The 2007 national elections for Papua New Guinea are upon us. Whereas millions and millions of Americans can vote all across that huge country in just one day, here in PNG it is a much different story! Because of the lack of roads to connect the country (and because we operate on South Pacific time here), the dates July 1st through the 10th had been given to allow for this island nation’s residents to all have the opportunity to cast their ballots. Even so, our rainy season here in Toboland meant that no airplanes or choppers could bring in the ballot boxes for our area, and finally, today on July 10th, the ballot boxes have been carried in here via treacherous mountain trails! We’ve got to be one of the last areas in our part of the country that has yet to vote (and thankfully the word on the street—err, trail, that is—is that the deadline will be extended). During the week, the boxes will be carried daily from village to village, and hopefully the votes can make it to the coast again by the end of this week! Truth be told, regardless of who the wins, it will just be nice to let the dust (err—mud?) settle again after the votes are counted (and that will take more than a week in itself!).
Even during these busy days of comings and goings and chasing after candidates and their elusive dreams of prosperity (both future and “immediate”), we are encouraged by the steady growth of the believers here who have stayed around. Last week, during Janeene’s weekly meeting with some of the ladies to go over the previous lesson, some new ladies showed up. Janeene was excited to see our neighbor Lanisa begin to go over the gospel message from the beginning with these ladies. One older lady in particular kept asking Lanisa questions, and she continued to answer them and clear up her confusion on some points. “We CAN know if we are going to heaven, it is in God’s Word.” Janeene only had to jump in once or twice to offer her support!
Another neat thing that happened was on Thursday morning just prior to our believers’ meeting. Nikos sat down next to me and whipped open his booklet of Bible portions and proceeded to read a passage in Luke to me that we had covered a few weeks ago. He went on to share that from the story of the rich man who built new barns and then died that night, that not just other people in our area, but he too realized that he needed to be treasuring God’s Word and spending more time reading and thinking about it than just thinking about his gardens and getting more money and new clothes and other things. He then during our meeting exhorted the other believers that we all need to be making God’s Word big in our thinking on a regular basis.
Then afterward, I was privileged to stand there with him and our first believer Tingon and just listen to them going back and forth talking about the Lord and his grace. Tingon went through several OT stories and their application to God’s saving grace through Christ, such as God’s provision of the ram as a substitute for Isaac.
Tingon- “Just as Isaac had no strength to save himself, all tied up on top of the firewood and the altar, we too had no strength to save ourselves.”
Nikos- “True, and so many people around here, our friends, our family, they are not believing that. Now Abraham, he believed God’s talk to him and was going to kill him as God commanded him to do. He just believed God, and God took care of him and Isaac.”
Tingon- “Right! God gave the sheep to die in Isaac’s place. Abraham did not do any work for that. Neither did Isaac. God did it all! We need to keep telling others that we cannot stand on our own strength to save ourselves. God gave us our sheep, Yesu!”
Wow, is it ever cool to be a part of these conversations as a supportive listener rather than a major contributor! We realize that there is still much teaching and grounding in God’s Word needed for these our Tobo brothers and sisters, and to that end we are really looking forward to our main teacher Jason and his family’s return this week! The Knapps have taken an earlier-than-scheduled break in Australia as Jason has recovered from the severe infection stemming from a malaria attack, and they had to wait on paperwork anyway before returning. So we are praising the Lord here for Jason’s recovery as we eagerly await their return.
Finally, we wanted you to hear from Elijah’s corner! Our little dynamo continues to amuse us and keep us from getting over-rested (hardly a problem these days anyway). He comes up with such gems as “Uh-oh…the clouds are coming in!” and after a minor earthquake struck, he said “What’s that feeling?” and proceeded to wiggle around some more well after the tremor had subsided. He also for some odd reason the other night decided to call up Grandma on his “cell phone” which was actually a spoon from the kitchen! Don’t ask us—we don’t have any coverage out here whatsoever!!
Speaking of coverage—we really appreciate your coverage of us through your support and prayers. And we don’t even need cell towers! Thanks so much for being “in our circle.
Because Our God is Faithful,
Chad, Janeene & Elijah
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.