You can e-mail the McClain family at Jareb_McClain@ntm.org

It has been almost ten years since Jareb & Amy McClain were consecrated by our church, for bringing the Gospel to those who have not yet heard. The road has been long, but they are still confident in God. He is building His Church, and nothing can stop Him.

I am Amy McClain, wife of Jareb McClain, and mom to 5 adorable, spunky kids: Kayla, Corin, Kimberly, Caden, and Caleb.

I am from Long Island, New York, raised in a nominal Christian home, and my husband is from Eugene, OR, raised in a non-religious home. We both heard about Jesus as kids, but started really walking with him while we were both in secular colleges in Massachusetts. We met and got married after we graduated college, when we were both individually looking towards careers in full-time missions. After teaching for a year to pay off college debts, we entered NTBI in fall 1999. We had two kids in Jackson, and then spent a year re-connecting with our home church, before continuing with the training at Jersey Shore in the fall of 2002. We attended Big Woods Bible Church during that year.

In 2005 we left the States for Indonesia, excited to be a part of tribal missions, specifically in Papua, where some of the least-reached groups of people seemed to be. We spent a total of two years studying the national language because during our time in Java, we had to go back home for 5 months because I got very sick with my 4th pregnancy.

In 2007 we finally arrived in Papua, a land of deep contrasts: people living in stone-age type houses but with access to cell phones; beliefs tied into the evil spirits of animism, while wearing a 'cloak' of Christianity. Life here was hard, with serious sicknesses to contend with, many of which visited our family during the first two years we were here (malaria, dengue fever, amoeba, giardia). With our sights still on tribal evangelism, we weighed our options and figured that helping out with one of the many struggling existing works here was where God was leading our family. So along with our partners, Scott and Natasha Flaugher (friends of ours since missions training), we joined the Elseng Team in October of 2007.

Since its beginning in 2004, the Elseng work has been ridden with roadblocks. At the time that we joined, Ortwin and Regina Oesterle and their four kids were the only members of the Elseng team, having already seen three other families come and go. A few weeks after we joined the team, the Oesterle's too, were taken permanently out of the work with the emergency evacuation of their 6-yr. old daughter Lili, who had gone into a coma due to (at that time unknown) an unoperable brain tumor. Another previous family of the Elseng team, Elisa and Juarni Bowa, were Indonesian nationals who went through the training program in Manado, Indonesia. Elisa, the husband, was a tribal man himself, brought to salvation in Jesus Christ by some NTM missionaries who ministered to his people in the 1970's. He sought to bring the good news to other tribal people like himself, cut off from access to the Gospel by language and cultural barriers. So he and his family did just that, moving cross-culturally first to Papua, and then to the Elseng tribe. It was a grueling task to learn a very difficult language, often with the people being too cold and hesitant to offer much language or cultural information. In August of 2006, though, the Lord saw fit to bring him home to heaven, having struggled with health problems for many months, and finally succommbed to cancer. Elisa is remembered for his motivation of following Christ above all else, and encouraging others to "Setia terus," ("Be faithful always.") It is partly in his memory that we are motivated to continue on with this very difficult tribal work.

It has been almost two years since we joined the team, and we and the Flaughers have spent the majority of that time living in the nearby town while our husbands trekked all over the huge land area where the Elseng live. Our intentions were to gather more information than was ever known before about where these people live and how best to reach them. We have decided to live in a different location than the first teams did, since the people in the village there (called Sawa) seem more receptive to our reasons for being there than the first village did. Still, this process of moving in hasn't been without its problems. We began building our homes in April 2009, and are almost ready to move in (this October 28th!). But recently the government has taken a new interest in "helping out" the Elseng people because of our presence there, are are making plans to build them 50 slabbed-lumber houses, a school, and a clinic, which may take the people over an hour away from our houses are. We are praying they choose to locate the new village right there in Sawa, which would make it easier for us to do language study, and for many people to be able to hear the Gospel teaching at one time.

So, in so many words, that is who we are, and how we got involved in this ministry! Thanks again for your interest in praying for us, we need the prayer support so badly, especially in these harrowing days of transition.

Gladly,

Amy for us 7 McClains

Dear praying friends,
Thanks so much for the many encouraging replies to our last email update. We have gone through some discouraging times lately, and your words and prayers have made all the difference! -A slow, but good return to our daily routine here at home in Sawa

We want to write a quick update with some specific praises and prayer requests:

We are thanking God for:

-The village housing project going quickly (already the foundation and floor structure for at least 16 houses are in place)
-Our new satellite internet system is finally up and running (after three months of working out some glitches), allowing us to have the privilege of a good(not high)-speed connection from the middle of the jungle... amazing technology!

-Some of the interior projects to finish up our home (that had been slowing us down) are getting done, thanks to some local skilled carpenters we've hired to work in here.

We are asking God for:

-RAIN! We have been extremely low on our water supply (rainwater collected in tanks) for about a week now, due to a recent drought. We have been praising God for every 5-minute drizzle that comes our way, but pleading that He would bless us with a downpour! The tribal people are also almost out of water, as their nearby springs have been drying up. There is a stream downhill from the village that is not flowing anymore (a tiny trickle), but a few small pools of clear water remain. Yesterday our family took a hike down to one of the remaining pools of water, and brought back four bucketfuls, so we could bathe and flush our toilets.

Especially because of the recent increase in population due to the building project, this lack of water in our area is serious. Please pray with us that our God would show Himself mighty among these people who do not yet know of His works. The Elseng in our village believe that some people that live nearby have caused this drought, because they have been given "the key to the rain," and they have said that the drought will last for a year! They think that we might be able to control the rain, too, so they have asked us to pray for rain. We said, "We are praying! But we cannot control the rain, only our God can, and we know that He knows that we all have this need."

Thanks for remaining with us in this work. What is seen is only a fraction of what is really going o

Thanks so much for the many encouraging replies to our last email update. We have gone through some discouraging times lately, and your words and prayers have made all the difference!

We want to write a quick update with some specific praises and prayer requests:

We are thanking God for:

-A slow, n...

In Him, our Hope,
the McClains