Thursday, January 29, 2015

Working ourselves out of a job

Jeremiah and April Markley were students in my phonetics class in 2000. They left here to establish a church among the Dinangat people of Papua New Guinea. Last year they had spent some time away from the Dinangat village that they had been living in. When they went back they were encouraged to find the Dinangat Bible teachers faithfully teaching God’s Word and leading their church. During their absence, Markley’s left an HF radio with the Dinangat people so that they would be able to communicate with them from the city that they were living in. Unfortunately, the radio broke and they lost communication with the Dinangat believers. Jeremiah wrote:

While we missionaries were frustrated about this, we discovered later that the church in Dinangat was actually devastated! In their minds, losing contact made them feel a bit lost, they worried about us, not knowing how we were faring in the town of Goroka. Not knowing much about this town, they worried about their missionaries: Were they attacked by “rascals (criminal gangs)”? Were they finding enough food? In this time, they also had some major natural events; heavier wind than they’d experienced in many years, rainstorms that caused major flooding that sent man-sized boulders careening down the mountainside, carving new gorges as it went, wiping out gardens and ruining some houses. Many people in the villages who oppose God’s Word pointed and mocked, “Now that your missionaries are gone, God is going to punish you for letting them come in! You won’t survive!” We weren’t there to help them process these events, to lead them and advise them. They couldn’t even reach us by radio. What could they do?! They prayed! They trusted the Lord, they depended on Him, and they came through victorious! Not one person lost their life, no one was even hurt! They saw the Lord provide everything they needed, and their faith grew. Later, Epepe said that even though they were so distraught that the HF radio didn’t work, she thinks now that it was a very good thing. They were forced to depend on the Lord, and they can now give Him the glory for how He protected them when they prayed (not because the missionaries prayed!).

Students in our church planting classes have as an end goal to establish a mature church that can stand on its own. As church planters we are always “working ourselves out of a job.” We do not want the church we plant to be dependent upon us missionaries.

Please pray for us as we train our students in all aspects of church planting. We begin phonetics Feb. 4th. I would appreciate your prayers as we begin to teach a new semester of phonetics.

Bob

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Failure Cannot Negate Grace
by Michael Card

When Jesus is your friend you know you will never be excluded by your failures or shortcomings. We cannot earn more of His love with good behavior. Even as we do not forfeit His love when we fail. He loves us as we are and not as we should be. We don’t change so that He will love us. He loves us so we can change.