It’s ALIVE!!!
My last trip to the village in late-January was multi-purpose. Yes, one purpose was to work on the Scripture proofreading, but another was to help facilitate the connection between a family from a completely different part of the country and our church. This family has been working for close to 15 years helping their missionaries (from our same mission) do Bible translation in their village. About 16 months ago, the father was medivaced out of his village due to complications from a VERY enlarged prostate (bigger than an orange). For 15 months he was not able to get any medical help other than changing out a catheter. BUT GOD opened the door for him to be seen at the hospital near our village. The surgeon agreed to do the operation and then his missionaries brought him and his family over to our village where our church warmly welcomed them. Our church knew the road to recovery was going to be a long one and that this family was a long way away from their home. They provided them with some food, a place to cook, a cooking pot, a place to sleep, their own outhouse for the time they were there, and some money to help with transportation cost to/from the hospital! WOW! We missionaries were humbled and encouraged by their generosity! The Word of God was ALIVE! It was the book of Acts in living color! 
     Our new friend, Basa, has had his surgery and has completed his recovery time in our village. While in our village, people from the church were great about taking Basa’s wife to the hospital to visit every few days so that she wasn’t worried about him; also helping to navigate the public transport system which is a bit overwhelming for them because they’re from a remote location that is only accessible by plane. I have to say, this has been a proud “parent” moment for us missionaries as we have seen our “kids” stepping up and living the Word of God. Last week, Basa, his wife, and their son were able to leave our village and begin their journey back to their own village. Please pray for Basa as his incision still needs to fully heal. Pray for him and the family as they have a long bus ride and then a very long difficult hike to make it home. 

Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement, and support.

Levi, Robyn, Michael, Daniel, Matthew, and Krystiana Lenz
Serving among the North Wahgi people in Papua New Guinea

I greatly apologize for this being so late – it got lost among my emails….Judy White

Joe and his family. Their baby girl was born around New Years 2022

Holy Smokes…

Several years ago, due to some most unfortunate circumstances, an outreach was started with a group of about 13 people. Among these were Jo and his wife Airen. Jo was quite rough around the edges. Admittedly, he spent a lot of his time gambling at the local village markets and most of their money was spent on drugs and alcohol. Airen, on the other hand, was a very religious woman. Though she knew about God and had heard about Christ, she didn’t know Christ nor what he had to do with her salvation.

When Airen would read her trade-language Bible at home, Joe would get angry with her and yell at her to stop reading it or would sometimes throw the Bible across the house. One day he recounted how he would even take pages out of his wife’s Bible and use them to roll tobacco into his own smokes. He would do this just to goad her for being religious.

Through the teaching of His Word, both Jo and Airen became believers. Over time, our wives discipled Airen into becoming a Sunday school teacher and Jo had the desire to become a Bible teacher and continue to share the message of Christ with others. Unfortunately, though, Jo got tangled up in some of the things of his past and his commitment to proclaiming the message of salvation fell to the wayside. For the last 2 ½ years, our friend has battled some pretty serious illnesses and in mid-January, was told that he had a month, at most, to live. When we visited him around New Years, Jo told Robyn and me that he hasn’t abandon God’s Word, but that he would gather his family in the evenings and read his Bible, in his own language, to them. He said that he had given his life as an offering to God and whether God chose to heal him or allow the sickness to take his life, that was okay with him. One-by-one over his last weeks on this earth, Jo called his friends and family members into his house to settle any unresolved issues between them; both requesting and giving forgiveness. His mom told me the other day, as I went and sat with the family for a bit, that he had a notebook whose pages were filled with Scripture verses he’d copy down as he spent time reading his Bible over the last couple years. From rolling the pages of the Scriptures into Holy smokes…to copying them in a notebook…to seeing the Author face-to-face.

In the last week of his life, Jo said he had a dream in which he was in a garden full of beautiful flowers. Someone called out to him and asked, “Are you teaching Kos 1 (the Creation-to-Christ Bible lessons) to your children? Go back and teach it to your children.” After the dream, Jo told Airen that she had to teach God’s Word to their children. He knew he didn’t have enough time left to do so himself, but he knew it needed to be done!

Friend, whatever it is that stands between you and your friend/family member, don’t wait until the end to make it right. Offer your lives to Christ as a sacrifice now (Romans 12:1) and work diligently now to freely share the love of Christ with others while you still have the breath to do so. Please pray for Airen as she teaches her young children the Word of God. Pray for her as she lives the hard life of a widow in a hard culture. Pray for the church to learn how to care for the widows.

You Prayed and God Provided…
We have reached the full amount of funds needed to purchase a vehicle for the ministry here! We have even had some who have personally taken it on to provide a bit extra to get it outfitted with a turbo to help it climb the mountains better. It has been an amazing faith-grower to see God work in this awesome way. We really feel that “Thank You” is inadequate to express our gratitude for your part in praying with us about this need and your sacrificial giving toward it. You all make up an awesome team and we’re thankful for your part in this work. Our vehicle has been ordered and now we wait. We were initially told that it should be here by late-March, now we’ve been told that vehicle shortages are causing a 7-8 month delay. God raised the funds in remarkable timing, so I can trust that he’ll provide the physical vehicle in his timing as well.

Thank you again for your selfless support, prayers, and encouragement to our family in this ministry.

Your Co-workers in Christ,
Levi, Robyn, Michael, Daniel, Matthew, and Krystiana Lenz

Back in 2012, one of our friends/translation helpers gave a piece of property for the church to build a meeting house on. All started out well, but now for the last 5 years or so, this piece of ground has been the subject of an ongoing court dispute. A certain family has laid claim to this land and has sought to make things hard for the church and for the one who gave the land to the church. The individual who gave the land tried as long as he could to avoid taking the issue to court, but as things escalated, it was obvious that court was his only recourse. It has become evident that the issue isn’t so much against the one who gave the land as it is against the church. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

Our friend has won 2 previous court cases with the same people over this property but the opposition keeps appealing the decisions. Today, another group of lands mediators came to view the land being disputed and tomorrow (your Wednesday evening) the final decision should be announced. Please pray for our friend. Pray for his spirit to be encouraged as this has been physically, spiritually, and financially draining on him. Pray for God to be honored and the truth to prevail!

Pray for Papua New Guinea…

The spiritual darkness around us has been extremely tangible over the last couple weeks. A friend of a dear friend of ours was accused of sorcery a couple weeks ago and was killed as a result. From what we understand, this woman was a Christian. To say that she was killed puts it the most mild way possible as we cannot even begin to describe to you the things she endured before the Lord took her home. There was also another man also killed along with her. From what we understand, God gave this woman the strength to remain silent before her accusers as they demanded that she give the name(s) of her supposed accomplices. We hear that her silence has been cause for wonder and amazement by some, while others are now on a mission to mark other suspects. The things that these people have to face as a part of their every-day life is unreal! Please pray that God would soften the hearts of the people to hear his Word.

Pray for Mibu…

Another situation we want to keep before you for prayer is the Mibu Church. Below is what we are able to share with you. It is a little out-of-date, but the situation continues, so PLEASE continue to pray.

The church among the Mibu people group of Papua New Guinea is calling on brothers and sisters around the world to PRAY. Established in 2006, the church in Mibu has grown and matured through many trials and the very passage of life. In the last couple weeks, they have started asking for prayer for wisdom in dealing with a hostile criminal gang that has been roaming the area, leaving a wake of mayhem and destruction as they travel from village to village. As the rumor of these attacks grew in frequency, scale of destruction, and in closer vicinity, the realization of confrontation [with] the Mibu village seemed inevitable.

Today, that confrontation happened. We received a message today that the band of criminals has arrived in the Mibu village. This was a very dangerous situation. As we await word from our dear brothers and sisters, please be holding them before the Throne in prayer.

Wanted: A Reliable Vehicle…

I know some of you don’t have Facebook so I want to update you on a need that we’ve been sharing. We are needing to purchase a vehicle to use here in Papua New Guinea; to get in/out of our village. It’s about a 100-mile trip to our village, but because of the “road” conditions, it takes about 4 ½ hours (average speed of 22 mph). As of the end of last week, we were at 61% of our goal of $63,000 to purchase a Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier which has the cargo/passenger capacity to meet our needs and the durability to stand up to the abusive road conditions.

We continue to be in awe of how God is providing for this need. Thank you to all who have given and prayed for God’s provision. Please let us know if you’d like to know more about this project. If you’d like to be a part of giving toward this need, you can follow this link https://ethnos360.org/missionaries/levi-and-robyn-lenz. Your gift will be tax deductible. Please be sure to note that it is for the “Lenz-Vehicle Project” so we can keep our records straight.

Thank you for continuing to stand by us in prayer, financial support, and encouragement!
Your co-workers in Christ,

Levi, Robyn, Michael, Daniel, Matthew, and Krystiana Lenz

Delighting in Delays

Well, the time has come… tomorrow was the day that we held our return tickets that were supposed to carry us back to our home across the sea. We rallied the PRAYER WARRIORS- that’s YOU! we dug in with determination- and PRAYED, we kept putting one foot of faith in front of the other-and PRAYED SOME MORE…we continued to; exhaustingly pack, repack, shuffle, weigh, clean, and PRAYED-sometimes without ceasing…

And God Answered…(Scroll down if you are only looking for the direct answer but I hope you find it worth the read.) 

*God gave us a loving community!
*He brought friends and family at just the right times to offer their help, encouragement, a prayer, a hug, a meal, and just their calming presence so that we didn’t have to do it or bear it alone.
*He gave us a loving family to fly or drive for many miles to be together for our last week and day together!
*He gave us messages, e-mails, texts from so many of you letting us know that we are NOT ALONE in this journey!
*He gave me, personally, pertinent and challenging Truths to meditate on in the book of Acts chapter 20, (verse 24)…
^24 “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

This passage speaks about Paul wrapping up his final missionary journey and how it takes him through the stages of following by faith into and onto over 8 different boats/ships with stops, overnights, sometimes even longer. Lots of praying together and tears. For which we can absolutely identify. He gave my heart comfort and peace. 

May I make myself clear, I (we) am/are NOT believing that God has taken Papua New Guinea away from us in any sort of permanence at this time nor do we feel in any way that He has failed us or let us down… It is more a confidence that He is the same God that can command these ‘mountains’ to move and that He can also say “NO” or “WAIT.”

As if His WORD wasn’t enough of a Blessing to my weary-self…

*..He ALSO gave us a SONG!

A Song that I had heard before and enjoyed, but never really paused to listen to before. In a moment of sheer exhaustion, I paused to PRAY and seek His Word and He gave me a SONG, https://youtu.be/fnJDccj0bQQ by Cece Wynans; God, I Believe For It.

Three different times God brought that song on the radio just when I was running around doing errands and going from place A to place B. I Don’t believe in Coincidences…Just God working behind the scenes…The final time, was when I was driving home for the night, absolutely depleted from another full day of last-minute errands, packing etc. With the time ticking away, I pulled over and just allowed Him to sing it over me. This time, the lyrics ‘ He has the final say’ popped out at me…AND I just opened my hands up and through tears, said, “Okay Lord, Your Will be done. I believe, but help me with my unbelief.”

I began to gain confidence as the tears came and just reflected back on an e-mail that a friend took the time to encourage us with. He said so eloquently,

“your prayers WILL BE ANSWERED!!!   And the answer will be exactly what you NEED!  Your ability to glorify God, through it, is just a matter of you recognizing that God’s Grace IS Sufficient for you and then taking pleasure in what He does or doesn’t give you! Jehovah Jireh, My Provider! His Grace IS Sufficient for me!” (J. Cordle)

Well, the time in the WORD, time with FRIENDS, time listening to His Truths and Time in PRAYER all lead up to a TIME OF PEACE! which prepared both of us for what came next…

(STOP! if you ae scrolling down, Here you go, the answer to the BIG QUESTION!)

*And then He answered…He said as far as we can tell, “Wait. For it is not yet your time to return to Papua New Guinea.”

Yep, Our approval papers did not come through before the close of the business offices in PNG before the end of the week. Therefore, we were advised to cancel our itinerary/tickets and wait 10 more days to see if maybe we get our approval during this extended time or perhaps wait a while longer and try again for July 27th???

Yep! You read correctly.  Our PLAN A  just got bumped to PLAN B.  Remember, we didn’t allow ourselves to make a PLAN B.

*Please join us in praying for the 3 other families that did get their returns granted as they will be making their cross-continental trips beginning tomorrow from around the USA!

SO NOW WHAT?

We received the news, strangely we both felt such a calm and peace and carried on with the day as we had it previously mapped out, ending it with a special time of sweet fellowship with dear friends and family at the Christian school that has become so much a part of our family’s lives these past 2/3 years. Led by 2 Pastors, Mark Behr (North Athens Baptist Church) and Kevin Bennett (Waukeshma Community Church), surrounded by so many of our friends and loved ones, in a round of concert of Prayers, encouragement and sharing of Scripture! I don’t think we could have asked or imagined a better way to spend our last bit of time together.

Pastor Kevin challenged us to not use these 10 extra days to question the “Why?” but believed the Lord was prompting him to share that he believes perhaps it is for a time of “Selah.” The word that follows the lamenting or pouring out of the Psalmists before they continue on to finish their songs with reflecting back on WHO they KNOW GOD to be.

“Selah”–

Selah: pause, ponder, praise | Words of affirmation, Selah,

He used it as a reference for us taking this “Bonus” time, if you will, to “SELAH-Rest and Reflect, Rest and Delight in the Lord. Rest and Meditate upon His Word, Truths, Blessings, Character, Provisions…Through gracious donations we have been gifted with an opportunity to get away as a family/couple and to just take some time in these bonus days here in the USA to enjoy a moment of

So tomorrow, our original departure date, we are still going to get together for brunch with our family and close friends near Grand Rapids as previously planned. And then…

We will start planning a getaway for our family/us. Maybe BOTH! We will be 1 year shy of our 20th Wedding Anniversary and it has been soo rare to get an opportunity like this, so we will intentionally plan to get our time of SELAH together and as a family. SO MUCH TO PROCESS and PRAISE Him for!

We still have a few things to work out with the packing as it came to an unexpected halt and we just took the time to spend the day with Robyn’s brother and his family who had flown in from out of state to spend this last day with us, so we will finish that up to get it out of the way and then RETREAT.

NEXT… We continue to PRAY for God to OPEN the DOOR back up for us to return on July 27th with the next group waiting to also return!

Thank YOU for reading this far…Thank You for engaging in this journey with us too. Your investments in our lives we hope are bearing fruit. In God’s economy nothing is wasted unless we fail to see that He works behind the scenes throughout History in the worst circumstances and situations to SHINE in His way and for His Glory! 

We would appreciate your prayers as the “Yo-Yoing” is tough on our heart strings, emotions, and for our kiddos too. Transitioning gets stuck in a limbo and can have impact not only emotionally but also physically with side-effects of living in a continual stressful state. We know this all too well. Lots of tears.

Our sweet Matthew said tonight…”Mom, I’m feeling strange inside. I looked at my watch and saw that tomorrow is the date we are supposed to be going back to PNG and now we’re not and it just feels weird in my tummy and my head.” I told him that I understood completely, because it feels so much like being in a “limbo, cloud- hazy fog” to try to put it into words… He said, “Yes. Exactly.” We appreciate your Continued Prayers

We Love You and we look forward to receiving the news that we are able to return to the country that He has imprinted on our hearts.

RESTING IN HIS GRIP,

Robyn and Levi- for the Lenz Family of 6

Michael, Daniel, Matthew, Krystiana

I wanted to take a quick pause to thank you all for your prayers and encouragement, especially over the last couple. Last week we were able to purchase our plane tickets and will be leaving in about 3 ½ weeks to return to Papua New Guinea. The realization of the short period of time before we go back is met with a myriad of emotions. Pray for our kids especially during this time of transition. This transition is going to be harder for some than for others. Pray for us as we pack the house we’ve been staying in, pack our luggage, prepare things for shipment, and say our farewells. The next time we write will likely be from PNG.

At His Service and For His Glory,

Levi & Robyn Lenz

Serving the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea

Ethnos360.org/levi-robyn-lenz

Facebook: Lenz’s View

We want to thank you for your prayers for our family, specifically regarding all our medical issues over the past few months. Here’s a quick update on all that and a note about what lies ahead.

In April, Krystiana broke her arm in 3 places and had to have pins put in it. She has made a good recovery. Her pins were removed the middle of May and her final cast/brace removed last week. She’s learned to write quite well with her left hand over the last month.

Robyn had a follow-up appointment with a doctor at the University of Michigan hospital regarding some nodules growing on her vocal cords which keep her in a constant state similar to that of laryngitis. The vocal cords have been stressed and are misshapen, which causes further stress. She has been assigned some vocal therapy to retrain the vocal cords and, eventually, as the vocal cords heal the nodules should go away.

I, Levi, had a cardiac ablation on May 18. Unfortunately, the doctor was unable to ablate the target area that is responsible for the tachycardia as it is close to other important structures of the heart; the AV node. If the AV node were damaged during the process of ablating, I could have come home with a pacemaker so the decision was made to leave well-enough alone. However, in the process of seeking out the area to be ablated, another issue did present itself and was able to be ablated. I will presumably be on medication for the tachycardia and arrhythmia until God gives me a new body. I hear there will likely be many other things that will break down on this body in the meantime as well.

The good news is that we have received the go-ahead from my cardiologist and our doctor in Papua New Guinea to return mid-July so preparations are being made for that. We cannot express enough our gratitude for Wakeshma Community Church providing us with a house for the last 5 months. We are working to pack up, again, for our return. Our mission is seeking the government’s approval for us to be able to re-enter PNG (a new requirement thanks to COVID) and once that is granted, we will begin looking for tickets. Your prayers are appreciated for all the details in this upcoming transition; paperwork, reasonable plane fares, negative covid tests, etc. This is a very hard transition for some of our kids, so be praying for them as well.

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and support,

Levi & Robyn Lenz

Serving the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea

Ethnos360.org/levi-robyn-lenz

Facebook: Lenz’s View

Have you ever realized how Waiting on the Lord actually involves waiting. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been known make some kind of statement to the effect that I’m waiting on God, meanwhile, I try to run ahead of him. My kind of waiting on God can like when we walk with our dog Socks back in Papua New Guinea. Socks will run ahead quite a ways and then turn and look back at us as if to say hurry and catch up with me so I know I’m headed the right direction. Sometimes we will go down a different pathway off the main road and Socks will come tearing back down the road, turn down the path we took, and blast ahead of us. If I’m honest, I’m guilty of waiting on God like this at times.

We’re a year overdue to return to Papua New Guinea and be boots on the ground in the ministry there. We haven’t seen our co-workers in 2 years and they’ll be headed back to their home country for home assignment later this month (Lord willing). One or two of their kids will be left home this time around and we’ll not see them again for quite some time—if ever. We desire to see our friends in the Wahgi church.

As our tentative departure time draws nearer, we are brought to a point where we have to wait on the Lord…and I mean actually wait. I, Levi, have recently been diagnosed with a type of supraventricular tachycardia which also brings along with it its friend atrial fibrillation. The good news is that they found out I do have a heart! On Tuesday, May 18, I will be having a cardiac ablation to try and correct the problem that is causing this. Our doctors in PNG want me to wait until two months after this procedure before attempting to return to PNG. We are praying and hoping that we can get back at the end of July so that our kids can start the school year there with their classmates.

On top of my heart issue, Robyn just recently saw an Ear Nose Throat doctor and found out that she has growths on her vocal cords which leaves her with a weak voice and constant feeling of laryngitis. This has been going on for a couple years and, until recently, we thought it was just allergies. Robyn will be going to a specialist on Wednesday to see what the next steps are for her.

We would appreciate your prayers for these health concerns and that we’d wait on the Lord the way he wants us to, not like Socks.

At His Service and For His Glory,

Levi & Robyn Lenz

Serving the North Wahgi people

of Papua New Guinea

Ethnos360.org/levi-robyn-lenz

Facebook: Lenz’s View

It is a beautiful thing to see more printed Scripture make it into the hands of the Wahgi church. Please be in prayer for our co-worker Dan, our translation consultants, and translation helpers Gabriel and David as they’ll be working over the next week to check approximately 1,200 more verses of the North Wahgi New Testament. These verses will contain some heavy content like the books of Revelation and Hebrews along with some other epistles. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will burn off the brain fog and that the helpers will be able to retain and clearly recall/re-tell what they heard read to them.

The checking process will begin while those of us here in the US are preparing for dinner Thursday evening and will continue for the next week. So, as you sit at the dinner table, please remember the Whagi church and the translation check in your prayers.

Thank you for praying,

Levi & Robyn Lenz

Serving the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea

Ethnos360.org/levi-robyn-lenz

Facebook: Lenz’s View

Dear Friends,

For nearly 4 years we’ve been asking you to pray for our friend Stephen in regards to a land dispute which also directly affects the church as well. We just received word from our co-workers that the court has finally made a decision and it is in Stephen’s paper. Yesterday, Stephen went to the court to get the written document declaring him as the official land owner. This has been a long, costly ordeal for Stephen and his family and he wants to thank all of you who have been praying for them through this. Please continue to pray, though, that the opposing family will accept the decision.

Thank you for praying,

Levi & Robyn Lenz

Serving the North Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea

Ethnos360.org/levi-robyn-lenz

Facebook: Lenz’s View