2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Hello Friends!
Thank you for your many prayers on behalf of the Inapang churches! We are writing today with such an encouraging update for you and your families and hope that you will join us in praising God for His kindnesses to His children around the world! Promise, the single woman who has been working among the Tangguat people next door is back in the tribe after a short furlough and was able to send out a brief report last week. She also has a family visiting who might be interested in joining her in the Tangguat work so they are in the village getting to know our Itutang elders and the Inapang churches that the Tangguat work has been working under. This is an excellent time for the family to hear their stories, their fears and frustrations, and understand the needs of the church and outreach better. It is also a good time to assess if this work is a fit for their family. We are thankful for an encouraging text we received from them as well, so we are including both Promise’s email and the new family’s text here so that you can know how your prayers are at work and how to keep praying. These are real lives. Real souls. Real hurts and struggles. And real victories through Christ alone. Thanks for being part of their salvation and sanctification through your prayers and giving.
Update from Promise:
Hi Bill and Kelley,
I think you would be encouraged if you were here in the village right now. So I want to take a few minutes to report on a few encouragements.
– All four literacy classes are going (simultaneously)! Last time that happened was 2014. I’m encouraged to hear that teachers are being faithful.
– The elders said they had not met for a while, but they did meet along with K. and I. this past Tuesday. They talked about “anointing” T. as elder and desire to do that soon.
– Teaching is going on in Mb village (V. is teaching Luke), Ongi (AA is teaching 2 Thess_
– M. continues to faithfully teach in G village and seems to have done that mostly without A.’s help the last few months.
– New Phase One going on with a small group in G village. They are at lesson 41 and meeting most weekdays. Eight Bible teachers taking turns teaching.
– a Bible conference will be held in Itutang next week. This is just for Itutang, but they decided they would let people from Mb. village stay and listen if they came. A. is going to select a few from G village to come as well.
-Finally had a good rain! The ground was dry and cracked when we arrived, and the new family visiting will hae plenty of water. Thank you for your faithfulness and being willing to do hard things because He is worthy. I’m blessed to be living with the results.
Promise
From a Text Sent out from the visiting family:
The church seems to be doing well. There are so many cultural things that I’m still learning about. From what I gather from talking to Promise and the elders, there are the usual hevis (problems) and such, but the elders seem solid. Today in church they addressed some people who had gone to a (false teaching and) “healing/demon exorcism” (in another village) yesterday. Anton preached on Acts 19 (seven sons of Sceva) and then Colossians 2. Although I could only understand the part s in Tok Pisin, I could tell he knows his Scripture.
As you can see, the church and its work are still going strong. The exciting thing for us in that second text is that once the elders became avid readers and studiers in their mother tongue, we taught them how to read and study in the national language as well. As you know, we are finishing up the NT translation still, and guess what?! We haven’t translated the book of Colossians yet! Anton confronted false teaching from a book that he has been studying in the national language on his own! So thankful for the gift of literacy and the way it is being used to read, study and CONFRONT FALSE TEACHING with the TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE!!!! Please continue to pray for the church elders in each of the Inapang churches that they will spend time in the Word, know God, and walk towards Him in ever increasing holiness letting their light shine in a dark place valley where there is still more work to be done. HE IS WORTH IT!!!!
We are enjoying our last month around our sweet family here and little Ansley Marie as well as our Louisville faith family. Our prayer when we came to live here for many months in the house all together as a family again was that the Lord would give us special times together and grow us closer as a family. He has been so kind and our kids have been so hospitable and flexible with us and our crazy schedules. Thanks for praying for our family. Now, we will head down to our Tennessee faith family next month to begin prep for the upcoming wedding of Sabra to Austin Hedrick. We met as a family and have decided that we will leave August 4th for PNG and then make a trip next year to finish off our furlough time and be with the family as they will all be going through some transitions. We decided as a family, we would all rather us be back together at that point. We are thankful for family who still believes in sacrificing as a family. As one of our daughters said recently, “It still hurts and that’s okay.” That’s where we all are at this point…we are real people with real emotions and are having to choose obedience again, even though it hurts because the King has left us with one job, He is coming back and He is worth It. Doesn’t mean we won’t need heaps of prayers over the next few months that our time would be fat and full of special memories and that when it comes time to kiss that sweet beautiful grandbaby and kiddos goodbye, that He would be our strength once again. Thankful for a Savior who loves us and knows our pain and for faith family that encourage us all along the way to keep our eyes and hearts focused. Please keep the Inapang, their new school project (RVA), and our family in your prayers. The work in them and us…it is not finished yet.
By God’s Grace and For His Glory~
Bill and Kelley
inapangministries 