Thank you for praying us through last week’s extraordinary events! While Benjamin was gone on survey there were two near medical emergencies. Silas stuffed a bead up his nose, but thankfully after being forced to sniff black pepper it came out without the need for invasive procedures! I suppose that’s not really a near medical emergency, but when Judah came running home with a shirt soaked in his own blood, Missy wondered if a flight out of the country was going to have to happen. It turns out that all the blood came from a superficial scalp wound that just bled buckets! The Lord was indeed merciful. Benjamin had one good tumble on the trail, but came home no worse for ware; just tired and meat hungry! We had the opportunity to depend on the Lord in new ways through this experience and are so thankful for your thoughtful prayers and comments.
We had two main goals for this week long survey. The first was to do an aerial survey over the Blue Mountain. We’ve heard stories about wild people who live in the foothills and we wanted to get a look at the location from the air to see if we could pin-point an area for future assessment. We weren’t able to see anything significant, but we heard more stories later on the trail that only increased our interest in this lead. The other objective was to get a firm grasp on what the needs are among the Asbalmin speakers. There are supposedly about 6,000 people who speak this language. We hiked to four villages in a valley that is home to probably 1/3 of the Asbalmin. In each village we had a series of conversations with different groups of people asking them specific questions that would help us to understand how they live, communicate and what they understand about the Gospel.
In each village we were asked to make a formal presentation explaining who we were and why we were there. We were prepared ahead of time for this and laid out for the people the four fundamental objectives a church planting team seeks to accomplish. LEARN the culture and the language. Teach the people how to READ & WRITE in their own language. TRANSLATE the Scriptures into their language, and TEACH everything that is translated. In each village the people were enthusiastic about this work and all asked us to report to our bosses that they wanted a missionary team.
We found no Gospel witness at all in this valley. There are a number of cult groups that have been mixed in with the traditional animistic beliefs the people have held to for centuries. The majority of the people only speak their tribal language which means they will remain isolated from the Gospel until someone learns their language and presents it clearly to them. Benjamin and Tony have written a thorough report of their findings and our field leadership team will begin to form a strategy to see these people reached. In the meantime the guys have another 5 people groups they would like to survey this year. By Christmas time there will most likely be a number of church planting opportunities for our family to consider.
We are very thankful for the great experience that we are gaining through these survey trips. Pray for wisdom in the coming days as we look to God in choosing which people group we will finally settle among and begin this Great Commission ministry. Pray also for health, strength and the finances to continue with the people group assessment that still needs to be done. Thank you so much for standing with us in this ministry. Your generosity and commitment to uphold us in prayer humbles us. We are very grateful for all of you.
We hope you enjoy this video of some of the sights and sounds of Survey Asbalmin! Plenty more to come!
Benjamin and Missy Hatton