You may remember that we were going to look into moving to the area where Mahan’s in-laws are living in a different province and taking our translation helper, Pulding, with us so he could both help with translation and evangelize the Manubu’ in that area. Then we were disappointed to discover that Mahan’s in-laws live more than 100 km farther away than everyone thought they did – not practical for us because of needing to be near the second Manubu’ dialect we work with.
Mahan’s wife, Arsisa, recently spent a couple of weeks visiting her folks and came back saying that her folks would like them to move there and for Mahan to teach the evangelistic phase of the teaching program to the Manubu’ there. Her brother is in charge of hiring crews for ore mining there so Mahan could probably get work for three month periods on a rotating basis.
Could the threat against the life of Arisia’s father which caused he and his family to move far away from our village be God’s working so that the gospel gets to this other province? Kind of reminds us of the Jews being forced out of Jerusalem by Saul’s persecution which sent them out to far places where they spread the Word of God.
So, in August, Mahan and Pulding will go there to see just what the situation is. Are there Manubu’ there who would like to listen to the teaching? Is it true that even the kids there speak Manubu’? Would there be land Mahan and Arsisa could plant coconut and other things on? Could Mahan actually support his family there?
Please PRAY for Mahan and Pulding’s survey – that they would be able to get good information and make wise decisions based on the survey.
Speaking of Manubu’ Bible teachers supporting their families, we’ve mentioned that we have set up a fund for purchasing rubber and coconut seedlings for the Manubu’ church to plant to eventually help to support Bible teachers who do outreaches to places far from home and live there with their families. A tentative plan the Manubu’ Bible teachers in our village have is that the group of believers would be the owner of the plantings. Believers would care for sections of the plantings and when mature and producing fruit the believers who care for sections would get half of the profit and the other half would go to Manubu’ Bible teachers living at their outreaches.
If you would like to contribute to the seedling fund please do not send it our personal account, but rather to the 6MANU account at NTM. If you need more details on how to do that just send us an email.