{"id":1202,"date":"2018-08-04T06:09:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T10:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2018-08-04T06:09:58","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T10:09:58","slug":"every-sunday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/2018\/08\/04\/every-sunday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Sunday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Sunday morning, the Pal believers gather to worship together and listen to the missionaries teach God\u2019s Word. Then, after a short break, Pal unbelievers<\/em> gather to hear the Pal believers<\/em> teach God\u2019s Word. It\u2019s an amazing sight: men who, a few short years ago, didn\u2019t understand that God\u2019s grace is free and lived in fear of evil spirits are now standing in the midst of their villages teaching others that the God who created the universe loves them and wants them to know Him!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It may seem like a simple church service or any Bible study meeting you might attend on an average day, but, when you stop to think about it, God is doing so many incredible things each and every Sunday morning! The teachers are learning more about dependence on God and honing their skills for future church leadership. Men and women and children are hearing and understanding the gospel for the first time in their lives. The believers are seeing and understanding God\u2019s desire for all to hear and the need to live as witnesses for Him, and they are beginning to see that they don\u2019t really need the missionaries who descended upon them 6 years ago with their pale skin and strange ideas \u2013 God is everything they need!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there is even more going on here that only God sees, but what He allows us to see is truly a blessing. Every time I listen to my brothers and sisters answering questions about the Bible lessons and explaining theological truths to those who come to hear, I am blown away by how much better they are at this than we ever were! To have the benefit of shared language and culture and background and tradition is invaluable when testifying to God\u2019s love and grace and truth. I wish you could be here to hear the believers say, \u201cGood question! I used to wonder the same thing when I first heard God\u2019s Talk, but now I know _______.\u201d Or, \u201cOur ancestors used to believe _______, but God\u2019s Word says _______.\u201d<\/p>\n

These folks are following Jesus\u2019 instructions to be witnesses for Him and they didn\u2019t have to leave home to do it. But soon they will. In two weeks another literacy class will start up in a village about 2 hours\u2019 hike away. Our teachers will go in groups of four to spend a week at a time teaching the people in this village how to read and write, just like we taught them when we first came here. Then, sometime nex<\/p>\n

t year, we are hoping to support them along with the church as they teach through the Bible beginning to end in that village, bringing God\u2019s truth to another group of people who have never had the opportunity to hear it before.<\/p>\n

We want to ask you to start praying for them now. Our people are subsistence farmers, and it is no small thing for them to spend a week away from their homes and gardens. Pray for their wives, who will be left behind to care for the home and children while their husbands are teaching. Pray for the strength and health that it takes to hike these trails and put in the work of preparing and teaching. Pray for the people in that village to grasp the concepts of reading and writing so that they can read God\u2019s Word for themselves. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be preparing their hearts to hear the message in 2019. Pray for the teachers to have wisdom and clarity for teaching and answering questions, as well as integrity as they commit to being lights in a dark place to serve Jesus.<\/p>\n

Our village can sometimes feel like \u201cthe ends of the earth,\u201d but we know there are still places in which to spread the Gospel. If you hear God telling you to be someone who takes it there, don\u2019t delay in obeying. Don\u2019t let the world tell you that the sacrifice is too great. The world is a liar. J Thank you for praying for our team and for the Pal church as we now truly work together to take God\u2019s message even further into the jungle to those who are still waiting for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Sunday morning, the Pal believers gather to worship together and listen to the missionaries teach God\u2019s Word. Then, after a short break, Pal unbelievers gather to hear the Pal believers teach God\u2019s Word. It\u2019s an amazing sight: men who, a few short years ago, didn\u2019t understand that God\u2019s grace is free and lived in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-1202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}