Papua New Guiena: New Britian

By far the Highlight of the InterFace Program was the Side Trip to a Tribal Location. I, Jason, went to the Island of New Britian in Paupa New Guiena to see a Church being planted in a Tribal setting as part of the Interface course. This was an amazing experience for many reasons most of which were Spiritual. It also dramatically changed my perspective about Tribal Missions.

We flew from Goroka, PNG in the Highlands of the main island to the Island of New Britian in a small Sestna 206, a single prop. 6 person airplane. It was really fun. I've never been on a plane like that before.

While we waited for the truck to take us inland I got to swim in the water and hang out with the local kids on the beach.


Our trip inland was a 2 hour bumpy ride on the back of a truck.

When we arrived there were probably close to 50 Tribal people who greeted us. Most of the days there we played soccer with the people and went on hikes as well. We ended up spending about 5 days with them.


One of the nights we spent with the Tribal Believers in their homes. Their homes are bascially small beadrooms.


We slept like they did, on small pole bunk beads. You can see the bunk bed poles running under the kids...

These people were much different than the people near the Interface Campus. They were believers. The missionaries said that they were just like the other people in PNG when they came and he sometimes wondered if they would ever really understand the Gospel. He also said that when they understood their lives changed dramatically.

I, Jason, used to have a somewhat critical perspective of Tribal Missions. I felt like it took too many people to bring the Gospel to such small groups. I thought that those people would be more effective in huge urban centers in the 10/40 window where there are billions who have never heard of Christ either. Well although I still see a tremendous need for the 10/40 window, I also see that Tribal Missions is a very integral part of bringing the Gospel to the "Ends of the Earth." And if there really are going to be people in heaven from every tribe and tongue then it's good that organizations like New Tribes are doing this.