Isaiah 63:14b “…So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.”
We praise God for the purpose and plan that He has for us just as He had for Israel. Were it not for God’s redemptive plan and His desire to have all men worship Him, we would be living life without hope.
Since we’ve moved into the bush last December, there have been ups and downs. Officially kicking off our time of CLA (culture and language acquisition) in January was great as we looked forward to one day being able to communicate clearly with the Tanguat people in their own language! It’s also been great to feel very much at home as a family there and enjoy getting to know the people. It’s been exciting to see how some of the people there will refer back to Biblical truths that they’ve had taught to them. However, not everything has been great and exciting. It’s been humbling/frustrating to realize that even though I’ve spent a lot of time trying to learn the Tanguat names of different things, I sometimes find myself realizing; “I just called the moon, water.” We find it difficult to remember even the trade language names of people in the village (only have started learning a few Tanguat language names) and to learn to recognize some peoples’ faces. It is also challenging to see a baby church that’s in need of much discipleship and not be able to effectively disciple until we finish learning their language. Also, it’s hard to see the large workload that our teammate Promise has as she works on translation and getting the literacy program revised so that literacy classes can start up again. It has also been hard to see our friends, teammates and fellow language learners, the Chens, not be able to be here in PNG right now as Chantal undergoes cancer treatment. We are praying with them that the treatments will be effective and that they will be able to return to PNG later this year.
Through all the ups and downs, were it not for the unshakeable foundation on which we stand in Christ, life would be overwhelming at times. However, in Christ, we have hope and know for sure that God knows what He’s doing as He builds His church and as He refines our lives.
Thanks for continuing to pray for us, our teammates, the greater team (our pilots, mechanics, doctors, teachers, and MANY others), and for the Tanguat people. Please continue to pray for more laborers (both for church planting and those with vital skills to support church planting).
It’s been a while since we’ve posted on our blog because we’ve been living in the bush. We hope that you’ve been able to follow us through our email newsletters, etc. If you haven’t been receiving those and would like to, please email us paul_swenson@ntm.org.