“Father, when I see the things you’ve made I understand more about you. When I hear the thunder I say of You, “You are strong.”
These words are from a song translated into the Simbari language to the tune of “How Great Thou Art“ which the believers love to sing when they come together to worship the Lord. How we wish you could attend one of their worship times and hear the encouraging things they have been sharing about how God and His wonderful truths have been sustaining and guiding them. We wanted to give you a glimpse of how He is doing that by sharing some of the testimonies we heard just this past Sunday in church.
Jolambiya – An old, emaciated woman shared in a choked voice with tears streaming down her face how she had almost died this week from a serious illness but God had spared her life and she wanted to give Him the glory. By God’s grace she had managed to get herself out of bed and walk to church to meet with her brothers and sisters for a time of worship.
Rison – He thanked the Lord for healing him from a sickness he has had for a couple of weeks which has left him feeling very weak. As he was lying in his house during a thunderstorm listening to the continuous sound of thunder he thought about God revealing His presence and power to the Israelites through the lightning and thunder on Mount Sinai. He sensed God speaking to his heart and reassuring him of His presence and His power to heal him.
Barry – This teenage boy praised God for the opportunity He had given him this past week to share the gospel with a group of young men his age at another village. He told us that the young men were very eager to hear what he had to say and this week he will be hiking over there again to share some more with them.
Raymond and Ellen – This young couple and their family have been quite sick this past week and were still getting their strength back by the time Sunday rolled around. In spite of that the two of them made the difficult hike over to the sister church in another village about an hour away so that Raymond could teach the Bible lesson from Romans to the small group of believers there.
Translation Progress
We praise the Lord that Ephesians is mostly finished and will be getting the final check done in March along with the last half of Romans so that we can print them for the believers. On Sundays they are going back over some of the key lessons in Romans before they begin to hear Ephesians for the first time. Please pray that we would continue to make good progress in the translation of the other epistles and New Testament books. As one of the believers stated recently, “God’s Word is our food” and it’s delicious “like the oil and salt we use to flavor our vegetables.”
Thank you so much for your prayers for our family and the Simbari church. God is continuing to do great things in the lives of the people here.
In His love, David, Shari, Rachel, and Jason