“Inap mi bai toktok wantaim yu?” (Can I talk with you?)
Again this past Wednesday, I had my friend over for lunch—the woman of faith I’ve told you about before. She had been sick off-and-on this past week so I asked her if she had still wokim bung long ol meri (“had the meeting for the ladies” that she has every Saturday afternoon, as I’d told you about before). She said she did but that she did all the singing and talking while sitting down, resting. All the ladies had told her that it was no good that she was sick because they loved hearing what she has to say. They all prayed for her then started with questions which led to her teaching for a while.
The next day, she met a woman from another religion who had come with her friend to church after hearing so much about it and how it had changed her friend. After the service, some of the women told this visitor about my friend and how she taught women how to think as God wants them to, how to believe, how to submit to and behave towards their husbands, how to bring their heavies to God and how to think about them. Upon hearing this, the woman came up and asked my friend, “Inap mi bai toktok wantaim yu?” My friend said she talked with this woman for over 2 hours right then and there! She asked many questions and God gave my friend the answers from her experiences and from Scripture. She was again thrilled at how God had used her to encourage and teach another. She said this woman seemed to have a heart understanding of all she shared but she wasn’t sure if the woman is a believer. My friend says that at her women’s meetings every week she has women from all different churches, denominations and religions there. Whenever she’s asked what mission or church or ministry she works for, she answers, “Mi wokim long Bikpela God.” (I work for God.)
I’ve been reading through 1st and 2nd Corinthians this past week and talked with my friend about it. The young Corinthian believers were arguing because some said they belonged to Paul, some to Appollos, and some to Jesus. Paul corrected them reminding them that they are all saved only by grace through Jesus Christ and are now His ONE body and filled with His ONE Spirit and guided by Him. My friend just jumps beyond all objections that may be raised amongst the ladies of whom they belong to and jumps right into God’s truth instead. The Gospel has a hearing through her because she’s willing to see ladies and not just groups of beliefs or differences.
Again I am humbled and challenged by her faith and readiness to drop everything for one God’s placed in her life! A woman who can truly say with the apostle Paul, “Come follow me as I follow Christ.”