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

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.

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,    so they must have thought the baby would have a better chance if the mother took her to them. When the mother brought her baby to the house where the believers were meeting, she told them what had happened and asked them to pray for her baby. They quickly explained to her that they were just normal people, but God alone was the one with the power to heal her if it was His will and that life and death are in God\’s hands. So they prayed for the baby right then, and to everyone\’s amazement, the baby regained consciousness and started nursing. Everyone there was awed at the way God answered their prayers immediately and showed His love and power. There is still a lot of opposition to the Gospel so we are all praying that God would use this obvious answer to prayer and many others like it to draw people to Himself and show them that in Christ alone is the way the truth and the life.