We have been so thrilled with the open doors the Lord is giving the Simbari believers to share the good news of Christ\’s love not only in our village but in the surrounding villages as well.
Recently two of the Bible teachers were invited to the largest Simbari village about a four-hour rigorous hike from here to meet with the headmaster of the community school there. For quite awhile now he has been expressing his desire to have God\’s talk brought to his village. The people have been exposed to some religion and in fact there is a big “church” building but he says it leaves them feeling cold.
Another religious group came wanting to teach in the national language of Pidgin but they said that would not help them understand the truth. He wants his village to hear it in their own language. The delay in going there so far is because we have been short-handed and are already teaching in two villages. Now the headmaster would like a couple of our Bible
teachers to come to his school on a regular basis (possibly starting in August) and teach the Creation-to-Christ evangelism lessons each morning before school followed by vernacular literacy classes right in the school so that the students will be able to read and write in their own language. (the community schools teach in English and Pidgin) There will be other adult teachers sitting in on the classes and learning as well so that they can teach it in their own village schools. We are praising the Lord with the Simbari believers for this wonderful opportunity to spread God\’s Word to other villages. Since David\’s translation helper is also one of the main Bible teachers David will need to hike down with the Bible teachers and stay there for blocks of time to be able to continue making progress on the Bible translation.