SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
International – Papua New Guinea / Malawi Africa
P.O. Box 60150 Ndirande Bt. 6 Blantyre Malawi /
P.O. Box 233 – Mt Hagen (WHP) Papua New Guinea
Tanggi Mission Station – North Koroba, Hela Province, PNG
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com / Website: sgbm-malawi-africa.com
Date: 18 April 2019
Dear Pastor, Church, Supporters;
2 Corinthians 5:7 — For we walk by faith, not by sight.
The above verse of Scripture may seem often quoted by those who have much and need little, or who are not stranded. It is a good verse to preach — and much easier to preach than to live by.
That being said, our entire Christian life is to be lived by that verse, by faith. How do you know you have faith unless it is tried? And when it is tried, how do you do?
I have a special report to send out, pertaining to a need on the field in PNG in which a church has met most of that need. I would also like to state that it is the LORD — Psalm 127:1 — “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
I have tried to be a good steward of what the LORD has put in my care. The vehicle bought new in 2005 — a Land Rover used in Malawi for near eleven years — was shipped to PNG as it was the only vehicle I had in the work. With the work loads and road conditions in PNG, it has been a constant struggle to keep the vehicle mobile. I have welded the chassis in numerous places, done much repair, and replaced many parts.
All this said, there is a church — Lighthouse Baptist Church in Salinas, CA, Pastor Bro. Bob Hobbs — that felt led to offer an amount towards the purchase of a x-military truck similar to the one shipped to Malawi back in 2002. This truck is heavier, has a longer bed, will carry more, and will withstand the road conditions.
The cost of the vehicle has come to twenty-five thousand dollars, and Lighthouse Bap Church has already sent those funds to my home church. The paperwork is under way to facilitate export with US government permission. It will take approximately four thousand five hundred dollars to transport the truck by road to a port in California. The sea transport is yet to be determined as I am working this out. I am not begging or asking — I am simply reporting on the work, the needs, the demands, the answers to a need, and the response that has already been made.
I have always tried to keep these things before the people and let our LORD touch the hearts of HIS people.
There are concerns from some that if we go ahead and make the purchase, then what do we do if we don’t have the funds for export? I would like to remind us all and ask: what happened to the generation of those who just lived on faith? My father went to PNG back in 1960 with just a little over five hundred dollars, a wife, and three children.
My shipping container from Malawi to PNG arrived; we had the funds and paid for it. However, to transport it from Port Lae to the mission station was going to cost twenty thousand USD. No church or Christian here contributed to this cost — however, the LORD raised up a group of unbelieving Huli tribesmen who absorbed the cost from knowing my father and myself over the years.
The cattle upon a thousand hills belong unto the LORD. Yes, I know the verse that we are to count the cost — and I think we have counted, or at least I have. I have spent all that I have for thirty-five years in the LORD’S work, and I have seen the LORD perform some wonderful things.
I would like to simply leave it in the LORD’S care, trusting HIM that this great effort and endeavour will come to fruition.
In His Name,
Peter Halliman