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New Guinea
News
27 September 2008
The First Rain
Aaron and Butch with “Grandma.”
Butch had just finished teaching about Noah
and the first rain. He had explained God’s patience and mercy
toward mankind in waiting 120 years while Noah preached repentance
and the impending flood. However mankind had refused to believe
God’s message and believe in God Himself. They had continued on in
their daily lives filled with self gratification and sin until the
day God fulfilled His Word and wiped them from the face of the
earth.
From the back of the group a man stood up and
began to quietly address the group. This was the same man that had
been opposed to us teaching in the village. “The people of Noah’s
day were sinners,” he began and started listing some of their sins.
Then he continued, “The people here on New Ireland, we are just like
the people of Noah’s day. We fight, we kill, we do bad things, and
we don’t want to hear God’s message. It would be good if we all
came to hear this teaching of God’s Word because we are just like
those people of Noah’s day that drowned in the flood.”
There are so many stories that I could tell
like this, but I want to share how I believe God is answering your
prayers. Last week I sent out prayer requests. I am going to
restate them this week and share what has happened since you started
praying.
Rain – all our water tanks are very low, and
the rivers where the people get water are getting dry. -- Since
then: On Tuesday I had collected two buckets of water from the
creek. That afternoon I took my 3 girls down to the creek to bathe
in about 6” of water, wondering what we would do if the lack of rain
continued. On our walk home, I felt a drop, then another, then
another. Within fifteen minutes we were being pounded with the
first rain in several weeks. Almost everyday since then we have had
beautiful, dry, sunny mornings for the teaching and rain in the
afternoon. Our water tanks are overflowing and the rivers are
filling up…thanks for your prayers.
“Grandma” the villages’ oldest woman is in very
poor health and we are praying she will come to understand the
Gospel before it is too late. -- Since then: “Grandma” has improved
and on Friday proudly showed off her strength to us by lifting her
feet 6” off the ground while seated on a bench. Our applause made
her smile widely. More importantly though, both Butch and I have
had the chance to re-teach her the Old Testament stories we have
been teaching and from there share the Gospel with her. We have
been encouraged with her coherence while we talk and she has been
very receptive and though its not always easy to understand, her
mumbling seems to be accepting and believing the message that we
have shared.
Continued illumination by the Spirit of the
Word to the hearts of the hearers. – Since then: Each day after the
teaching, instead of leaving right away, the men and woman have
continued to sit there and begin to talk about the things they have
heard and learned and what it means for them.
There are many who are only coming occasionally
and some who have not yet come to the teaching who are within a
short walk of the meeting place. – This is the area we would like
you to continue to pray for. We continue to have a steady group of
folks coming and are encouraged with their faithful attendance, but
we’d like to see those periodic “attenders” come regularly.
Coming this week:
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The promise of the coming Deliverer restated
to Abraham.
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The sin and destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah.
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Abraham told to sacrifice his only son Isaac,
but God provides a replacement sacrifice.
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Isaac and his sons Jacob and Esau and God’s
sovereignty and wisdom.
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Joseph goes to Egypt – a prophecy fulfilled
and a people saved from famine.
Thanks for partnering with us during this
time!
Aaron
Extra note about email: First thanks so much
to all of you who have responded to our emails and written
encouraging notes to us. Keep them coming! One thing that would
help us since we have the tedious task of getting email through
radio transmission is if when replying to our email you deleted our
original email with the picture so that the file is smaller. Also,
we have had some trouble with our mailbox filling up with messages
over 100kb that we are not able to pull in, so if you had an email
returned to you saying our box was full try to resend it. And if
you did not get one of our updates for some reason you can always go
to our website and read the updates there. Finally, if there is
anyone out there who has a bit of knowledge about distribution lists
and is familiar with g-mail or a similar account and is willing to
help me with some email questions please let me know.
Aaron, Lori, Avalon, Sierra, and Kylee Luse
Missionaries with New Tribes Mission
To the Patpatar people of Papua New Guinea
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