Dear Praying Friends,
We apologize for being out of contact for a couple of weeks. Our tech department has been revamping the methods of sending out bulk emails, and unfortunately we’ve been a bit caught in the transition. Thanks for your patience!
First, we need to tell you again how much we truly appreciate your prayers for our family, our team, and this outreach! We are truly the beneficiaries of amazing grace as week after week we receive the Lord’s strength and guidance for these tasks that would, without His intervention, be completely overwhelming! We find ourselves rejoicing over God’s goodness to us, His abundant provisions and the sweet fellowship we’ve enjoyed among our missionary team and our tribal team. His love is indeed enduring!
The past two weeks have been…surprising. Attendance to the meetings has remained pretty consistent, for which we are very thankful. For the most part, the people have been very receptive; they are excited about what they are hearing and are really seeing themselves in the Old Testament stories that we’re teaching through. Many have said, “Yes, that’s true, we are just like Sodom and Gomorrah!” Or, “True, just like those people try to be right with God their own way, we try to be right with Him by different cleansing rituals, or giving offerings, or going to religious services.” They are understanding more and more that our sin is a real problem, and that no matter how hard man tries, he simply cannot ever make himself clean enough to stand before a Holy and righteous God! Next week we will be teaching on the Law and its role in revealing our unrighteousness, versus making us righteous. For those whose hearts are open to understand it, we expect the impact to be great, as many have always prided themselves on keeping rules.
We are so thankful for the Word of the Lord and its POWER to teach and convict men of our need for the Lord! Please do NOT stop praying! The surprising comments have been those by people like Jacob, who said it’s ridiculous to give up idols and performing the ancestral rituals. He said with God, when you pray, you don’t get results, but with their ancestor’s ‘ways’, you do get results! We have heard that another man, Galap, who was coming faithfully to the teaching but hasn’t come for the last two weeks, has commented that he doesn’t want to hear any more about sin. By the questions that some are asking, it seems as if a few are simply trying to find ways to use the Bible to justify their life style. This is surprising to us because in the first village we taught, there was none of this kind of opposition, and perhaps we expected that it would always be the same way. Yet we know that God is not the slightest bit surprised. As one person commented, the resistance we are feeling in this village is an implication that Satan has much to lose. He has been the master of this village for a long time, and is reluctant to give up his territory. We are grieved at the level of deception that exists among our friends there- they are blind. BUT- God has made His LIGHT to shine in the darkness, and we are confident that His Word will not return void. Please pray for these people! And please continue to pray for wisdom and strength for our Bible teachers, Jeremiah and Ralf, Basa, Felix, Lukas, Epox and Ronny, as well as our literacy teachers, Itringke, Nonzong and Jaspa.
At 4:30 this morning, Epox’s wife gave birth to their first child, a beautiful baby boy! A safe baby delivery in the bush is no small miracle! I’m sure the happy couple would appreciate your continued prayer for them as they adjust to life as parents. We’re not sure yet when Epox will rejoin the teaching team. None of us here take our physical well being for granted. Last week, the rains were so heavy that the guys were unable to take their normal route up to the village. They ended up having to cross the river over a extremely precarious bamboo/pole bridge, and then take a different route which added extra time to their hike. On the way back, some of the villagers were so concerned about the ‘white skin’ hiking back over washed out paths, that they hiked ahead of them to dig out some sort of foot path so Jeremiah wouldn’t have to climb up steep sections with no foot holds. This was a very kind gesture, and one that he was very thankful for!
We can’t tell you thank you enough for standing with us! The Lord is answering your prayers and we are so blessed to be able to watch the works of His Hands! We couldn’t be here doing what we’re doing, without you all!
His Servants, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna