As you all know we have been in team talks for a while now and are excited to let you know that our team proposal has been accepted by our consultants and leaders here! Our sending churches are behind us as well, so we would like to introduce you to our team and the people group that we will be working with! It takes a team to reach each people group with the gospel. We have told you before of all the work involved in teaching and translating the Bible, teaching literacy and discipling the young believers. We have also told you of all of the support staff needed for this as well. We are so thankful for our team here.
So…drum roll… we have officially joined up with Derek and Chantal Chen {and their 3 boys: Evan (10), Wesley (8) and Owen (3)} as well as Promise Vaughan to work along side the church in the Inapang people group to finish fulfilling promises made to the Tanguat language group in 2011. This is a purposeful partnership which means we are not only teaming up with other missionaries, but also with the Inapang church to reach Tanguat, which is a language group beside Inapang. The work started in 2011 but has had its ups and downs as young bilingual teachers have stopped being involved and the missionary couple that Promise was working with had to go home for health reasons. Over the last few years, only Promise remained in Inapang, working on translation and lesson writing, so last year the elders in Inapang asked for more missionaries to help Promise. They also asked that these missionaries move directly into Tanguat (a 2 hours hike from Inapang) for more effective discipleship. Promise will stay in Inapang working on translation and lesson writing and together with the Inapang elders, we will be working on fulfilling the five promises originally given to the Tanguat church:
- Learning their language and culture
- Teaching through the Bible in the Tanguat language
- Translating the Bible in their language
- Teaching them to read in their own language
- Teaching them to give what they have learned to the rest of the villages in the Tanguat language group and to other language groups
Many Inapang elders, who are also our co-workers, are in this photo
We are so excited to be able to do our part in strengthening this young church in need of training and discipleship in order to see them ready to take the Gospel to the rest of their language group and beyond. We know it is all by God’s great might and we pray that we will rely on Him each day. Lord willing, we will start building our houses (The Chens and us) in Tanguat in late August. Paul and Derek (and possibly Sam) will visit in late July with the Inapang elders to reiterate why we are coming and prepare the community for our coming.
Building Fund Update: We have about $33,100 of the expected $60,000 for the house build/ air transportation costs associated with a house build in a helicopter location. If all goes well and things happen in the timeline we think, this build will start in late August. Would you pray about helping us with this one-time expense? Here is the information on that: https://swensontribe.wordpress.com/house-building/