Dave on Bridge

The time finally came to begin so we headed down Sunday after our church service. It’s a three and a half hour rigorous hike one way so we got there in the late afternoon. The trail is slippery mud and climbs straight up in many places almost a 1000 ft so I always hike wearing logger boots with metal spikes all over the bottom. They work better than anything else on slippery mud and logs. The trail has two log bridge crossings and one high vine bridge over a large river but it’s a beautiful trail. We arrived down at the other village and were welcomed and given a nice house to sleep in. Much better than what we had expected. As for food: I had a banana for breakfast each day, a cucumber for lunch and some rice and tin fish for dinner. We visited for quite some time with the family that was hosting us and went out to greet others from the community. Young kids who hadn’t been close to a white man before kept surrounding me and were trying to get up the nerve to touch me. They would timidly get closer and closer till they would touch me and then run away, to which I would reward them with a big smile. Several very old people were also quite excited about my presence
there.
The Simbari Bible/literacy teachers were feeling overwhelmed with everything but they continually asked the Lord for strength and said, “God chose us for this work so he will indeed strengthen us to carry it out”. In the dim light of a kerosene lamp we got the material ready for classes the next morning and went to bed early (I know at least I was exhausted from the hike). The next morning we were thrown upon the Lord again when the scheduling plan for the school did not give enough time for Bible and literacy but we were finally able come up with a good solution. The whole situation was causing our Simbari Bible/literacy teachers to feel inadequate but they just continued to depend on the Lord. As I watched this in progress 2 Cor. 12:9 came to mind: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
In the beginning we weren’t sure at all how the Bible teaching as well as literacy would be received. But the students and teachers in the community school were thrilled with both the Bible lessons and the vernacular literacy program. In addition to teaching in the school we also taught the chronological Bible lessons in the village market area for the whole community. Even though it’s a good community meeting place we’re still not sure if that is the best location for the teaching because of the disturbances of the nearby market. Pray for God’s direction in knowing what would be the best time and place for those meetings in the future.

As we were hiking back we stopped at the high vine bridge and had a little fun jumping off the bridge into the river. It’s one of the few places where there are no rocks and the water is deep enough to do that. We walked for much of the time in a misty rain and as we headed up the valley higher and higher we eventually ended up right in the clouds where our village is located. After the message in our Sunday worship service we talked about the power of God at work in our midst. We also discussed bringing some sweet potatoes to put in the offering to help our teachers to not go hungry during the outreach. After church we played a few games of volleyball then the teachers headed off again on the hike down to the other village. I, David,
stayed home this time to keep working on the translation of Ephesians. Please pray for this outreach in the school and community as it continues in
the weeks ahead.

We have been so thrilled with the open doors the Lord is giving the Simbari believers to share the good news of Christ\’s love not only in our village but in the surrounding villages as well.

Recently two of the Bible teachers were invited to the largest Simbari village about a four-hour rigorous hike from here to meet with the headmaster of the community school there. For quite awhile now he has been expressing his desire to have God\’s talk brought to his village. The people have been exposed to some religion and in fact there is a big “church” building but he says it leaves them feeling cold.

Another religious group came wanting to teach in the national language of Pidgin but they said that would not help them understand the truth. He wants his village to hear it in their own language. The delay in going there so far is because we have been short-handed and are already teaching in two villages. Now the headmaster would like a couple of our Bible
teachers to come to his school on a regular basis (possibly starting in August) and teach the Creation-to-Christ evangelism lessons each morning before school followed by vernacular literacy classes right in the school so that the students will be able to read and write in their own language. (the community schools teach in English and Pidgin) There will be other adult teachers sitting in on the classes and learning as well so that they can teach it in their own village schools. We are praising the Lord with the Simbari believers for this wonderful opportunity to spread God\’s Word to other villages. Since David\’s translation helper is also one of the main Bible teachers David will need to hike down with the Bible teachers and stay there for blocks of time to be able to continue making progress on the Bible translation.

The noise started a few days ago.

It was the eerie sound of the “bullroar” which is a bamboo switch with a small noise-maker tied to the top which is twirled around at high speed to produce the eerie sound. The noise marked the beginning of a “yumbunja” which takes place a month or so after a death to drive away the ghost of the one who died. It’s not a noise that we like to hear because it’s ringing in the air is indicative of many people who are still blinded to the truth and under the powers of darkness. As the Simbari believers came and went around the village when they came upon the people with the bullroars there was a strong reaction.   The people with the bullroars acted as if they were angry evil forces being confronted by the light. After listening to this noise for a couple days we hoped it wouldn’t get in the way of the baptism that had been put off for weeks because of deaths and bad weather. But we woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning and after a morning worship service with the believers we all hiked down to the nearest river for the baptism. Because of all the rain lately we had a tough time finding a safe spot in the river where the people getting baptized wouldn’t get swept down the cold river. We found a spot and 16 people began to give personal testimonies about their faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ alone for their salvation. (One of them was our youngest son, Jason.) We had a hard time hearing the testimonies over the noise of the rapids even wondering if the testimonies were necessary with all the noise of the river working to drown them out. But there was a bunch of unbelievers watching the whole thing. And we were to find out later in the day that many were marveling at what they saw. The public, personal statements of faith in Christ alone for salvation were not drowned out by the noise of the river. After the baptism we all gathered on the shore of the river to sing a few songs of worship. Because many were shivering from the cold water we didn’t sing for too long but went back up to the village so the wet ones could get changed. After that we all gathered for some volleyball and just to hang out together. We recently put up a round thatched-roof hut in our front yard for these time of fellowship. As we sat in the house the believers were all full of joy, singing around the fire and talking about the wonderful things God was doing in their midst. It was then that they told us how the testimonies had impacted some of the unbelievers in spite of the river’s noise. They also told us about how in one of the “yumbunja” rituals the people offer a sacrificial offering of a possum to be completely burnt up on a fire. (The Simbari’s had kept that one secret from us during our initial culture study) They thought of how similar that was to the Old Testament Biblical sacrifices that point to Christ. But the enemy uses these rituals to keep people away from Christ and in the dark. All-in-all it went from 9:30am to 4:30pm but it was a very special day that left our thoughts dwelling on the power of God. And the realization the testimony of the believers, usually referred to as: “Jesus’ men and women” is not being drown out by the noise of bullroars or the waters roar. On the translation side of things Romans 1-8 is ready for the final translation check coming up in June and David has finished the preliminary drafting of chapters 9-16 and is working with translation helpers to finalize the draft. He’s also been getting lessons ready and meeting with the Bible teachers for planning the teaching schedule for both villages. Simon’s leg seems to have healed ok but the plate which is just under the skin seems to get irritated and sore when he uses it a lot. It will need taken out sometime in the next 6 months but we haven’t finalized when we’ll do that. David has a torn rotator -cuff that might need repaired then as well. We’re really looking forward to a visit this summer from our oldest daughter, Esther, who will be finishing her second year of college.

David, Shari and family