We praise God for the Manubu’ men He has raised up to teach the believers in our village (and elsewhere too). We just sit in awe as we listen to them explain scripture, puling together verses that the Holy Spirit has shown them that apply to what they are teaching. A few Sundays ago, Pulding was teaching and focusing on being ready for Christ’s return. He had a great illustration using a back pack. He said we like to hide our sins and it’s like we stuff them in a pack, zip it closed and hold it tight to us – only opening it to add another sin we don’t want to deal with and confess. Sometimes someone will come along and point out a sin to us, taking it out of our pack, but we usually just grab it back and stuff it again into our pack. He advised that we need to confess our sins and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:6-10). He said that we need to be involved in each others lives and help each other to see our sin and confess it. If not, then when we stand before Jesus at the judgement seat, Jesus will dump those unconfessed sins out of our packs and all will see them. And he said, “Isn’t it better to take those sins out of our pack now and confess them than to wait until the judgement seat when Jesus will make them known?” The Bible teachers have been encouraging us all to be more involved in ministering to and caring for each other.
This is a picture of Pulding. He is also a great translation helper. [cid:7.1.0.9.2.20110331130554.034e21d0@ntm.org.0]
Please PRAY for all the Manubu’ Bible teachers. Satan sets all kinds of traps for them and their families so they will be caught in temptation and not be able to continue teaching God’s Word.
Yesterday we discovered a big problem with our solar electrical system we use to run all our equipment. We haven’t tracked down the source of the problem yet, but it looks like it might be the voltage regulator, but it could be the batteries that store the power. Please pray that we can figure out just what is happening. The batteries and regulator are special items for charging from solar panels that have to be bought in the USA and shipped so if either of them needs to be replaced it will involve several months of making do using a generator as we wait for replacements.
Our partners, Trevor and Judy, have been out in town for a few weeks while Judy recuperates from surgery. Tukid, a Manubu’ believer, also needs surgery. We really depend on Tukid because he helps Trevor by arranging for work crews and helping overseeing all the maintenance and projects we have done in the village and at the airstrip, and he gives us cultural advise so we don’t make too many blunders. It looked like a good time for him to have his surgery while Trev and Judy are also out in town and can help him go through all the various steps in the process of getting the help he needs. Tukid can speak a limited amount of the language used in town, but doctors and hospitals are very much beyond his understanding. Tukid’s surgery has been postponed once already but is now scheduled for April 5. PRAY that it happens then and is done well, and PRAY for a good recovery.
To make matters worse, we haven’t been able to connect to our usual internet server. Please PRAY that our internet server is fixed soon. We need it to ask the New Tribes tech people some questions to help us find the problem with our solar charging system. We are sending this update via a prepaid internet connection, but it much more expensive.