NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Wai wai, awan keo, naawitenaae! It’s sorta a mouthful, but after repeating it over and over, I think I’ve got it down. Saying sorry is almost nonexistant in the Moi culture, but this phrase seems close. Literal meaning is, "my, my, what did I do, go ahead and dislike me"

Some things like asking forgiveness and forgiving others seem like basic concepts but since the Moi aren’t used to dealing with one another in this manner, they’re learning it. It’s been exciting to see progress. Last week during literacy class one of my students who’s about 16 years old (Ayaioma, top pic) was irritating one of the other teen boys in the class. Before I knew it, Ayaioma got a beetlenut whipped at him. I didn’t really see all this going on until I noticed Ayaioma had tears in his eyes. The other students started snickering. Even though I told them it wasn’t loving to do that, they kept snickering. Soon Ayaioma stormed off, grabbed his bag down at the hut he sleeps in, and headed off in the direction of his hometown (hamlet’s about 10 hour hike away for them). Ugh. I felt sad about it and reprimanded the class, but didn’t really sense that they cared too much. They just said he was too old to cry. Sorta true, but none the less, they didn’t need to mock him.

So neat, cause the next day, a group of the guys headed out after him to apologize and get him to come back. Amazing, really, for the Moi to show that sort of love. They didn’t catch up to him, but news got up to his hamlet pretty fast about their attempts to meet up with him, and he showed back up yesterday.

In order to pass on the baton for teaching God’s Word to other Moi, Steve and Rich have been asking different individuals who can read to be a part of teaching God’s Word on Sundays and Wednesdays by getting them to either read Scripture or ask questions from the previous lesson. Well, for today’s church service, Steve had asked Kendaya to be the question guy. Steve told him he really needed to read the questions over and over again ahead of time and be familiar with the answers so that he’s not reading real slow in church. Sooooo, this morning (Sunday morning) early, Kendaya comes over to our house all eager with anticipation and says to Steve (who’s still sorta waking up), "Ummm, what did the elders say to Peter and John after he healed the lame man." Well, Steve thought, "Great, he didn’t spend enough time reading the answers now he’s having to ask me the answer." So, Steve tries to act patient and tells him the answer one more time and says, "The elders told Peter and John not speak Jesus name or they’d be punished." Kendaya says, "You are right, Steve, you answered that question with a straight talk!!" He was ready after all!

So, yes, we are thrilled to see these young believers growing in their Christian faith. Please pray that God will raise up faithful men and women among the Moi to build His church here in Moi and be a testimony to the many neighboring tribes around us.

He is able!

Let me tell you what it’s like for the rest of us when said missionary wife "takes Moi daddy, mommy and new born out to the big town". Her last words to me I’ll never forget – Something along the line of, "You should have no problem taking the literacy class for me. Piece of cake. What could go wrong?"

Funny you should ask. My first day on the job, as I’m making my way up to the school house, I notice two of "my" students goofing around. Pretty normal for the Moi so don’t think too much of it. Baikau picks up a pebble, (no bigger than the end of his finger – or so he claims) then tosses it at Ayaioma. Ayaioma laughing – tosses a "pebble" no bigger that his finger at Baikau. Baikau no longer laughing tosses a rock …. now you’re getting the picture. Things escalate pretty quickly from there.

By the time I’m opening the school room door, Ayaioma is trying to club Baikau with a hefty chunk of wood upon which Baikau instinctively smacks him back with with the wooden sheath of his machete. Unfortunately the machete was still in it – splits through the case and slices Ayaioma on the arm pretty good. Ayaioma crying in pain and anger, with blood dripping down his arm comes after Baikau for real. I’m trying to get between them Tepaiye is holding on to Ayaioma. Baikau finally makes his escape with all of us shouting after him "Run – run away for real!"

Somehow it felt awkward saying "Well if someone will just open with a word of prayer we can get started." So I just said, "If some could just pray for Carolyn to come home quickly ….."

With Carolyn gone, and the Browns out of the tribe on vacation, I had a lot to keep me busy. Literacy, Bible lessons and medical. We also have a small trade store that we stock with some of the essentials from town so that the Moi can buy some of those things.

One day when tending the store, while listening to every one say they had no money and were so hungry – Ayaioma again, bought a bag of peanuts. He took it outside and started to eat them when I heard a whoop. He rushed back in and presented me with enough money to buy another bag of peanuts.

"Where did you get the money?" I asked.
"With the peanuts."
"Well give it back." I said "It’s mine." Thinking that I had inadvertently given him his money back when I gave him the peanuts
He replied "No it’s not! The Creator God gave it to me. It was in the shell of the peanut when I opened it up! It’s a miracle!!!"
"What!?!"

Somewhere in all of this I happened to notice that written on the bag of peanuts was an advertisement saying that in some of the peanuts the company had placed prize money. "Hey guys, look at this. It says here that you could win up to $10 worth of prize money!" Wrong thing to say – instantly the previously poverty stricken Moi started producing all kinds of cash out of the wood work – buying peanuts by the arm load! And sure enough three others had the good fortune of finding the miracle cash in their peanuts too.

Pretty funny when you think about what must be going through their minds.

So you can see, there are ups and downs when missionary wife goes to town. But the best of all, besides her return of course happened today while I was in my office translating. Kendaya, who happens to be one of the students finishing up the literacy course, was sitting on the desk next to my computer reading from Genesis in the Moi language. We had given him a Bible some time ago as incentive to learn to read but he had never finished the course.

As he came to the end of a paragraph, reading out loud softly to himself, he paused and I heard him mutter under his breath "I thank/praise you Creator God for now I can really read your Word!"

Wow, praise the Lord! Thank you so much for your love and prayers for us and the Moi!

In him,

Stephen

Please pray for the 14 Moi literacy students!  They are nearing the finish line of the course.  A number of Moi dropped out of the class, but we are thrilled that 14 of them are still going strong.

They pray daily that God will give them the wisdom they need to learn to read so that they can learn to read His Word!  That’s their main motivation to read. 

This Christmas was memorable for the Moi believers.  Two weeks prior to Christmas, a number of men went hunting for wild pigs and marsupials for their first Christmas feast.  Their hunt was a success and many enjoyed the interesting "dishes" the Moi love to prepare and eat. 

The best part of the whole celebration, though, was meeting together with all our believers. They took turns going through Old Testament stories leading up to Jesus’s birth.  How exciting to see them retell them accurately in their own style and words. God is at work!

Pray for us as we prepare to  head back to Moi on May 14th. Wisdom in what to take back.  Safety in travels.

Pray for the malaria epidemic spreading through Moi.

Pray for new believers Piyato and Baigoa as their baby girl just passed away.

Piyato and Baigao are a young couple who are one of our few Moi believers. They lost their first born baby boy early last year, and then just last week they lost their newborn baby girl. This couple desperately needs encouragement and prayer. Pray they stand strong in the midst of very discouraging circumstances.