right medicine. I'm standing here today, I feel like a new man with this new medicine that I can say, we're ready to go back. We want to go back. and continue the work of discipling these men so that they, listen, that's our motto, right? 2 Timothy 2.2, what you have heard from me in front of the presence of many witnesses, commit thou to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. There are four generations just mentioned in that one verse. So we have the treehouse people. Their main diet is sago bread from the sago palm tree. You'll see acolina, You're right, that goes really fast. Okay, the sago bread tree. Thank you, Nathan. You'll see the little clumps of orangish-pinkish paste on our front porch there. That is the sago bread that they make from the sago palm tree. Bananas, jungle peanuts, jungle vegetables, sugar cane are their main staple diets. And basically when you see a tribal child that has a swollen belly, it's usually because of too much starch. All they're eating is bananas and sago bread or they're not eating enough proteins to get that swell to go down. And so we have a lot of swollen bellies in the village. Here's Akalina and her son Omison. I went down so I could take these pictures to show you how they make their sago bread. They'll pretty much cut down a tree, they'll open the trunk up and they'll beat the trunk until it becomes a white paste. or a white flower-type substance, and then they'll plant all this type of sifting from the bark near a water source, near a small stream, and then they'll mix the water with this flower that comes from the trunk of the tree, and it produces this sago bread that they eat. They'll take it home, they'll cut it, and they'll put it over the fire. and they'll eat it. It's very dry, and my first time of eating that, I had a lot of insects come out of mine, so it was a good experience. Because of their animistic background, they have what's called Sago Grub Feast, and they will erect a sacred fence at these feasts. They'll invite a lot of people throughout the region to come to this Sago Grub Feast, Here they'll erect a sacred pole with a sacred fence, and a man is designated to walk around this sacred fence in his own footprints. He speaks gibberish, which is obviously demonic, and they are offering their sago bread, and you can't see it because of the picture. There are pineapples and jungle vegetables here. They'll also offer their pig meat, their cassowary meat, to an evil spirit called Sipe. When they lay that on the altar, they believe that they are appeasing this evil spirit, Sipe, so that they'll have good success in their gardens and in their families. This is a very demonic event, and we have been barred most of the time from getting there. This was prevalent when we first got there. It was pretty much every month that we would have one of these feasts that we would try to get to so that we could preach, but they did not want us there. After 10 years, 10 years of ministry, we've seen this lesson. They're only happening several times a year, and even with those, it's not really where they're erecting these sacred poles anymore like this. It's more just a gathering where they can eat their sago grub worms, and we now can have the opportunity to preach to them and do medical work for them. They hang fish fat, pig bones, rat bones from their rafters to appease the evil spirit's scythe when they believe that excess meat is dissolved. They believe that the evil spirit is pleased that he has eaten it and that it will have good success in their homes and in their gardens and families. They rub pig fat around the poles. Here is a young boy climbing the pole of his treehouse. They'll rub pig fat or sometimes fish fat at the top of the pole. And they believe that when they do this, that the evil witches cannot enter. It wards off these evil spirits that plague them. My first time sleeping in a treehouse, I was introduced, I slept by the main pole in the tree house. They moved their sago bread over so I could sleep. And a woman chanted by the fire all night because I would wake up and the children would be touching me because they have never seen a missionary like me before. And so my partner and I, Trevor, at the time, we were big people, you know, because most of the tribal people are really short. And so they would be touching us because to see if we were real. She was chanting in fear all night because she wasn't sure who we were. Here's a small clip of a Sago grub feast that I wanna show you, and then I'm gonna skip through a bunch because of sake of time, I wanna get to the most important thing about the translation. A lot of clans are invited and so here's one clan entering the village before we eat. It's gonna be my turn to preach, and I spoke from Genesis 1 on the fall, I mean Genesis 3, 2 and 3, and then we'll do medical afterwards. So here's a clan making their announcement, we're here to start the feast. Everywhere they go, they always carry their bows and arrows in the jungle. And now because of infrastructure, because they sometimes can get out to nearby towns, which is about a week away, they can buy pellet guns now. So you'll see some with pellet guns in their bows and arrows. In their culture, it's a left-right sway. They'll go back and forth with a hoo-ha-hoo-ha type chanting. So praise God, we're able to get into these places now. This is a village about two hours from my house, from our village. We work with the heart cry missionaries and indigenous believers. So here we have Yusen Epiwaya and their family. We have Watinus Bogum. His wife and child died in the village in 2014 in childbirth. And he looked at me and he said, I'm not leaving. This is my post. I'm gonna stay. And so these are the books that need to be written about men like this. Jimmy and Perinwaya. We get to work with just an incredible team in Danawage to reach the Korowai region. I'm going to fast forward some of these for sake of time. We also get endless opportunities to preach. I mean, you could preach 24-7. I mean, and they're ready to hear, they're ready to listen. And so you can see here, going through Salvation History with some of the guys that we taught for five years. Now these men, Salomo, Yon, Bartimus, and Demus, are now taking this gospel to the tree houses, and they're taking turns preaching in their own villages. Here's the Korowai church, one of the Korowai churches. There's about 10 northern villages. This is the church in our village and most of the people that attend. And now the Lord is raising up in surrounding villages, men that wanna go out to Bible school and come back and help the evangelist with the ministry in the Korowai region. So we have Stephanos, the Lord is raising up Korowai men. Listen, our goal is to see Korowai shepherds leading Korowai believers. That's what we want. I'm going to fast forward. I want to get to this right here before we stop. There was an eight-year project that I spent learning the language and translating the Salvation History Catechisms into the Northern dialect. This was eight years with my translation helper, Also Aedrus, which he is a believer now, we baptized him in 2017. He confessed to murdering seven people and he said, I was the biggest thief in the Korowai and I snuck in the village and waited for people and I killed them. He said, but I don't wanna do those things anymore. And now he is the one with me that goes to help treat the sick. He stands in front of me in case there's an altercation. I mean, he is a true servant. And you can see, like I said, when you take the gospel into a place, it changes the hardest of hearts. So we praise God for his help in this translation. The first Northern Korowai translation, 750 plus questions and answers from Genesis to Revelation. We also put that on a solar speaker and we passed that out 600 solar speakers throughout the Northern region. And you can see here an evangelist's wife, she's holding the first copy of the catechisms in the Korowai language, and we did it, we also translated and edited into the Indonesian language as well, so that these people that cannot speak Korowai yet can learn the Indonesian language. We spent two days traveling by helicopter to pass out the solar speaker to these various villages. And you can see here, spending time in the villages, teaching them how to use the book with the solar speaker. If this video works, I'd like to show you real quick. So this is the Salvation History Catechism. This is in my home in Danawage, in the village. The Northern Korowai language. And I also put the Indonesian language with it. So on the, I'll open it here. Let's see. So on the left is the Korowai language, the Northern Korowai dialect. And on the right is the Indonesian language, so that they can learn side by side. Because in the future, I want to do literacy, plus the evangelists can learn the Korowai language while they read the Indonesian language. And this is going to be used in the church, in the schools, throughout the villages here in the north. So this was a roughly around an eight-year project till completion. And we also have it on the solar speakers as well, so they can listen and read along. Because pretty much 99% of the tribe here cannot read their own language yet, since it's new. Wahoo is learning how to do it, so Wahoo and I spent years translating this together. And so this is really for him. He was just huge in this project, and so I'm thankful to God for Wahoo. But it's finally in our hands, both languages, and now we can pass it out this week. So praise God with me for this. We now have this Genesis to Revelation, how God worked through redemptive history in their hands. So pray that this opens the heart and the ears so that they receive and know the Savior. I need to stop because for sake of time, I do want to show you real quick the medical care. You don't see any dichotomy in the New Testament between good works and good words. I mean, you see everywhere Jesus went, he did two things. He preached the good news of the kingdom and he healed the sick. We take that same motto, we preach the good news of Jesus Christ and we treat the sick. So we have had the opportunity, you can see my wife putting in an IV. We treat elephantitis, it's very common there, leprosy. We have med vacs, which were pretty much every month before we had invited nurses to come in to take over the medical care. We had clinic from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day at our house. So we'd ring a bell and they would come. And so you can see my wife treating some of the children. Treating, I would go to the other villages so my wife wouldn't have to do that. It's because it's very difficult to get to some of these others. Med vacs, you can see why he cut his hand with the machete. We have altercations. Abraham had a fight at the airstrip and the guy cut his shoulder with a machete. Rectal prolapse from malaria, treating these kinds of things. Kessia burnt her cornea. Her husband threw a stick out of the fire and hit her eye. Because, listen, when we got there, it seemed to be domestic disputes every five minutes. And I looked at my partners and my wife and said, you know, I didn't come here to be a police officer. You know, I felt like I was policing the village. But after ten years, we now see men walking with their children. We now see helping their wives and not going off in the jungle to eat the food and leave their families without it. We're seeing them eating together. Just these changes slowly coming to place because of the good news that has entered there. Of course, I look too happy here, Lansing Aboyle. But boils are very common, all sorts of skin infections are rampant, wasting disease, death rate was high interior when we first got there, but now because of good medical care, we believe that that death rate has risen or lowered, and now we believe it's between 55 to 60 for their lifespan. So who's willing to go? I'm gonna stop here for sake of time, but I had other things to show you, but if you have any questions, please use me up while I'm here. Time is short, and I, Lord willing, I'll be headed back in January, so please pray for that. But just looking forward to getting to know you better, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Should I close in prayer? Oh, beautiful. What am I rushing for? Here I was panicking for time. Okay, well let's just slow down a bit then. And I will go through this. Let me back up to one medical. The Korowai have a belief that when, this is Yosina, she's pregnant, about ready to give birth. The Korowai have a belief that you dig a hole and you line it with banana leaves and you give birth into this hole. But before the birth, you cover it so that the demons cannot escape. Trish went to check, my wife went to check on Yosina. They build a structure out of the jungle. They do not give birth near their tree house. They'll go back out into the jungle and build a overhang and she'll sit there until she gives birth. If they don't want the child, they will leave it in the hole and they'll cover the hole up. This has lessened, we have saved, well, not really me, but our team has saved a lot of babies from death, just for the simple reason that the father says, we don't want it, just leave it. This family, her husband ended up killing this baby because of his animistic beliefs, and so this, please pray for Jacobus and this family that are still far from the good news, far from the Lord. Here's a clip from what a funeral's like. They did not bury their dead. In their culture, they left them in the tree house and they abandoned that tree house. And so this is now a funeral service that the evangelists that we work with have implemented. I actually preached at this one from John 14, six. I mean, what do you tell a tribal group that has never understands anything about the gospel, anything at all? You start with Christ. that He is the way, the truth, and the life. So here's a lady that died in the village. I got a call, or someone came to my house and said, she just died, please come. And so you can see Jimmy, our evangelist, he's hammering the coffin. And so after we lowered the casket, I preached from John 14, six. Very different in this culture of funerals. They take on a different form with the way they're so emotional about different things. Praise God, we have a school now. We planted this school in 2010. It started with Jimmy and Perrin just teaching several subjects. Then it grew in 2014. My partner and I, we started a school there. We built a building and Jimmy and Perrin ran the school and taught the subjects. But now, because of just the cost of what it takes to run a school, and because of Indonesian laws and government things that really we didn't know really how to work with, we invited an organization called Lantern of Hope from the capital in Jakarta. And we now have four teachers with 66 children. And praise God, they are now learning all the subjects plus Bible every day. and they have a strict routine. They're taught you have to brush your teeth before you come, you have to have your breakfast, your uniform has to be clean. It's regimented where they are on a strict discipline. So we praise God for this school. that was planted. We also have a dormitory that was also started in 2017. These are children that have either lost parents or from faraway villages that want to come and learn to enter our school later. There are 20 children with Perrin and Ardia overseeing this dorm, 12 girls and 8 boys And so we built a dormitory and now we are in the process of finishing up a dormitory for the boys because it's growing. So we praise God that we can minister to these children. Parents, she'll teach them three times a day from the scriptures with the Bible picture books. Three weeks ago when I was there, I was able to go in the dormitory and do some teaching and these kids are sharp. I mean, she has done a fantastic job with these children. I mean, they are really growing spiritually. Pilots. If you want to be a pilot, this is a good place to be. This is one of the most remote regions in the world to fly. It's also one of the most dangerous. We get 14 feet of rain per year and that's Yeah, that's usually, sometimes it can be more depending on, of course, the weather over the highlands that comes through. Often pilots like Kars, he had to overnight, he flies the PC6, he overnights in our home because MAF also sometimes our stuff for six months, our supplies, our food, we bring in by plane. And sometimes he'll wanna shoot the breeze, chat with us. Other times he'll say, all right, let's get the stuff off. I gotta go, the weather's closing in over the mountains. Otherwise, you know, he's looking at IFR routes and how to get back and it's just, it's very dangerous. They're making a thousand decisions a minute just so that they can get missionaries and the gospel and translations in and out. So we praise God for men like this. When we first moved there in 2011, We were using the float plane because it had no airstrip. And I actually missed the float plane because it's a very smooth ride landing on water. But the logistics were a nightmare because if the water was too low, we couldn't get in. If it was too high, it was too dangerous. So the conditions had to be just right to get in. Sometimes we'd have to use the helicopter to get into another village to be picked up by the plane. It was just a nightmare. But praise God, now we have an airstrip where a caravan and even a PC-12, which is a pressurized cabin, can now enter the village. Here is a small clip I want to show you of landing in a village through helicopter. I was called to check on the sick. This was a lady that had elephantitis. So we flew her out by helicopter to our village for three weeks to treat her. And so this is one. So this is in the lowlands of Papua on a river basin. And there are scattered villages throughout these river basins. And this is one lowland village of the Korowai, northern Korowai villages. So we praise God for these faithful men that really risked their lives to get us in and out of these places. And a lot of times we've had the heli, he's had the overnight as well because the weather just closes in so quickly. So coming in, landing in a village to treat the sick and to teach. And a lot of times the weather is too closed in from our house in Sentani, where is the capital, where we rest and resupply. It's about an hour and a half flight into interior. And a lot of times the weather looks like this, where it's just totally covered. We have actually been over our village in a plane, and he says, I'm sorry, Paul, I just can't get down today. We're at 5,000 feet, and the plane's rocking back and forth, and he's saying, it's just too dangerous, and we have to go home. So we back to the capital, and we try another day. The capital is actually at the top of Papua, it's called Jayapura, and this is where we have a house where we can rest and resupply. Usually we go out every six months to take a couple weeks break and to buy supplies again. Real quick, what are the joyful opportunities of suffering for the glory of God? If you're gonna do cross-cultural missions, even tribal missions, there are several things you need to know. First, the romance of mission dies after your first two months of diarrhea. You look and you go, what have I done? My first year, I lost 20 pounds and my first two months of language school, I missed half of it because I was just in so much pain. My stomach was just trying to adjust. The stresses of missionary life multiply 10 times on the field. Whatever you struggle with here or whatever stresses you have here, just picture that multiplying 10 times and it takes three times as long to do something there in that culture. Missionaries are not superhuman or super spiritual people. Listen, I'm a man and I'm like you. I have the same struggles. I breathe just like you. We're not something different than you. I mean, we're in this together. This is not about Paul Snyder or Trevor Johnson or even the indigenous believers. This is actually a co-effort of the people of God working together through the sending and the going. Tribal missions is a 24-7 ministry. Again, I've had people at my door at 12 midnight, four in the morning, 6 a.m. by my window coughing and hocking up snot. Hey, get up, I need something. Prepare to work hard before and after you get to the field. Before and after. And if you work hard, the Holy Spirit will work for you. In that hard work, he does the work, right? It's not me, I'm just an instrument. There will be people, things, and situations you will not like. Listen, we've had people come in, visitors, or we get a lot of tourists because they wanna see the naked man in the tree house, especially from Europe area. We get a lot of people from Russia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy. They want an experience, so they wanna go see the tree houses. And we've had people come in and say, your village smells like smoked BO. I don't like smoked BO. I mean, I don't like sitting there with my family at night and the gnats are just swarming and eating your legs. I don't like mosquitoes giving me diseases. I don't like roaches in my food. I don't like people at my door constantly. We made a rule in our house, I told Trish, before 12 p.m. you tell them I'm not available. I would hide in my room at my little maid desk and I would study and I said after 12 p.m. or after lunch with the family, I'm yours. But until then, don't bother me. It got so bad sometimes, if you've ever heard of the pineapple story, I feel that because I'm gonna confess with you before God and man, I have hidden from them. Because you get so physically, mentally drained and tired that you'll hide down to make your tea at the window so that they can't see you so you can have a moments of peace. 24-7 ministry. So, who wants to go? Our role is changing. I won't be, for at least several years, my health is not stable enough to go back full time and live and survive in that kind of environment. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go move to Bali, Indonesia, where we're gonna open up a HeartCry Center for Indonesia. And I'm gonna be using, working with Matt Glass. He's also a coordinator for Indonesia. And we're gonna be having, the central place for HeartCry for Indonesia will be there with our offices. And our plan is to train men throughout Indonesia on various islands. And that's even opened up, like I said, in Papua New Guinea. So my role is changing. I'm also wanting to focus next year on the gospel, translating the gospel of Mark into the Corowai, Northern Corowai dialect. So please pray for that. I'm excited to tackle that with our language helpers. We will also be working with the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Indonesia, so there's ample opportunity for men to come out and be a part of the teaching, and we can translate as well. So be praying for all these opportunities coming up. Any questions for the last three minutes that you might have? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yeah, so Indonesia as a whole has the Indonesian language, and it is, since the 1940s, was established as the official language of Indonesia. Indonesia has over 800 languages as a whole, but they had one common trade language, and they used this Mele language, and it developed into the Indonesian language. So when we teach, when I first got there, I was teaching in a simple form of Indonesian. because I didn't know the tribal language yet. And as I began to learn the tribal language, I started using both. And then, of course, depending on, you know, at our school, there's a lot of, you know, with Indonesian teachers, so I speak Indonesian there, or with the Korowai, I'll speak Korowai. So there's, yeah, it's just like PNG, but just with an Indonesian side. Yes, sir. Yes, so we brought in nine solar panels and so we live off the grid that way. I have 18 batteries that are charged by the solar panels to run our freezer and our refrigerator and charge our, what is it? Laptops. And that my wife has enough power to use some sort of rice cooker and kitchen utensils or electric things if she wants to, what is it? Grind something or make mashed potatoes or something? And also with the school now, the organization Lander of Hope from Jakarta, they shipped also a system in, a solar panel system. The school has its own power as well. What's that? No, I have the HeartCry Evangelist use at Epiwea. They are living in our house right now and taking care of it. However, I just was there several weeks ago. I took a trip to teach with Matt Glass from HeartCry, and my batteries were shot because the rats had eaten the cables from the solar panel into the house. They had crawled in and eaten all that, so that's another thing I gotta fix. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes. For me, I feel very weak and inadequate no matter if I feel strong or if I'm going through those particular moments of sickness or if there's so many fights. Listen, the only thing that gets you through that, tribes are one, and biographies can say it better than I can, tribes are one to Christ because the missionary is in constant prayer. And that's why I wrote about it, because I found in those times that I had missed so many opportunities where I could have been in prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit when I should have been in prayer and I wasn't relying on Him. I confess that. There has been multiple times that I just blew it because of just the amount of stress that was involved. And so the Lord has been really teaching me that over the last few years, that listen, I need to be in constant prayer. And that's what it takes. And that's the simplest form that I can give you because there's really no other. You won't survive without the word and prayer and you also won't survive without your church. Your church, the sending church is vital in missions. If you're sent without a church, you're not a missionary. That's what we see in Acts. That's how the motto of the missionary movement started with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas and those men that gave their lives. It was through a church. And so that is the backbone of what we do along coupled with the word and prayer. Okay. I'm sorry. Praise the Lord, not one single case of COVID. So because they ingest smoke all day long from their fire, it would be probably a disaster if it entered with their lungs the way they are. So praise God, no COVID. They don't have CNN either, so no COVID. All right, well, brother, I will tell you, you didn't do a very good job of recruiting. But last night, the stories were worse, I'll tell you that. But we deeply not only appreciate, but we admire the sacrifice. We're thankful to God for the improvement in your health. I mean, really, it's miraculous. Paul didn't go into it very much, but if you think about all the things that he said that he contracted that resulted in malaria, resulting in the GBS, it's amazing that he's even standing here today. We're going to pray for you, brother, and Paul's going to preach for us in the morning. And so we're looking forward to that. So let's close in prayer. Father, we do. We come to you. And Father, we thank you that the Lord Jesus is king of the nations. And we thank you that he is ruler over Indonesia and all of the 18,000 islands. And Father, we thank you for Paul and Patricia and Lord, a heart cry. We thank you for their commitment to Indonesia. And Father, we pray that as Paul prepares to go back, that you would strengthen his physical body. We pray also, Father, that you would help him as he embarks on translating the Gospel of Mark. We pray, Father, that as your word is translated, it would run and be glorified and just do wonderful things. And Father, we pray that the Lord Jesus would would look on the travail of his soul on behalf of the Kauai people, and he would be satisfied seeing many come to saving knowledge of him. And so, Father, we commit our brother to you. We thank you for him. We pray that you meet with us in the hour to come. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. 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