The Clonches
in Papua New Guinea
Mission
Our mission is to go to an unreached people group in Papua New Guinea to establish a mature church among an indigenous people who have no clear understanding of the gospel.
Unreached People Groups
There are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. Every language has its own culture, so each one of these languages represents a unique people group. About 2,000 of these languages have never been completely learned by outsiders. These languages represent entire people groups who have no access to God's Word or the gospel in their mother tongue.
Papua New Guinea
With 841 languages, Papua New Guinea is the most language-dense country in the world. Even after 2,000 years since Christ commissioned the Church to make disciples of all the nations, over 200 languages in PNG alone have yet to receive a copy of God's Word in their language or hear a clear presentation of God's story in their mother tongue. This means that they still live in darkness and in great fear. They have no clear understanding of God, His inspired Word or the life-giving gift of His Son, Jesus.
Nate and Laura + Erin and Emily
After marrying in 2013, we began attending Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem, NC. God provided us both with full-time jobs in our career fields (web developer and English teacher). After 3 years, we moved to Missouri to attend a full-time 2 ½ year training school for missions to unreached people groups. After finishing our training with New Tribes Mission (now Ethnos360), Grace Bible Church took us on as our sending church.
Despite what sounds like an intense missionary endeavor, we are just normal people who had normal lives. After our training and first few years in country, we're still just normal people, and we'll still just be normal people ten years into it. We don't enjoy humid 90-degree weather and mosquitoes. We hate bugs and snakes just as much as the next person, but Christ gave a task to the church that still remains unfinished: The Great Commission to reach the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ; we can all be a part of this, either by going ourselves or sending others to go to the uttermost. God so loved that he gave, and now it's his love that compels us to give.
Our Training
We started our training in 2016 and graduated in 2018. We then took an additional 6-month linguistics course to better prepare ourselves for the task we have ahead of us: to learn a language from the people themselves without many outside resources.
Aside from linguistics, Laura and I have also been equipped in the areas of culture, worldview, tribal religion (animism), church planting, off-grid technology, and field health. We also received introductions and will later be given further training in literacy teaching, Bible translation, and remote building and living. We were trained and lived in close community with former tribal missionaries who taught us both technically and from their own experience.
Support
As of January 2024, our support stands around 90-95%.
Christ, having commissioned the universal Church to reach every nation, has called on every believer to give of themselves, whether their lives, their resources, or their finances. By partnering with us, we partner together in the gospel to see a mature church established among an unreached people group who still have yet to hear the clear message of Jesus Christ.