by Jan Messersmith

The original web site for Pioneer Bible Translators  – Papua New Guinea Branch is so old that I was only a middle-aged man when I put up the first pages. It hadn’t been changed much since then. We reckoned that it was time for something new. We would not have this spanking new site if it were not for the work of my long-time friend, Kyle. I’d promised our Director a new site within thirty days, but knew in my heart that I’d never get it done that fast. Once Kyle began hammering away on it, we had it up in less than two weeks. Kyle’s my new hero. Make that Superhero!

There are many things that are not finished. We have only few of our programs covered in the Stories tab. Eventually, we will have weekly Prayer Requests in the Prayer tab. I would like to see an “Opportunities” tab where we outline our many job openings. There’s much to be done yet, but we’re off to a good start.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Jan Messersmith and I’ll be your Webmaster. I’ve worked here in Madang with PBT since 1981. My wife, Eunice, is currently the PBT-PNG Branch Director. I run the IT Department (or, as I prefer to call it, the IT Dungeon). We may as well begin with honesty, so I’ll show you this image which may hint to you that I’m not your ordinary missionary:

SCUBA diving is my sport of choice. We have a small diving boat called Faded Glory. I am out every Saturday with my friends enjoying the fantastic diving and warm, tropical waters of this land called Paradise.

I would have never predicted that I would become a missionary. Of course “missionary” covers a lot of ground. My wife and I are support workers. God needs all kinds of skills to accomplish the work of The Great Commission. I suppose that we are examples of how God can put anybody’s talents to work.

For the next few months we are going to have all of the members of our team write a post for this site introducing themselves and telling you a little about their work. I’ll also be inserting interesting articles from previous The Storyboard newsletter to give you a better idea of the kind of work that we do here.

So, fasten your seat belt and get ready for a ride.