I trust you had a wonderful Easter season. It’s so encouraging to have a sure hope in the future because of Christ’s work those many years ago. As I listen to the huge news stories these days of the disaster in Japan, wars in the Middle East, and even a tornado just a few miles from where Don is in school in St. Louis, I try to remind myself that even more important things than these are happening in the world each day. I’d like to use these pages to share with you some of these events.
First, from the Akolet tribe in PNG. After presenting the gospel one of the missionaries wrote:
“Malaka and Oltupme pretty much tackled me right after the lesson, eager to share that they are believing this truth! They each gave clear testimonies of faith in Christ alone, and the tears in their eyes and the joy on their faces were priceless!
Dina said, “I had heard before that the sky turned dark when Jesus died, but I had no idea what any of that meant! Now I understand! God was turning his back on Jesus because God can’t be with sin and Jesus took all our sin on himself! I understand that now! Jesus is the only way, there’s no other way!”
Kotme and his wife also believe! We’re so excited to see a married couple get to start on this exciting new journey together! His wife was not her normally bubbly self today, but sat in seemingly stunned silence. She just kept saying, “I never understood! I never understood! But the way to be made right with God is just Jesus! There’s no other way!”
Secondly, you may remember that Bruce and I often shared of the work in the Simbari in PNG. It has been an area that has taken years for a strong church to be established, but now that the church is doing well, this is how God is using them:
The Simbari believers have received persecution over the years from another religious group that teaches salvation by works apart from Christ. Rather than engage in arguments about what they believe, the Simbari believers wanted to show their faith by serving and loving their enemies. So during the last year they have picked “work days” to help unbelievers in the community with garden work and building houses. Recently this idea was reinforced while studying through the book of Romans with verses like Rom. 6:13 and Rom. 12:1.
Up to this point they haven’t really seen much fruit from this loving service but in the last few weeks God has opened a door for ministry. The unbelieving group was gearing up for a district conference and so the Simbari believers were discussing how they could show Christ’s love in a tangible way in spite of the fact that they had been persecuted by this very group. They decided to give a gift of food since that is always a need when there are a lot of mouths to feed. They collected 17 bags of food and went to deliver their gift. They wanted to give it quietly but the other group didn’t let them. The others wanted to hear what these “men and women of Jesus” had to say. The believers were immediately surrounded by hundreds of people. Some of the other people broke down in tears when they saw the gift of food. One of the Bible teachers shared and used verses like John 14:6 to point them to Christ as the only way of salvation. By the end, others from the group were also in tears including some that had been involved in the persecution. Some of the leaders from this other group said they had never seen this kind of behavior and considered it history-making. They wanted to lift up the believers but the praise was refused and the believers said that what they were seeing was not them but Christ in them and that such behavior is not unusual for people who follow Christ and have His Spirit living in them!
Back here at the Tech Center, we consider time to be a non-replaceable resource. Because of that, we want our missionaries to be as free as possible for language learning, building relationships, and teaching on the field. We use the time when the missionary candidates are in training to teach them about solar electricity and water purification among many other things. The less time they spend in equipment maintenance and repair on the field, the better we have done our job. Here is a recent testimony from one of our missionaries:
“Thanks for all you do back there! I have to tell you that the solar electric system that we have has saved us an IMMENSE amount of time! Ultimately, God is the one who has kept our stuff running but I believe that all the time I spent with the Tech Center team was a big part of that. Thanks for all of your teaching and time. “
I want you to know that I count YOU as a valuable member of MY team and I thank God for you. With all of your help, I am able to be a part of this ministry. As the missionary stated above, “ultimately it is God” who accomplishes anything of worth through our feeble efforts, but I am thankful to be a part of the team, alongside you, to serve our wonderful Savior. I am making an effort this year to watch the “news” less and watch for God more! He is faithful!
A couple prayer requests:
Please join me in prayer for my boys, Don and Grant. They are both doing well, but each has choices ahead of him that will affect the course of their lives. Please pray that they will be sensitive to God’s timing and leading.
I need to find some additional ministry partners to allow me to continue to serve in this ministry. Nothing drastic has happened, but with the economy and other various situations my support has been lowered to the point that this is becoming a priority. If you know of any churches or individuals that I could contact to share this ministry with, please let me know. Thank you!
Thanks also for your prayers as we look at how to best use our Tech Center staff and resources to meet the needs of our students and overseas missionaries.