We Are Back In The Tribe Now
After being away for a year on home assignment. We had a wonderful year spending time with family and friends and sharing about our ministry. It has been a blessing being around other like-minded people who want their lives to bear fruit for eternity. We are also grateful that the Lord has added to our partnership team during the last year. The sacrificial gifts of our ministry partners make it possible for us to be here. “Here” is our home village in the Simbari tribe. After arriving in Papua New Guinea (PNG) we spent a week getting Simon and Rachel settled in the dorm and taking care of business in town. Then we attempted to fly in to the tribe but we got stuck in another tribe nearby due to bad weather. After 2 nights in the other tribe the clouds opened up just enough for the plane to make two trips into our tribe with us and our cargo. It’s great to finally be back in our PNG home.
Status Of The Tribal Church
The church has been functioning well in our absence and we enjoyed worship with them this last Sunday. Even though it was raining there was a good turnout with about 40 adults and 20 kids. (and the Simbaris said the numbers were down a little!) They just recently started going through the Acts Bible lessons again since there are so many new people coming that didn’t hear it the first time through. Many shared testimonies during the service and they sang new songs and it was so encouraging to see them doing even better than when we left. It proves to us that God is building this church and that His Holy Spirit is at work in the lives of the Simbari believers. Please pray for Raymond who is one of our Bible teachers. It was his turn to teach this last Sunday and he had been in another village with his mother who seemed close to death. But because she seemed to be doing ok he opted to not pass off his teaching responsibility to one of the other teachers. During the testimony time he shared about this and also shared about how he had been able to lead his mother to Christ after the outreach in her village last year. But during the service his mom passed away back in her village. (He had only been away a few hours and she seemed fine when he had left) So he rushed down to her village and asked the other believers to come down and be with his family for encouragement through this time. Please pray for them.
Housework
Our house needed some work and a good airing-out after sitting for a year. Most of the equipment seems to be working ok. Our water pump is the only thing that was acting up and finally quit. David was able to adapt another spare pump as a temporary fix until we get repair parts. Shari is busy cleaning the inside of the house from top to bottom one room at a time. David is working on the outside and equipment installation: radio, water filter, solar panels, etc and hacking down overgrown bushes with the machete.
Kids
Esther finished her 1st year at the Master’s College and also got her driver’s license right before we left California. Now she is living with her Aunt Ginger and is transferring to the local community college due to finances. She has been looking for a job all summer but nothing yet. Please pray. As we already mentioned, Simon and Rachel are in the dorm now. They were pretty happy about the arrangements. Their dorm parents are Herb and Jana Gass who are new to dorm parenting so I’m sure they’d appreciate your prayers. Simon made the high school volleyball team so he was excited about that. Rachel is roommates with one of her best friends so she’s really happy too. Jason is glad to be back in the tribe too. After rediscovering all the toys he had forgotten about, now he is spending as much time as he can outside with the Simbari kids. Playing ball, in the tree house, riding his bike, etc. We’re reading through the Narnia series with him since he was too young last time we read it to the rest of the kids. He’ll be starting 2nd grade homeschooling next week.
Thanks for praying,
David & Shari Ogg