About Us

Our Story

2008-12-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

No Scripture, no church, no shepherd

Vance and Patty Woodyard, members of the first PIONEERS team arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1980. God led them to the Konai tribe, a small group of seven villages who had never had any contact with missionaries. Of the 700 Konai, only eight were believers, having heard the Gospel from itinerant Papua New Guinean preachers. They had no Scripture, no church and no shepherd. The call was clear.

Initially, Patty and Vance traveled for two days by canoe, then a third day on foot, carrying provisions for a 10-12 week stay among the Konai. When the food they brought ran out, the Woodyards left, for the people could barely feed themselves. This pattern continued for four years as they studied the language and constructed an airstrip. In 1986, they built a home and began living there. They also built a meeting place for worship services and a Bible school. Vance began to preach and teach, translating the Scriptures into Konai as needed, beginning with passages from Genesis and the Gospels. Patty taught Bible study groups, sewing classes, and home schooled their children.

Today, in the village of Dahamo, 150 of the 200 residents know and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1994, God called the Woodyards to another field of service with PIONEERS. The church they planted is now a part of the Evangelical Church of PNG, and is pastored by a Konai leader that Vance discipled. A Wycliffe team now lives on site, translating the entire Bible into the Konai tongue. Best of all, the church in Dahamo has sent out evangelists to nearby villages. Where there was no church, now there are five.

The Story continues among the Konai...

Sören and Britten Ärsjö have served as the Wycliffe team among the Konai since 1994. They have a translation team made up of those discipled while Vance and Patty lived there. They are working hard to complete the New Testament translation into the Konai language by 2011. To learn more about the Konai check out these links:

Konai Socioling Survey

2008-08-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

2008-08-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

VANCE & PATTY WOODYARD

PIONEERS – FRANCE

We met on the first day of college and were married after our third year in May 1979. Before graduating we joined PIONEERS, a new innovative mission, with the desire to do church planting among an unreached tribe. In May 1980 we headed to Papua New Guinea where we served in a church planting role for nearly fourteen years. We had the privilege to live and work among the Konai tribe, an unreached people group of about 700 located in the remote Western province of PNG. During our time there, the Lord worked in the lives of the Konai as well as ours! A church was established! There were others on the PIONEERS Team doing the same type of work among other tribes. It was a blessing to serve as team leader for five of the years there and see the Lord work in the lives of other missionaries and tribal groups. Today the Konai church is strong and a Wycliffe couple is translating the New Testament in their language.

Our experiences on the field helped us understand the need for member care if missionaries are going to complete the task. In June 1994, we were invited to join PIONEERS Orlando Team to help establish a new member care department. For the last few years of the twelve years we served in Orlando, Vance was the Director of Member Care and we were responsible for caring for PIONEERS fast growing missionary force serving around the world. During these years we gained experience in pastoral care and ministry development. We visited teams in many different countries, and attended area conferences as well as hosted many families passing through Orlando on their way to and from the field.

Our tribal church planting experience combined with our member care experience prepared and our ministry goal of helping individuals and teams fulfill their goals and God’s call in their lives. We are thankful for nearly two years of service in France from July 2006 to May 2008.

Our kids have always been a part of our ministry. We have two grown married kids with great spouses, two teenagers, and five grandkids!