Dear praying friends,
There are so many new and exciting things happening right now in the Mengen Church; and so the need to write another update. Firstly we are writing so that you might rejoice, but secondly so that you will bathe it all in prayer. To aid in the explanation –please refer the above map of our area.
ATA CHURCH…The Ata, located to the west of us are a mature national church that NTM planted a number of years ago with their own translation of the New Testament, teaching material, elders, etc.
Not only have they spread over their own language group, but have also been reaching out cross–culturally –namely to their south amongst the Mamusi people.
But more importantly, the Ata Church have been an integral part of our church plant. They have been a valuable help in lesson writing and have been part of our church planting consultant teams –their wisdom, humility and help are so vital. Once we had believers, their elders would come into our village to teach while we would go out for a conference and so modeled the Christian life, that it gave a clear picture to our believers as to where God’s Word would take them. And they’ve also opened the door for our church to visit theirs for encouragement and nurturing.
MAMUSI CHURCH…The Mamusi language is a sister to our Mengen. Their church is now indigenous and progressively spreading the gospel throughout their language –which will soon have them confronting our south coast Mengen dialect. The south coast Mengen dialect (ours is the inland dialect) is spread along 100 miles of the south coast, connecting the Mamusi and our dialect –numbering in excess of 5000 souls.
ATA/MAMUSI/MENGEN CONFERENCE… As the Ata/Mamusi, have grown their Bible teachers and elders would gather for semi-annual conferences to teach, coordinate and encourage. Well, their next conference is scheduled to start this week – July 8-12 and the Mengen church has invited them to hold it in our home village –PRAISE THE LORD! Our believers have hired themselves out to purchase all the necessary food, and they’ve finished off a large bush house as accommodations –all on their own initiative. And believe it or not, they sent out a long list of questions ahead of time to the Ata/Mamusi leaders of things that they’d like to discuss and get input on –namely on how they will conduct our first church plant (i.e. who will go, where do they start, conduct themselves, etc.) (On a side note, our Bible teachers have already started to evaluate each other’s lives based on 1 Timothy 3 to see if they are ready –i.e. personal lives, husband/wife relationships, etc. –isn’t that amazing?)
But also on the agenda is the invitation that the Mengen church has had from our most southerly village. This village is located on the threshold of the south coast Mengen dialect. Perhaps, a working relationship will develop between the two churches on how the south coast Mengen can be reached –wouldn’t that be incredible?
PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY…for this conference, that it will be a huge source of encouragement, cooperation and a real stirring in the lives of the Mengen Church for the job ahead. (This is no small feat for them as they commit themselves to uprooting families for extended teaching within Satan’s long held territory until there’s a mature church established that can then further replicate what they’ve done.) Right now we have just 3 trained Bible teachers and 5 literacy teachers, but these are insufficient to carry the load at home and for all the requests that are now coming. Please pray that the Mengen believers sitting on the sidelines will be motivated as a result of this conference. God has promised to build His church and what a privilege is ours to work in partnership with Him to this end.
Grace to run well,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah
Barbara Hubbard says
Wow!! Thanks for such a thorough insight into that area. What a blessing to see God moving forward in the work!!! Praying for you all.
Love, Jim and Barb