Road to Indonesia--- Spreading the Gospel

 As we sit in church each Sunday here there is always time for prayer and praise.  This often takes quite a while. The first few Sundays I felt it took too long and was a distraction from the rather already long service. But the longer I am here, it has become maybe the most important part of Sunday morning. 

Today an elderly lady introduced her adult son and his fiance.  She is here because it is time to dedicate the New Testament that she and her husband have worked on for years and years. Her son was one of their five children raised in the village. His request was for the dedication but also for the meetings in their tribe on Monday when decisions will be made about progressing to the Old Testament translation.

Another missionary gave testimony about three tribal gentlemen who had been given money by the government.  They had many plans for this money, but finally agreed that they were going to do a special printing of the stories of the Bible that had been translated and give them to their tribal group.  The missionary told the gentlemen that next year they would be having the dedication of the whole New Testament. Did they want to wait? The gentlemen felt the urgency of getting the stories to their tribe and decided to go ahead and make copies of these stories now.  

Another mechanic asked prayer as he and two others were flying into a remote place where they had had to desert a plane. They would be carrying in a motor and other parts to repair the plane. Their request was that they could make repairs and be back by Thursday. 

Another missionary asked prayer as they  jsut spent the next to the last time in their village. The village and translation work can continue without them and they are returning to the US to do recruiting work for their mission. 

And then I just read this on a FB feed about the storying that is progressing in the Dem tribe that I mentioned last week: 

Angie van Rensburg

4h  · 

Tomorrow is the day! On Monday morning (Sunday 6pm CST in the US) we’ll be presenting Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection to the Dem people. Please pray for open ears and hearts.

This past Thursday the distractions started. A man died in a town far away, but his family members here are required to mourn and so they set up two different funerals on either side of the airstrip. They have said they will for sure still come Monday so please pray that they do. Also, on Friday during the lesson of Jesus’ arrest and trial, several plane loads of government officials arrived and announced they’ll stay for 2 weeks to help the people here and in surrounding areas get ID cards. It’s very helpful for the people, but not what we want them to be focused on at this time. Please pray with us that these distractions that have come up will not affect those who are ready to grab on to the message being shared. We are trusting the Lord to bring a harvest here in Dem land!

What an incredible place to be here, now, listening to what God is doing!!! And teaching the children so these missionaries can do their work.