Greetings from your friends in Toboland!
Our band of believers here has been grounded well in the idea that God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice is the only way to be acceptable to Him and that we are now His for eternity on the basis of belief in the pure and profound gospel of grace. We praise God for their continued responses to questions during the teaching, as well as various comments made by men and women in these past few months which indicate that they have a good grasp of the beautiful grace of God in saving them! And it is always great to hear different ones express to us the importance of this message and its life-changing impact. One lady, Lanisa, told Janeene this the other day: “Every day we go to work in our gardens. But today as we are studying God’s Talk, this is so big (important), not like the work we do in our gardens, no. God’s Talk is really big—it is truly life!”
A friend of Janeene’s, Nylon, reading the Bible
We have had several of the believers ask us questions like, “What is baptism all about?” And, “Do we need to be baptized again, if we were baptized as a baby?” Now we are excited to be able to address these questions, and more, as we begin a new phase in the teaching (known in New Tribes Mission circles as ‘Phase 3”. Phase 1 was evangelism, and Phase 2 was an overview of Creation to Christ for grounding new believers). This is centered around the book of Acts. During the next month alone, the believers will learn- much of this for the first time- what God’s Word has to say about the beginnings of the church at Pentecost, about the work of the Holy Spirit, about baptism, about the Lord’s Supper, about fellowship, about prayer, and about outreach. All of these are areas which should prove to be interesting and helpful, even vital to the continued growth of the new church here. And it will be a time of challenging long-held assumptions people here have had over the years, so we expect it to be a time of stretching as well as growing (which, I guess the two are linked).
Would you pray with us, that God will use these lessons to teach and solidify these foundational truths in peoples’ hearts, and correct some of areas where erroneous thinking has been introduced in the past? Please pray for Jason, too, as he teaches these lessons and continues to translate the lessons for the last half of Acts, One encouraging note to pass on from Jason was that of one of his helpers, Kips. After working on the lesson together, Kips “..said that he hoped he had done a good job with me that day on the lesson. When I asked why he said that; he said that he usually likes to wake up in the morning and pray and ask God to help him translate with me… that he will get the right words and get the meaning correct and such; but today he thought he was just going to his garden to work and not come to help me; so he hadn’t prayed first. What a testimony that was to me.” And to us as well! Keep on praying for these dear brothers and sisters as they are learning so much!
Please pray also for us during these following weeks as we hope to spur on the believers in praying and sharing among each other (many are still very shy in the larger group setting of our meetings) and for a growing sense of unity and purpose as a body here. We know that these things take time and do not happen overnight, but we are trusting God for growth and progress in these areas in the coming weeks and months.
On the scripture translation front, I have been putting in long hours in the office along with several Tobo men who have been a tremendous help and encouragement to me. One way in which I have been very encouraged during these times together has been in our times of discussion over the different portions of the Word that we translate for that day. For example, in Acts 17, the behavior of the Bereans has been of note to the guys as we have drafted and been checking over that story. Welsen said, “It was good that they weren’t just bobbing their ax up and down (meaning nodding ‘yes’ just to agree outwardly without giving real thought to it) to what Pol was telling them. No, they wanted to see that it was really true, that it was from God’s True Talk!” This was music to my ears, needless to say!
Another neat moment is the brief prayer time I have with each of my translation helpers. A few weeks ago, I was touched when Tingon (who now also helps me along with Jason) was praying for “my brother’s niece who is sick in Amerika”! I had mentioned Ellie’s cancer to him several weeks previously, but had not updated him that day on how she was doing—he just out of the blue prayed for her to be helped and strengthened by God and healed! I think we have some real prayer warriors in the making here in Toboland!
As for a progress update on the translation: Thanks to God, the portions of Acts to be used in teaching (close to half of the total of the book) are all in rough draft form, and over half have been checked for clear understanding, so we are well on our way to having them ready to be submitted to our consultant for a check of them at the end of July. I am still in the process of finalizing the Genesis and Exodus portions and the book of Mark, so that we can get that all to print, Lord willing, sometime this summer. And after Acts is taught here, Jason will be moving into the book of Romans in the fall. This means that translating the portions he will need for that is the next major project on my plate. Romans should prove to be very challenging but exciting to translate. I am so thankful to have all the great help, and if you would like to pray specifically for the men involved in this task (including Jason), they are: Joshua, Tingon, Ambox, Welsen, Agabus, Pol, and Alis. Please pray for us, as we grapple with how best to express some of the deep theological truths found in this book into the Tobo language in a clear and meaningful way.
This October, we plan to head back to the US for a 6-month furlough (yes, it’s coming up on 2 years already since we were last back home!). The reason for the shorter term and furlough this time around is that we would like to adopt a little brother or sister for Elijah. You could be praying with us in this. We look back at how God so graciously brought Elijah into our lives, and look forward to seeing how He might add to our little family again! (This also explains the push to translate ahead into Romans, as this is what we as a team see the church will need to be taught for the months we will be absent.) We are so thankful for the extra encouragement that our new partners the Williamsons should be when we are away as they move in and dive into learning the local language and culture and making friends here. Please remember Jason and Nisae in your prayers as well, as they get ready to move in this fall!
Elijah playing in a nearby stream
Elijah continues to grow taller and smarter and ever busier these days. He never ceases to amaze us with some of the things he says and does. In the speaking department, he comes up with comments like “Konnichi-wa!” (Japanese for good afternoon- gleaned from a video—and no, we are NOT teaching him Japanese in here!) and “Oh, man!” Or “Wow! Cool!” or, when asked if he wants another helping of dinner- “Uhh- I’d better not right now..”. Like most 2-year-old boys, Elijah loves to play outside with his friends, find the nearest sources of water and mud and make sure he gets covered with it, and find bugs. One of his favorite bugs is the gbinamnam (praying mantis). In fact, he even gave Janeene a sweet card for Mother’s Day with some praying mantises he had drawn on it for her! Lizards are a real source of joy for him as well, and the whole house reverbates with his excitement when one is found scurrying across the floor! Elijah also enjoys playing with, drawing, and talking nonstop about airplanes, fixing up around the house with his little hammer and pliers, helping in the kitchen, and doing somersaults all over the place. He provides a lot of amusement to our friends who come over to visit with his friendly funny manner. We think he’s a great little guy and a blessing from God!
You, too, are a blessing to us. We could not be here if it weren’t for you! Thanks so much for all your prayers and support!!
For His Glory,
Chad, Janeene & Elijah
