David and Shari Ogg Missionaries to the Simbari people of Papua New Guinea
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
Simbaris are hungry for God's Word
One of the old customs among the Simbari is that they would stay up all night chanting their gratitude to the spirits as they anticipated an upcoming feast which included meat. You see, their diet consists mostly of vegetables and tuber foods, so eating meat is a rare treat for them and one they greatly look forward to. Now that they have tasted the “meat” of God’s Word and the lasting flavor it leaves in their hearts, they cannot seem to get enough of it. So recently their midweek Bible study and worship meetings have been continuing all night long until sunrise. There are blankets spread around the floor of the church for their kids to be able to sleep while the parents meet. The believers have been sharing how God is doing amazing things in their hearts and they just don’t want to be apart from each other. Their insatiable hunger for God’s Word has astounded us and has been such an example to our own hearts. During a recent all-night meeting they wrote a song in the Simbari language about the differences between Adam and Christ that they have been learning. We’ve translated it for you below.
Simbaris singing praises with all their hearts
Oh Adam, Oh Adam, he brought death - Even now we indeed habitually die - Oh Adam, Oh Adam, he brought death
Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, he brought life - If you believe in Him, you will live - Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, he brought life
Wherever I wander, protect me - Lest I fall into Satan’s temptations - Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, give me strength
Progress and Growth
Both churches gathering for a service together
As of last week, David and his translation helper were able to complete the first draft of Ephesians and David has preliminary drafted through chapter 11 of I Corinthians. He has also been meeting with the teachers on Monday mornings for discipleship during which time they go over the Romans lesson for the week which the teachers then teach at the two churches on Sundays. The believers at both churches are really excited about what they are learning. And in the midweek services they are going over what they heard from Romans on Sunday to make sure they are understanding it well before moving on. We also have about 20 people from our village and 11 from the other village signed up to go through new literacy classes starting this summer. The Simbari teachers also saw the need to teach foundational truths to the many new people who have recently come to know the Lord. Most of them have not yet heard our foundational “Creation to Christ” course so this week they are having a week long teaching workshop to quickly teach through that curriculum. All the believers will be gathering from both villages for this (last time they all met together there was 125 adults and children). Please pray for the Simbari teachers to walk with God and trust Him for the strength to do His work. Also pray for the rest of the believers to grow in grace. We know of 3 people who have placed their trust in Christ over the last couple weeks so please pray for God’s protection over these new ones in the faith. It’s an exciting time to be amongst the Simbari making it hard to leave, even just for the summer.
See you soon!
It’s hard to believe that Simon will be graduating from High School in less than two weeks! We are all back together again as a family out at the school center and will be here till Simon’s graduation on June 2nd. We will be arriving in LA a few days after that to spend the summer helping him get settled and visiting family and friends, and getting some medical work done. Please pray that we can find a reliable vehicle for us to use over the summer and to leave with Simon to use. We’ll only be there a short time then leaving right away again in July in time for Rachel to start school again here in PNG. Pray also as we will be squeezing a lot into a very short time!
In His Grace,
David, Shari, and family
You may remember the outreach we started several years ago in another village when David hiked down to stay there 4 days every week. Since then there has been the need for a building that the believers can meet in.
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
Stirred Up
“Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, there is no one else that we can go to! Your words give eternal life. We have faith in you, and we are sure that you are God’s Holy One.’” (John 6:68,69)
Serolin and child
These are the verses that come to mind when we think about Serolin who used to be part of a false religious group in her village who teach that salvation can be obtained apart from Christ by trying to follow certain laws and abstaining from certain foods, etc. Like many who are immersed in this way of thinking, Serolin was constantly carrying a burden of guilt and fear, never knowing whether she would be accepted by God or not. But then through an outreach in her village by our local church she heard in her own language of what Christ has done for her. Since then she has been hiking to our village on Sundays as often as possible to hear more of the Bible teaching.
new church building for other village under construction
So the leaders of the other religious group in her village started pressuring and threatening her to start attending their meetings again. She did go back a couple times but found that after hearing the “words of eternal life” she could no longer endure the false teaching. She told the leaders of that group to stop pressuring her to come because their teaching “didn’t go inside and stay” but the truths she was hearing about Christ however were “stirring her up in her inward parts”. The believers from our village are finishing up a building for the church in her village to meet in so they won’t have to keep hiking so far and so that others will be able to come.
Summer Plans
Simon 2010
We just came out of the tribe to stay at the school center for about a week so that David could download tax docs and fill out Simon’s FAFSA forms online before the deadline. Time is fast approaching for Simon’s high school graduation this June so he has been filling out college applications. Esther ran into trouble trying to get transferred to CSUN to finish her degree so her future is a bit up in the air too. Please pray for God’s intervention for both of them so they can go where the Lord want’s them to go.
We thank the Lord we’ve been able to purchase our tickets for going to California this summer after Simon’s graduation. We will be in Santa Clarita for about 6 weeks getting Simon settled in, visiting family and friends, and getting some medical work done. We’ll be back in PNG in time for Rachel to start school and then in three years when Rachel graduates we have planned a regular 1 year home assignment. We have a place to stay lined up but still need a vehicle to use during the summer, and also need to buy an inexpensive one for Simon to use after we come back. Thanks for your prayers regarding all these things.
In the meantime there is always lots to do with finishing up Romans lessons and with Bible translation. David finished the preliminary draft of Ephesians and is working on chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians.
Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragment. We appreciate each one of you!
Because of His faithfulness,
David, Shari, and family
I just got back from a trip down the valley to kickoff a new outreach. For years we have been receiving invitations to come down to a very large village to teach but we have not been ready. Recently one of the main teachers at the community school down there sent us an invitation to teach our chronological “Creation to Christ” Bible course as well as vernacular literacy in the school and we decided that the time was finally right. He was wanting us to teach in all the grades but we didn’t have enough trained teachers or materials to attempt that so we came to the agreement that we would teach in the two upper grades and the teachers from the community school would participate so that later they themselves could teach literacy in the lower grades.
Esther’s visit
What an encouraging summer it has been here in PNG! It started when Esther arrived from California in June and we were able to go with a group of missionary friends (18 of us all together) to climb Mt. Wilhelm, the tallest mountain in PNG. Everyone in our family except Jason and Shari made it to the summit and back to base camp in about 13 hours. (Shari and Jason stayed at base camp where there is a beautiful lake).
After a fun but rainy, cold few days, 
we flew to thecoast and spent a week at the ocean where it was a lot warmer. Esther enjoyed being able to snorkel and dive with us again after being gone a couple of years.
David and three Simbari helpers have been working with a translation consultant for last few days doing the final check on the Romans chapters 1-8.
We praise the Lord that it went very well and after a few revisions to improve the translation we will be able to print those chapters and use them for teaching. David is done with most of his work on the rest of Romans so our co-worker, Lori, as well as Shari will be working on finishing their part of the process on the rest of the chapters. As that is in progress David is translating Bible lessons to go with the book of Romans and has also begun the preliminary draft of Ephesians.
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. (more…)
David\’s translation helper told us a story about something really neat that happened recently at the other village where the believers were meeting together for a time of fellowship.
He said there was a lady whose baby had been sick and was having a hard time breathing. All of a sudden the baby became lifeless and started foaming at the mouth and the mother believed her to be dead. So she quickly took her baby to some men who are with another religious group in the area and asked them to pray for her. Surprisingly they told her to take her baby over to the house where the believers in Jesus were meeting and ask them to pray for her. This village has seen God do some amazing things when the believers pray, (more…)
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. (more…)
