God With Us
We attended the Christmas concert at our church this weekend called “God With Us” and it was wonderful. “God With Us” is the translation of the name Immanuel, the one who was prophesied about in the Old Testament. Jesus left heaven and came as a man fulfilling that promise and becoming our Savior “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Lk. 2:11
Comings and Goings
Since returning from our PNG trip David has been working partly on the Ruth translation and is currently working on the back translation. He has also done some consulting with the field of Papua New Guinea with different translators writing him with questions about translation software or about the publishing of the translation. We also did a road-trip through Oregon, Washington and Idaho where we were able to meet up with some supporters as well as some member care visits with mission coworker friends.
Field Update
Our Simbari coworker Raymond has been out in town to be part of a Translation Workshop and help with training new translation helpers. Recently we were able to talk to him and get an update. The trend of people leaving the village to find work in town has continued and it is very hard on the church to lose people from their fellowship as they move away. He also told us that an invitation to do another village outreach has dissolved once enemies of the Gospel heard about it and made threats so that the invitation was retracted. He says that in the midst of it all they remain encouraged in their faith and keep trusting God to work. He also told us that he had finished recording all the Old Testament portions for the Audio Bible. And he talked about some young men who have expressed interest in being involved in taking the Gospel to new Simbari villages in the future when they are mature and ready. Just last Sunday afternoon another young Simbari guy wrote me on social media from Papua New Guinea asking how to get the Simbari Bible on his mobile phone, so it was a joy to help him with that.
The Simbari church hosted a regional Bible conference for the language groups in the area. There were 7 language groups represented and the topic was Law and Grace with another session about Old Nature vs New Nature. Our old house there that we remodeled into the church building was used and it was wonderful to see it full of people hungry for God’s Word!
Another Build Trip to Mexico
We were both invited to another Mexico mission trip to build a small home for a family. The trip will be in January and we would appreciate prayers for safety as we drive and work down there. Pray for the family that they would be impacted by the Gospel as we spend time with them.
Merry Christmas from David and Shari