PNG/Aussie Project - Day 16: "New Staff Training for Lillian (and Elton's in a basket)"

[Today is Tuesday - 6 more days in PNG]

This morning we started our New Staff Training.  It's been a long time coming.  We try to wait until the new missionary has all their ministry partners (support team) before we begin training.  Lillian has been with us for more than 2 years, but because we needed her help so bad on the campus, this made her finding her ministry partners take longer than expected.  This is very exciting because she is our first staff to find all her ministry partners - hopefully others can look at her and have more confidence in God that he will raise up their team also.  This training will go for 2 years and it takes place on the campus where she is already working.  Eva will be her trainer.

This should be an exciting year for her as she now has more time to spend with the students, and we have some student leaders who have been MAWLed on how to build movements on campus.  (See post on Day 8 for an explanation of MAWL: http://travelingmills.blogspot.com/2014/02/pngaussie-project-day-8-mawl-hitting.html)

Elton, who has applied to join our staff is very excited and said last week that he's tired of his job and wants to earn enough money to live and then quit and go on campus.  He knows God is calling him to the ministry, and he's already been tentatively accepted, but it's hard for him to wait until the planned time (October this year).  As a staff member, he will be required to find the ministry partners that God has raised up for him, And we have a 4-week intensive training & mentoring (MAWLing), but not until October.

Elton in a basket

So I decided to give him what I can now, let the staff MAWL him in the areas of calling people and having appointments, and asking our regional DMPD coordinator to come in April to run a mini-training (2 weeks) for him and the other staff.

So tonight we worked on his photo album that explains the ministry and his calling and the need for a mission team (of ministry partners).  We were up 'til 12:30 am, which is normal for me in New Zealand, but not here.  Here I get up between 4 and 4:30 am (NZT 7 - 7:30) so that I have some quiet time around here by myself.  Anyway, it was for a good cause - Hey Elton, you're a good cause :-).

I put Elton in a basket (that Kaylynn drew) illustrating that he's willing to go full time into the ministry and can do so only
if he has enough people to "hold the rope" for him (He's willing if they hold the rope).