Pioneer missionary church planting among unreached people groups to establish thriving churches in a short time requires a large team of people working together as a body. The missionaries on the ground in the jungle are my heroes; as are the people who worked long, hard hours to provide, guide, support, send, encourage, build, teach, print, and dig to help them succeed. We have had a part, but to God alone will be all of the glory.
In 1998, I provided ground support while John and an aerial survey team flew over the mountainous jungle looking for villages which might possibly belong to the Hewa people; marking coordinates for a visit by helicopter a short while later.
For many years, a man named Sefen had been coming to the missionaries working among the people of the Saniyo and Malaumanda languages, asking for a missionary. He had heard about the shiny thorn that heals (injections) and he wanted that medicine for his people, too.
Four missionary couples arrived in Papua New Guinea a while later and began planning to live among the Hewa people.
Jonathan Kopf tells the story of Sefen and the work among the Hewa people in his book, “Canopy of Darkness“.
In the years since then, the Ethnos360 Aviation team has provided many hours of aviation support to assist the teams who were working together to establish a thriving church among the Hewa people.
Since then we have accumulated many stories of warfare, threats, conflicts, medical evacuations, emergency flights due to civil unrest, and many thousands of hours of moving people, supplies, building materials, equipment, and medical teams in and out of the remote locations where the Hewa people live. We could not possibly tell the whole story here, or even the parts that we know, but here is a glimpse into it.
In 2005, just before the Bible teaching began at the first village, I was flying Jonathan out of a Hewa village for a short time of rest with his family nearer to civilization. Jonathan was diligently reviewing his flashcards which helped him memorize Hewa vocabulary. I asked him some questions about the progress of the ministry. He set aside his flashcards and said to me, “My being here is like putting your finger in a bucket of water and pulling it out to look for a hole. Unless God does something miraculous, nothing will change.” The Hewa people were so very deeply entrenched in their murderous beliefs that the idea of change looked impossible. The videos below will give you a tiny glimpse into what God has done among the Hewa people since then.
The common practice among the Hewa of payback killing and of murdering women as witches who cause people to die from illness has forced many people to move and the work of the ministry to relocate. Payback killings caused many of the Hewa people and their missionaries to move away from the village where they had built their homes. Here is more of the story.
The infant mortality rate among the Hewa people was ninety percent when the missionaries arrived. The story below is about medical help and training from Samaritan’s Purse.
Fighting between people of another language group, forced many Hewa people and the missionaries out of the village where they had built their homes.
Here is a recap from MAF’s web pages – https://papuanewguinea.mafint.org/news/2022-village-thats-following-jesus
From Murderers to Loving Fathers – Aug 12, 2022 – https://papuanewguinea.mafint.org/news/2022-murderers-loving-fathers
UPDATE: March 3, 2023 – The final translation check of the Hewa New Testament has been completed! It often takes about a year to finish the formatting and publishing process. Please pray for the team as they work through this process.
Nearby ethnolinguistic groups also need to hear the Good News about Jesus.
In August 2014, as the Kopf’s gave hundreds of vaccinations to curb an outbreak of measles in the village, a couple of men showed up in the village and waited all day to talk with Jonathan. They were from an area of the Hewa people that had a dialect Jonathan was unable to understand. One of the men opened a bag with some letters and asked Jonathan to read them. (They were written in the trade language.) They were simple pleas for a missionary to come teach the Bible in their language, the Maliyali language.
Jonathan wrote, “Over the years delegations arrived from the villages of Yano, Kinyelifa, Popaki, and other places. The most heart breaking to me was the man Kemiya who arrived at least once a year asking for missionaries until one day I heard he died on the trail, never having heard the message of the Bible in his dialect. Now to this day, whenever I hike past his grave that is near the trail my heart weeps.”
“I could hardly look into Sam’s eyes. “I have been asking for people to come as missionaries to Papua New Guinea. I have told the story of the needs here in Hewa over and over as I visit family and friends in my home country. I will continue to ask, but unfortunately I can’t promise anything.” My words sounded hollow and empty. Like someone pretending to care. How could I give him hope that someone would arrive to teach him the Bible in his dialect when I myself was losing hope.
Lord, please rise up a new generation who will turn their backs on the American dream in order to take part in the effort of sharing the love of Jesus with the unreached people groups of the world.“
The Lord did answer his prayers, and ours, through the missionary teams you will meet in the links below. They are learning the language and culture, translating Bible portions, and preparing lessons to teach God’s word to the people of Maliyali. Please pray for them, too.
Here is a page from the team pioneering a church planting ministry among the Maliyali people. https://vimeo.com/user13381395
Update from December 2022. Mallyali respond to the Good News!
More Maliyali team videos – https://www.chadandmarthaearl.com/videos
The point of this web page is to invite other people to follow the example of people who have put their whole lives on the line to bring glory to God, and to bring an unreached people group to where they also can worship Him with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is worthy!
Maliyali Rimestad Audio Testimony Part 1 – https://open.spotify.com/episode/3cukafk43AZN2BIAzjGlAh?si=973003685a1f4af0
Maliyali Rimestad Audio Testimony Part 2 – https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JODQMAdh5yVBWYlJilGHU?si=57cdd8bd1bca437d