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Simply Edify
Life On The Road: A look into the Shworer family's deputation journey and call to the field of Papua New Guinea
Melissa Schworer shares her family's journey from years of ministry in Idaho to pursuing mission work in Papua New Guinea. She discusses the long-awaited call, challenges of deputation life, and preparations for serving in a culture vastly different from American life.
• Melissa and Rick have been married 22 years and five children. Melissa has an extensive background in church ministry, biblical counseling, as well as publishing several music albums.
• The family is currently traveling full-time in an RV, visiting churches to raise support for the mission field of Papua New Guinea.
• Prayer needs include wisdom in ministry, health/safety, and maintaining spiritual vitality during transition
To follow the Schworer family's journey or support their ministry, visit dispellingdarknesspng.com.
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast. Our goal is to encourage women as we navigate the messiness of life through biblical studies, personal stories and practical tips that bolster our walk with Jesus daily.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us in our episode today to continue our series on missions, and today we're very excited to have Melissa Schwerer here. She and her family are on deputation to go to the mission field of Papua New Guinea. So, as you can tell, my voice is a little bit under the weather today, so I probably won't be doing much of the conversation. But we have Esty and Melissa here who are just going to talk a little bit about what's going on in their life and their plans for the future, and I'm really excited to hear about this.
Speaker 3:So take it away. So, April and I know you a little bit, even though we've not really we kind of crossed paths sort of in college, but now we just have followed each other on social media and your ministry has always been really encouraging to me. And I know April and I have often had conversations about things that you've shared or things we've learned, so we're familiar with you. But tell us a little bit about your family and your ministry background. So I have five kids.
Speaker 4:I've been married 22 years. I have five kids, and one of them's married she just got married in May and then four are living with us. We have spent the past 22 years in Idaho, and my husband went to a Bible Institute in Idaho and graduated in 2003, and we got married the same week, and so I then graduated with my master's degree in biblical counseling in 2004. Then we worked in our local church the same local church for a long, long time doing. You know, when you work in a church it's so many of like nursery music ministry, junior church, bus ministry, visitation, all the things. So I think that that's those in reach types of ministries. But for outreach, we've done things like amazingly deep thoughts, which is where we were connected through, which was my counseling ministry.
Speaker 4:But there came a season where, as a homemaker, you are very homebound with your homeschooling and so many different things, and so I was finding it difficult to be anybody who wasn't a Christian, and so I was able to minister that way, and so I started the Amazingly Deep Thoughts ministry, and then people would send in questions and I would use the information from my counseling degree to help people online, and also I have five or six albums music albums. I've written a lot of songs and so that was an outlet for that as well. So it was both music and ministry. And my husband taught Bible Institute for 10 years and has also written seven different books on Bible doctrine and some biblical fiction. Just a lot of things. You know how there's a lot of work. There's a lot of work in these things in life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a lot of stuff. That's. That's interesting. So it's very similar to how we got started of just being kind of homebound with our children and feeling like we still wanted to have a ministry. That reached a little farther than we were physically able to go. That's interesting. That's really cool, though, but yeah, we definitely know what it's like to kind of have your fingers in a lot of projects.
Speaker 3:One of the first times I heard your name was through when we went to college and one of your music CDs and I I mean, I listened to your music CD like all the time in college- I have a very clear memory of walking into the bookshop and like or library, I forget, I think it was kind of both and seeing your picture and your CD and I just remember that like clear as a bell.
Speaker 4:So and I I also listened to it a lot in college.
Speaker 3:Such a close picture? Yeah, it was, it was a, really it was. I was like she's so pretty, but that was fun, so do you still do you?
Speaker 4:you still are writing music, I am, I have, so my last album was a Christmas album and I completed that in 2022. And since then I think. I think I've written six different songs and I was just praying the other day to see if the Lord would allow me to do the music side of it while we're in the RV, because I can do that all through the computer. And then if the Lord would allow, when we got to New Guinea, to have my girls or to have my kids record the vocal.
Speaker 3:I could see that being challenging for sure. So, speaking of Papua New Guinea, how did that happen? How did you go from church, ministry and all this stuff to now you're off to the mission field Very far away.
Speaker 4:So I was raised as a pastor's daughter and I think that I fell in love with serving the Lord then and therefore my heart was towards full-time ministry. I remember when I was 21 or 22 saying to my brother, who's also a pastor, said there's just nothing better than your day job being ministering to other Christians and serving the Lord all day long. So that was my side of it. But then my husband, his parents, went on a short-term mission trips for actually two years. They sold their house, used the equity to move to Papua New Guinea and help out at a missions house there, and a missions house is essentially where all of the missionaries from the bush. When they come into town they need to buy their supplies, but they need a place to stay in the meantime, and so they ran that home for a couple years. And then a lot of missionaries went on furlough and so there was no longer a need. So they also went back to Idaho. So he lived there for two years in a really formative time of his life between 18 and 20, and at that point the Lord used that to. He fell in love with the Bible. He fell in love with the people of New Guinea. He learned the language. He actually translated with another missionary the book of Obadiah from the King James into Pigeon and the book of Daniel into Pigeon, and that translation is actually in the current like Pigeon Bible is currently there.
Speaker 4:So it was a lot. And then it just stayed on our hearts so much and then we would. It was a trying time because our hearts were in full-time ministry, as people would call it. But the Lord never fully called us to do that, and so I always describe it like a girl who is in that season of wanting to be married and she so wants to be a homemaker, but she isn't. And so then you're kind of waiting and you feel like, well, lord, if I'm not supposed to get married, then just take the desire away. But if I am going to get married, just let me get married, but either one I want to know which one it is so I can move on. But the Lord never did. He just kept us in this limbo of the desire still being there but no actual call. Now I can see, looking back, why it was that way. But in that season limbo is just hope deferred. Make it the heart sick, that's just the best way I can describe it and as you pray, lord, please take this desire away. And he doesn't. And so you just have to compartmentalize it of a little bit of a grief hanging there. And missions conferences would be discouraging, not edifying, because you would see young people go into the mission field and you would sit there and people would say, you know, lord, here am I send me. And you would say, well, here am I, here am I send me. And he wouldn't. And so an opportunity came for us to go on a mission strip in 2020. Came for us to go on a mission strip in 2020.
Speaker 4:Well, in 2019, during a missions conference, somebody preached out of John, chapter five, and everybody in our family knew that the Lord was moving in everybody during that message. It was the Holy Spirit was so thick that we wouldn't even look at each other, not Rick or I or the kids. We just kind of were like whoa, what is this? And somebody had one of the missionaries that we knew was retiring from the mission field in Papua New Guinea and the speaker was saying here you, it was about God needs a man of Bethesda, that the blind or the crippled man couldn't get to the pool of Bethesda because there was no man to put them there, and the reason why is because all of the Jews were in Jerusalem at all of the feasts, and he said that so many of us are in a season of feasting in America and it has left the people at the pool of Bethesda empty. And he said the Lord needs a man in Bethesda and the Lord needs a man in Papua New Guinea. And it was just like, hmm, this is different than any other time.
Speaker 4:And as we all got into the car, one of our daughters said I think we said it almost fearfully does this mean we're going to Papua New Guinea? But nobody had said it, but we all knew it, and so at that point we we were just counseled we'll just go on a trip to Papua New Guinea, because you never know what happens. So we started. We bought tickets to go to Papua New Guinea in 2020. I was actually looking at our passports and it says February 12th or February 13th of 2020, and then we bought the tickets and then the whole world closed because of COVID.
Speaker 4:So then it took a while to get even the money back from our tickets, because no airline wanted to give back any money during that time. So it took until 2022 to get that money back. And then our air conditioning and furnace both broke at the same time and it was like all of the money was gone. Lord, we felt like we were trying to obey your calling or your direction, but all these doors keep closing, and so my husband pretty much just said I don't want to do this in my own power, because what if it is me? What if it is my own self-will, what if I misread the leading of the Lord? And so he just said Lord, you're just going to have to make it happen. And then in 2023 2023 we went on a missions trip and the Lord got to call us. So why now? Because God waited that long. So I can see now why.
Speaker 3:But that's how we got there wow, that's a lot of waiting and how. How do your kids feel about this? Like, whereas you said that she was kind of almost like afraid to ask, was it like they knew and they all had it on their hearts, but is it like, was it positive? Or how do they feel about it now?
Speaker 4:so I think that everybody experienced loss because here they had grown up and they were all born in the same like midwife center and and they all had lived in the same city their whole life, they'd gone to the same church their whole life, but they'd also been talked to about the field of pop, so it wasn't unexpected. But still, nikki Lott she do. You know who Nikki Lott is from Christian Compositions anyway, she writes a lot of music, she does a lot of Christian ministry things. But she said that when she first went to Bible college, her grandma wrote her a poem about plants being transplanted.
Speaker 4:And when you have a plant that's in a pot and it's growing, you can start to tell that it's starting to wilt because it needs more space for the roots.
Speaker 4:And I think that probably in 2015 to 2019, we were just going and I felt like there was a restlessness that I would only call that wilting, because you need to expand.
Speaker 4:But then, as you transplant it, some of those roots and the little hairs and the fibers they get ripped and then when you transplant it to the bigger pot, it wilts a little bit more and you have this period of like oh makes it. I think that that's what it was. I think that there was a recognition of way to cry. It's okay, it's okay to have loss. You can be simultaneously grateful and you can sit there and say and I'm thankful for this, and I'm thankful for this, and I'm thankful for this, while at the same time crying and saying and I miss this and I miss this and I'm thankful for this, while at the same time crying and saying and I miss this and I miss this and I miss this that's something that, as being in the military, I've had to learn to be able to give space for with my kids, to like to say it's okay to be sad like we're leaving.
Speaker 2:You've made friends, this has been your home. It's okay to sad, but we can also have those two things going on at the same time of being not, you know, not miserable, not complaining, not having a bad spirit, but just acknowledging the grief and still being able to to live and walk through it.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have a picture of a pot, of a small pot that's been knocked over and like a plant that's been transplanted, because God used that exact same imagery to help me give me peace about a major life change that we had a couple years ago, and it was just that we need a bigger pot so we can grow, and I have. I'll send you the picture sometime, just because it was like I hung it up on my wall just as a constant reminder of like it's hard but it's okay, yes, it's good. And necessary.
Speaker 4:So, in addition to that, we have tried to make their life as positive as possible. So we have internet in our RV, so they have Google chat with all of their friends. We have really just tried to show them that Christians can still have fun without sinning, and so we have made an environment as best as possible about enjoyment while they're doing this. So, really, that this whole first year of deputation has been a time of comforting and enjoyment, and really not just even to focus on the little things, but to create lots of things that we can enjoy and be grateful for. So I think that that has really made it a positive experience for everybody.
Speaker 3:How did the survey trip go Like? How was that? We kind of skipped over that. I'm curious. I know I saw pictures.
Speaker 4:Right. So I wouldn't necessarily call it a survey trip because we didn't know if we were going to be called. It was like a generic missions trip. Okay, but still, I am a planner and so I always look and say, could I live here, you know? Um, so the survey trip was very beneficial because it was a time where we could pray and say, lord, is this what you want? And if you listen to, we have on our website, which is dispelling darkness pngcom, we have a link to our call and it's actually almost a little bit embarrassing how many fleeces we put out.
Speaker 4:But you have to understand, having had this on your heart for so many years, the greatest fear for us, the reason why, even though in the New Testament it says that he that desireth the office of a bishop desireth a good thing, there are volunteers for the ministry, but having been a child in the ministry, I knew the bullseye that it puts on your family and that puts a lot on the wife, and none of us wanted to sacrifice our children on the altar of desire, and so we were very, very cautious, very risk averse, to confirm that this is what God wanted, not what we wanted, and I think that while we were there, we were doing our devotions and John, chapter five, came up in our daily devotions and and it was just like a reminder that said, do you remember this day four years ago? And and then, but at the same time we were both like, well, that could be a coincidence. Let's not, you know, uproot our whole life based upon coincidence. And I remember a day where I just stayed in a room and prayed and Wayne Semish is a missionary to Australia and he told the story about how he was trying to figure out if the wife that he did marry was the woman for him. And he said he asked the Lord to have her give him a purple golf ball. And he said, you have to understand, we don't like we are this interested in golf, so the idea of her giving me any golf ball, let alone a purple golf ball, would be impossible. He said that as he walked into her house one day because they had their families invited each other for dinner. He walked into the kitchen and on the kitchen windowsill was a purple golf ball and he said it, winked at him and uh, and then he, she, walked in and she said wait, I found this in my backyard. Do you want it. And so she found it in the purple golf ball. So I'm like in papua new guinea, earnestly praying lord. Nobody plays golf in Papua New Guinea. Could you please give me a purple golf ball please? I would love a purple golf ball. And there was no purple golf ball.
Speaker 4:But I remember that later on, when John 10 came up in our devotions as I was very tired, I had a lot of allergies, the room that I was in had mold in it and I didn't know it, so my lungs were closing up. There were a whole list of things where the Lord just really hit every one of my personal weaknesses while I was there. That's a different side point. But I was at this point exhausted and frustrated.
Speaker 4:And this verse said that the Pharisee said to to Jesus uh, how long does thou make us to doubt If thou art the Messiah?
Speaker 4:Tell us plainly. And all I saw was how long does thou make us to doubt? Tell us plainly. But the very next verse he said I did tell you and you believe not. I felt it hit me. I was just like, okay, I will stop that. And I I copy and pasted it and emailed it to myself, and so my husband has a similar story of how many times he kept saying the Lord, lord, really, lord, really, do you want this, please let me know? And just the abundance of things that the Lord did in our life to get us there that by the end of that trip we both knew it was the Lord. So for me, that survey trip was so important because when you move your five kids out of their home and you leave a church of 22 years to go live in an RV and you are walking out to a country that is completely different than anything you've ever known, your confidence has to be in the Lord, and that's what that did for us.
Speaker 3:That's sounds very, very relatable. Not the missions part, but just the okay.
Speaker 3:I need you to show me one more time, please that's amazing, though I feel that, um, you know, god always shows up when we need him, and that's just an amazing account of that, and also just being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and I think sometimes we're so concerned about getting it right which isn't wrong but that we almost, in trying to hear the Holy Spirit, we kind of forget that he's already spoken to us. I at least, I do that, I know that, I know for a fact that I do that.
Speaker 4:Um, wouldn't it be nice to have a purple golf ball every single time.
Speaker 3:I would prefer the purple golf ball. Yes, I just just give me a, give me a. I actually had to make a really hard decision a couple years ago. That was there was no clear, direct answer and I really just had to go on like I was not given that direct purple golf ball. Yeah, yeah, I just had to kind of step out in faith. And I didn't want faith. I wanted something I could see and hold.
Speaker 4:So is it okay if I add to that just a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. Well, my husband worked in the secular field our whole marriage and, as a lot of times people will go out on part-time deputation to build enough to live off of before they venture out to full-time with no job. And as we were looking to move, so we had moved to Pennsylvania to start deputation on this side of the world, because there's like seven churches in all of Idaho and there are seven churches within an hour of my brother's church there were so many doors that opened that said this is the direction to go. You need to move to Pennsylvania and that with. But we thought of our own understanding. Well, before you move to Pennsylvania, get a job, for my husband to get a job, and he was working fully remotely at that time and he thought, well, maybe I can just work fully remote same job over there. But as of the technicality of the way their corporation worked, it just didn't work. And so we thought, well, do we go or should we just stay here? Until we just didn't know.
Speaker 4:And we both listened to a message, the same message, and the Lord told us the same thing, but we both listened to it separately, like we were listening to podcasts, and the message came up and it was about the lepers who were at the gate, while I don't know if it was Syria who had cut off all the water supply and the food supply, and so everybody in the city of Israel was dying, and the leper at one point said well, you know what we're just going to go out and cause? We're going to die for here, or we could die out there, is it? Because when you're that, that plant that needs to be moved, we were going to die if we stayed there, or we were going to die once we were transplanted. And so the message said what kind of faith do you have if you actually have to have it all in front of you? That's not faith.
Speaker 4:And so I just remember saying well, lord, if we die, we die. And my and my and his was the what kind of faith you have? How can you glorify a God that you have that little faith in? And so for us that was. We were the lepers, leaving with no job to go to full-time deputation in an RV, with no support, nothing. So imagine just having, however much job you make to zero. And yet here we are a year later and the Lord has provided everything Amazing.
Speaker 2:That's such a great testimony For those who may not even know what deputation is. Would you mind to just give us a description of what deputation is?
Speaker 4:Deputation is when we go to many different churches throughout the United States and we present our burden and our desire for the mission field that the Lord has called us to, and we simply say if the Lord has put it on your heart and you are able, would you like to partner with us in that? Because worldwide missions is a trade-off. Sometimes people have money but no time, and then some people who are missionaries, god has given them the time but no money, and so it is the way for people within the churches to fulfill the great commission and have those seeds everywhere from what they can do at home. And so as we go around, we know how much, lord willing, it would cost us. Our budget would be living there and trying to save up for tickets for furlough.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of costs that come into moving to a third world country. You pay everything in cash. Imagine going and knowing that there's only one type of vehicle in that country and it costs $23,000 cash. So you have to just be vigilant about how you spend your money and vigilant about savings and vigilant about knowing how much things cost, and ask all these people do you want to support me and be a part of this?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's a great description and I mean I know nothing really about the overall cost of such things, but I do know that it's a lot because you have to think of future, like because you I mean generally speaking once you go to the mission field, you're there for a good number of years before you can even come back to try to get more support correct.
Speaker 4:Typically speaking, you wouldn't come back to get more support. Typically speaking, on furlough, you go around to give an update to all those partners. That is like if you look at it like a business, they are your business partners and you show them how their investment is going. At times somebody you would happen to go to a new church and they might pick you up for support. Then that could happen, but typically you don't. Whatever happens in deputation is usually the full support you have for a long, long time. And for New Guinea we would have to come back every three years because it's a work visa that expires every three years.
Speaker 3:So I was going to talk about that.
Speaker 4:Add into your budget that every three years you spend the $1,500 per person round trip to come back and forth.
Speaker 3:And you have to have that money already budgeted for, like just knowing that you have to have return tickets. And do you have to have proof of that before you go in? Like with like, before you get there, as far as, like the government's concerned, to like know that you can leave yes, so right now we are working on our visa process.
Speaker 4:So you have to have a sponsor so john gray, who's been a missionary there for about 40 years, is our, and in that sponsorship you have to even set aside a like a bond, a certain amount of money that that sponsor holds in case of an emergency or a kidnapping, or you have to immediately leave the country. So they have a bond set aside, um, but the government so, and the visa is a work visa. So you show, like my husband has his diploma, so he has to show this is my diploma, I have a bachelor of divinity, I'm going into work there for ministry, and so you have to prove all of these different things that you are not going to financially drain their economy, but rather financially input to their economy. So that's it?
Speaker 3:How has it been? I just traveling, you know, with your children, traveling the reception at churches, like how is that going for you guys?
Speaker 4:There's two sides of it. There's the ministry side of it and then there's the lifestyle side of it. Traveling from different churches to churches has been actually a very. It's like the balm of Gilead to me Because, like I said, there's like seven independent fundamental Bible leaving King James Baptist churches in the whole state of Idaho that I can think of maybe eight and going from a dearth. It feels like I remember calling my brother at one time, like 10 years ago, and he said you're not alone. It just feels like you're alone. It just feels like the whole world was compromising and just giving up on the Lord and there's so many anti-fundies and you're just like what am I even doing? I just feel so discouraged.
Speaker 4:But we have an app called IFBMT which is for missionaries to find other churches that you can call, and my husband plugged in not just Baptist but like everything, everything that you would identify yourself as, all of those tiny little things that have to spite about.
Speaker 4:We put them all in there and there were 13,000 churches in the United States and as we have gone from church to church to church, it reminds you that literally there are Christians who are brightening the corner where they are.
Speaker 4:Literally there are Christians who are brightening the corner where they are and it reminds you that, even though people might have thought about all those tiny little doctrines there are, there's still a body of Christ, there's still a unified people, there are still people who serve the Lord with all of their heart and are actively giving towards missions and trying to reach their community.
Speaker 4:So for me, brother Morrison, who's the head of All Points Baptist Mission, our mission board, he said at the beginning God knows who will be able to partner with you at the beginning, don't ever make that your focus. So our focus has just been to minister to the person in front of us wherever we go. So as we go to different churches, we just try to make each person feel loved, because we remember the 22 years of showing up at church after work. When you have 14 different ministries, it feels like and you're just like I made it and you just are exhausted and you know that tomorrow you have a youth activity and then the next day you have to go here and there and it's a weary lifestyle. Satan tries to weary the saints and so we just want to encourage them for showing up, and that really is the heart of traveling back and forth is to say good job, the lord sees.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for being here yeah, well, no, I think that's cool because I I mean, a lot of times when missionaries are coming in, I'm thinking like we need to be encouraging them.
Speaker 4:But if it's like mutual, like we're all just trying to encourage each other, that's just more positive it is mutual, because we feel the same love, because it would be horrible if you showed up and you felt unwanted, but we've never experienced that. So it's just like I said, it's comforting. We're so grateful. As far as the lifestyle, it is transient, the the level of brain fog. You wake up in the morning somebody posted a video of babies and they're like in their little car seats wake up in random places. Where am I? I was in Walmart, but now I'm home. That's how it feels. You just constantly you sit there and you're like am I in a parking lot? Am I in a? Am I in an RV park? At what state am I in? Where were we yesterday? It's just really weird.
Speaker 4:So then when you try to focus on anything, like you just got done traveling. So the way it looks is Sunday we have church. We usually try to be the same church all day. Monday we travel up to six to seven hours a day, then we try to do our laundry in Walmart the same day, and then Tuesday, wednesday Lord willing we do school, take our showers and church, and then Thursday we travel again and laundry and Walmart, and then Friday, hopefully, you do school, and Saturday we crash and we just don't do anything, because it's very hard to be social if you're drained.
Speaker 4:So just imagine that that you're trying to be productive, you're trying to commune with God. That's very challenging. It's very challenging to commune with God. That's very challenging. It's very challenging to commune with God. And it's actually challenging to commune with each other. We often become, we coexist as workers and that includes my children because we all have a role and when we're done we just want to not talk to anybody. So this year we've been purposeful. Like, okay, during dinner we're going to ask each other questions and you can't be like what'd you do today? But really that's what we do, like I did the same thing you did, but what did you like about it? How do you do that? So it is very challenging to even have the mental clarity to have a thought, let alone pray, or I don't even know how to describe it more than that. But we're actively working.
Speaker 3:There's probably not a lot of like just alone time either, I would imagine, with everyone kind of on top of each other to an extent so we aren't physically alone, but all we do have the internet and so we could ignore each other.
Speaker 4:We viably could ignore each other all day long by watching our at least I say that our love language is sharing reels. Yeah, oh, because at least it's something new, like you can say what did you watch today? What did you play? You play roblox, you. You know, you watch a youtube short. You talk to your friends, and so we could have a lot of mental alone time. But that's what creates the other challenge of but do we have a relationship?
Speaker 2:sure, sure, I have enjoyed seeing some of the things that I think that you're purposely, intentionally. It sounds like everything that you're doing it has to be intentional. You can't like just kind of let it take over, like you have to be intentional. And I've seen, like the pictures you've posted of like going to different parks or whatever when you can and stuff, and um, I appreciate that because, just like what you were saying, I think all of us can very much relate to that. Being in the same house, you're obviously closer and you have more to do being the same home, being in the same things, but not being intentional about doing those fun things, taking the advantage of, you know, going to a park, even something simple like that, just to give yourself some space away from the norm or your norm is different every day, but it just you know, but it's not.
Speaker 4:It's not actually super different because our norm is really within the 250 square feet of the RV, Right, so to get outside of the rv because sometimes some parking lots it's dangerous to leave the rv and sometimes some parking lots you have, yeah I was thinking about that.
Speaker 4:I was wondering if you're very deal with that we often mock each other about our lack of touching grass. So, yes, we intentionally try to find things that the kids would enjoy, because, even if we struggle with sometimes having the emotional energy to communicate, we can still build memories, and so that has been, that's been important is to build memory.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's yeah, and I mean you're talking about this is the kind of your last couple, however long it takes you to get support but this is kind of your last experience here in the States for a while and I could imagine that you'd kind of want to be able to fill it with some positive things. I appreciate your saying that you know you're taking time and intentionally doing those things. I think we all need to be reminded of that for sure. What is your timeline? On that note, like what, how long do you think it will take you as far as? Like? You've been on the road for a year now, right, so how's it going as far as? Like your timeline to get there?
Speaker 4:So we've been on. We started officially started full-time deputation in August of last year and the way that churches work, they usually there's two different missions conference seasons. There's usually October, november, before Christmas, so they have missions conference seasons. And then there's usually February, march, because nobody wants to do anything during summer months, so those are usually and then churches usually set their budget after the missions conference. So if they're going to missionary you would usually hear about it Like they might have maybe 15, 20 missionaries visit during the year and then they have their missions conference budget and then they have their missions conference budget and then they'll inform people. Okay, we have decided as a church to be able to pick you up or whenever their fiscal business year starts. So we have gone through that season of October, november and then February and March and with it's been about a year and we have about 67 percent support. So if you look at our budget of how much we need to get, we're we're pretty close there. But you again have to gauge the ebb and flow of when churches accept missionaries. So we could viably it's August now not be accepted from another church until maybe the end of October or November. So a lot of churches to visit between now and then.
Speaker 4:I think that so far we've been to 75 different churches. Right now we have a schedule of from total, we all have had a schedule of 100 churches. And so we have to look and say, should we bump it out to the next missions conference season? You know, do we? Because nobody really wants to have missionaries in at Christmas because, oh, christmas, and then people are recovering from Christmas in January and even though we have churches to visit and then it's just not the same. So you have to look and say, should we ride it out? Should we wait and schedule in February and March? We're at that transitional period of will the Lord provide the support for the October, november missions conferences, or do we have to wait for February, march, and then after that we're going to spend a month at um in Pennsylvania, at my brother's church, which is our sending church, and just to reacclimate with the folks there. Uh, because because they're your church, they're your home church and you need those connections, and then Rick will have his ordination service and then we'll leave.
Speaker 2:So that's our list. Great that's. I mean when you said, would you say 73 churches, that you've been to 75 churches?
Speaker 4:that's, that's quite a lot for one year um yeah, considering there's 52 weeks in a year, 73 churches, yes, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:That's why I get foggy yeah, totally understandable um, I get foggy going to the same church twice a week so hopefully we will be praying for, obviously we'll be praying for you, for that support, because I mean, who wants to drag that out further? Right, you want to get to the mission field? Um, once you are there, what would your kind of like first steps be? I know you talked about as far as, like, you have to have the work visa and all that. I'm sure you have to have all that figured out to begin with. But is there like a missions work that you're going to be part of already? Are you kind of going there? Are you going into more of a already established area? Are you going into the more bush area? Like, what's kind of the steps there as of right now?
Speaker 4:So that's something we've prayed about a lot. We've had several different veteran missionaries reach out and offer to have a stay there short term. There are pros and cons of working with a veteran missionary versus not, and that's definitely something we have actively prayed that the Lord would lead about. But the Lord never really confirmed on our hearts Every place the Lord has pointed us to on the map. There is no veteran missionary there which would have us believe that the Lord wants us to start a fresh work, which is actually where our heart. So in the song that I have sung here, am I send me? There's a section that says send me to the people who have never heard the gospel, and I think that that is what our heart is have more of an emphasis on outreach, and so right now it looks like also, you have to find a place to live.
Speaker 4:It's a very clan. I say tribe, I don't mean some. There are some tribal, like in the bush and in the jungle, but even beyond that, the clan extends vast areas and districts, and imagine how the map of the United States looked when it was the Native Americans and how it was broken up by different tribes, even though they would sometimes cover many states. It was still their land and I think that the global political system has recognized that. England came in and they made purchase agreements with one person when really it would have represented 7,000. And so they've been very cautious of that scenario in Papua New Guinea. So, that being said, the land is owned by those clans and you can't just come in and purchase a section of land or purchase a house, and even then, if you could, that actually availability of housing is very small because it's it looks like a shed that you would have in your backyard. But we have been trying to find a place that we can rent as it on the coastal region. We're looking at coastal regions where the temperature ranges between 75 and 95 at 100 humidity, all day long, all year round. An american body would get sick quickly without the availability of air condition. That's one thing that we've been told by missionaries who are there. So I try to find a house that if it has consistent when I say consistent electricity I mean like there might be a grid electricity but also there might be an addition of solar electricity with it, but also definitely with a generator in case none of those work. So to have a place where somebody can afford all of that and have a house. It narrows where you're going to stay and so usually they have expat housing for Australians who come and work there, housing for Australians who come and work there. So that has a lot of saying of things. Just to find out that it looks like you'd be going to Medang to rent a house there and then starting work from there.
Speaker 4:But what my life would look like would probably be very similar to what your life looks like, because I'm still a homemaker, I'm still a homeschooling mom, I'm still, in addition to a Christian who wants to have a ministry and who wants to soul win and who wants to have discipleship. But again, it would probably be more done within the walls of my own house. Invite somebody in for a coffee or to invite somebody in for a tea, as Lord leads. But then my husband's heart would be to go to the villages surrounding and make connections. It's a very communal environment.
Speaker 4:America is self-sufficient, independent. Don't tell me what to do. I can make my own decisions. It shouldn't impact you. Business is business there it's. Every relationship you make impacts another person because they are a clan. So you have to go very slowly and build your community and it's also an environment of people who are not considered immoral to take advantage of somebody. You have the skill of taking advantage of somebody and getting away with it. It gives you, brings more respect to your name, and so knowing that respect to them is one of the greatest priorities, and they often can gain it by taking advantage of somebody, especially somebody who is an American who's perceived to have a lot of money. You have to just be very cautious. So it would just be what you said when we get there, what's our goal?
Speaker 2:it's to slowly build relationships, sure yeah, that's quite a thought to process, like that idea of them, like that being a positive thing, of being able to take advantage of someone, that's quite because that affects, that does that would affect how you could even build relationships, because you'd always have that kind of in the back of your mind is this person just trying to take advantage?
Speaker 4:right? And is this person saying they want to be a christian so that they can become buddies with the person with money?
Speaker 2:sure, yeah, so kind of along those lines too. It's just like, as far as the spiritual climate of new guinea, like I'm, I could imagine that with the different clans, as you were saying, like there's probably a bit of different religion and different ways they practice their religions. But on a whole, I guess what is that like?
Speaker 4:There have been missionaries of all sorts for probably maybe a hundred years now, but I would say that the predominant religions that are there are works-based, but that actually goes hand in hand with their shamanism. Shamanism is like the default religion of any place that doesn't have God, real God of the Bible, so that ancestors, praying to ancestors and appeasing spirits and again works. What can I do to make the spirit happy? What can I do to make my ancestor happy? What can I do to be a quote good person based upon their version of what that is Very prevalent? So they're very spiritual, they're spiritually minded. There is no atheism in Papua New Guinea because they feel the impacts of demons and that oppression. So I would say that they are constantly aware of I'm not necessarily saying of doing right or wrong, but at least appearing that they are doing what the culture would accept as positive. So it is challenging.
Speaker 4:While they're very open to hearing the gospel and many are so glad to know that there is a spirit that is more powerful than all the spirits and that spirit also loves them and isn't somebody to be afraid of in the typical sense, anything beyond salvation can be challenging because if you start speaking about forgiveness, forgiving your brother, forgiving your husband for beating you, forgiving your father for all sorts of abusive things, your father for all sorts of abusive things. It starts encounter culture to try to teach people to be. You know, charity is seeketh, not its own, to keep somebody that those basic principles, even just within your own family life, can cause problems within the clan. Because then suddenly the husband angry at the wife she got saved and then the whole husband's family, husband angry at the wife she got saved, then the whole husband's family gets angry at the wife and then the community themselves says just do what's expected of you to stop causing this problem. You know I'm saying it's just a silent appeasement. So that's.
Speaker 2:I mean, I could imagine that that would be quite a tough field just to, like you were saying, as far as to go beyond the salvation message and to really start to do discipleship or anything like that, cause it really is like um sounds like it would be very difficult to cause. It's in a sense you're saying can you basically leave your family, like the shunning of a lot of different cults or things like that that they that they would do?
Speaker 4:And essentially sometimes it's beyond shunning, like sometimes they'll go in and grab you by your hair and pull you out of the service.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that's a lot. Well, on that note. So what are some ways that we can pray for you guys in the here and the now, to just be a blessing, like, and as far as, like I, I, when I ask someone to pray for me, I kind of want to give them specifics without being, you know, overly deep, but also I want to give specifics so that you know, they can know what's going on. So, as much as you're comfortable, we just want to know how we can pray for you.
Speaker 4:I think it would be three-pronged In the ministry. It would be to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. Really I can't describe it any more than that to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. And the practical day-to-day would probably be health and safety, because we are pampered Americans going into a third world disease ridden and to be able to drive safely. Personally, I was telling our kids we've just been praying that the verse cleanse me, o Lord, or search me, o Lord, and it says send a revival and start the work in me. That in the midst of the fog, that God will still be our greatest love and that we would remember to not forsake our communion with God for the work of God.
Speaker 2:Sure. Thank you for sharing those with us. And now we can pray for you a little bit more specifically. I think of you often and try to pray for you. When I think of you and also being on social media, I hope our listeners would follow you guys so that they can also be reminded of your travels and things and be able to pray for you as well. So if we were to give a financial gift is there some sort of a Venmo, paypal or anything like that? If our listeners would like to give to your work right now obviously not as far as like continued financial support, but just for a gift or something like that Is there any way we could do that?
Speaker 4:Yes, Our webpage is dispellingdarknesspngcom and on that page we have, because of this question, a lot.
Speaker 4:We have a page and some people actually have asked if they could financially support us monthly so we have a donate page where you have those options to, where you can sign up for such and such amount monthly or you can do a one-time gift. Those are the digital options and then there is a mailing address if people would prefer a check going to our mission through our mission board. They give us 100% anything that we do. They don't take a percentage of anything. So all of those are positive options. All of those will be recorded according to taxes, barley and honor.
Speaker 2:Okay, great, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us. Thank you so much for being able to take some time out of your travels and all of the things that you've got going on and just share with us a little bit about your deputation and all of this. It's been very eye-opening for me, I feel. You know, I've grown up hearing about deputation, I've grown up going to missions, conferences and going to all of these things and it's kind of funny.
Speaker 2:I always, like as a kid, when I would see missionaries, I would always be like super scared to even like go up and talk to them, cause I just felt like they were like these heroes of the faith you know, which you know. I think that you guys are. I mean, it's, it's an incredible sacrifice and, um, just to be able to say that you are going to a country you know and dedicating your life to that is, I feel you are like heroes, you know, timid and shy, to even go up to a missionary and say, you know, hi, or talk to them at their tables or whatever. And I feel like I still have that a little bit in my mind, like I can't really talk to a missionary. What am I going to say I'm going to sound so weird, but I love missions and I love that you got that.
Speaker 2:Missionaries are just so willing to forsake all and follow Christ and just that idea and to leave behind family and comfort and all of those things and and to start by traveling around the United States in an RV and to to put just that kind of pressure, almost like on yourself, even before you go. Like I always thought like man, that's kind of a hard way to find financial support. You know, like why can't you just call up people and tell them what your mission is Like? Why do you have to go to this? I mean, I understand it, but I just have always felt like that's a, it's like a test before the test but, I do really appreciate you giving some more clarity and just your testimony and the whole thing it's.
Speaker 2:it's been great. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:I feel privileged that you would ask me.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, we will wrap this up and and to our listeners again. If you would like to help financially, you can check out their website, dispelling Darkness, pngcom. And then, just also to keep them in prayer, the Schwerer family.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much.
