But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
~
2 Corinthians 4:7
FROM THE BLOG //
One of the benefits of my Bible study class is that I get more insight into the ladies’ lives. They are generally more guarded than I am, but when I ask what they would like me to pray for, they sometimes share their problems or concerns with me. One of the ladies (we will call her Sonny), was pregnant when my class began and shared that “she is having a problem and is afraid that she will die during labor." Her pregnancy was due to an adulterous relationship (which was public knowledge). This was a great opportunity for me to pray for her. I prayed that she would trust in Jesus for salvation, that she would deliver the baby without issue, and that we would all recognize that every baby is a gift, though the circumstances of her conception were wrong. Sonny did deliver and came to no harm. We thanked God for that! A week or so later, another lady from the class said that she is worried about ladies who are currently pregnant because two different young mothers recently died in childbirth in some nearby villages. “But you prayed for Sonny and she is fine.” Then last week, Manu came to see us. Manu is not a close friend or an enemy. He doesn’t attend Zach’s Bible study, but (as far as we know) hasn’t spoken against us either. His new wife was in the last stages of pregnancy and this baby wasn’t coming. Though this baby was Manu’s first child, his wife is a widow and has 6 children from her previous marriage. Over the last few weeks as I have seen Manu, I have asked about his wife and if she had the baby yet; He was excited that she was starting to have pains so it would be soon. But after a couple weeks of the same, he came to ask for prayer. Actually, he came to ask us for an egg. There is an ancestral practice here of praying over an egg and having the sick person eat it. We told him that the Bible doesn’t tell us to do that, but we would come to his house to pray for her. He eagerly accepted. I don’t doubt that there is word around town that my prayers have helped other pregnant women! So here we are, in Manu’s hut with his new wife who we don’t know well. There is so little physically I can do to help her. There is little temporal hope I can offer. Did she just count the weeks wrong? Is the baby actually facing the wrong way? Is there some serious problem? We prayed for them and shared the gospel with them and she was thankful but clearly not at ease about the whole situation. We were so thankful to hear that she gave birth to a healthy boy soon after. So, I suppose my reputation will stand as the patron saint of pregnant ladies. Just kidding :) I just wanted to share this anecdote because these situations are so typical here - the interactions, the needs, the misunderstandings, the cultural differences. Just another little taste of life as a missionary in remote PNG.
Our littlest one turned three on Monday! She is a petite, cute, funny little sister and we celebrated her with tacos, cake, and presents.
We made these five short videos for our church's VBS. I wanted to put them here on the blog for anyone who might want to watch, too. Are kids helped make them and they give a quick overview of life and ministry here! Video One: Why Did We Come to PNG?:
We recently enjoyed time with Benaiah and Tom who were here to visit us for 10 days. Tom is a seminary student who got connected with us and is interested in the work we do here. He loves the Biblical languages and is interested in maybe using his knowledge of them to translate the Bible.
Our boys finished school on April 27, and then we took a break out of the village! It was a good chance for a rest and we had paperwork to attend to, so we ended up in 3 different places in 2 weeks. Finished with 6th:
As I wrote in the post "A Busy March," we have been working toward establishing literacy in a village a couple mountains away - Kongo. Kongo is still among the same language group and they heard that we had a class available to learn to read and write in their heart language, Do (pronounced Doe). And so they sent six men to come and take part in our literacy class last year. For the sake of this post, let me introduce them here: Dewiwi (the leader among them), Iramo, Simit, Dawa, Parati, and Idige. After they graduated, we started making plans for them to teach others in their own village. The deal is: they must to have enough people finish literacy that they can appoint 3-4 as teachers, they need to build a classroom, and they need to have community support (ie: not just one family who wants to start literacy somewhere). If a village can do all this then we will pay for and print all the materials. In March, these six Kongo graduates hiked back over to us and set up a meeting to tell us that all was ready! Do we have materials for them? Would I be willing to come next month to an opening of the Do literacy class in Kongo Village? Yes and yes. They hiked all the books, a big wooden box (to hold them), two chalkboards (!), and a bunch of smaller miscellaneous supplies to Kongo and then Monday we set out to visit them.
THE MISSION //
THE TEAM //
THE LOCATION //
