{"id":967,"date":"2004-12-16T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2004-12-16T02:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/?p=967"},"modified":"2024-02-02T17:13:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T01:13:19","slug":"simbari-update-december-16-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/2004\/12\/16\/simbari-update-december-16-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"December 2004 Home for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

H<\/strong>o<\/strong>m<\/strong>e<\/strong> f<\/strong>o<\/strong>r <\/strong>C<\/strong>h<\/strong>r<\/strong>i<\/strong>s<\/strong>t<\/strong>m<\/strong>a<\/strong>s<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Simon and Esther\u00a0just came home on the\u00a0airplane today for their\u00a0Christmas break.\u00a0Rachel and Jason have been soooo excited\u00a0that Jason\u00a0banged on our door\u00a0REALLY early this morning to tell us they were coming home\u00a0today, just in case we forgot. \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0It’s wonderful to have them home and catch up with everything that has been going on in their lives. Simon played us some cool new songs on his guitar\u00a0that he has learned from his roommates. And he has gotten a lot taller. He is several inches taller than his mom now. We hope all of you have lots of special family time this year to celebrate Christ together. And for those of us who are separated from loved ones we know that Christ went through an even greater separation when He left His father in heaven and came to this earth as a baby.<\/p>\n

Pandanus Nuts Roasting On An Open Fire<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Actually it would be more accurate to say, “above an open fire”. Pandanus nut season has been upon us for the last few months. The nuts are delicious, kind of like a cross between a nut and a coconut in flavor and they are a good source of protein for the Simbaris. So when they start to have a big harvest of nuts the Simbaris leave their homes and move high up into the rainforest where they will be close to the pandanus trees. They harvest the nuts and some are eaten fresh and some are dried in the rafters over a fire kept burning. The process takes a lot of time so the people are often gone for months leaving the villages deserted. It was starting to get pretty discouraging on Sundays with so few attending\u00a0but the\u00a0people\u00a0are starting to come back from the pandanus gardens now. As a matter of fact by next week it should be very crowded around here for Christmas. A businessman has put up some prize money for all\u00a0the locals in the area\u00a0to have a sporting tournament. So people will be coming here from all the surrounding tribes for the games. Many of them haven’t seen white people so they\u00a0are much more curious about us than the Simbaris are. So we go from\u00a0deserted to crowded in just a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Translation and Christmas Cards<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In\u00a0spite of the absence of so many locals\u00a0we have been able to make\u00a0good progress on the translation. We praise the Lord for our faithful translation helpers. Thanks for praying. Lately we have received some Christmas cards with notes from\u00a0some of you\u00a0praying for us. It was especially encouraging to realize that\u00a0we were being upheld in prayer without even knowing it.\u00a0Lately we have been\u00a0teaching through the newly revised evangelism lessons and people seem to really be responding well. More and more are coming who did not hear the first time we taught and they are paying really close attention and it is obvious from our times of review that they are understanding well. So your prayers are being answered. Thanks so much\u00a0to each of you who have given financially or through prayer this year. You are giving the gift of God’s Word to the Simbari, which makes CHRISTmas take on a whole new meaning for them!<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

David & Shari Ogg\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Esther, Simon, Rachel & Jason too)<\/em><\/p>\n

Prayer and Praise:<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Praise for work done to improve condition of airstrip.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Praise for\u00a0increase in attendance on Sundays and for good response to teaching of God’s Word. <\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Praise for Esther and Simon doing well at school. <\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Pray for those hearing the Gospel lessons for the first time. <\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Pray for David’s translation helper who just came down with a chest cold. <\/em><\/li>\n
  6. Pray for boldness for the Simbari believers to share about Christ with family and friends in the upcoming weeks. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Home for Christmas Simon and Esther\u00a0just came home on the\u00a0airplane today for their\u00a0Christmas break.\u00a0Rachel and Jason have been soooo excited\u00a0that Jason\u00a0banged on our door\u00a0REALLY early this morning to tell us they were coming home\u00a0today, just in case we forgot. \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0It’s wonderful to have them home and catch up with everything that has been going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-family","7":"category-ministry","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-ogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}