The Simbari church continues studying the book of 1st Corinthians. Many of the Simbari Bible teachers are still out in town which has given David more teaching opportunities than usual. An unexpected benefit of being short on teachers is how it has encouraged two previously uninvolved men to begin attending leadership development meetings with David. It’s a blessing to meet with these men and hear them acknowledging their weakness and yet be willing to stretch their faith and let God use them to serve the needs the Simbari church.
We are thankful a Simbari Bible teacher named Rison has returned from town. Rison had been under some economic stress recently when his son, Gwandambi, was out in town in the hospital. After returning to the tribe Rison continued to worry about Gwandambi’s need for future surgery and so went back out to town to search for employment in order to earn some money. But God worked in his heart and led him to come back home to his family and the church. After apologizing to the church he said he had left God’s work and went looking for money work in town because he wasn’t trusting God. He said he had acted like Jonah and had run away from the work God had for him. He was thankful that, unlike Jonah, nothing bad had to happen for him to see that he wasn’t trusting. All this occured without even a word from us missionaries. Things like this are all part of the slow growth process of the church.
2 Corinthians is a complex book and difficult to translate. David’s translation skills have really been stretched as he worked on the preliminary draft of this book. It’s definitely been the hardest book he’s translated so far. But as 2 Cor. 12:9 says: “My grace is sufficient for you” by God’s grace he was able to complete the preliminary draft recently. There are still a lot of procedures to be done before it is complete but the preliminary draft is a major chunk of the work to have out of the way.
“My grace is sufficient for you” 2 Cor. 12:9
A couple weeks ago we had a farewell feast for Rachel who is about to graduate and leave PNG. We only have about a month left in the tribe before heading out for her graduation. After that we will leave PNG for a 1 year home assignment. We’re still trying to get our house in Calif. fixed up enough to move into when we get home. Please pray for good progress on that in the next couple months. Also pray for us with all we have to do during these remaining weeks in the tribe. We look forward to seeing you soon!