It’s common at this time of year for Simbari people to get restless and travel out to the towns. The Simbari Bible teachers have such a burden for the those of the church who are scattered around in different locations, not able to hear these great truths in their own language. So recently after the lessons about the spiritual armor in Ephesians 6 David’s translation helper, Raymond, wanted to pass on the good teaching. So after work one day he hiked 3 hours up to the top of a mountain, which happens to be the nearest place to pick up a cell tower signal. He spent the night there getting rained on then the next morning called the capital city where some of the believers are right now . He then used his mobile phone to teach those Ephesians lessons as well as some from Romans to a group listening in the capital city. Pray for the Simbari believers who are out in the towns to continue walking with the Lord and be sharing the good news of Christ with others.

We are happy to have some neighbors for a few weeks living next door to us. Dave and Katie Walker who are friends from one of our supporting churches in California arrived in PNG last July and have been learning the trade language and culture at our regional center. As part of their orientation they are required to spend several weeks in a tribal location as they continue their national language study. It also gives them a good taste of what it will be like when the time comes for them to move into a tribal location to begin their own ministry. They’ve had some technical difficulties with the solar fridge and the water pump but they haven’t let those things discourage them. Rather they have kept themselves busy mingling with the Simbaris and practicing the language they have been learning. Pray for their family to stay healthy and encouraged during their time here.

Landslides!

This Sunday when we arrived at church we were astonished to see that the night before there had been two large landslides just behind the church building caused by the nightly deluges we have been getting. The Simbaris are thankful for the fact that the landslides were not too close to the new church building which was just finished earlier this year.

Simbari believers share what they are thankful to God for and what He is teaching them through the book of Ephesians.

To learn more about the Simbari people of Papua New Guinea see: http://usa.ntm.org/field-news/group/simbari

Click the photo for more Simbari pictures

They started leveling ground about a year ago and have been working on it off-and-on as they can spare the time away from their garden work and as the weather permits.

They finished it last week so Tuesday was a special service to officially open it for meetings.

The day before many of the believers from our village went down to support their brothers and sisters in the Lord at the other village and help them with last minute preparations for the service.

That night they started singing worship songs and couldn’t stop. Some visitors were present so they shared the Gospel with them between songs and one of the visitors trusted in Christ. They continued on like that until 3:00 am.

Many around the community took notice of the fervency of praise songs ringing though the valley into the wee hours of the morning. They said they had never heard anything like it.

On Tuesday morning we took off on the hike at about 8 AM and hiked up and down the steep mountainsides for over 2 hours to reach the other village.

As we came over the ridge across from the meeting house we could hear the wonderful sound of worship ringing out again over the valley.

We quickly hurried up the rest of the trail to join them.

After waiting for some more people to arrive we all sat down for the ceremony.Several men including David were invited to share a few words with the crowd. This included a clear presentation of the Gospel and an explanation that the meeting house was to be “a place where the truths of God’s Word can be brought out into the open.”

After some special music everyone went over and stood at the front of the church while the believers continued singing and clapping their hands with great joy as they prepared to officially “cut the ribbon” and enter the building.

Just being there in the midst of such a joyful assembly brought joy to our hearts and it was hard to hold back the tears. We wish you all could have been there!

The entrance was beautifully decorated with flowers and plants had the name of “Jesus” spelled out in front of it with flower petals. Everyone then came in and the large room quickly filled with people.

The wall at the front of the room had been decorated with flowers in the shape of a cross which quickly caught our eye. We believers all sang one song after another while the visitors just smiled and enjoyed hearing the worship songs and commented on how great it was to hear God’s talk in their own language. Some leaves were laid down and some food was brought. Back at the cooking pit the believers were concerned because there were too many people for the little bit of food they had cooked.

They prayed that God would help it to be enough for everyone just like when Jesus had fed the crowds. When it came time to distribute the food they rejoiced that there was enough for every man, woman, and child and even a little left over.

After the service David helped the believers hang up the blackboard as well as some string for hanging Bible pictures on. Then we all headed back down the trail towards home. It was a rough hike back and one time when Shari was feeling faint a bucket of water over her head revived her and she was ready to go again. Along the way we overheard the conversation of our brothers and sisters in the Lord as they talked about what God was doing down there and how so many people were now interested in hearing the message. They were glorifying God and acknowledged that it was only because of His Spirit doing a big work that any of these wonderful things could happen. We arrived back at our home village at 6 PM with tired bodies but “spirits that were refreshed.” (In Simbari: “Nemi poowokalago tonyu wonyo to’busuko suranyumo’mwa’jukokwono.”)

God is at work here amongst the Simbari people. Thank you so much for praying. We really do appreciate you!

Only for Him,

David, Shari, and family

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.