The Mind of Man Plans His Way, But the Lord Directs His Steps

As we look back over the history of our work here in the Island’s Region we can see the truth of Proverbs 16:9. As westerners we like to plan and know what is going to happen next. However, God often has other plans that are bigger and better than we can even dream of.

For instance, when we arrived in the Islands in August of 2004 and started our orientation, we didn’t have partners, we didn’t know where we were going to go, but we did have a vision for assisting a tribe to reach out across its borders to a neighboring tribe. We thought that we would have to be a part of an on-going work or a new work and then go from there.

But God had other plans. In the fall of that same year one of the NTM leaders was traveling around to tribes where missionaries had been phased out and encouraging the believers there. At that time the Mouk tribe issued an invitation for NTM to send a missionary to do what they could not do for themselves, a translation of the Bible in another language, Lusi.

God provided partners for us, Mouk elders, who had been part of the leadership in their own village churches. One of them had started this outreach to the Lusi. The other two were selected by the Mouk Church and joined the work when we did. We have been blessed, challenged, and encouraged by having tribal citizen partners and we wouldn’t exchange them for western ones.

Also God showed us where to go. Through the Mouk’s invitation, two surveys, and a village’s invitation, we discovered where He had opened doors for us. And he enabled us to assist the tribal church to reach out to others. God is so good!

Over the last 5 years we have learned the Lusi language, passed our final language and culture evaluation, taught our partners to use typewriters and simple computers, and developed and tested the Lusi literacy program. Today, Rick is meeting with the Mouk church elders to talk about events that happened over the last year and for making plans for the future. Will you pray with us that the Lord will continue to direct our steps as we continue to reach out to the Lusi?