From Opposition to Acceptance!

We have an exciting update to the situation we reported on in our last update about the outreach in Sindama! If you recall the teachers had said that many people (mostly led by one individual) were strongly opposed to the gospel message upon coming to the point of realizing that accepting the truth that God alone is the creator of everything would mean leaving behind a longstanding traditional belief that they themselves are deities of a sort. The confrontation grew intense, and the teachers continued to make the trips to keep developing this gospel message to those who still wanted to hear.

Well you prayed, and the Lord worked amazingly as he always does! It was reported to us recently that Kips, the main instigator in all this (along with those following his lead) continued to come to the teaching. Whether his motivation was to be present in order to oppose, or maybe his conscience being pricked by the Holy Spirit compelling him to keep listening, he and the others continued to come to the daily lessons. When the teachers finally got to the point of teaching about Jesus' life, death and resurrection Kips was moved to the point of tears! Somewhere along the way he must have begun to entertain the possibility that we are indeed created by God alone and that we are made to be in a relationship with him. Somewhere in there he must've begun to agree that our sin separates us from God and that God promised to make the necessary moves to bring us back to him. When Jesus' story was presented Kips must have seen all the pieces come together in that one person and to put his trust in him! Kips broke down in tears publicly and announced his faith in Jesus while also saying how sorry he was for opposing them so strongly!

I don't know about you, but WOW! When we meet opposition like this we can know, as the Mibu teachers do, that God is the one who works in peoples' hearts! Kips presented a seeming impossibility, but God moved him!

Originally we could only report somewhat ambiguously that a small handful of people were left looking to Jesus. But most recently it's been reported that at least 62 people in Sindama are new Christians! What a praise and a reminder that we can't take for granted who's heart God will move in!

Okay so zoom out from Sindama, and make your way up the mountain a ways and zoom back in to the village of Joso. If you recall the Mibu church did an outreach there a couple years ago. Joso is experiencing God at work too with a fledgling church continuing to receive teaching and growing in their faith. They too are not immune to opposition. There is one family there who has remained opposed to the teaching. Their young adult son, Semi, is a believer who just recently passed away from mouth or throat cancer. His family is blaming the Mibu church for his death (even though they helped raise money to get him to the hospital and try to get the care he needs), saying that they are the devil and that they caused this illness to befall their son. Usually when someone dies in Mibu friends and family all gather to view the body and mourn before burying it. Semi's family would not let any of the Mibu believers come to mourn before burying him. They literally blocked the roadway to keep them out. With all the other people from other areas coming as well to mourn, and hearing what Semi's family is saying about the church the Mibus are concerned that it will put a damper in other villages' willingness to hear the gospel message. Please be in prayer for this situation as Semi's family is even talking about taking the Mibu believers to court over their son's death! If we learned anything from Sindama, we know that this is not beyond God's control or ability!

Please continue to pray for the ever growing number of believers in the Mibu area; for the testimony of the church, the teachers taking the word to various places, for hardened hearts to be changed. Thank you so very much for your role in the Mibu Ministry as you faithfully pray!

First Mibu Ministry News of 2020

Greetings from the highlands of Papua New Guinea! We're well overdue for an email to give you all the latest and greatest with the Mibu Ministry.

First we wanted to get you up to date on a recent outreach effort by the church in Mibu, in a place they were invited to called Sindama. I spoke with Sesi recently, and he informed me that a large contingent in Sindama has rejected this message after hearing it. As many of you know, most of the places that have asked the Mibu church to bring the gospel message to them have responded favorably to the message. When I asked Sesi what about the gospel message offended them, he said it very clearly has to do with their cargo cult beliefs where they equate the fact of procreation of a man and woman to to showing that they are deities themselves. Basically they take the thinking that since we procreate we are obviously gods ourselves. There's so much of their belief system that revolves around this view. The people in Mibu recognize it well, because it is close to what they used to believe. Anyway, once being faced with the propositions that there is but one creator God, who made us, and that because of sin we all fall short of his glory and need a savior, they chose to reject that. We're praising the Lord though for the small handful who have responded to the message about Jesus and are putting their faith in him. The challenge for the church in Mibu now will be supporting and continuing to encourage and grow those believers as they continue to live among the many who will likely ridicule and may even persecute them.

As for our ongoing work translating the bible and creating bible lessons, some years are better than others. The last half of 2019 was really slow and frustrating for me personally. It was difficult to stay focused and to get momentum going in the work. I found myself being faced once again with my own weakness and inability (yup, got lots of 'em), and experiencing those in new and different situations from what I'm used to. Translation was sooo slow. It's challenged me again about what it means to look away from myself and to the Lord for what is needed to accomplish what he brought us here to do. It's also challenged me to be content with certain changes in situation which my brain and my heart say are not advantageous to the work. Yet I know that the Lord has allowed us, if not even purposed us to be in this situation. For what reason? I'm afraid I don't know that. I suppose I can let go of needing to know why, and keep getting on with using what the Lord grants me to have to do the work that he has for us, trusting that he will also provide all that is necessary to accomplish it. So here's to gratitude, renewed focus and dependance on the Lord, and success (as God defines it) in this start of 2020!

We're excited that, for the first time as a family since moving out of the bush, we finally have plans to spend some time in Mibu! March 10-19 is when it seems it's going to happen. I say 'seems' because the dates have moved around a bit as we try to settle the logistics. I've been into Mibu a number of times, but the rest of the family has not. It should be a great time to reconnect with friends and leaders there, and of course to accomplish some translation tasks which can only be done in Mibu. We're also hoping and praying that our house is not requiring any major attention which will take time away from more important things.

Speaking of housing. It may seem like a long way off, but we're already starting to think about our planned home assignment which is scheduled to begin summer of 2021. Mostly we're starting to keep our feelers out for housing. In the past, we had a mission house available which made it easy. But times and circumstances change and the mission house no longer exists. We've exhausted other possibilities too, and so are faced with the decision between renting or buying a house. With our kids getting a bit older and the prospect of more frequent, short term stints in the US, we're feeling it's time to get serious about a mortgage. So we're trying to pinch more pennies and save for a down payment. We're also taking the time between now and then to continually ask the Lord for clear direction and provision regarding such a big financial decision.

Most of us think of chilly weather and snow over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Contrary to that, we spent ours on vacation in the hot, equatorial sun of Madang. Our time down there was sweet and refreshing (thanks to the AC in the guesthouse). We spent time out on our little sailing outrigger, Shan Skailyn, and we tried unsuccessfully to fish, and visited various beaches and met different people. Then we topped it off with 3 nights at the Madang Resort. The latter is what we opted as a family to do instead of Christmas gifts to one another this year! It made for a much more low-key celebration of the birth of our Savior! We arrived back in the cool highlands on January 6th, and have hit the ground running ever since, and feeling ready to dig in and continue our labors for the kingdom.

We couldn't be here, and couldn't do this work without your friendship and your prayers and financial support! We appreciate so much all who are led to contribute to us and the ministry in Mibu! Thank you! If you haven't had a chance yet, and are wishing to contribute with your finances, please follow the link. https://ethnos360.org/missionaries/geoffrey-and-shannon-husa

January 4th marked 16 years since moving to Papua New Guinea to minister to the remote Mibu people! 16 years of God's faithfulness in provision, direction, loving care, and growing his kingdom!