Elsie Conrad grew up in Portland, Oregon in a Christian home. As a teen, her heart was close to God and she would often spend time in her room wondering about her future. Elsie knew she was to be in foreign missions. She asked God three things:
1. To give her a Christian husband and that her children would become Christians.
2. To be a missionary.
3. To be a nurse.
Vic Schlatter was then a junior at Purdue, getting excellent grades in his field of Chemistry and looking forward to a good job with a major company upon graduation. Being a missionary wasn't on his list, but God (with a little help from Elsie) showed him otherwise. After they were married and Vic graduated, he took a job as a chemist with GE nuclear energy plant in Richland, Washington. He and Elsie started a church there but God laid it on their hearts to go to a tribal people group who didn't have a Bible in their language to do the translation.
In 1961, they left for Papua New Guinea, a small country in the South Pacific with 3 million people living in the stone age, speaking over 700 different languages, and most of whom had no idea of who Jesus Christ is. Vic left first and when he got settled he was to send a telegram back for Elsie and their four kids to join him. Weeks passed with no telegram and Elsie decided to go find Vic. When her plane landed in Port Moresby the capital, the host at the guest house said Vic went up to the southern highlands - and there was a plane going there the next day. They got on that small plane. Landing on the grass airstrip of Mt. Hagen they spent the afternoon waiting for Vic. As darkness fell there was still no sign of Vic. An Australian offered Elsie and the kids a ride to the only motel in town. While she and the kids were sitting at the table eating supper, a MAF (Mission Aviation Pilot) pilot tapped Elsie on the shoulder, and said that he knows where Vic is. He added that he could fly them to Mendi tomorrow to be with him.

In 1975 Vic completed the translation and continues to work with the church there to be able to function on its own. He and Elsie now live on the North coast of Australia. They now focus on the leaders and Christians of other countries of the South Pacific through a ministry called SPIM - South Pacific Island Ministries. Vic and Elsie still spend two to three months per year in PNG as support, encouragement and accountability for the church there.

Vic and Elsie Schlatter - office@spim.org.au
Mission Website - http://www.spim.org.au