{"id":536,"date":"2017-09-05T20:01:45","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T01:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/paul-swenson\/?p=536"},"modified":"2017-09-05T20:01:45","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T01:01:45","slug":"what-is-god-doing-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/paul-swenson\/2017\/09\/05\/what-is-god-doing-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"What is God doing in the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello again from Papua New Guinea!\u00a0 Our family would like to fill you in on what we have been up to over the past 6 weeks as we went through our bush orientation time.\u00a0 Before we do that, I\u2019d like to pose a question: what is God doing in the world?\u00a0 The answer: He\u2019s bringing men to repentance, building His church and one day we will be able to worship Jesus Christ together with men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Rev. 5:9).\u00a0 Our time in bush orientation gave us the opportunity to see \u201chands on\u201d what God is doing here in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

During the past 6 weeks, our family spent time with our brothers and sisters in Christ in a village in the Inapang language group.\u00a0 We knew that the experience of living in the village with a maturing church was going to be great, but we had no idea that it was going to be as good as it was.\u00a0 Each week we had one or two families watching over us, helping us to learn more of the PNG culture and the trade language, and showing us what a 10-year old maturing church here in PNG looks like. \u00a0It was an amazing opportunity for us to praise the Lord together and hear their heart (or liver as they would say it) for the churches that they have helped plant in other villages around them (they have helped plant 8 churches in their language group).\u00a0 We got to see firsthand how the elders and deacons encourage and challenge the elders and Bible teachers in the other churches.<\/p>\n

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The kids are showing a host family some photos of our life in the USA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re thankful for our host missionary, Promise, who worked with the church elders as they led our time in the bush.\u00a0 Promise is currently working on a translation for a new church which is in a neighboring language group (we will call it language #2) that the Inapang church helped plant also.\u00a0 Some Inapang believers speak this language so some are able to help disciple the men in the new church as they have time because the full time missionary discipler family had to leave.<\/p>\n

What was the hard part?\u00a0 Leaving.\u00a0 The Inapang church is greatly burdened to see this new church (language #2) strengthened and discipled and they would like to see a family move in to help Promise in this work as disciplers.\u00a0 The church leaders desire to see the other 2 villages of language #2 reached with the Gospel too.\u00a0 It was humbling and challenging to hear them say on many different occasions that they would like to see us move there\u2026one guy was even joking that he was going to tie me to a coconut tree so I couldn\u2019t get on the helicopter when it came to get us.\u00a0 It was great to talk with them and have them know that it is God who holds the plan for our family and that there are many places here in PNG that are still waiting to hear the Gospel.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know if we will ever see the church there in Inapang again here on earth, but it is so encouraging to know that we will see them again someday in heaven and together we can worship the Lamb with our brothers and sisters in Christ from every tribe, language, people and nation!<\/p>\n

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Paul is learning to chop up sago wood for food (the starch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other highlights of our time:<\/p>\n