Simon & Annika Flanagan Expanding the reach of the gospel with you Mengen magic – the cup
The cup
Magic and manipulation of the Spirit world is part and parcel of life amongst the Mengen people.
Click this link to find out about the first ceremony performed on a newborn baby.
Pray the Lord will free more Mengen people from the grip of the evil one.
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Update on Alex and Mande
Well, you can see from an earlier post that we have been asking for much prayer for this family. Alex is following hard after his Savior and wants to learn all he can, he is also one of our teacher trainees. His wife however has been controlled by her mother and by fear of the spirit world; Mande is still not a believer. We have been asking the Lord to do something to break the control that Mande’s family has over her. Recently up in the village the Kevung cult leaders decided to build a spirit house right next to Alex and Mande’s house. They believe that the spirits of the dead come into this house and they offer food to them inside the house in order to manipulate the spirits to do good to them and not harm them. As you can imagine Alex felt targeted and this was a direct form of persecution against him, as he is the only believer in the little hamlet. Alex family members then put pressure on him to buy nails or get bush rope in order to complete the house. Alex refused and because of that his family have told him to move his house and live far away from them.
Well this was really the out Alex had been looking for, what a joy for him to be able to move his wife and now four kids away from the direct influence of this cult. Quickly we helped Alex to move and what a joy it was to see the believers join together to move his house and help him build a new house in just two days! We believe the Lord has opened this door and Alex now lives closer to us and is surrounded by believing families. Please pray with us that the example of the believers will challenge and convict Alex’s wife Mande and that soon we will be able to write to tell you of her salvation. How wonderful it would be for this couple to be one in Christ and work fully for Him.
Alex has just been out at our translation workshop with us, he is showing great potential as a translation helper and future leader in the church.
Thanks for being part of our team in reaching the Mengen people for Christ,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Translation workshop and more…
A year and a half living amongst the Mengen people, about 520 days of language and culture study, ten days of a translation workshop at our support center and I have been able to translate the first chapter of the book of Ruth. These are exciting and encouraging day and I thank God for allowing me to be able to go and complete the translation workshop. We take eight steps to ensure that our translations communicate the original meaning of the source text whilst striving to stay true to the word of God.
Some work I have on my plate as we return to the bush is to translate some literacy materials into Mengen and then the rest of the book of Ruth.
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Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Christmas celebrations
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Well Christmas was all brand new for the Mengen church. This year the church got together to honor their Savior and mark the time of his birth. The church got together and donated money to buy a large box of lamb flaps from town, from their own gardens they donated sweet potato, yams, tapioca, various types of edible leaves, they cooked all this with coconut milk on top of hot rocks in the ground called a mumu. Festivities started in the evening with a worship service that lasted most of the night; they started to cook the food in the early morning, had a brief sleep and then cooked again.
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Controlled by the Spirits of the Dead
The Mengen people believe that the Spirits of the dead roam in the night and in the fog. The believe they can eat us. Click on this link to hear more of their fear of the dead.
Praise God the gospel is breaking through the fear and Satan is losing his control over the Mengen people as they come to the Savior.
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
Men from cucumbers?
Confused
The Mengen people have some strange beliefs. But the word of God is bringing truth and revolutionizing their world view.
Follow this link hear how the Mengen people believe the first people created came from a cucumber!
Tags: New Tribes Mission, NTM
On internet – we would love to chat and catch up!
Hi Friends,
Here’s wishing you a Merry
Christmas and greetings for the New Year. It’s New Years Eve for us here today
as we are a day ahead of you! Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes at
Christmas, we appreciate them very much. We thank the Lord he opened the road
and provided for us to be able to come out to our translation workshop; we look
forward to being involved in translation in the days ahead.
As we are at our support centre,
we have access to internet, skype and more consistent email. So we would love
to get in touch with anyone who wants to chat. We hope to be uploading post to
our blog and updating you on the work. We are hoping to get some video and
pictures posted also so you can see how things are developing and connect
better with those you are praying for. So if you would like to chat please get
in touch with us and we will get you set up on our skype. Much love in Christ,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah
generator trouble
Hi Friends,
Appreciate your prayers for our power situation. Our team generator has died a week ago and as we are having lots of rain and cloudy days we are short on solar power to run the basics. We can have a rainy season that lasts up to 3-4 months, during these times we need a generator to charge our batteries. Our small team back-up generator is also giving us trouble and uses too much fuel. Please pray for wisdom as we decide what we should do. Pray also for some sunny days in the coming week! Thanks for praying with us.
Grace to you all,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah
needing your help
Hi friends,
Could you please help us out? We are wanting to improve our pre-evangelism program. This is the time before the start of the gospel presentation when we try to get people thinking. We show the Mengen people pictures and video clips of other religions in order to show them that other groups believe in other things. This does two things; it increases their worldview as they are very insular, and it also allows us to ask questions that challenge their beliefs. By doing this we plow the ground before we sow the seed of the good news. We believe it would be good to develop our pre-evangelism program, so what are we asking you to do? We are needing some people perhaps 10 to volunteer to record some documentaries or the like from normal TV. It would be good if these documentaries showed other religions, their rituals and beliefs. We also like some documentaries on church history – one that covers the Jewish faith, one that covers the reformation (and the persecution that went on their) and one on the History of the Roman Catholic church. If you have anything already that could help us or would be willing to record or find something to send us, we would be very grateful. Email us back if you would like to help and tell us what you could help with; we will then send you our mailing address by email.
Much love in Christ,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah
Pray for Alex and Mande
“Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.” E. M. Bounds
Hi, here we have a special couple; special because Alex is one of our men in training. Unfortunately his wife Mande is not a believer, this of course has ramifications for Alex in the future and how he can minister within the church. Alex has shown himself faithful for over a year as a literacy teacher and as a teacher trainer within the literacy program. He has been a great help in lesson development as a lesson checker and we see great potential in this man. Please pray for Mande, that her husbands example and this second round of gospel teaching will be used by God to save her soul. Her salvation weighs heavy on Alex’s heart, pray that God would be gracious and that she would believe. Pray that God would raise up leaders from within the Mengen church to evangelise and teach; we cant do this work alone!
Thanks for praying,
Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah