Christmas with the believers (notice the heavy winter coats?)
From the bits of news we get from the States, it sounds as if it has been a cold start to the new year. Here, in the other hemisphere we can’t get cool enough. But despite the heat we had a good time as a family for Christmas in the tribe and had some missionary friends from another tribe visit us for New Years. In this ‘New Guinea News’ I would like to bring a couple of prayer requests to you all.
Recently I read something from some missionaries who worked in Africa starting back in 1948. It said, “America’s great theme is independence – ‘I can be what I want – I can do what I want.’ Such is not the case in other cultures. You are what your tribe is – you do what your tribe does. Otherwise you are not really a part of the tribe.” The same can be said of the Patpatar. In addition much of who the tribe is and what they do is based on the leaders of that tribe. That is where things can get difficult.
There are not many of them, in fact it is primarily just one man who is against the continuation of God’s Word being taught here, but right now he is the predominant leader for the village. Oddly enough he has only recently returned to the village after being away for years, but he is set against us and our work here. In the last New Guinea News we let you know about this situation and that the group of accusers failed to show up at the meeting. Since then more questions and accusations have been launched and a new meeting date has been set. The meeting is Thursday morning the 14th (Wednesday evening in the States). Since he is the leader in the village and since it is culturally inappropriate to disagree with him this has put the believers in a difficult situation. Some of them will be at the meeting, but to stand up and speak for the truth will be alienating them even further from the tribe that is their life. Already, three of them have come to me and said that they will need God’s strength because theirs is not enough.
Please pray for us in this situation. Please pray for the believers. Please pray that instead of this hindering God’s work here it will only strengthen it.
In addition to that, another believer has come to me and asked that as a body of believers here in Patpatar that we pray for his neck. I would like to have you join us in that. Bles has had the side of his neck swell up several times recently. It causes a lot of pain and he cannot move his head very well. The first time it eventually subsided. The second time he was sent to a small hospital where they did a surgery. It subsided again, but now a month later it is swelling again. I don’t know what it is, and the doctor’s report he received was not very informational, but we can pray. As you can imagine this has been a very trying time for this young believer, an early testing of his faith.
The final prayer request is for our partner Madonna who will be coming back to PNG on Friday. We are excited to have her back and pray that she has a safe journey here and can settle in well.
Thanks for fighting the battles with us as our partners in prayer,
Aaron
Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse
Missionaries in the Patpatar tribe
With New Tribes Mission