We have made good progress with the Bible lessons and tomorrow I will be working on Nicodemas (John 3) and really looking forward to that. One person, Raymond’s wife, has already come to know the Lord through the new lessons so all the work is already worth it. And we are looking forward to more too when others get the chance to hear the “good talk.”
Attendance has been low on Sundays because some of our believers are gone out to town and also the pandanus nut season is upon us. The pandanus trees only produce nuts once every few years so when they do it is a big deal and almost everyone moves high up into the mountains where the trees are and live up there while they are collecting and smoking-drying the nuts. They build little huts up there to save themselves from having to walk 2 to 4 hours each way to the pandanus gardens every day. So down here in the village it gets pretty deserted. This usually goes on for months so we’ll see how long it lasts this year. At least my translation helper has been faithful so we can continue making progress in the translation of the lessons. After finishing the lessons we will take some time to finish up the Old Testament verses that go with the Bible lessons. We need to get all these materials ready so we can start our next outreach.
We finished teaching the book of Mark a few Sundays ago and it was wonderful. Especially the day we taught of the resurrection. It was so exciting for us and the Simbaris to focus again Jesus power over sin, Satan and death. His sacrifice for sins was accepted by His Father. Previous lambs had to be sacrificed over and over again but Jesus, the Lamb of God’s sacrifice was once and for all. And just as Christ rose to never die again so also when we trust in Him we are born again to a new life that will never end. Now that we are done with Mark we have started teaching through the new lessons that we have been translating.
A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a visit from a visiting team from Hume Lake Christian Camp. They came to PNG to conduct Spiritural Emphasis Weekend (S.E.W.) for the Jr. and Sr. High schoolers. So Esther and Simon attended the conferences and were really challenged spiritually. 
Then the team came in here for 1 night to visit a tribe after the conferences were finished. We took them on a hike into the rainforest to see the pandanus nut gardens and a big waterfall. Then in the evening we met with the Simbari believers and exchanged songs and testimonies.
I, David, will be attending quarterly school meetings next week so I’ll be out of the tribe a few days. I will get to see Esther and Simon so that will be nice. They are REALLY looking forward to the visit. They seem to be doing well. Simon seems to be doing a little better these days with his studies. They both sound like they’re really getting into sports out there like soccer, etc.
Love, David and Shari