Melanie Keeney ministers in Papua New Guinea. “An important part of being a church planter in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is being properly prepared and equipped to live among a people group and learn their culture and language. First, our new church planters go through an orientation program to get oriented to the country of PNG. After around five months of getting their ‘feet wet’ in language and culture study, the new missionary family participates in a ‘bush orientation.’ During bush orientation, families in training move into a remote village location for six weeks where the national church shepherds them in gaining a deeper understanding of the national culture and language. Families within the local church will take turns hosting the missionary family each week, making sure they have all that they need. They’ll arrange to have several culture and social events lined up so that the missionary family can take part and learn from the community. The local church in these locations takes ownership of seeing the missionaries learn and grow and views it as part of their role in the Great Commission. As a mission, we currently have seven missionary families or singles finishing up or getting ready to go through bush orientation in remote village locations like Amdu, Menya, Kuman and Mibu. Pray for those families and the churches who are training them, that their ministry would be fruitful.”