You may remember the outreach we started several years ago in another village when David hiked down to stay there 4 days every week. Since then there has been the need for a building that the believers can meet in.
They started leveling ground about a year ago and have been working on it off-and-on as they can spare the time away from their garden work and as the weather permits.
They finished it last week so Tuesday was a special service to officially open it for meetings.
The day before many of the believers from the village here went down to support their brothers and sisters in the Lord at the other village and help them with last minute preparations for the service.
That night they started singing worship songs and couldn’t stop. Some visitors were present so they shared the Gospel with them between songs and one of the visitors trusted in Christ. They continued on like that until 3:00 am.
Many around the community took notice of the fervency of praise songs ringing though the valley into the wee hours of the morning. They said they had never heard anything like it.
On Tuesday morning we took off on the hike at about 8 AM and hiked up and down the steep mountainsides for over 2 hours to reach the other village.
As we came over the ridge across from the meeting house we could hear the wonderful sound of worship ringing out again over the valley.
We quickly hurried up the rest of the trail to join them.
After waiting for some more people to arrive we all sat down for the ceremony. Several men including David were invited to share a few words with the crowd. This included a clear presentation of the Gospel and an explanation that the meeting house was to be “a place where the truths of God’s Word can be brought out into the open.”
After some special music everyone went over and stood at the front of the church while the believers continued singing and clapping their hands with great joy as they prepared to officially “cut the ribbon” and enter the building.
Just being there in the midst of such a joyful assembly brought joy to our hearts and it was hard to hold back the tears. We wish you all could have been there!
The entrance was beautifully decorated with flowers and plants had the name of “Jesus” spelled out in front of it with flower petals. Everyone then came in and the large room quickly filled with people.
The wall at the front of the room had been decorated with flowers in the shape of a cross which quickly caught our eye. We believers all sang one song after another while the visitors just smiled and enjoyed hearing the worship songs and commented on how great it was to hear God’s talk in their own language. Some leaves were laid down and some food was brought. Back at the cooking pit the believers were concerned because there were too many people for the little bit of food they had cooked.
They prayed that God would help it to be enough for everyone just like when Jesus had fed the crowds. When it came time to distribute the food they rejoiced that there was enough for every man, woman, and child and even a little left over.
After the service David helped the believers hang up the blackboard as well as some string for hanging Bible pictures on. Then we all headed back down the trail towards home. It was a rough hike back and one time when Shari was feeling faint a bucket of water over her head revived her and she was ready to go again. Along the way we overheard the conversation of our brothers and sisters in the Lord as they talked about what God was doing down there and how so many people were now interested in hearing the message. They were glorifying God and acknowledged that it was only because of His Spirit doing a big work that any of these wonderful things could happen. We arrived back at our home village at 6 PM with tired bodies but “spirits that were refreshed.” (In Simbari: “Nemi poowokalago tonyu wonyo to’busuko suranyumo’mwa’jukokwono.”)
God is at work here amongst the Simbari people. Thank you so much for praying. We really do appreciate you!
Only for Him,
David, Shari, and family