Greetings from Papua New Guinea. We're excited to share some more news with you from Mibu! But first we want to thank everyone who makes ministry here in the remote Mibu tribe possible through your regular monthly donations and prayers! We couldn't do this without your support! With that said here are a few points we wanted to update you on.
Giving Tuesday
Today (Nov 27) is "Giving Tuesday". It's a great way to kick off the start of the Christmas season, by giving your time, effort, or finances to meet an area of need somewhere in the world! As you consider making a gift this year, don't forget the importance of church planting ministries such as Mibu Ministry where the gospel is being taken to places that previously had no access to God's word. We're seeing God do amazing things in Mibu and beyond as they maturing Mibu believers continue to spread the good news! We're also training many local leaders who are growing in their ministry responsibilities and vision. If you'd like to make a tax deductible donation toward ministry expenses as we continue to live and serve in Mibu you can follow this link https://ethnos360.org/missionaries/geoffrey-and-shannon-husa.
You might remember that we wrote in our email update recently about specific struggles in the church in Tariknan; the very first outreach the Mibu church did back in 2006. If you missed it, please read the following to catch up https://mibu-ministry.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/not-place-for-compromise.html?m=1. As a matter of updating you, we have been really pleased to see how the church, both in Tariknan and in Mibu, responded! They were able to stand their ground, and refused to participate in the activities of the former legalistic 'church' system that is trying so hard to keep them under it's deceit. At the end, when the final call was made for the ultimate cave-in and participation, not a single person came for the so-called 'pastor' to do his stuff to them. Seeing nobody was interested in his wares, he became angry, threw his religious paraphernalia into the nearby shrubs, and yelled at everyone on his way out! ...Hey, don't let the door hit you on the way out! After years of submitting to their silliness the Tariknan church seems to have finally cut free of the cords that entangled them from the extremely syncretistic, and highly legalistic religious system that had ensnared them for so many generations! From here on out, I think we're finally going to see some growth and maturity there among the believers rather than always being held down and kept stagnant. When you compromise with the world the world holds you back. They stood their ground this time! I think some renewed prayer efforts regarding their maturity are in order folks!
Goings on in Mibu
Please also continue to pray for the leaders in Mibu. I've been working with them a lot since we arrived in March, trying to continually challenge them as leaders toward preparation for elder roles. We've been seeing lots of growth, but also see the need for them to mature in the things they're learning. The biggest lessons with the most impact on their leadership mindset is the idea that in order to lead you must humble yourself and serve. This is the polar opposite of what the world around them says. The world around them emphasizes success and prestige, the indebtedness of those under you, and your own greatness. Jesus says to wash each others' feet, and that the first will be last and the last will be first. I frequently hear these leaders talking about how these concepts challenge their own thinking! Good! We're seeing more and more the results of realizing these truths as their own. I think it's time to take this material and start teaching it to the wider church congregation; both so they know what to expect biblically of their elders, but also for the elders in training to review and be given the opportunity to write some of these things out in small lessons so they, in turn, can teach others up after them when we're gone.
Our 'mantra' since getting back to Mibu has been 'we are leaving soon!' I make it a part of many many conversations, public talks, and teaching and discipleship times. This needs to be looming big in their minds as they're being asked to take some of these final steps toward proper shepherding of God's people in our absence. In some recent discussions with consultants we said that we'd guess it may be time to move out of Mibu within 1-2 years. That won't mean we're done in Mibu, but that the time for our full-time presence will come to an end, and that we'd continue to serve and train itinerantly. It also means we ought to be able to focus more full-time on some of the bigger tasks at hand… mainly translation… just working on it from out in town. So you can be praying for us to discern properly when that time is for us to move out. We feel it's important to have elders in place first. I have a list of 5 guys who I think are nearly there. They're 5 out of the group of 12-16 that I've been training who have a longer history of service to the church where they're faith in service has been tested and proven more than the others. They're also pretty solid theologically, though admittedly not so much when it comes to eschatology; Not YET at least! But I'm working on that!
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