In previous updates we have asked that God would send Higaunon to go teach in villages that have expressed interest in listening to teaching of God’s Word. Here is a report on how God is starting to answer our prayers.
As part of their discipleship program, the church leadership involves young people in evangelism. They recently took a group of young people to a village five hours hike from here to confirm their reported interest in listening to teaching from the Bible. They received confirmation and arranged to return to start teaching once a week.
It is a poor village even by Higaunon standards. After working in their farms all day, people arrive home in the afternoon, cook and eat dinner before dark and then go to sleep when night comes. At this latitude, it is always dark around 6pm. Many Higaunon are used to having kerosene in a bottle with a cloth wick as their light at night. Not this village! They can’t afford it!
The group left here early in the morning for the first session of teaching. They spent time visiting and then gathered in a small (approximately 12×12) house that has been designated as their meeting place. When they started teaching, there was a disturbance in a nearby house. A man had just come from his farm and was rushing around. Naomi, a young woman who is in the discipleship program, thought that he was angry about their teaching and she was ready to jump out of a window! Come to find out, he was just in a hurry to come and listen; he did not want to miss one word!
They started with lesson 1 of the evangelism phase of the chronological teaching program. Over ten adults and numerous young people and children showed up to listen. As we listened to the report on their visit, the excitement was obvious. They are praying and looking forward to the day when this village will, in turn, reach another unreached village deep in the jungle that they have been praying about for several years. Please pray for these people!
Please pray for us as we say goodbye this weekend to Ron and Michelle and to everyone in the village. This August marks 30 years that we have worked together, 21 of those with the Harts. This is the second year we have come for a period of time to help with the Old Testament translation. We praise the Lord for what He has allowed us to accomplish during our time here. During this coming year, Lance plans to work on 1&2 Kings and Lord willing we will return again next year for another 4 months.
Thank you for your part in this ministry!
Lance and Laura
[…] Harvesting… Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Aug 26th, 2013 in Ministry, News Article, Prayer Request | Discuss This Post Tweet Over the past several months, Bible teachers from our village have been hiking 5 hours to another village where people had asked that someone come and teach them. That village had heard from people in our village that they had the “message of life” and they wanted to know more! We reported about this in a previous blog entry. Click here to read that>> […]