A few weeks ago we began teaching about love from chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. The Simbari church has been slowly working their way teaching through the whole book of 1st Corinthians. It’s been encouraging to see their slow but steady growth from being under consistent teaching of the Word of God. By way of review we started by going back to portions they’ve already heard such as Eph. 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” and Romans 5:8 “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Point number one on the chalkboard pictured above says: “Of all the spiritual gifts the greatest is love.” We never cease to be amazed at how these wonderful truths are being clearly communicated in the Simbari language. And how the Spirit of God is using His Word in the lives of the believers. It’s a good motivation to keep making progress in Bible translation. David is still working on the exegesis and draft of 2nd Corinthians.
Rison held up his Bible today while teaching and said, “Long ago there were many mighty miracles that showed the power of God. And now we have the Word of God and it clearly shows us the power of God.” And he went on to talk about how Simbari people in the town of Port Moresby are responding to the Creation to Christ Bible teaching that is in progress down there. We’ve mentioned before about how many people have left to go out to the towns and it’s encouraging to see that the Bible teachers have adjusted to the situation and are taking the teaching to where the people are. God is at work and the group that is meeting there in town is growing. And meanwhile the group of believers back here in the tribe is rising to meet the challenges (of many key people being gone).
Speaking of challenges: Gwandambi has been making regular progress in his physical therapy and he is now up and around on crutches! He’s not moving very fast but after 6 months of immobility it’s an amazing accomplishment. Gwandambi’s dad, Rison, gave God the glory for doing the impossible and saving Gwandambi’s leg and helping him through this trial. He was so thankful to see his son make it from one end of the airstrip to the other on his own using the crutches.
Bo’wol shared a testimony today too. “There was nothing I could do to purchase my salvation. I couldn’t buy it like buying a plane ticket. But Jesus bought my salvation by the work he did on the cross for me. …the FREE gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23)