Copy
Summer Zimmer, Communications Manager
Papua New Guinea: April 2021
View this email in your browser

To Rest at His Feet

I love seeing God at work in and through people, and lately I’ve been super excited at the ways the Lord is using me— not because I’m special or overly-skilled in some way.  Let it be an encouragement to you that He can and wants to use you too. 
 
The last time I wrote I was about to go to a center 20 minutes away (when the roads are good) to host two ladies’ retreats.  Well, after 24 hours at the first one, we were asked to come back to our headquarters due to some positive Covid cases at our main center.  So, the retreat got shut down after the first day.  But . . . we decided to continue remotely, so through Zoom and WhatsApp audio messages and texts we walked through the remaining 3 days of the retreat.  I delivered supplies and meals and we had our discussions online.  I was amazed at the way God worked in each of the ladies’ lives, just in having that time set apart for Him to speak. It was really a joy and blessing to watch. 

So, the second retreat was rescheduled, and we were able to have it in its entirety at the center close by, and it was a total blessing as well.  God did a lot of beautiful things and really spoke to the ladies.  He showed up to reveal hidden shame, bitterness, fear and grief.  I feel so privileged to walk alongside them and give them the opportunity through time set apart for God to heal those broken places.

In these moments of listening and hearing their hearts, I find that there’s really so much that we have in common as women.  We all struggle with feeling like we don’t belong, like we’re too much or not enough, we compare and feel less than, we desire direction from the Lord, we have opportunities, but we fear that if we take them, we won’t be able to take care of the things on our plate already.

Sound familiar? 

In the quiet moments when we take time to meet with Him, God says I’ve got this, give me your burdens, these fears, this shame, this unjust treatment, this grief.  And it’s beautiful to see those things released.  I love facilitating these debriefing retreats, and I know it’s not my responsibility to make these things happen.  I just offer the opportunity to rest at His feet.
After two weeks of social distancing and not being able to have people over to my house, thankfully I was able to resume having ladies over for dinner and for Wednesday night prayer. And I had my team in ICT over because . . .
alas, 3 of my IT coworkers left. Hopefully two will be back, but there are still major gaps on our team.  Please share this video. We’d love to see more people willing to plant churches in PNG in an IT role . . .  or a medical role, or a teaching role . . . Church planting does take a team.

What's Happening

The other thing I am once again excited about is another round of missions leader discussions.  It’s so rewarding to see the lightbulb come on as to the importance of church engagement in their missionaries’ lives.  If you’re still reading this newsletter, this far down on the page, you probably already understand how important it is that you’re praying for me, reaching out to stay connected and encouraging me in this journey of missions.  But sometimes churches miss the small things they could be doing and the ways the church body can benefit from being engaged with their missionary. 

In this particular group I’ve had the chance to connect with one volunteer and help him develop steps to start a missionary support program at their church.  Please pray with me that his efforts would be fruitful, that when his missionaries come home this summer, they will be welcomed by a church body that is familiar with them and eager to rebuild that relationship. 

Many of our missionaries are here for 15-20 years and so much change happens in their home churches while they’re gone.  That’s why WCC’s pit crew program is so essential.  It provides a stable group of people for a missionary to connect with when they’re home and on the field.

Save the date for WCC’s next church retreat at Wayumi, October 15-17
Another exciting aspect of connecting with these churches is having these videos to share that explain different aspects of what their missionaries are involved in.  Pray for the Lord's guidance as I continue to create videos that tell His story here.

What Does Culture Have To Do With It?
Why do we move into a tribal location to learn the culture and language? Language is really the spoken expression of a person’s culture.  Culture is made up of all those things that make up a person’s view of the world around them and how they relate to that world and the people around them.

It’s currently my home church, WCC's, mission focus.  If you missed the Missions Night of Worship you can watch it here.  Be sure to visit the expo tomorrow and see my friend and co-worker in PNG, Chris Jones, share about the church recently born in Pei.  I hope to be online between the first and second services to connect with you all in the lobby.  In the evening, you can join for the student ministries event to hear from Chris, Candace Swift (another co-worker from PNG) and I filling in the picture of what tribal church planting looks like.

Praises

Praise the Lord for the beautiful work He did at these two ladies' debriefing retreats.

Praise Him for the prayer group I'm able to host on Wednesday nights. That group has been a good source of community this term.

Praise Him for 5 churches willing to participate in the Missionary Care Discussion Group.

Praise him that the school was able to reopen after a short period of remote learning.

Praise him for 4 packages from my mom and 1 from my pit crew making it here recently and a new shipping resource that seems to work better!

Praise the Lord for the supplies I needed for the retreat coming- some the day that we left for the retreat!


Imagine my surprise when the logo on my body wash moved!
Prayer Requests

Pray for housing for me as I'll have to switch houses in July.  I, of course, would love a porch and space to have people over, but this moving around is always a good reminder for me to trust in the Lord's provision and knowledge of what I need.

Pray for wisdom in offering the next ladies' retreat.  I'd like to incorporate the retreat into our training program for church planters but also make it available for those going on home assignment soon. 

Pray for the missions leaders in this discussion group that they would be led by the Lord to put into action some of the ideas they hear.

Pray for Warsaw Community Church and their mission focus, that it would be an encouraging and mobilizing time for the church.

Pray for the next series of videos I hope to make about literacy and why we teach people to read and write.

Pray that we can limit the spread of COVID on our centers so that our support teams can continue to provide the practical support that our tribal church planters need and that despite restrictions and limitations in travel, thriving churches would continue to be established.  

Pray for the country and people of Papua New Guinea and the healthcare system here; that lives would be spared.
More stories of what God is doing in Papua New Guinea can be found through social media:
Ethnos360
Ethnos360
Ethnos360
Ethnos360
Ethnos360
Ethnos360
NTM PNG
NTM PNG
NTM PNG
NTM PNG
Summer's Blog
Summer's Blog
Summer
Summer
Summer
Summer
Copyright © 2021 Ethnos360, All rights reserved.


My mailing address is:
Summer Zimmer C/O New Tribes Mission
PO Box 1079 Goroka, EHP 441 Papua New Guinea

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp