Part of a Bigger Team

All of our families are able to minister in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea, because many of our friends, families, and churches support us prayerfully and financially. This is a team mission. If you'd like to give toward our ministry click on one of our names. Thanks for joining with us!

-Team Wantakia

Give to the Hambrices.

Give to the Sanders.

Give to the Crabtrees.

On top of the mountain

By Jack Crabtree

We all take steps of faith every day. Some seem small to us, while others make us wish we’d practiced the triple-jump back in junior high! Thankfully, we serve a God who is completely faithful. After our family returns from bush orientation in Patpatar in January, our team will begin house-building in Wantakia. This is one of those triple-jump situations. I’ve never built a house…let alone one on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere! Yet we can already see ways God is providing for us and showing us that reaching the Wantakians with the Gospel is important to Him.

Several support missionaries helped us plan our houses and work up material lists. Some of these same guys are going to help us with the initial construction. Friends from the States are coming over to help as well. The Body is working together!

We’re on a bit of a tightrope balancing simplicity with livability. We’re milling timber for our posts, rafters, studs, etc., from trees the Wantakians have given our team (about 10 enormous trees in all), and this cuts down (pun intended?) our costs. However, we also designed the house knowing we plan to live in it for 10+ years.

The Wantakians have already cleared and leveled the ground for our house!

The Wantakians have already cleared and leveled the ground for our house!

More than 60% of our house-building costs have been provided, praise the Lord! However, we have an overwhelming amount of funds left to raise, and it's tempting to look at the waves and begin to sink. We are continually trusting the Lord, because we know He is faithful. He's proven Himself over and over again.

Almost half of our remaining costs are transport related, because our village is accessible by helicopter only. This is a team mission, and it’s been a humbling privilege to represent you all over here in TomorrowLand. Below is a chart of our start-up budget, which details funds that have come in already and areas we could use help with. 

Thank you so much for being a part of the beginning stages of putting the Word of God into the hands of the Wantakian people! Together with God we can do great things! Click the button below to give toward our tribal house.

Building A tribal house

by jill sanders

The first step to church planting is actually moving into the tribe and building our house. Our guys have been busy cutting down trees, and now they are actually milling the trees into lumber.

Jack is cutting 2x3s with the turbo saw from a section of one of the huge pine trees the Wantakians gave us.

Jack is cutting 2x3s with the turbo saw from a section of one of the huge pine trees the Wantakians gave us.

The work is hard, but it's going to save a lot of money. For the rest of the stuff like plywood, windows, cabinets, etc., we will have to buy them in country, drive them to our helicopter shuttle point, and chopper them out to Wantakia. Our projected amount to do all of this is $30,077. It seems like a lot of money to raise, but we KNOW the Lord will do it! We are excited to see who He's going to use!  

Please be praying:

  • For safety as our guys use the saw mill

  • For their health (eating tribal food & living in a tribal house in the jungle)

  • For us moms, as we rely on the Lord minute by minute to raise our kids alone while daddy's not home
  • For the entire amount to be raised for our house

Click here to see a list of items needed to build our (the Sanders) tribal house.  

Click here to give! And please let us know what specific item you are giving towards...so we can write your name on the item in our home (ex: if you buy a sheet of plywood, we will write your name on it so we can look at it every day!!)

Thanks for reaching the Wantakians with us!

BJ and Jill Sanders