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Some of our believers have had death threats coming their way from unbelievers and especially the shaman in the neighboring village. They are saying that the ancestral spirits will not be happy and thus curse their families and kill their children etc. It was wonderful to see these believers publically proclaiming their faith and thus showing that they do not fear these threats anymore. A believing lady, Kariang, said that she would much rather obey God they creator of heaven and earth than give into the threats of these kind of people! It was also wonderful to see our local medicine man, who is a believer, get baptized! Topa Tamana said that he will not allow the devil to hold him back of proclaiming his faith! This was nothing small for he will be ridiculed severely! Brus and Edward are guys who have been giving us a lot of trouble in the past, but today they are our closest friends and starting to emerge as leaders in our church! Before they were believers they both tried to commit suicide after being caught stealing. But God looked after them, saved them and today they are a wonderful testimony!
Please keep on praying for the Mengen people! And remember none of this would possible without you guys!
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Hi Friends – August 2010 – Songs from the forest!
Many unbelievers are starting to gather in the evening with the believers and there is lot of talk about them wanting to also understand the source of their new found joy! We hope there will soon be another Gospel presentation for these people!
Another friend told me that they feel they do not want to speak about anything else anymore except God and His word. He says that they get up in the morning and sit around the fire and speak about God and then on the way to the garden and then in the garden and then at the water and then back around the fire the late afternoon and then in the evenings when they sing. I could not but think of Jesus, commanding us to abide in Him and starting to see that these simple people are going ahead of me already and that I can learn from them!
There has been a tremendous change in people’s lives here in this small Mengen village, and hope you guys can be as excited about this as we are for this is your work! None of this is due to anything I have done! Please be praying for the Mengen church and its growth as I am sure there will be hard times coming especially in the light of the first ever baptism taking place here this weekend.
Please keep on praying
Lourens for the Mengen church
We had 5 guys getting drunk on a kind of home brew, last night, these guys put together here in the village and then they came over to the believers to chop down one of their houses, our tractor shed at our airstrip and also one of the little school buildings we have in our village.
We also had some guys (unbelievers) from another village here during these days, wanting to come and help the offended party and revenge the offence by fighting. They want to physically harm the guys who damaged our property and then chase them out of our village. This will in return force the other clan to retaliate and soon we will have a serious issue on our hands. So pray with us that we will be able to avoid this situation at all costs!
I hope to be able to get into language this week and press on towards my last evaluation in September Further more I am also starting to revise the phase 1 lessons we have presented earlier this year and hopefully will be able to start writing lessons for Ephesians. This will be kind of an experiment and will not be anything official, but will start giving me a feel for the process.
Keep on praying with us for perseverance as we continue with the task here and especially for growth in the Mengen church!
Thanks and blessings
Lourens