Our Gospel outreach to a nearby village continues to make progress. We’re teaching the Bible from Creation to Christ. Most of those attending are unbelievers but they are learning key truths such as how man’s sin separates him from God; But God made a way for man to come to Him through a blood sacrifice. As we teach through these foundational stories it is exciting to see them already making the connection to Jesus. Some have heard the name of Jesus before but do not know who He is or what He has done for us. Our two Simbari teachers, Raymond and Jethro are doing most of the teaching during this outreach and many of the other believers have been sharing their faith as well. We’ve seen some ups and downs but God seems to really be working in hearts lately. At the time we are writing this letter we have just taught the story of Nicodemus.
Just last week the Simbari believers wanted to hike over to a gathering of national believers in the nearby Aziana tribe but outsiders were not able to come because of some land disputes in the area. So our believers invited the Aziana teachers to bring the teaching to them. Three mature Aziana believers responded by hiking 2 days to come over and put on a little 2 day conference. It was a real encouragement to our believers who are so few and are still so young in the Lord. They had sessions on what the Bible teaches about false gods that are a big part of their animistic culture and also sessions about justification by faith. There was lots of great singing and even when not in meetings they couldn’t stop talking about the Lord and His Word when sitting around their fires. Two young men who are relatives of one of our believers and have been hearing about the Lord a lot from their relatives decided to attend the 2 days of meetings. They also asked lots of questions and put their trust in Christ. As the Aziana men made their 2-day return journey they were apprehended in another tribe and accused of sorcery. They quickly pulled out their Bibles and told the accusers they were doing God’s work. God protected them and they were released and arrived home safely. Meanwhile back in Simbariland God was still stirring hearts and the Simbaris started a new little Bible study to do more digging into the Word of God on their own.
David and his translation helper have finished most of the work on the book of Acts and it is in the final stages of checking and proofing. He’ll be working on Bible lessons to go with Acts as well as beginning a preliminary draft of Romans.
As for the school situation there was only room for Esther in the dorm this year. The rest of the kids are homeschooling. Please pray for all of us in this arrangement. We’re adjusting to more teaching in addition to all that we were already doing. Since Esther will graduate next May we will be going on home assignment at that time and to help get her settled in. Please pray for the needed finances for tickets.