Many of you are aware and have prayed for the Simbari believers as they have received persecution over the years from another religious group that teaches salvation by works apart from Christ. Rather than engage in arguments about what they believe the Simbari believers wanted to show their faith by serving and loving their enemies. So during the last year or so they have marked work days to help unbelievers in the community with garden work and building houses. Recently this idea was reinforced while studying through the book of Romans with verses like Rom. 6:13 and Rom. 12:1. Up to this point they haven’t really seen much fruit from this loving service but in the last few weeks God has opened a door for ministry of the Word.
This unbelieving group was gearing up for a district conference and so the “men and women of Jesus” from Simbari were discussing how they could show Christ’s love in a tangible way to these people in spite of the fact that they had been persecuted by some of these same people. They decided to give a gift of food since that is always a need when there are a lot of mouths to feed. They collected 17 bags of food and went to give the food in the middle of the week. They wanted to give it quietly but some from the other group didn’t let them and wanted to hear what these “men and women of Jesus” had to say. So they went in and were immediately surrounded by hundreds of people, some who started to break down in tears when they saw the gift. One of our Bible teachers, Raymond, shared on behalf of the “men and women of Jesus” and used verses like John 14:6, among others, to point them to Christ as the only way of salvation. By the end, others from the group were also in tears including some that had been involved in the persecution. Some of the leaders from this other group said they had never seen this kind of behavior before and considered it history-making and intended to go back to town and tell their superiors about all that had happened. They wanted to lift up the believers but the praise was refused and the believers said that what they were seeing was not them but Christ in them. And such behavior is not unusual for people who follow Christ and have His Spirit living in them.
The believers also opened their homes to many from the other group who needed lodging and used the occasion to give testimony about Christ as they sat around in the houses each morning and evening. Some from the other group were enjoying what the believers were sharing so much that they weren’t very eager to go to their groups meetings. The believers offered, “God’s Word is right here in our home and we can keep teaching you here if you like.”
By the end of the week the “men and women of Jesus” were rejoicing in all that God had done and are grateful that a door has been opened for ministry with the people from this other group.
“praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ” Col.4:3
Speaking of the Word, the expected final translation check this week on the last part of Romans and the book of Ephesians had to be postponed due to circumstances out of our control. We trust that God has a plan in allowing this and in His time we will be able to get these books checked. In the meantime we just keep moving ahead with Bible translation and teaching. This month in both of the Simbari churches we’ll begin studying the book of Ephesians. We continue to work on the books of 1 Corinthinans, 1 Timothy, Titus, 1 & 2 Thessalonians and Revelation.