He has always had power over the people because he is possessed by a spirit that gives him power.

Click this link to see how he is losing control over the Mengen believers!

Pray that God continues to deliver precious souls from a life of fear.

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.

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

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. Translation consultants will use these materials I translate to check out the quality of my translation work. They will then certify me, if my work is up to scratch, and then I could start to translate other scriptures into Mengen. Please pray Annika will continue to develop in her language ability so she two can join the work of translation and discipleship. She enjoyed helping me in some of the translation checks and saved me loads of time.

We go back to live amongst the Mengen people tomorrow; we are excited to continue the work and to see our friends again! Simon has a few weeks prep before his next language evaluation; possibly his last – please be praying! I would then start to write a series of lessons to be checked out by a consultant, which would in turn enable me to write my own lessons and start teaching – formal language learning would be over!! Annika will also have her next language evaluation, pray she will be encouraged by the results and by the direction and help the consultant will give her. It is a hard job raising two little fireballs like Nya and Noah, never mind learning a tribal language as well. But Annika is doing a great Job and I am so proud of her, please keep us all in your prayers.

We should be having our final language check towards the end of Feb, a tentative date would be the 17th-23rd Feb. All being well we would start to fit into the work, teaching, discipleship, translation work etc. Please pray for this transition and pray for us as a team as we assess and evaluate the way we are doing things; we are always looking for better ways to teach and disciple. We look forward to a visit from our church planting consultant who can help us with strategy for the future.

Continue to pray that we will stay healthy, encouraged and passionate about the work God has us doing. It is such an important work and one that is changing lives, but sometimes in our setting it is easy to be overwhelmed by the grind of life and the attacks of the enemy. Pray God will be our strength as we stay close to Him. We will most likely not be out on break from the bush until the end of May, we will send you more updates during that time.

Please continue to bring us and the Mengen church before the throne of God. We need and value your prayers; join with us in the battle for souls and Gods glory amongst the Mengen people.

Much love in Christ,

Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah

We had a nice service together in the morning, Lourens shared briefly from the word and we sang praises to God for the salvation message that has finally come to one village amongst the Mengen people. Some people shared how Christ coming to this world has changed their lives and they publicly thanked Jesus for coming to this ground to save the likes of us. We thank God that He has brought change amongst the Mengen people, pray that God will build His church and that we can see many more Mengen villages reached with the gospel in the years ahead. Thanks again for all your prayers, support and for being part of the Mengen church planting work with us.

Keep praying,

Simon, Annika, Nya and Noah

Hohoho

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.

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!

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

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

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