Bringing the Hope of Jesus Through Healing Hands and Serving Hearts
The Julian Family
Papua New Guinea
Hi, we are David, Amy, Ben, and Daniel Julian and we are so excited to be headed to Papua New Guinea as missionaries with Assemblies of God World Missions! We are so happy you have stopped to look at our site. Check out this quick video below to learn a bit about what we plan to do in Papua New Guinea!
Rural and Unexplored…
Papua New Guinea is a land of 600 islands, around 8.5 million people, who speak over 800 distinct languages. It is a land with everything from small tropical islands to vast mountainous rainforests. Much of the country’s towns and villages are not connected by a road system and are separated by extreme terrain. It remains one of the most rural and unexplored places in the world.
Access to Healthcare
So many areas of Papua New Guinea are severely lacking in adequate healthcare services. Healthcare professionals are scarce and resources are lacking. Not only that, but there is a general lack of knowledge about things that we take for granted in America such as illness prevention, hand washing, clean water, etc. We hope to bring access to healthcare using Amy’s skills and knowledge as a Family Nurse Practitioner: through teaching sessions in villages and with local Assemblies of God leadership, by trekking into villages with a medical ruck sack and providing immediate medical care (thank you BGMC for providing the funds to purchase our backpacking supplies!), and possibly at some point through an established clinic in a village to give more continued healthcare services while training up local people to man the clinics as well. By showing people we care about their physical needs, it opens the door for the sharing of the Gospel message.
Access to Clean Water
It’s a sad reality that in many places of the world, one cannot simply turn on their faucet and have clean, fresh water to drink. Not only do many homes in Papua New Guinea not have indoor plumbing but most people carry their water from a source such as a river or other outdoor source. These sources for drinking water are often the same sources of water used for washing dishes, washing clothing, bathing, the local watering hole for animals, you get the idea. Contaminated water is the source of many gastrointestinal illnesses and many young children die each year from simple things such as dehydration from diarrheal illnesses. David has special training in community development initiatives such as how to purify water, sanitation techniques, and even how to train people to manually dig water wells. By showing people ways to clean their water, we can introduce them to the Living Water, Jesus Christ.
Access to the Gospel
Anyone can start a clinic, give out medicine, or dig a water well. There are aid organizations all over the world doing these things. What sets us apart is that we are using these as tools to share the Gospel message. By ministering to the physical needs of people, we are being a practical, tangible example of the Gospel message. According to one of the pastors we knew in the island nation of Vanuatu, General Superintendent Robert Walu, people with animistic backgrounds, such as in Papua New Guinea, have a difficult time accepting something abstract as true unless there is something physical they can touch to back it up. This is why we are going and doing what we are doing. Think of the way Jesus ministered to people. Oftentimes in the Bible we see that Jesus ministered to the physical needs of people before He ministered to them spiritually. Caring for the physical needs of the people is the key our family will use to open the door to the spiritual needs of the people, sharing the Gospel message, and hopefully working alongside out teammates and the local Assemblies of God of PNG to plant churches where they have never been planted before!
