Monday, November 8, 2010

Faithful women of Mibu

One of the things I've been looking forward to upon our return to Mibu was sitting in on some of the ladies meetings. Several months ago our co-worker, Brooke Tartaglia, starting meeting with the ladies on Saturday mornings to share a short lesson and pray together. I had been hearing about the growth of the women and their desire to meet together and pray and was anxious to see it for myself.

This last Saturday they were meeting in the village of Beng and as eager as I was to go I was tempted to skip this one because the hike to Beng is much more difficult than the hike to Mibu and my knees and pelvis had been giving me trouble. But my wonderful husband knew how much I needed a break and strongly encouraged me to go down. He offered to watch the kids and even made me my own walking stick to aid in the hike. I was really thankful that I was able to get out and the hour plus hike gave me some much needed quiet time with the Lord that has been lacking lately.

Once there I could see that the women were happy that I had gone and I was excited to be there and see firsthand what a Mibu women's prayer meeting looked like. 12 women plus myself ended up gathering in the small schoolhouse in Beng. My dear friend Wunjo led the time together. She shared 10 prayer requests from the previous week and they each took turns praying for those items - anything from sicknesses to outreaches. It was so neat to see their concern for others in the community and the need to see God's word continue to go out to further villages. The prayer request that stood out to me the most was from my friend and work helper, Mangaveng. Her husband has another wife and she is not interested in attending the Saturday meetings. Mangaveng was praying that she would have a change of heart and start going. I kept thinking how if my husband took on another wife I would have a lot of animosity toward her and be tempted to not think of her or pray for her. I was very encouraged to see that she cares for this other young woman and for her spiritual growth!!

Would you please continue to pray for these women. That their time together would be fruitful, that they would see God's faithfulness in answering prayers, that they would be an encouragement and testimony to their husbands and the other women in the community and that they would grow in their love for the Lord. If you would like to prayer for them by name the ladies that met last Saturday were Wunjo, Mangaveng (mang-uh-veng), Nema (nay-ma), Gipain (ghee-pine), Daiyel (die-el), Mangge (mang-gay), Laoo, Biop (bee-ope), Wep, Nimoke (nee-mo-kay), Nansi, and Joonumeng (jew-nuh, mang). Also, I just found out today that Nimoke's husband is against her attending these meetings as well as the literacy class she has been going to. He thinks it will give her bad thinking (if I understood her correctly) and has forbidden her to go. She is going to take two weeks off in hopes that during that time he will change his mind. Please pray that he will have a change of heart and allow her to continue attending both of these meetings. Wunjo also told me that when they meet in Mibu (every other week) the women from Beng don't usually go so that would be another prayer request.

Some additional prayer requests for our family would be:

1) We are fairly certain that Geoff broke a rib when he slipped on the trail yesterday. Please pray for quick healing for him.

2) We have only had 2 or 3 full nights of sleep (until 5 or 6am) without Maddie and Abby waking up 2-4 times each night since we got here. We are exhausted and would love to be able to sleep through the night again. Last night was a record... over 10 times awakened by one thing or the other.

3) Pray that I would be able to find some time to keep learning the language here. We have stopped nap time for the girls to help with the night time waking and I am homeschooling now so my schedule is very full with hardly any time to do anything other than take care of the kids.

Thank you for your prayers!!

The Husas

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