Simbari Update for September 2015

Church mobility In past updates we have shared about how many of the tribal believers are more mobile now coming and going to the cities. This continues to be true, not just in the Simbari tribe but in many other rural areas as well. Last week the Simbari believers living in the capital city of Port Moresby took up a collection to pay for a Bible Teacher named Raymond to fly down and do some teacher training and Bible teaching for them. Pray for wisdom and boldness for both Raymond and those he seeks to train. Also pray for the believers remaining in the village because the opposition to the Gospel has intensified lately. Feeling a bit discouraged a few weeks ago the believers held a week-long mini-conference to encourage themselves in the Word of God. The theme was the grace of God (or in Simbari: “Gooti toolluro yasuwa’wino sugumaluko”) Eph. 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” How can we not be encouraged by such a wonderful truth!

Gwandambi update Gwandambi still has a cast on his leg and the doctor wants him to keep it on for another 2 months to make sure the bone is strong enough to support his weight before removing it. He and his family are back in the village and his father’s return to the teaching team in the village freed up Raymond to be able to go teach in Port Moresby.

Translation progress After finishing the draft of the Gospel of John, David has finished the initial drafting of three more books: Philippians, 2 Timothy and Philemon. That puts the preliminary drafting of the New Testament at 90% complete! David is now working on the draft of Hebrews. Please keep praying for wisdom in translation!

Consulting Over the summer we were able to do some Culture and Language Acquisition (CLA) consulting for missionaries in three different language groups: Menya, Wantakia and Kuman. It is exciting to be a small part of helping God’s Word become available to these people groups in their own heart languages.  Rom. 10:17 “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”