Reasons to Celebrate
It’s been an incredible five months since our last update in September—here’s a quick recap of what God has been doing!
It’s been an incredible five months since our last update — here’s a quick recap of what God has been doing!
September Literacy consultants joined us in Kuyu to help create the very first reading and writing materials in the Kuyu language. The community jumped in with enthusiasm—breaking words into syllables, writing short stories, and drawing pictures to match. They got a front-row seat to the whole process before classes even started. We’re deeply grateful for the consultants’ two-week investment, the support team printing charts and booklets back at base, and every hand that made this possible.
October A faithful supporting church from the States sent a group of nine to lead an annual conference for missionaries in our region. It was a refreshing time of fellowship and renewal. Afterward, they visited Kuyu for a few nights, met the people they’ve prayed for years, and spent a day helping build the new literacy house. The rest of the month was spent developing literacy materials and translating short books into Kuyu.
November Michael, Jacob, and Jonathan finalized the literacy and materials and prepared them for print. Meanwhile, our coworkers hosted a build team to add a small apartment under their house—preparing to welcome a recent college graduate who will serve their family for several months (more on that below!).
December We traveled to Madang, Papua New Guinea for a translation workshop with three Kuyu helpers and other missionaries from other remote locations. Together we learned how to translate Scripture into indigenous languages. For our Kuyu friends, it was full of firsts: helicopter rides, indoor plumbing, showers, ocean swimming, and countless modern conveniences.
January We launched the first literacy class! Twelve students from different ages, clans, and genders—have been faithfully attending 3 hours a day, Monday through Friday, learning to read and write their own language. It’s a completely new kind of work for them (their heads feel “full” and hands “heavy”!), and it’s been a joy to step into the teacher role and mirror the patience they’ve shown us while teaching us their culture.
February Michael’s parents made their first visit to this side of the world! After a short time in Kuyu, we enjoyed a refreshing week together in Australia—making memories in a “first-world” setting. Breaks are sweet, but we’re always thankful the Lord readies our hearts to return. We love this work, and there’s still so much ahead.
Looking Forward We’re deep in literacy now—the first class graduates mid-May. After that, post-literacy materials will help them grow from graduates to readers. Our long-term goal is to train Kuyu teachers so this work becomes fully theirs.
At the same time, our team is steadily translating portions of Scripture, aiming to begin chronological Bible teaching (creation to eternity) in the village by late 2026. It’s humbling to realize the Kuyu have lived in spiritual darkness for thousands of years—and soon they will hear the good news of Jesus for the first time.
A Unique Opportunity Do you (or someone you know) have a heart for children and a desire to serve in missions? Our coworkers, the DeValves, are looking for someone to come alongside their family this fall and help care for their sweet 4-year-old daughter, Phoebe, who has special needs. We’ve seen how big a blessing this kind of help is and we’d love to connect you with them if you’re interested.
Ways to Pray
Team unity — The enemy does not want the Gospel to reach Kuyu. Pray God protects us from division and keeps us loving one another as we press forward. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” — Ephesians 6:12
Hearts prepared — Pray God continues softening Kuyu hearts in these final months before the Gospel is presented. Some are already questioning ancestral ways and animistic beliefs, and years of living out the Gospel among them have built anticipation. May many be ready to receive the truth.
Thank you for standing with us—we’re so thankful for your prayers and partnership!
What Comes Before Belief
This season in Kuyu has been marked by both loss and meaningful progress…
This season in Kuyu has been marked by both loss and meaningful progress. The community has been struck by numerous deaths, including a heartbreaking case where a woman, medevac'd from Kuyu for urgent medical care, passed away in town. These losses leave the community scratching their heads for answers...answers that we aren't quite ready to give.
There's nothing we want more than to share truth with our Kuyu friends, but with each passing death, we are reminded that we have not come to make quick converts of the Kuyu people, but to uproot thousands of years worth of animistic roots with the hope of establishing a church that outlasts us.
A task that is not done in haste.
As a team, we have spent years immersing ourselves in Kuyu gardens, homes, and trails, learning their language and uncovering the inseparable connection between their words and cultural worldview.
And amidst the sorrow our community faces, our team celebrates a huge milestone: Jacob, Jonathan, and I have officially completed our culture and language study!
What comes next feels like a small spark turning into a wildfire of hope and optimism.
When we made initial contact with the Kuyu people in 2020, we told them we wanted to do four things:
Learn their language and culture
Teach them how to read and write in their own language
Translate God's talk
Teach them God's talk from beginning to end.
With the completion of the first item, literacy consultants flew into Kuyu and we kicked off the next initiative. For those two weeks, we developed literacy materials, starting with simple syllables and later writing stories to include in the Kuyu literacy curriculum. Over the coming months, we’ll develop a comprehensive teacher’s guide to empower the Kuyu to teach future generations. We'll also begin translating a library of post-literacy materials to encourage future literacy graduates to continue reading.
Prayer Requests
Pray for wisdom as we develop literacy materials
Pray that the Lord would sustain Morgan's health
Pray for the Lord to prepare hearts here in Kuyu
The Jungle Has Its Own Beliefs
Writing updates about our life in the jungle can feel daunting—translating a third-world reality for a first-world audience. We grapple daily with our limitations in the face of the Kuyu’s deeply rooted animistic beliefs.
Writing updates about our life in the jungle can feel daunting—translating a third-world reality for a first-world audience. We’ve been back in the bush for three months now, and we grapple daily with our limitations in the face of the Kuyu’s deeply rooted animistic beliefs. Life here is both full and mundane, often heavy, and filled with paradoxes.
In the past few months, we’ve observed womanhood initiation ceremonies, childbirth, death, frog hunts, community atonements and sacrifices, and continued growth in our relationships with the Kuyu as we dive deeper into their language and worldview.
As a team, we are currently immersed in finishing our study of the Kuyu language and culture, as well as in discourse analysis—a process of transcribing and examining Kuyu speech to learn how to communicate effectively across various speech genres. We are also completing a cultural report that summarizes the many facets of Kuyu life—child-rearing, honor and shame, hunting, gardening, and more. This document is essentially a summary of what makes the Kuyu, Kuyu. We’ve been gathering stories, translating interviews, and synthesizing them to understand not only what the Kuyu believe, but why they live the way they do. We pray these steps will allow us to speak into their worldview with clarity and compassion.
As we dig deeper into Kuyu culture, we’ve had front-row seats to both joy and sorrow. A couple of weeks ago, our friends Kosmas and his wife Kati gave birth to twins; however, she was unaware she was carrying two babies, as there’s no such thing as prenatal care out here. The first child was small and born breech, yet miraculously survived. The second little girl was stillborn. There’s a deep ache that comes from watching suffering that is both tragic and preventable. Leading up to her delivery, it was painful to watch the entire community come together, share dreams, and try to figure out the reason Kati was experiencing pain. We long for the day we can bring words of comfort—that this brokenness isn’t their fault, but the result of a fallen world.
Our conversations have gone even deeper as we’ve explored the Kuyu creation story. Their origin beliefs are intricate, symbolic, and deeply spiritual—beginning with a single, androgynous creator god. From this god came a union that birthed all of creation, with the elements of their body forming rivers, oceans, and the first humans—a set of seven brothers. The Kuyu believe they are descendants of the firstborn (who received all the hunting skills), while we Westerners descend from the seventh brother (who received special knowledge from the creator god to build airplanes, computers, etc.). They believe we are their reincarnated ancestors who have returned with white skin and possess the secrets to obtaining cargo. You can see why they might be eager to hear “God’s talk” if it means gaining access to this kind of power and knowledge. A simple visit, for us, might be just a friendly chat; for them, it’s a chance to gain spiritual power and insight. Some even offer gifts—like pigs—hoping to draw out secrets to improve their marriages, crops, or health. While this belief is frustrating to untangle, we’re learning that it’s only through the full story of the Bible that the Holy Spirit can begin to work in their hearts.
One thing the Lord pressed upon me during our time back in America was to simply stay close to the Father. There were so many aspects of our situation—especially what the Lord had our family walk through in the tribe—that didn’t make sense. Quite honestly, I was angry. I spent months being upset with the Lord—confused, hurt, and struggling to know how to pray. I wanted my suffering to count for something—to be redeemed, or at least to come out the other side with a great story to tell. Well, the Lord is incredibly faithful. And while there isn’t space here to share all the ways He used such a painful season to refine us, strengthen our marriage, and increase our faith, the core lesson remains: stay close to the Father.
Unfortunately, my health has slowly begun to decline again, with most of my symptoms returning to some degree. While nothing feels debilitating at this point, much of my energy goes toward simply managing symptoms and caring for my family. We anticipated this would likely happen, but it’s still been discouraging and humbling to trust that God is working all things for our good and His glory—a glory that often grows through seeds of difficulty. We’re leaning into the grace He provides each day, trusting Him to sustain our family, and hoping the next round of bloodwork in July will offer more clarity. In spite of discouragement, I take heart knowing that the Lord only asks me to continue abiding in Him and to trust Him with the fruit. We would appreciate your prayers for sustained health, perseverance in this work, and wisdom to discern.
So What’s Next?
The back half of 2025 will be filled with consultant visits and workshops—each one getting us closer to the end goal of sharing God’s story.
August: Language consultants will fly into Kuyu to conduct our team’s next round of language evaluations. For our coworkers Jacob and Jonathan, they will be officially checked out of culture and language study —a milestone not without literal blood, sweat, and tears.
September: Literacy consultants will join us for a couple of weeks to help build our Kuyu literacy curriculum—developing flashcards, primers, and teacher guides. These are exciting steps toward teaching the Kuyu to read and write in their own language!
October: Every October, church planters from various bush locations gather at headquarters for fellowship, rest, refreshment, and ministry updates. We’re especially excited this year to welcome one of our supporting churches from Illinois, who will be hosting the conference in Papua New Guinea!
December: We’ll fly out of the tribe to attend a two-week translation workshop with several other teams—our final training before launching into translation. If all goes well, we hope to begin teaching the first Kuyu people to read and write early in the new year.
Thank you to those of you who faithfully pray, encourage, support, and walk alongside us on this journey. Some days, we find ourselves marveling that this is our life—that we get to be here. Other days, the weight of sickness, death, and spiritual darkness feels unbearably heavy. It’s hard to describe the tension of so many colliding emotions—the joy and privilege of meaningful work, alongside our ever-present frailty and sense of “not-enoughness.”
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
(2 Corinthians 4:7–10)
The Kuyu Alphabet
After thousands of years as an oral language, the Kuyu have an alphabet for the first time! Track the history of the Kuyu language back to Babel.
Thanks for praying with us! If you have any questions, please feel to reach out and contact us! We would love to hear from you!
New Target Date
More bloodwork and a new target date for our return to PNG!
It has been a great privilege to be home in California and share with you what the Lord has done amongst the Kuyu people over the last four years. We made initial contact with the Kuyu people in 2020, built houses in 2022, and immersed ourselves in their language and culture. Our team is finalizing the Kuyu alphabet and praying that in 2025 the first Kuyu people would learn to read and write in their own language.
We feel grateful to have shared with so many of you in our home the extreme joys and deep lows over the past few years. Your unwavering support and partnership have allowed us to continue our work even amid unforeseen challenges, including those related to Morgan’s health.
In December 2022, shortly after we settled into Kuyu, Morgan began experiencing health issues related to toxic mold exposure. Our bush house was covered in unescapable mold, triggering severe skin issues, internal infections, insomnia, and other neurological symptoms. Despite working closely with our doctor in Papua New Guinea, her condition didn’t improve. After months of various treatments, our doctor urged us to seek specialized care in the U.S.
Since returning, Morgan has been under the care of an immunologist and mold specialist to detoxify her body and support immune recovery. Initial tests revealed dangerously high mold levels, a severely compromised immune system, and damage to major body systems. With targeted treatments, therapies, a rigorous diet, and a controlled environment, Morgan has made steady progress. Although we were initially told this journey could take 12-18 months, the waiting and uncertainty have been difficult for our family. Each time we received test results, we remained hopeful, only to be advised that further recovery time was needed, as a premature return could jeopardize Morgan’s health and long-term recovery.
The most recent bloodwork in October showed that Morgan’s inflammation has decreased and her mold levels have dropped significantly. Of the 14 different mold species, 12 have returned to a controlled state. However, our doctor strongly recommends an additional three months of treatment to target the remaining mold species and allow Morgan’s body to continue healing.
In light of this recommendation and through prayerful discussions with our team and church elders, we’ve decided to delay our return to Papua New Guinea until early April, awaiting the results of Morgan’s follow-up tests in February.
This decision has not come easily and is not one that we make lightly. We feel the weight of our Kuyu friends’ eternal destinies; however, we know that this journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and that this season of waiting is not in vain. There have been many days spent wrestling with God in our hearts, trying to make sense of it all. Though our hearts long to return, we find assurance in God’s providence. Even if we can’t yet see the purpose in our struggles, we hold fast to what we know of His unchanging character and trust Him beyond our circumstances.
Ten years ago, we began this journey with a vision of seeing a church planted among the Kuyu people, and though God doesn’t need us to accomplish His work, we are honored to be co-laborers in His field. As we prepare to return to Papua New Guinea in April, we are hopeful for long-term ministry, but it is impossible to know for certain how her body will respond. We are wholly committed to this work and will continue forward in faith as long as the Lord allows.
For the next few months, we will be assisting in a temporary role with Ethnos360, speaking at churches, colleges, and conferences to mobilize the next generation of church planting missionaries.
We deeply appreciate your prayers, support, and understanding as we navigate this process. Thank you for being a blessing to our family and those we are able to serve.
Trusting in Him,
Michael and Morgan LeBlanc
LeBlanc Health Update
Here's a quick update with the results from the latest blood work!
Thanks for praying with us! If you have any questions, please feel to reach out and contact us! We would love to hear from you!
Back “Home”
We are back in sunny Southern California, but it doesn’t quite feel like “home” anymore.
We are back in sunny Southern California, but it doesn’t quite feel like “home” anymore. We may look American, sound American, and, to my wife’s delight, smell American again, but inside, we’re navigating two contrasting worlds. We’ve immersed ourselves in the Kuyu culture, only to now unlearn and relearn the basics of life in America. We planned to return in November, but due to some health concerns, we headed home 6 weeks early.
When we flew out for our region’s annual conference in September, we met with our doctor after months of emailing back and forth about Morgan’s health. We’d tried everything we could, but he advised us to return to the States for more immediate care.
As many of you know, from the moment we moved into Kuyu, Morgan’s health had slowly been declining on multiple fronts. The humid Kuyu environment is a petri dish for mold growth, which has re-aggravated Morgan’s childhood asthma. At the same time, a severe hand rash developed, causing painful open sores and itchy fluid-filled sacks that would then burst and scab over. The pain was intense for many many months, waking her up nearly every night and rendering her incapable of normal household tasks. Combined with other infections and symptoms, we knew the doctor’s recommendation was the right decision.
Over the past month, we’ve consulted with multiple doctors, begun treatment, and feel we’re on the right path to getting the best long-term help. Many of the symptoms have resolved since being out of the bush, so now we are trying to address the underlying issues that caused those symptoms. We are being seen by a great doctor who specializes in neurology and immunology, with extensive blood work scheduled for next week and follow-up results due later next month.
Our family has processed a lot of hard things over the past couple of months and it’s been a whirlwind since our return. The severity of Morgan’s health is a tough reality, but we’re grateful to have a plan and move forward.
In the midst of this prolonged season of health challenges, the Lord’s kindness has been so evident. He has provided all of our needs and met us at our lowest points. The past year has been an emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental battle on multiple fronts.
Despite our routine home assignment turning into more of a medical one, we are still so thankful to be here and enjoying the time of reprieve. We are eager to engage in different speaking opportunities and share about what the Lord is doing in Kuyu, and hopefully to meet up with many of you along the way. This road to recovery may seem long and uncertain, but we are entrusting each step and each day to the Lord. Thanks for partnering with us and lifting our family up in prayer.
It's Been Awhile
Life in Kuyu is difficult to encapsulate into words. It's a tapestry woven from threads of joy and sorrow, survival and celebration, learning and unlearning.
Life in Kuyu is difficult to encapsulate into words. It's a tapestry woven from threads of joy and sorrow, survival and celebration, learning and unlearning. The past eight months have been a whirlwind of raw and unfiltered moments.
We have witnessed the miracle of new life and the sorrow of too many deaths. We have seen the relentless pursuit of survival as they hunt for whatever the jungle provides - creatures that crawl, run, and swing through the undergrowth. We have participated in marriage ceremonies, harvested the fruit of their gardens, aided in constructing their homes, and shared meals prepared over open fires.
With every sunrise, we surrender ourselves to the challenge and privilege of learning the Kuyu language and culture. We don't seek to merely convert them into followers of Jesus but to help cultivate them into mature disciples who can confidently handle the Word of God in their own language. It's a challenging journey, but we find our strength in the grace of the Lord, as we ask for His guidance and perseverance.
Our home, nestled in the heart of the village, is an epicenter of cultural explosion. We've learned to hold our plans loosely, surrendering our American ideals of order and predictability to the ebb and flow of the village's rhythm. There are days when our clumsy attempts at their language or unfamiliar ways provoke laughter, and we feel like toddlers taking their first steps. Other days, we encounter deep-seated animistic beliefs that obscure the Gospel truth, but these moments fuel our determination. Just a few days ago, we began treating a baby with severe pneumonia, only to find out that the parents didn’t follow our directions and instead sought out the local shaman. Their ancestral ways are deeply rooted, reminding us of the immensity of the task ahead of us.
In April, our language consultants flew out to Kuyu to evaluate our team’s progress and understanding of the indigenous language and culture. I reached level 4 of 9, while Morgan reached level 2 of 9. We were encouraged by our progress and are eagerly preparing for our next evaluation in September.
Our coworkers, the Ames, are currently in the States for their home assignment, and the Devalves will leave in a couple of months as they await the arrival of their new baby. We too will be taking a brief home assignment to reconnect with our supporters, friends, and family in America from November to June.
Your prayers, letters, and packages have been a huge blessing to us and a source of encouragement during the highs and lows of bush life. Thank you for journeying with us as we navigate this wild, challenging, yet incredibly rewarding task.
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Please pray for us as we work to finalize the Kuyu alphabet and continue in language/culture study over the next few months. To see more prayer requests, click here.
Home Sweet Home
Building a house in a remote location is no easy task. Spanning the course of 6-9 months, the missionary team will develop house plans, purchase materials, transport the materials into the bush, and then begin building structures.
Building a house in a remote location is no easy task. Spanning the course of 6-9 months, the missionary team will develop house plans, purchase materials, transport the materials into the bush, and then begin building structures. The indigenous people are often eager to help in this process and the missionary team will begin modeling teamwork and discipleship to the people. Each house is equipped with solar, running water, and all of the necessary components to help missionaries thrive in the bush.
Let the Housebuilding Begin!
We can’t be more excited about all that has happened in the last 2 months.
A complete 180
After a long season of waiting and preparation over the last 2 years, the last 2 months have been the opposite. We have finalized our church planting team, completed a comprehensive assessment of the Kuyu people, identified a helicopter shuttle location, signed land agreements, purchased all of our housebuilding materials, and are heading out next week to begin shuttling our office materials into Kuyu. Below is a snippet of each of those steps.
Kuyu Comprehensive Assessment
What’s worse than a world who’s never heard? Perhaps a world that’s heard it all wrong. The Kuyu people are some of the most remote in Papua New Guinea, yet even they have heard stories of God. However, it's via secondhand stories that are lost in oral tradition and distorted by their own worldview. The confusion has trapped them into rituals mixed with animism that couldn't be more opposite from the Gospel.
On our latest trip, we traveled to each of the 6 Kuyu villages and confirmed the open invitation to work amongst the Kuyu people. Here's our latest video from our week-long trip telling the Kuyu people that we are coming to be their missionaries.
SHUTTLE LOCATION IDENTIFIED
2 flight hours cost us about $940. 12 minutes cost us $94. I’ll let you do the math on the cost savings for 100 round-trip shuttles. This is the difference between flying our housebuilding materials from Goroka to Kuyu vs flying our materials from our shuttle point to Kuyu. We are so thankful to find a close location that we can shuttle all of our housebuilding materials out of…well, close as the crow flies.
LAND AGREEMENTS SIGNED!
We decided to hike into Kuyu for this trip and it was twice as long as we expected (16hrs)! We didn’t hike in because we like hiking, we hiked in because we want to better understand the pain our friends experience when they travel out to town. And we definitely have a better idea now! After a long, arduous day, we signed land agreements with representatives and witnesses from every Kuyu village. Praise God for the open door and a ripe harvest.
HOUSEBUILDING SUPPLIES PURCHASED
When we’re not in the bush, we’re running around town finding all of the supplies needed to build our bush houses. With the nearest Home Depot being 6,800 miles away, it makes it challenging to find everything in a third-world country with inconsistent stock and quality.
In the video below, we picked up 4000lbs of flooring for our bush houses, separated them into bundles, wrapped them in plastic, and weighed them in prep for heli shuttles next week!
HELI SHUTTLES BEGIN
Next week we head out once again to officially begin shuttling our building materials into Kuyu. We will drive the materials up the road to our shuttle location where our helicopter will make about 20 rounds in and out of the bush. We will begin building our team office July 11-22 before starting on our houses in August!
PRAYER REQUESTS
This will be the 4th trip in the last 6 weeks, so we would covet your prayers for the following items:
Endurance and strength both mentally and physically
Wisdom in planning and logistics throughout this allocation stage
Peace amidst all of the travel away from our families
Pray for more laborers. Or ask the Lord if he wants to send you.