Last week, the Manjui church recognized five elders.
“The Manjui people live in the Chaco part of Paraguay, an area that is covered with thorny trees and vegetation and receives very little rain every year,” Wayne Goddard wrote. “NTM missionaries began working with them. Now after many years there are a number of believers and a church well on its way to maturity.”
Among those believers are several men and their wives who have and use their spiritual gifts to lead the Manjui believers by example and teaching.
“With that in mind the missionary team in fellowship with the local body of believers are recognizing five of these men as the elders of the local Manjui church,” Wayne wrote.
Gordie Hunt, who also attended the service, wrote, “We listened as the missionaries and three of the Manjui pastors who were present each gave a short testimony or a message from God’s Word. After hearing various testimonies of what God has done over the years, we all gathered around these three faithful men and their wives to lay our hands on them and to pray for them.
“It was a very encouraging time of rejoicing and a terrific testimony of God’s faithfulness for what He has done over the years among the Manjui people of Paraguay. Praise God with us for all He has accomplished!”
“Being able to see the local church arrive at this point after many years of teaching and discipleship is indeed an encouragement to all of us,” Wayne wrote. “We also realize that God will continue to use these elders in their local church.”
While it often seems more exciting to hear about people hearing the Gospel in their own language for the first time, or a work starting in a people group, or even a Bible translation being completed, this kind of occasion is what NTM missionaries are working toward.
The aim is to establish a mature church, and that takes people who have demonstrated spiritual leadership taking the reins and leading their own people in the larger community of churches that are carrying out God’s Great Commission.
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