As usual these last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, though not meaningless activity. I think it has been a very encouraging and productive few weeks. Even though my family is sick the Lord has been good for us and we have experienced His blessings in so many ways. To tell you guys the truth these last 2 weeks have especially been very special here in our village and especially amongst the believers. Let me share some of it with you!
As you know we are busy with our second phase of teaching and are introducing some very new concepts to the church, such as prayer and worship. Last week we prayed together as a group of believers for the first time ever! It was an amazing experience to hear some requests coming from different people, knowing that these prayers raise up from the simple gathering place in this remote jungle to the heavenly throne where they are heard and answered by the Creator of the Universe! Now we hear of people praying in their gardens, praying at home, praying for their kids, praying on the trials…. Amazing! They even teach us. I am a bit sick and have been complaining about it with some guys, so they asked me if I prayed about it already. They reminded me to ‘put my strength in Him, and that there is no strength in me for anything’!
We also introduced singing in the lessons but do not want to force any of this on these new believers until it becomes a natural desire from within their own hearts. It then so happened that I visited with one of our new brothers in Christ who kept on trying to express his joy. In the Mengen culture they will shake your hand and try to express their joy, and the happier he is the more he shakes my hand. In their language they say that they ‘show their joy’ – this also often goes with singing. This guy was shaking my hand and said he just can’t show his joy properly! We thus encouraged them to start singing. God gave us music to show our joy and express feelings that we can’t express otherwise!
So, last week here in Le-le we sang together for the first time ever as believers! This was truly special and I as well as some of the others shed tears of joy!
Our vision as believers ought to be to glorify God and this happens by amongst other things by making disciples of others. Our vision here in our village and in our team is to get these believers involved as soon as possible. I never thought they would be ready so soon though. We started to hear of believers using many opportunities to share what they have heard. I already told you of Merengi who shares the truth with people even into the early mornings.
We developed a little booklet to help the believers. It shows all the key pictures of the teaching we used from Genesis to Christ’s ascension. It also has the key points with each picture for those who can read. We taught them how to use the book and today for the first time we had a group practicing it. The believers each got a copy, we divided them into groups of 2 and let them loose. I first taught that they will not easily start sharing for it takes a lots of encouragement to get them to share in the meetings, but this morning was amazing. They all started to share with each other from the first picture from to the last and did so very accurately. Those who could read did not even look at the main points much for they know it by heart and those who can’t read did all from memory only referring to the pictures! It was amazing, with many of the unbelievers listening to the others sharing. Kerri our co worker shared the pictures with some of the unbelievers and they also listened attentively! There arouse from our little building a big noise as people shared with each other the truth and even correcting each other as they went along. Now we are so excited to see what the effect will be of sending these people back to their homes and even beyond our village! We trust the Lord will use these seeds!
Slowly but surely we start seeing some change even in their homes. Edward, a believer and young leader, told me how he got home this week and when he got home, the place was cleaned up and food was already prepared. For us that may sound like nothing, but here amongst these people it is totally strange. The husband-and-wife relationship in this culture is basically non-existent! They only use each other as workers, the husband provides the ground and the woman tends it. Furthermore they are very rude with each other, fight and very often physically abuse each other. Edward says that this is all starting to change. Since he started to treat his wife well, she has changed in her attitude towards him. Maybe for the first time ever they are starting to experience love!
There is so much more I can share, but just want to give you a glimpse of the effect your support has upon the lives of people here in the Jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Thanks for your prayers, financial support and encouragement!
New Prayer Points:
+ Praise the Lord for the new life He has given for those in darkness here in our village. This is nothing less than an amazing miracle.
+ Many encouraging things are happening in the Mengen church but it is not always a bed of roses. Pray especially for some guys not attending the teaching and who are still locked in darkness and also for those who regularly attend but do not have a clear understanding of the truth.
+ Pray for us as we translate Romans and especially for Kerry and Becky as they put in many hours to get very difficult concepts translated and checked. We hope to have Romans translated at least to chapter 6 as soon as possible in order to equip the believers enough for an official outreach to neighboring communities.
+ Pray that the believers will remain faithful to attending the teaching and also in applying the truths in their lives!
+ Pray for us as a team that we will function well together and love each other!
+ Pray for our language learning process that we will be able to get it done quickly!
+ Finally keep on praying for our needs for a proper satellite modem to send and receive mails as well as funds to get our house finally paid off here in the bush. Thank the Lord with us for what He has already provided in miraculous ways!