Posts Tagged ‘New Testament’

an outreach with bones!

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

This week the Higaunon church is hosting a seminar for the Bible teachers. They have come from several outreach villages.

This picture has several stories behind it that we want to share with you.

Starting from the right –

Langan Langan and Iyicame here in the late 80’s because he had heard that the “message of life” had come to our village. He wanted to be taught so he could be saved and take the message back to his village so that others could hear and be saved. It happened just the way he wanted (and more so since he married Iyi, our neighbor’s daughter). Today there is a church in their village with about 100 men women and children in regular attendance. Langan and Iyi sat on our porch yesterday sharing how God has blessed the ministry. Unbelievers in their village are surprised at how well things are going for them, especially since they don’t get a salary; they live on the little the church gives them and what they get selling produce from their garden.

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God’s Appointments!

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Saturday, June 5th, 2010

God’s appointments

What an awesome journey we’ve had since leaving Justin & Nicole! Thank you so much for taking the time to pray for us. God has given us safety and allowed us to experience some unexpected visits. As an example, we were in North Carolina when we decided to take a couple of days and sight see. We ended up staying at a lodge where we met a couple from Canada and come to find out, we have friends in common! Each “appointment” has been just one more confirmation from God that we are exactly where He wants us to be.

One treat (of many!!) was being able to see Lance’s uncle and aunt who are 88 and 86. It has been great connecting with them again and other family members.

We are in Wisconsin and will be heading south to be with our son Robert and grandson Ean. We’ll be there for a couple of weeks before seeing more family and finally arriving back in Florida the second week of July.

Update

Thanks for praying for Elias. He and his family are heading to their home country of Germany this month for further treatment. Please pray for them as they adjust to this change and look to the Lord for their future!

Our co-workers, Ron & Michelle produced a DVD on the Higaunon New Testament. We have handed out many copies already and if you would like to receive one, please let us know.

Thanks for praying for us as we travel and thanks for praying for the Higaunon.

Secure in Christ’s love,

Lance & Laura

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The Last Leg of the Journey

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Thursday, October 29th, 2009

reading God's WordThe “Precious Cargo” of Higaunon New Testaments arrived safely at our NTM Guest House on Tuesday this week. Later today the shipment will be put on a truck and dear friends of ours will bring the shipment TOMORROW. They plan to leave at 4 AM, (4 PM Thursday EST) and the Lord willing, they should arrive somewhere around noon.

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The Higaunon Church says, “Thank you!”

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Sunday, September 13th, 2009

To our beloved siblings in Christ there in America,

Sona & FamilyeditedHow are you doing in the Lord? How is your faith in Christ? If you are wondering how we are doing here in our village, we are doing well thanks to the Lord’s love and watch care over us. He shows that same love to each one of you as well.

Now then, even though we have not met and we speak different languages, I really wanted to write to you because I know that you are the Lord’s children just like us. We are all one in Christ since we all have put our faith in his perfect blood.

Now then, the purpose of my letter is so that you know that we are really happy and thankful for your help with our Bibles. We praise the Lord for you giving of yourselves and finances to be used for God’s purpose. We are the recipients of that blessing as well as others who have yet to accept God’s Word. This is why we are so happy, especially me.  I cannot thank you enough for allowing the Lord to use you in regards to our Bibles.

My siblings, we do not have anything to pay you for what you have done in the way of worldly things but there is a God who will reward you and repay you for the money you spent for God’s purpose. He will exchange that with heavenly wealth which is stored in heaven.

God is trustworthy to fulfill his promise that he gave to his children. However we can help you by praying for you. We pray that God will continue to watch over you and that He will bless you with the things you need.

Now then, siblings in the Lord, we also ask you to help us by praying for us. Please pray for us that God’s purpose will continue to be fulfilled that we will continue to minister his word to others.

As for us, we will persevere in our praying for you all.

That is all I have to say,

My name is Sonà and I’m one of the church leaders here amongst the Higaunon. My wife is Yanit and we have 5 children.

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God’s Book

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Friday, September 4th, 2009
This is the inside cover of the Higaunon New Testament

The inside cover of the Higaunon New Testament

Su Libdu ku Diyus ha Kabuhayon…

That is the title of the Higaunon New Testament. Translated it literally says, “God’s Book that is Life” one could say in smoother English, “The Book of God for Life.”

God is not some nebulous being out there who has no interest in the everyday happenings of mankind. He loves us with an everlasting love. His love is so awesome and He has given us a book that tells us about that precious love.

The Higaunon are excited as they anticipate the arrival of the New Testament in their language. While we wait for the shipment to arrive, we’re working on a rough draft of the book of Psalms. It’s been fun watching the language helpers as they hear some of this for the first time. Yes indeed, this is a book for life written by the Living God! It is clear as we go through the Psalms that He is indeed interested in each of us.

The New Testaments have been packed and are scheduled to be picked up today, Friday September 4th. Thank you for your continued prayers for safety as they make the journey here. The church has scheduled a thanksgiving celebration in November. We are praying that they will arrive in time for that.

We were blessed to learn just today that Lowe’s Hardware waived the cost of cutting the plywood when they learned it was to be used for making boxes to ship New Testaments. It took them one and a half hours to make all those cuts!

To each of you who are praying we say “THANK YOU.” We have seen God answer many prayers already! We also thank each of you who have given financially so the Higaunon can have God’s printed Word in their language. If there are those of you reading this that still wish to participate financially, simply drop us a note and we’ll tell you how you can do that.

Ready to be sent!

Ready to be sent!

Secure in Christ’s love,

Lance & Laura

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Three Pallets of New Testaments!

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Pallet of New Testaments

Pallet of New Testaments

No sooner had we sent out our last update and we received word that the New Testaments were being shipped to our international office in Sanford, Florida. Praise the Lord! There are 3 pallets of books ready to be checked and then boxed for shipping.

Members of our church in Florida will be constructing 33 boxes to ship them in. (Thank you Aloma Baptist Church!)

Once they arrive on the island they will be trucked to as close as possible to the village and people will hike them the rest of the way here. You did realize there is no road into the village, didn’t you? Each box will hold 60 New Testaments and weigh just over 100 pounds. PLEASE PRAY for a safe arrival. We know the enemy does not want this to happen but we also know that Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

In the mean time, we received a ‘dummy copy’ of the New Testament. This was a blessing as an error was found. Page 135 had smaller print than the other pages! We hope that the company that did the printing will supply us with 2000 copies of that page. Since the binding will be done here, it will be relatively easy to insert the newly printed page.

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All of this is for the Higaunon church to be able to have the Word of God in their language. It is a culmination of almost 30 years of hard work! Please do not take your copy of God’s Word for granted!

Please be praying for the villages where the Higaunon church is ministering. There is one place in particular that is experiencing some peace and order problems. Please pray for safety for the believers and wisdom for the church leadership. We live in a very volatile world and the enemy would like nothing more than to put an end to what God is doing. Pray that the believers in these outreach areas will be encouraged in the Lord. Please do not take your freedom to worship for granted!

Higaunon New Testament

Ron bound this copy that we received.

Thank you for praying for us!

Lance & Laura

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where there seems to be no way, God makes a way!

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

our HP LaserJet 9000

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God! That’s what we’re all about, communicating clearly the written Word of God to people who otherwise do not have opportunity to hear or read it.

Printer Problems: Some of you will remember that we have a large HP LaserJet printer in a humidity controlled room in our office. We use this to print curriculum, visual aids, song books and scripture. When I turned it on the other day the LCD screen was lit up but blank! Needless to say my heart sank and we all felt a bit sick to our stomachs thinking,

“Oh no, how do we fix this! There are no HP technicians around the corner. Do we send it out on the plane?“

along with numerous other questions…

Well, to make a long story short, after some research on the internet, we think we’ve found the problem. We ordered a part and it is on the way! It should be in hand and installed on the 16th of this month. Please pray that this fixes the problem.

The Higaunon New Testament: Thank you for your prayers for the printing of the Higaunon New Testament. We also praise God for those who have given financially towards this project. After quite a lot of communication back and forth we understand the printing is going to start soon. Please pray that all the details will go smoothly.

Ron and Michelle would like to take a furlough later this year. They will not leave until the New Testaments arrive. The church has stated that they want to have a celebration when this precious shipment arrives. Do any of you want to come and celebrate with us?

Thanks again to each of you who pray for us and the ministry God has given to us. I stopped a Bible teacher on the trail recently who needed a dozen song books. He shared with me that there are new listeners in the village he works in. Praise God! Hearing these reports excites our hearts.

Secure in Christ’s Love,

Lance & Laura for the Higaunon

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the first edition…

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

the very first edition

Jason & Shirley were the first white people the Tala Andig of that remote region had ever seen. Some of those people had never even seen a logging truck.

The Birkins moved into the jungles during the mid 80′s and have labored there faithfully ever since. Today there is a strong church who now, for the very first time, will be able to open up and read a New Testament in their language.

Pictured here is the very first bound copy of the Tala Andig New Testament. As you know from our last update, Jason & Shirley spent several days with our partners Ron & Michelle Jennings, formatting the layout of the recently completed translation.

Lance has been busy printing copies on our big printer and now that a number of copies are printed, Higaunon believers are binding the New Testaments. It has been neat to work together as a team in seeing this job accomplished.

Please pray with us for the completion of this project. We have experienced quite a number of paper jams. Ron and Lance have looked for the cause and think it’s a combination of the quality of the paper we’re using and the humidity. One thing is for certain, the enemy of our souls does NOT want this printing to happen!

Please pray that we’ll get all copies printed and bound by the deadline. That’s a month away from now so there “should be” plenty of time.

Rejoice with us and the Tala Andig church as they receive their first completed copies of the New Testament in their language!

Thank you for your partnership in this ministry!

Secure in Christ’s love,

Lance & Laura for all of us here who are working together for the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom.

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Back to work after a wonderful vacation!

Posted by Lance and Laura Ostman on Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Jason and Lance watching the printer as the 1st copy of the Tala-Andig New Testament is printed!

The Lord brought us safely back “home” to our village on Thursday.

We had a good time with our friends who were visiting from Hawaii, plus we got to surprise our coworkers, the Harts, when they got back into the country at the end of March!

We visited three islands that we’d never been to before and enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation anew. Thank you for praying for us over the past couple of weeks while we traveled.

Lance was able to finish up his part of the last check through the Higaunon New Testament.  Our coworker Ron wasn’t able to finish up his part yet, due to a previous commitment to help a fellow missionary who is here for a few days to get his own New Testament ready for print.

We are going to do the printing of Jason & Shirley Birkin’s Tala-Andig New Testament here with our big printer, God willing!  They want 100 copies initially. Upon printing the first copy this morning of the Tala-Andig New Testament Jason said, “It will be such a blessing to have the New Testament in one book for the Tala-Andig Church to study from!”

Jason & Shirley Birkin

Jason & Shirley Birkin

We would appreciate prayer for this project to go smoothly, as well as the finishing up of the Higaunon Scriptures so it can get sent to the printer soon. We appreciate your part in our lives and the ministry to the Higaunon people.

Have a blessed Resurrection Day!

Secure in Christ alone,

Laura & Lance

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