“But it’s a yellow truck!” The truck would do the job, but the banana-yellow sheen struck a discordant note.
God is so creative at opening the way to the unreached. As we initially sensed the call to the Ama of Papua New Guinea, we did not know it would be possible for a vehicle to access the village. When missionaries have sought to establish work there in the past, they had to hike about 10 miles from the nearest point on the Sepik River. We had hoped, at best, to use a four-wheeler on a small path from the river. But God has done much more!
Logging companies have come in and established roads only recently, and this has created much more direct access to the Ama and other unreached tribes around that area. We truly see God moving at “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)! He has given us much easier access to come and begin this work, and, therefore, created the need for a reliable vehicle to travel these roads to the Ama and beyond.
During a call with Jack Sample and his daughter Corrie before coming to PNG, they shared that Gabriel, their Adventist mechanic friend who lives in Vanimo (the nearest major town in PNG where we can buy supplies), was willing to sell us his used, yellow two-door Toyota Land Cruiser. Yes, yellow! We began praying about it.
We needed a reliable mission vehicle for travel from the log point at the edge of the Sepik River to drive to the Ama village. A one-way drive would take about an hour. The steep and rugged logging road meant we needed a type of Land Cruiser. New Land Cruisers seemed unwise for multiple reasons. Finding used ones was challenging with few to none available.
But the color simply had no appeal to us. We kept praying.
Weeks into this search and at one point during prayer, I could picture the yellow truck in my mind as if God was leading us in that direction. While yellow may not have been our first choice for a color, we had surrendered to what we trusted was God’s will. As Joella and I prayerfully discussed it, we both sensed God leading us to go forward in faith with this used vehicle.
Gabriel had expressed a desire to have his vehicle used for missions. So we felt buying it also ministered to his desire to have his truck be a blessing in the Lord’s service. Upon fair arrangements of purchase, we praise God that the truck arrived at the log point in April.
Your gifts helped make it possible for us to purchase this truck to minister to the Ama. We are praying for the Holy Spirit to reach the Ama and the surrounding tribes. Now we are the missionaries with “the yellow truck.” Thank you for your prayers and partnership in this mission.
