Today for the first time ever amongst the Mengen people in Papua New Guinea, believers have been baptized in the Gods name! For us missionaries this has been a wonderful experience, for the Mengen work has been close to dead a few years ago. But God has brought missionaries back and God has resurrected this work out of the ash! After the gospel presentation in 2009 we had about 40 believers and 17 of them have been baptized today and hopefully soon some more.
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!
Thanks
Lourens for the Mengen church.
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