Philip was born and raised in Papua New Guinea where his parents served as missionaries since 1985. In 2012 he returned to PNG. Philip’s dad comes from the Faroe Islands, his mom from the USA. He has 7 brothers and grew up with knowledge of the great need there is to bring the gospel to ethnic groups who haven’t heard it clearly. After finishing school, God challenged him also about the needs in the USA where he got involved in different ministries. But God still laid PNG on his heart and in 2012 he returned to Papua New Guinea. Initially, he was involved in surveying isolated people groups to help identify where the needs were. He also worked in the mission’s business office and helped out with other needs. His desire though has been to work with an isolated people group.
Natalie is from Germany and started working in the mission medical clinic as a nurse in 2008. After completing her training with Ethnos360 she began the process of moving into an isolated village as a church planter alongside 2 other families in 2013. But during that time, she also met Philip and the plans changed. Philip had been hoping to get married before moving into an isolated area to serve God as church planter. His prayer got answered. =)
In 2014 they were married in Germany and returned to PNG in 2015. They hoped to quickly find a team and begin working among one of the many language groups in Papua New Guinea. Though we can be in a rush to do ‘God’s work’, God often has other plans and is more interested in changing our hearts first. A long period of waiting started for them. As He prepared them and worked in their hearts, they were also able to be involved with Bible teaching and discipleship in our different places of service in PNG. They could also support different mission centers from Ethnos360 and get to know the people and their culture on a deeper level. And now God has blessed them with a wonderful team to work with in making HIM known among the Kovol people.