Bidding farewell

(apparently something got messed up with this the first time we sent this a couple days ago, so we're resending it)

 

Yesterday I had another one of those really cool moments with my friends down in Mibu. It was one of those moments where I got to see yet another part of the big picture come together in such a way that it really effects things and gets people excited!

 

We were having our weekly meeting to go over next week's lesson material and discuss various issues of the church. One of the things on my agenda lately has been to prepare them for an upcoming church planting consultation that we're having. In this consultation our efforts here will be measured against a model of what we see a mature church looking like. The purpose is just to get an experienced outsider's perspective on things and for us and the church here to be encouraged about how we carry on in our ministry. I need to prepare the guys for this consultation by just familiarizing them with the various points that will be used for the evaluation. However, at the moment, I'm not ready to give them the whole spiel. But I did want to start warming them up to the thought; kind of prime their minds for what I'll explain to them later.

 

So after we went through our study of next week's lesson I pointed them to Acts 20 where Paul is bidding farewell to the Ephesian elders. I've not been able to take my mind off this passage all week. It happens to be one of the passages I'm translating right now. But specifically one verse in the passage really has stood out to me. Verse 26 where Paul essentially tells these elders of the church, in which he labored hard for 3 years, that he is free from any guilt should any of them fall away. Most of our English translations don't make this very clear, but that's what Paul was saying. He's labored hard and didn't hesitate to teach them the whole will of God for their lives. Now it's time for him to go and he KNOWS that his job is done. He's confident that he's done everything that he could possibly do there. It's totally in their hands now.

 

Sitting there with a group of about 8-9 guys in the hut I told them that the work we're doing here is going to finish some day (not anything they haven't heard before). One day we're going to tell them the same thing as Paul when we leave. We intend to teach you everything we know and when that's done we're leaving it in your hands. We aren't going to be responsible for what you do with it after that. It's up to you to take this and keep going with it. If you don't it won't be our fault (assuming that we do indeed finish our course well here). It's hard to describe their reactions. They looked around at each other nodding and the energy level of the conversation picked up a notch. They'd obviously been affected by the implications of Paul's farewell. We talked about it for about a half hour or so after that before I headed back up to Tibu.

 

It was a refreshing reminder to everyone regarding this task of making disciples that has been given to us. And in a culture where something such as the local church is typically expected to be held together by someone from the outside this comes as a reality check. It really seemed quite powerful. For me the wider context of Pauls statement of verse 26 really brought back the importance of not only the message we speak and teach, but of the life we live here. One day I ought to be able to say that they've not only heard the gospel, but also seen it in action in a way that they can reproduce. Enough so, even, that I can expect them to be responsible for themselves in living and producing the fruit of that message themselves. Our responsibility, similar to the watchman of Ezekiel 33, will be finished. Or better yet 'transferred'. It's a great reminder too as our tendency is strong to keep a firm grip on everything and control it to make sure everything continues to go smoothly. But really what we're called to do is relax our grip over time, letting them experience the pressures themselves and grow in their own responsibility and stability.

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Jongetape

Yesterday (actually, a few days ago now... been real busy), I went down to Mibu to have our regular Tuesday morning teachers' meeting in which we go through the teaching for the following Sunday as a group study in preparation for the teaching of it.

 

We were sitting around in Jongetape's house (the lady in the picture) waiting for the rest of the teachers to show up. It was just me and Sesi and his sister and Jongetape, their mother. We were sitting around the firepit just talking about nothing of particular importance. The subject moved to the effect of God's Spirit in Mibu here and Jongetape just lit up and said something to this effect,

 

"It's true! Before we had God's Spirit we were all going around stealing, breaking each others' houses, hurting each other (and a list of other things I can't remember specifically). But now we see the change that God's Spirit is doing in our lives! Before we were that way and now we're different!"

 

I've heard this before. In fact, it's a fairly common thing to talk about here! Pretty exciting, eh. But when Jongetape said this the other day it stuck out to me because it didn't come out as just something that she recognized, but something that was extremely precious to her. Her face and expressions just exuded gratefulness and joy. It was very touching.

 

Needless to say, I had my mind on that even throughout the meeting that followed later. I was so pleased to see that kind of emotion in a place where emotions aren't so readily displayed.

 

Later when the teachers and I were going through the lesson and discussing the various points I noticed that Jongetape was sitting outside the room we were meeting in, just outside the doorway. She had been busy on and off preparing food for the group. During times when she wasn't busy with the food she'd come over and catch what she could of the discussion by sitting in the doorway and listening to the discussion about how the tabernacle that the Israelites were commanded to build was a picture of Jesus. She was totally into it!

 

It was a neat day for me because it was just one of those times where God painted out for me very clearly yet another portrait of someone who's treasure is Jesus. Jongetape knows the work of the Lord in her life and in the life of the community of believers and she values it greatly.

Oops! Correction

I was just noticing a line in my last post that may have been a little misleading.

 

"I can't take too much credit though cause the portions in Acts I was working through this week were not exactly on par with some of the harder stuff I've done so far."

 

And I noticed, too late of course, that my choice of words made it seem as though I was aware of a lessened level of quality in my work and even worse, seeminly OK with it for the sake of getting it done. Please know that had I been more careful with my wording I would have said it more like this,

 

"I can't take too much credit though cause the portions in Acts I was working through this week were just not as hard as some of the more recent stuff I've been working on."

 

So rather than talking about the work not being good I was talking about how it went fast because it was just an easier text to work with. Hope this clarifies where I was coming from!

 

Please know that we do not think lightly of the work we do in translating God's word here. It's God's revelation to us and keeping it accurate is absolutely a high priority. When I do have a bad week as far as quality is concerned (yup, it does happen) know that we consider it cause enough to go back and keep working on it till it meets the standards that our Creator's words to us should have. We do make mistakes and have difficulties but we also trust in the work and strength of God's Spirit in our lives to realize and to work through them.

 

Thanks for understanding my little blooper!

Geoff

Upoo sonda yat yoogumungunyi jajung paptagut, undu wamun

(translation of subject: In the lower two weeks (Iast two weeks) that we've been, what's happened, it's talk)

 

Wow! This week I actually managed to get through my goal for exegesis. My goal was to exegete/study and 'transfer' the meaning of 90 verses into the Mibu language; a goal I've not been able to attain for a while as I've moved more away from narrative and into more difficult texts. But after 50+ hours of sitting at a blasted computer, it got done. I can't take too much credit though cause the portions in Acts I was working through this week were not exactly on par with some of the harder stuff I've done so far. There were also not a lot of new terms that I had to put time and effort into getting ironed out. It was just a pretty fast paced week where everything was getting done as planned. I like those when they happen! Lest you think I just translated 90 verses in their entirety this week, what I actually got done this week was in preparation for next week, of which I'll spent the entirety, working with my translation helper to get him to be able to say large portions of the text so I can record it. (More about that in the next update) From there I've still got a lot of work to do before the text is ready to be called scripture; 2-3 more weeks of full time work before that 90 verses is at a point where I'm ready to have a translation consultant check it out.

 

The week prior, I finished working through the final touches of the gospel portions that we had checked. Implemented needed changes and then checked the bigger changes to make sure they were still understood well. Ahhhh! Good to get that done.

 

The teachers' sense of responsibility really shone this morning. Last week they all went to the coast to sell their coffee and were gone most of the week. That meant that none of the teachers, except for one were available to study through the lesson in preparation for teaching. Since so many people were gone and they usually stay longer than expected we decided that this week there wouldn't have a church meeting. We'd just pick things up again next Sunday. Well, a majority of the people were back from Saidor by Saturday evening and a group of the teachers took it upon themselves to spend the evening preparing for the lesson and make plans for teaching it in the morning. So they sent word this morning (the morning of) that they were wanting to go on with the teaching. Of course, that's OK! So Skyler and I went down to Mibu to meet with the other believers. The teachers did great and it was a wonderful and worshipful meeting. One thing I'm seeing more of is people who will speak up after a point is made and say something to the effect of, "Man, I'm really happy to learn this about God. Since God is so great let's say a prayer of thanks right now!" Or likewise with a song of praise. That happened twice this morning! It's just so exciting to see them growing in these little ways!

 

I'm so happy to see how God is working in these Mibu people's lives that I think we ought to all pray a prayer of thanks to God. Give God glory for the mighty work that only He can do in people's hearts! Take a moment to think... He actually changes peoples' hearts. No man can do that! He makes us WANT to love him and gives us the strength to live lives that reflect that love!

To Tariknan

My eyes were burning. I was so extremely tired I could hardly take it... being in a meeting that is. We were in Mibu having a meeting about the future of Bible teaching in Tariknan. What is the Mibu church going to do to ensure the continuation of the teaching there, having recently dealt with the loss of the primary teacher there? That's what the meeting was about. But honestly I wanted the meeting to be any time but then, cause I just couldn't keep my eyes open! Managing to keep my eyes open and my attention sporadic at best, I happened to catch little points here and there as the meeting continued. But honestly, I just couldn't follow it... too tired! What's wrong with me?! I slept good last night. It doesn't help that we're sitting/lounging on the cool, comfortable bamboo floor of Kitanoo's hut.

 

After about 2 hours it seems like things are wrapping up and Sesi starts summarizing the points that have been decided on. I was snapped out of my state of semi-consciousness as he moved through the points and as I realized just how great the decisions were that they came to. They've decided that this Thursday morning, the whole lot of them (about 10 guys; teachers and leaders here in the Mibu church) are going to go to Tariknan for a couple days. About a month ago it was decided that two teachers from here in Mibu would be going to Tariknan to continue the teaching. Now that number has gone up to three. But first they want to assess the situation. Are the people there wanting to see the teaching continue or are they really discouraged? They've heard that there are many there who are anxious to get the teaching going again. Is this really the case? How can we encourage them about the impending teaching? Logistically, what are we dealing with? Will our brothers and sisters there help the teachers with food when they're there to teach or do we, here in Mibu, need to find a way to support the teachers there? Where will the teachers stay? Where will they teach? These are the types of questions this group of guys will be going to answer at the end of this week. They also want the people in Tariknan to see that this is a unified effort of the church in Mibu, not just some guys here and there that want to go teach something.

 

"Wow!" I thought. How cool is that. I might as well have not even been there at that meeting and these guys thought through the whole thing very well and took the initiative to make sure that things keep moving forward. How awesome is that? Yet another sign of how the Spirit is moving in these peoples' lives, making their concern for their brothers and sisters and for the continuing spread of God's precious word so real.

 

As for me, I'd better get a good night's sleep tonight.