Preparing for Bible School

Currently, Jason is very busy preparing to open the first year of the Wipim Baptist Bible School. It has been our desire to see people saved and trained to take the gospel to their own villages.

You cannot walk into any village and say, "Here I am. Here's a gospel tract. 1-2-3, Pray after me!" Someone from that village has to invite you to present your message to that community. There are village rules, village elders, village court, etc. We are outsiders, and our motives and actions are often misjudged.

From Ana: About Wipim

We live in Wipim Station in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. Wipim is a small inland community made up of mainly government workers. There is an elementary school, a health center, and a newly arrived treasury office. That is it. There aren't any stores, no post office, no police station, no telephones, no transportation services, etc. It is a difficult picture to paint for those who have never been here. The closest place to "civilization" as you would understand is Daru Island which is about 60 miles away via airplane. However, the main airline company that serviced our small community has stopped all flights to our area. Because we are missionaries, we are usually able to book flights with Mission Aviation Fellowship to travel to Daru where we can buy supplies or else catch a larger airplane to the capital city. Otherwise, Jason travels by dirt (or mud) road to a river where he pays a dinghy to then take him to Daru. Our only personal mode of transportation is on our tractor which takes him four hours to the river if the road is dry. Six months out of the year the road is nearly impassable because of the rain and mud so we try to bring in as many supplies as we will need during the dry season. Sometimes he is able to catch a ride on a government vehicle which then only takes one and a half hours to the river if all goes well. From the river to Daru via dinghy is another two or three hours depending on the size of the boat engine.

And there was communication!

Well we are pleased to annouce that for now...we have broadband internet in Wipim, PNG.

Yes, Broadband Internet. We can check e-mails on a daily basis and even check our blog page to update now.

To e-mail us in Wipim we have to use a web based e-mail program so we have set up jrussell.wipim@yahoo.com to contact us through.

We are rejoicing that God has allowed us contact to the out side world.

Work Day!

Hey, I am using internet in Wipim and it is Broadband! The technicin is a friend of mine who has come to finally hook up that Satelite Dish but (I think) just to prove that it can be done.

Anyway he is letting me try it out tonight and he will take the modem back with him. The company wants me to build a simple office for them... I might be willing to do it if they can get some communication in here!

We had a church work day the first Saturday of October when we hung the church sign board on the church building. On that day we also planted a power pole for the church. We should have power sometime within the next two months in preparation for Bible School.

Well I get more later! Bye from Wipim, PNG.

Jason Russell

In and out of The Bush

Well I couldn't imagine that the last time I posted was July 24Th, time passes so quickly.

In the process I forgot my password to my blogger account.

Well it is the beginning of October and I needed to come out because once again the tractor proves to be a challenge, early I had faxed an order into Lighthouse via Daru and Pastor Daniel.

Parts were DHL shipped to me for a leak I had in the axle and also I needed to take Libby into Port Moresby with me so we can have her fitted for a retainer.

After I received the parts in a little under a week, I flew back into the bush (the roads are just impassable after the recent winter here.) and went to install the parts only to find that I blew a wheel bearing.

So back out I flew and to my amazement they had the part in Port Moresby, even more amazing is that Pastor Tao was able to pick it up, put it on a plane and I had the part in Daru that same day.

I should be back out November 14th or so as Libby will go in to have her retainer put in, so we need to fly into Port Moresby.

Until then here are a few pictures......





Joy and Titus



Wipim Baptist Church

Going back into the bush.....

We sent Grandma Livis home the other day and she made it safely home! Amen. We were very thankful to have her with us for three weeks just before and after Ana was having David.

We will be going back to the bush in a few days, taking baby and mom and all the kids, are time out was fun, but we must get to hte work that God has called us to.

Please pray as we do special outreaches into several villages they are....

Wim, Rual, Gamawe, Padare, and Iamega.

I should have more info to post as I come back out to Daru in a month, until then... Yawo (goodbye).

It's a Boy

Ana gave birth to our 5th child July 12th @ 11:30am. He weighed 3.45kg and was 52cm long. His name is David Jason Russell in honor of our Youth Pastor David Swim. Bro. Swim taught us to fear God and desire to serve Him with our lives. He laid a foundation of convictions in our lives that remain unto this day. Bro. Swim we are truly grateful! We love you.

Kinauls and Russells in Port Moresby

The Kinaul family was in Port Moresby yesterday and came by to

allow us to see Faren who was diagnosed with

TB - Menengitis of the brain back in April after he was mysteriously paralyzed. For 3 weeks he could not talk or move but now, Praise God, is able to walk alright but not able to lift his legs very high nor move very fast. His speech is still very slurred but is improving. The doctors are all amazed but we know who holds us in His hands!

Ps. Ana is still holding out but hopefully within the next couple of days we will have another picture to show you.

Internet Connection in Papua New Guinea

One of the hardest things to do when you are called to minister in the "bush" by God is keep in touch with others. Our recent phone line is at best "horrible". You get no cellular service there, I could get a Satellite phone at a great expense and you have Internet but it comes across at 16.6kbps (that is kilobytes) not megabytes.

While in Port Moresby waiting for the birth of our newest addition, I have been to a Internet cafe and got to use "broadband" how nice to be able to send pictures.

One downside to 16.6kbps is that you can only receive text, no pictures. So when some of you send us pictures I cannot download them as it takes us about 30minutes to get a picture.

Maybe one day Wipim will have broadband access? I can pray anyways!

Independence Day

Being on the mission field is a little different in the fact that we don't get to celebrate American holidays the same way. Why we pray for our Country and it's leaders regularly on the fourth of July in Papua New Guinea it is just another day of work.

Independence Day for Papua New Guinea is September 16th, this year will be their 32nd anniversary of self rule after seperating from Australia in 1975. The people will dress up in traditional dress with face paint and grass skirts and perform traditional dances.

Welcome...... Grandma Livis

Yesterday, Grandma Livis flew over to Papua New Guinea to be with us for the next month and to meet her next grandchild and spend time with her current grandchildren. The flight went well and she brought us soem things from America that we needed and they arrived much quicker than by mail.

Rumors and Gossip

Papua New Guinea is rich in minerals. They have trees like Acacia, they have gold, and diamonds, it is a fertile land. And that is good as it brings money to the New Guineans.

Companies come in and mine or cut trees and pay the land owner or Goverment a price on what they take and in some cases they will build a infrastucture while doing it such as roads or buildings.

I say all that to give you a foundation for what I about to say.

Someone has desided to lodge a complaint about Jason to the goverment. They say that he is mining gold and taking it out of the country. Note whenever you do something for God and even the people to help them there has to be one who will never be happy.

Jason has built and helped so much in the villiage of Wipim and one person is unhappy for whatever reason and has lied and brought an accusation against him.

Pray that the goverment looks into this matter and "investigates" it instead of just believing this person.

If they investigate they will find that there is no such merit to the accusation and it will squelch all rumors and give even more credibility to Jason and Ana.

Getting Ready for #5

At the end of June or beginning of July, Jason and Ana will have a baby (technically Ana will do the work, but Jason will be there).

They had two children before they left to Papua New Guinea (Libby & Titus) born here in America, one was born in Karema, PNG (Ruth) and one in Port Moresby, PNG (Joy).

They will be flying to Port Moresby, PNG again to have their 5th baby. Grandma Livis will be flying in to Port Moresby to spend time with them and the new baby, be fore they fly back to Wipim. There is now a phone in Wipim at the district office that they can recieve calls at although I have tried to talk to Jason on this phone and I gave up!