10-9-12: One of Many Ways God Takes Care of Missionaries

How does God take care of missionaries? In many ways. The one that I think about a lot is in travel. The other day my husband was flying in (the only form of travel we have except walking 3 days) with a load of supplies. It had been a really nice day but the rain moved in while he was in flight here. They came close enough to see the airstrip and started to descend. The heavens opened up and poured out heavy rain. Almost at the point of no return they pulled up. They did a low fly over the airstrip but at the head of our airstrip are mountains. They looked as though they could reach out and touch them. Then they zoomed right over the house. I was sure they were going to hit a mountain. I was crying and praying out loud! The Lord answered and although he had to divert and overnight at another place, he made it safely home in the morning.

Now my husband says he did think "Lord is this your time for me to go?" He says though his heart rate never went up. If that would have been me I would have been in stroke zone or heart attack at least! For those who know my Mister Steady husband they can imagine that to be true!

Thank you Lord for safety!!

...SAFETY is of the Lord. Prov.21:31

Thinking of Home and Thinking of Ministry Here

The children were talking about things they were going to enjoy about going home to America. I realized my two youngest children who will turn 5 and 3 this month do not remember much about America. My 5 year old, Hopie, says, "You can't say 'olgeta meri kam long dispela ples' in America." :). She has at least figured out that people in America don't understand tok pisin. Since we have no roads or cars here in our area we will all be in culture shock to drive everywhere :). The kids don't get out to the city very often because of expense. They may get out once a year. We were talking at breakfast about the cereal aisles in America. Daddy said when we got back to America we could all pick our own box of cereal to eat! You should have heard the cheers that went up. We did come back to reality when daddy said 2 more years before we go to the US. Do we get "homesick"? Yes. Do we stay that way? No. Whenever the kids come to me saying they miss home, I try to sympathize with them for a minute but then turn their thoughts back to here and the ministry we are doing right now. So what is going on here? Stay tuned...

Dear Praying Friends,



It was a success!! We put forth a great effort in Prayer and Perspiration and finished several great tasks to secure the house in Kaintiba for our family to move and live full time in this Gulf Province government station. We were able to book a charter flight from Goroka for the 9th of January. We set forth to purchase the supplies for the roof (about $2,500) in Lae. This was then shipped by road to Goroka to the Adventist Aviation Services on Saturday, January 7. This was then flown down to Kaintiba on January 9. After it was offloaded, the pilot continued to Kerema to fly us (Mark, Titus and and another young man-Kevin) and about a ton of other supplies back to Kaintiba. The pilot was able to get a ton of coffee beans from there to Goroka to complete his round trip flight, so this reduced my overall cost to only $2,750 for the flight.



After arriving on this Monday (January 9) we carried the supplies to the house (others helping us). We organized/inventoried all the tools and supplies and found to be all there and no damage...a miracle! Tuesday was the first full day of work: installing two solid core entry doors, putting screens and glass louvers in the windows as well as putting in some new window sills. This and other minor interior repairs were completed throughout the rest of the week.



Sunday we had service there at the house, with a total of 14 persons in attendance! I was able to use a new set of Betty Lukins flannel-graph set sent to us from Word For The World Baptist ministries. We had got it all cut out as a family the week before to have it ready to take up with us to Kaintiba.



Monday (January 16) was the first day to begin removing the old roof and replacing it with the new "copper" roofing. We thank those of you that prayed for good weather for this project. It was all replaced by the end of Wednesday and last screws were put in place on Thursday. It would have been done in 2 days, but the rain came by 2:00pm everyday, so this slowed the overall progress. But we do thank God for HIS care for us and allowing it to be completed by Thursday morning. This included new gutter to collect rain water for our household water supply.



The next answer to prayer was the flight home. Because of PNG logistical problems, the only commercial airlines company (North Coast Aviation) was our way out "if" they came on their Friday flight and "if" they had room. The next flight with them would maybe be on Wednesday or the following Friday "if" they came and "if" they had room..... You get the picture. Well long story short they had "room" for two (Titus and Me), but not Kevin. Well, with some persuading of the pilot, we were able to squeeze Kevin in. The loading was at its MAX for this well worn aircraft, but a good head wind was what was a major factor for the pilot to allow Kevin to slip in, as also this is one of the steepest airstrips in PNG. This makes for good take-offs...in spite of it being one of the bumpiest airstrips in PNG! Using up 80% of the grass airstrip we were airborne and within 25 minutes we arrived back to Kerema and our family. The "road" back to Kerema is a 3 day WALK, so praise be to God for this wonderful flight, sustained by the hand of God. Those that know NCA aircraft understand what I am talking about.



We look to do this arrangement (Adventist Aviation Services) one more time to get some more building materials to the house and the whole family next time. We are shooting for the date of April 17, so please be in prayer about this. The supplies must be bought, shipped, flown and secured for the task at hand. The next 3 months will be busy doing these things as well our every day ministry labor here in the Gulf of Papua New Guinea. We covet your prayer as we continue to enlarge and expand the reach of the old, old Gospel Story. There are many yet to hear of all the good things our God hath done.



Mark Helzerman and Family

Please find enclosed several pictures of the work on the house.

In the mountains again!

Mark is again in the mountains!! This time he was able to take our son Titus and a young man who Mark has been disciplining, Kevin. They have been able to get get a lot of little things done in the house.

As I was typing this Mark rang and said that Kevin was sick. He has malaria. This was Kevin's first trip to the mountains!

This coming week is roof replacing week!! I pray Kevin gets better so he can help!
Also we pray the flight comes in On Fri. to take him home to us! We also pray for good weather this week!

Mark has guestimated a time for us to move the whole family there. The 2nd or third week in March. We pray all goes well and that we can get this date if the Lord wills.

It is an exciting yet scary time to get moved up there!

Mark will have pictures when he comes back so I can post them for you all!

Thanks for reading!