Emails From Wayne and Loma Morris

 received 9.13.00 - 2:04 AM

Dear Family and Friends,
This a new attempt to send current updates on our family, ministry in Papua
New Guinea and current prayer needs. I am sending this out to many of you
who have requested this and some that I'm not sure about. If I have included
your name and you would rather not get these updates, PLEASE feel free to
let us know. Sorry if that is the case.

Many exciting things are happening in Papua New Guinea (PNG). We trust that
we can keep you updated as we (the collective we) press to see the Gospel go
to the many unreached languages here.

We returned this year to the boarding ministry, working with children of
families that are working in remote locations in PNG. Three new young people
that we have living with us this year are James, Aaron and Carmen Luyendyk.
Their family came this last year and were involved in culture and trade
language orientation. James, Aaron and Carmen have another brother named Wes
who is with their parents. Their parents are named Kelly and Sien. They are
now in the process of moving into a new tribal location.

About a month ago, they did a survey into a possible area to locate. The
people in this tribe have been asking our mission to send missionaries for
over ten years. The tribal people were very excited and wanted our
missionaries to come live with them. The Luyendyk's and another family
loaded their things on to a truck ten days ago and travelled to the Sepik
river. From there, they loaded it on to a barge and travelled up river for
six days. Yesterday, as the barge began to get close to Senou, the people's
village, the people began running along the bank following the barge. The
people were very excited that finally someone had come! It had taken four
hours to load the barge, but the people unloaded it in an hour as they were
so enthusiastic.

James, Aaron and Carmen will leave on a school break next week and will fly
into this area. They will have a couple hours hike from the closest airstrip
and an hour or so on the river. This will be their first visit to their
family's new home.

Thanks for your prayer for the Luyendyk family and their partners as they
begin to build house, learn language, etc. It will probably be a couple
years before they get to the point that they can communicate well enough to
teach. For the Senou people, the long wait for missionaries is over. Now
they will be working to teach those missionaries to talk in their language.

Wayne & Loma Morris
Missionaries in Papua New Guinea

 From: Wayne & Loma Morris

Subject: update Date: Sunday, October 01, 2000 5:04 PM

Dear Family and Friends,

We sent our boarding kids home to their families last week for a two week school break.
We are thankful that they have these breaks together and trust that the break from school will refresh the kids as well.
They were all very tired from a very demanding study schedule.
We have gotten a bit of rest as well, but mostly I would just call it a change of pace.
I've been digging out my desk trying to get all the paper work dealt with. As you all know, we are behind in our correspondence and I am working to remedy that.
We had a strong wind come up in the middle of re-roofing the High School building this week. A piece of loose roofing tin flew into the leg of the man that was directing the project. He had to have stitches and then, because he couldn't get up on the roof, he asked me to take his place so that we could get the roof under cover. Many of us had been helping with the roofing project in between working on our other responsibilities. I hadn't planned to be involved in directing the work crew.
I spent all day on the roof yesterday and big parts of the preceding four days. Yesterday it was very hot and sunny and I got fried in the sun.
Yesterday, one of our tribal missionary teams had to be evacuated by helicopter because a dormant volcano in their area decided to wake up.
The missionaries are all safe and sound, but pray for the other people who live there as they flee the area. Rice and other food was flown in on the helicopter that flew the missionaries out.
We appreciate your prayer and care,

The Morris Family

Received 11.11.00  8:18 PM   Subject Prayer/Praise Update

Dear Family and Friends,
In the last several weeks, we have seen some exciting things happening here
in PNG and some discouraging challenges to overcome. I'll try to give you a
brief update on some of these so that you can join us in prayer and praise.

The Pawaian New Testament dedication was a major mile stone. We have had
missionaries with a Pawaian people for many years. There is a strong
established group of believers and the Jack Douglas family have been working
on leadership development and Bible translation for the last number of
years. It is great to know that they have the New Testament in their hands
now to guide them in their spiritual growth. Around a thousand people from
the surrounding tribes joined in the celebration. We were not able to fly in
for the dedication, but have enjoyed hearing the reports. It was a
tremendous time for the people and also for the Douglas family who have
labored for many years to reach this point. You can see a report and
pictures by going to http://www.ntm.org/contigo/pawaia.html

On the discouraging side, one of the families that have two young people in
our home moved out of a tribe that we have had missionaries in for many
years. The move was planned, but the circumstances were hard. There are
believers and several churches established among the Iwam people. A New
Testament translation in the Iwam language is over half completed. The
missionaries have been working to wean the churches from dependence on the
missionary's leadership. The next step was to move our missionaries out of
the area and to give assistance to them through visits. Of course this
brought problems with what to do with the houses, airstrip, tractor to
maintain the airstrip, etc. It was further complicated by the fact that this
airstrip had been used by missionaries from several tribal works and it was
an interior support center. It was concluded that all of this would have to
go to the land owners, even though we wanted the local church to benefit
from it. The land owners didn't feel that this was enough and wanted
significant monetary compensation. We were able to get our missionaries out,
but they were not able to take anything out with them. The Iwams are holding
some of the Hutteman's personal possessions that they had not gotten moved
out yet and a river barge hostage. This doesn't make any sense in our
culture because they are getting so much, we think, already. It makes sense
to them in their culture. This next week, several of our mission leaders and
government officials will fly in to try to resolve this. It needs to be
resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. We need to have favorable
relations with the people as we continue to minister in other areas on that
river. Pray this week for a favorable resolution to the demands, for the
church (not a part of the land owner line) to be strong in its' witness and
for the missionary family that would like to leave with a good relationship
with the people.

Thanks for your prayers and giving that make it possible to minister to
families working in these tribal locations. We thank the Lord for the
special group of young people that have been entrusted to our care. Pray for
Mike and Abby Hutteman as their folks have had to postpone a planned visit
because of needing to be involved in settling problems listed above. Pray
also for our young people as they are all very tired. We have four and a
half weeks left of this school term, so we need to help them get some rest.
Their school schedule, home work, outreach, class functions, etc. keep them
very busy.
Thanks!
Wayne

Received 01.14.01 7:05 PM

Where has the time gone? The holidays are over, our boarding students are
back and I'm still digging the desk out. We did get some major work done
over the holidays on our mailing lists and all, but now we need to get some
communication out.

As I mentioned, our boarding students returned last week and school is back
in session. We now have fourteen young people living with us - ten boarding
students and four of our own. The first few days were very hectic as I was
busy at the school helping with some last minute scheduling and staffing
'crisis's'. We also have two younger brothers of children that we already
have, who are here for their first time. That takes a lot of adjustment as
they step into being away from Dad and Mom for the first time, and face the
first time challenges of being in a new home and a new school situation.
They survived the first three days and are settling in well. Thanks for your
prayers for:
- their adjustment
- their parents adjustment as both families face the reality of having all
of their children away at school
- our sensitivity to their needs.

Several of you have asked about the situation at May River with the Iwam
people and their holding our river barge and some of our missionaries
possessions. It is still a prayer need. The people continue to hold the
barge and possessions. The government and police have said that we should
take the police in and take our things back. We could do that, but it
doesn't resolve the problem as we need to continue to operate on the river.
We need good relationships with the people. I do need to be sure that you
understand that there are several churches in this tribe and the believers
are not a part of this dispute with NTM. From the reports that we are
getting, the believers are doing well, but they are not able to step in and
resolve this with the Iwam tribal 'big men'. Tuesday (Monday evening your
time) two of our men will be going in to meet with the tribal leadership to
try again to resolve this problem. Please pray for:
- the missionaries' safety
- a change of heart by the people holding these things
- a positive spiritual impact from these events.
None of this makes sense to our way of thinking, but we know that God has
allowed it for a purpose.

We appreciate your prayer as we face the challenges of the day. Pray for
physical strength and rest for Loma as she prepares food for sixteen, meets
the MOM needs of fourteen young people and teaches a daily 90 minute Home
Economics class to five young ladies. Pray that she doesn't get the flue
that I have had over the weekend. We all don't do well when mom is down.

One other exciting prayer request is for the Nakwi people. Starting last
Monday, they began to hear the Chronological teaching of the plan of
salvation in their language for the first time. Please pray for the
missionaries who are teaching them: the Tim and Diana Askew family and the
Craig and Heidi Greenlaw family. The teaching will take around three months.
We, the Morris family, have had the opportunity to meet some of the Nakwi
people. We feel in awe of the love that God has for them. They are an
unlovely people who could be the definition for depraved mankind, but God
loves them enough to send missionaries to them to teach them of Himself.
They may be unlovely, but are very far from being unlovable or unloved. Even
the surrounding tribal people think that the Nakwi are backward and their
moral practices are despicable. We can surely be thankful to our God for His
love! Pray for clear communication and understanding of this life changing
message.

 Thanks for praying!
Your partners in ministry,
Wayne, Loma and family

Received 1.20.01 1:07 A.M.

A quick update on our prayer requests.
The meeting did take place with the tribal leaders from the Iwam tribe. They
have been holding a river barge and some of the possessions of two
missionaries for several months. They decided that because the barge was on
the water, they could not claim it. They did strongly state that everything
else was theirs. It doesn't make sense to us but it was a change in position
from before. After the meeting, one of our guys flew in and reclaimed the
barge. It was taken down river to another location to be kept when it is not
in use. We thank the Lord that the Barge was released and that it did not
have to be retaken by the police. This keeps the door open for good
relations and an ability to continue to use the river for transport through
these people's area. We trust that the Lord is using this to continue his
work amongst this people.

We appreciate your prayer as we have a couple very bad viruses making the
rounds now. They are lasting over a week and it has been a challenge to keep
school staffed as some teachers are sick. We have several of us who are sick
as well. Pray that the rest of the family stays health, especially Loma. I
make a lousy Mom.

The Nakui people are coming and listening well to the teaching. It has been
encouraging to hear how well they are listening and understanding. Pray that
they would not loss interest and would come consistently, as they need to
understand each days lesson to fully understand God's plan of redemption.

Thanks again for your partnership!
Wayne for the Morris family

 Sun, 18 Feb 2001 20:50:47

Dear Family and Friends,
Since our last update, I'm thankful that we can report that everyone in our
family is well. We've had a number of confirmed cases of Dengue fever and
Typhoid. It is rare to have Dengue fever at our elevation. We are thankful
that it appears that we are past the worst of the outbreak.

Tomorrow will be a great day. Joanie Bowers and her family will return to
PNG. I have shared a number of updates on her evacuation to Australia and
surgery for a burst spleen. Her surgeon and infectious disease doctor
released her and said that it would be fine for her to return to PNG. Her
recovery from the surgery will take some time yet, but she is doing well. It
will be good to have them back.

As most of you know, our daughter Amy graduates this year. We'd appreciate
your prayer as we make plans for her return to the states. She plans to
attend Bible school and then I think that she would like to go to college
for art. She really enjoys and is gifted in art. She has also had
opportunity to teach art to a couple grade school classes this semester. She
is loving the teaching and may pursue teaching. A lot of decisions for the
future are to be made. We are currently working on arranging flights back to
the states for her and Loma. Loma will have a few weeks in the states with
her before returning to PNG. Please pray for wisdom in the decision and the
Lord's provision.

Another area for prayer is our significant needs for teachers and boarding
parents for next year. I'm including a portion of communication that was
sent out to our field personnel because it highlights the tremendous need
that we have for next year. If you have time to read it, we'd appreciate
your prayer for teachers and for wisdom on the decisions ahead of us for
next year. I will also be forwarding another e-mail that we are trying to
get out to people with specific skills or college students that are training
in these areas. If you know people that might be interested, please forward
it on.

Wayne

Folks,
We have been speaking of the desperate need for teachers at Numonohi
Christian Academy for next year.  Because this is a yearly occurrence, we
hope that no one takes this too lightly with an attitude of "they're always
screaming for teachers and every year someone shows up, so what's all the
fuss?"

We all know that, despite the physical circumstances that we face, we are
really in a spiritual battle.  The moment we stop trusting in the Lord, we
begin to go downhill.  In conquering the land of Canaan, the Israelites
faced many battles and I'm sure it was tiring.  Just because the Lord gave
them a victory previously did not mean they could stop depending on Him and
praying earnestly for Him to go before them in each new battle.  Imagine
them saying, "what's the big deal; we don't need to do all we can because
God has always come through in the past?"

God is always able and He can choose to send teachers or not and He would
still be good and kind and gracious.  But we truly believe that He wants us
to be regularly petitioning Him and trusting Him and then doing what we can
as His servants.  In that light, we want you to know exactly how the lack of
teachers may potentially play out next year so that your prayers and your
communication around the world can be as precise as possible.

NCA   2001-2002 Courses without a Teacher
Elementary
  Preschool - 10 Students
  Grades 1 & 2 - 13 Students
Grades 7-12
  Math - Grade 7
  Pre-Algebra - Grade 8
  Consumer Math - Grades 11 & 12
  World Geography - Grade 7
  Ancient World History - Grade 8
  Modern World History 1 - Grade 9
  Modern World History 2 - Grade 10
  Cultural Anthropology / Economics - Grade 11
  Comparative World Government - Grade 12
  Life Science - Grade 7
  Earth Science - Grade 8
  Boys PE - Grades 7 & 8
  Girls PE - Grade 7 & 8
  Boys PE - Grades 9-12
  Girls PE - Grades 9-12
  Industrial Arts - 3 classes through Grades 7-12
  Art - Grades 7-12
  Spanish 1 - Grade 9
  Spanish 2 - Grade 10
  Bible - Grade 8
  Bible - Grade 9
  Bible - Grade 12

We are truly grateful for the numbers of new folks heading towards new
tribal works.  But, at the same time, the numbers heading towards support
work is practically non-existent.  Try imagine sending an army to battle
with nothing but "front line" soldiers.  How long will they last without the
cooks, the fuel suppliers, the ammunitions suppliers, the communication
specialists, etc.?  Not very long.  Our tribal workers may soon be in a
similar position.

In case you are wondering what the effect of all this may be, read on.  If
just some of the above classes (Grades 1, 2, 7 & 8) are canceled and the
children sent home to be home schooled the following list is just the first
of the dominoes which would fall:
Affected Support Staff at Lapilo who might not be able to continue their
ministry:  two nurses from the medical clinic, the personnel secretary in
the field office, the High School and Adult Pidgin teacher, the woman
overseeing the hiring of all national women and two out of our three dorm
moms.  Affected tribal works: Dom, South Lamogai, Senou, Gende, Elimbari,
Manam.  Additionally affected: the Friends in Action support services in the
Sepik and administrative help at Hoskins Support Center in the Islands
region.

As you can see, this is not a school matter.  This is a field matter.  Pray
all you can.  Spread the news about the needs as far as you can.  And be
convinced that the support workers are as vital a part of the team in
spreading the Good News as the tribal church planters.  May the Lord hear
our prayers.

Matt 9:37,38  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly [is]
plenteous, but the labourers [are] few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the
harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Received 4.8.01
Dear Family and Friends,
An update is past due. We appreciate the prayer that you have all given on
our behalf.
We are in our fourth school term which runs through the end of May. The
third term was a rough one, with all of the illness going around. Everyone
was ready for the school break. Thankfully, this term has started out much
better.
We are savoring the last two months with out daughter, Amy. She and Loma
will be leaving for the States, May 30th. Loma will stay for a month and Amy
will go to Bible college in mid-August. We are excited for her as she takes
this next step in her life. Of course, we are not excited about being half a
world away from her. Thankfully, the communication means have improved on
this end and we can have better contact than in days gone by.

* Please pray for her as this is a difficult time with leave her friends
from around the world. She is also facing a lot of new challenges.

We have been very excited to hear of some of the milestones that have been
reached recently. Today, we heard that two men just passed their final
language and culture check in the Kuman language. They will now begin to
translate and prepare teaching materials to teach in the Kuman language for
the first time. Their target date for beginning teaching is July. They asked
for prayer for:

* Accuracy in translation and Bible lesson material
* Good development on an alphabet and literacy material to teach the people
to read and write their language
* Hungry hearts on the part of the people in anticipation of the beginning
of the teaching of God's Word.
* Praise that these missionaries have passed this important point.

We have also been praying for the Nakui people. Two missionary families are
now teaching them. They have been teaching chronologically through the
scripture and are days away from presenting Christ as the promised
deliverer. They plan to come to the 'head of the talk' as it is said here on
April 11th.

* Please pray that the people are clearly understanding the truth of their
need and that the missionaries can communicate clearly to these needy
people.

These are exciting days as the Gospel is being presented in several
languages that have never heard God's truth as far as we know. It is also
going out into new areas in other languages, taught by tribal believers.
This next year is also going to be challenging as we are going to be very
short staffed. I plan to send out our personnel needs list so that you will
see the numerous gaps to pray for.

* Pray especially for teachers. We are considering the possibility of
closing down some class next year for lack of staff.
* Praise for the recent new contacts that have expressed an interest in
coming.

We sure appreciate your part in the ministry here in PNG.
Wayne for the Morris family

Received 4.12.01 21:32:06

Below is the update that we just received regarding the teaching that has
been ongoing in the Nakui tribe of PNG. Trust that you can rejoice with us
in what God has done.
Wayne
---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Greeting from the Nakui jungle.  Many of you have been praying and lifting
up the Nakuis as this week we brought the Gospel to them in their own words
for the first time.  Indeed, people were praying all over the world for
these people and Praise the Lord, He has once again proved Himself
faithful and His Word powerful.

Wednesday was a beautiful dry Nakui morning, with a full crowd (about 60)
showing up for the teaching.  They had been told that this day was
significant - the "root" of the talk which we came from America to give
them.  Sharing the teaching responsibilities, I taught first covered key
review points from past lessons, then teaching through Jesus' trial before
Pilate, his beating, and crucifixion.  Greg picked up with Jesus'
resurrection and tied Jesus death on the cross back to key OT stories
and prophecies.  We also took time to re-enact the crucifixion scene
before the Nakuis.  Charlie King, visiting with his wife Mary for the week,
was able to make a cross, a cardboard tomb, fix up needed syringes of
fake blood, etc... to make it all visually meaningful.

As we concluded our two hours of teaching, the finale was a skit portraying
the scene in Heaven at a believer's death.  It was a continuation of a skit
we did earlier depicting how we as sinners are accountable for our sins
before God.  Trying to make the abstract as explicit as possible we likened
our sins to being written in a book that cannot be lost, bought or taken
away by ourselves.  Then we walked Diana and an Iteri believer through the
skit, demonstrating the steps toward salvation and receiving forgiveness of
sin.  For each believer before God, the Nakuis were able to see they had no
book to be found and thus were able to enter into heaven.  Finally we told
the Nakui that God wants to throw away their sins too if they believe and
asked, "What do you think?"  Auiyo was the first to stand up.  He said, "I
think it's true, Jesus paid for my sins and can throw them away."  I think
for many that was a key moment as they were able to see that the opportunity
was before them and the choice was theirs.

After the meeting we were able to talk with many, some of whom I was
able to capture on cassette.  Here are a few you might like to hear;

Sobai: "Jesus died on the cross and he threw away our book of sins.  His
blood spilled from the cross, men hung him up on a cross.  He hung, died,
and three days rose again.  Then he went to Heaven.  He threw away our sins.
Now I don't have a book of sin.  Now He doesn't have talk (a problem) with
me.  He paid for it finish."
Kibo:  "Jesus died, his blood spilled on the ground and He threw away our
sins.  He wanted to help us so He died.  He came and took us back from
Satan's hand.  God now doesn't have anger with us."
Auiyo:  "Jesus died for my sins, for all of our sins - He died for this
reason.   He died like this ... people killed him by nailing him to a cross.
He died and then Joseph took him and laid him in a stone cave.  He put him
there and he rose again three days later.  Three ladies saw an angel there
and the angel told them, 'He's not here, he's gone'.  His blood spilled on
the ground for my sins.  He wanted to throw away our book of sins.  If I
believe with one heart, then my sins are thrown away." (yes, this guys is
very sharp!)
Nobi:  "If a person believes with one heart then his sins are thrown away.
He died to help us.  He paid for my sins.  Later I will go to Heaven."

There are other stories like Makai, our friend with cancer and not expected
to live through the teaching, he was one of the first to vocally affirm his
belief.  I wish you could have seen his face as our meeting came to a close.
Others like Tunawe, who's comes from a family steeped in animism and who's
grandparents were all murdered and cannibalized, he's so quick and able to
answer questions about Christ that he hardly will let us ask others around
him
what they think!  We're also praising the Lord there seem to a number of
Nakui women who are expressing their belief, as we've been wondering all
along how much was sinking for them.  It will take time to get a feel for
where different ones are at, but we believe we've heard clear testimonies
from about 20 or so, and are confident there are others.

  From here I could lead into the many emotions we're feeling, how drained of
energy we all are, or perhaps where we go from here.  Let's just leave it at
this ... God has done a mighty work among the Nakui as we've seen darkened
hearts receive light.  We trust this is only the first step for these new
believers in a life full of revelation and appropriation of truth.  The
Kingdom has grown a little bigger, and it now includes ones in this hidden
little village in the middle of the PNG jungle.  To God be the glory.

Thanks so much for your prayers and have a blessed Easter weekend!  Tim and
Diana

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Received 3.16.03