September 2011— GOD WILL WIN
Dear family and friends,
We need your intercessory prayers, as our team of three women head to Papua New Guinea for the next month. Bonnie Walters (from New Hope Christian Church in Memphis, TN) and Gail Heffron (from Trent Church of Christ in Dexter, Oregon) will be accompanying me and we will be ministering together. At the same time three men on the FAITH COMES BY HEARING recording team are traveling toward Madang, and we will all meet up in Tiap village, out in the Aruamu area. Steven Dazim, Aruamu Translation Coordinator, has been organizing the best readers amongst the Aruamu folks in the village to continually practice reading the Aruamu New Testament out loud. This has been going on for months in preparation for the pivotal task which is about to begin: the recording of the entire New Testament in the Aruamu language.
In addition to the plan for facilitating the recording the New Testament, our team has other ministry opportunities: Bonnie will be leading a Prayer Retreat Weekend for Aruamu leaders October 7-8-9. We will also be leading a Children’s Bible Story Day October 15, featuring stories from the book of Daniel (which is now translated and in the process of being Comprension Checked.) I will be meeting with Aruamu Literacy Committee and Translation Team to flesh out our translation and literacy plans for the next months and to check some scripture drafts as time allows.
A brutal attack
As we and the Aruamu leaders have been planning toward this time of ministry, Satan has been at work in the Aruamu area, sneaking around seeking whom he may devour. Ten days ago a close family member of Steven Dazim’s was brutally attacked. No one knows why. The victim was entirely defenseless. Lasting damage was done. The perpetrators are still at large. The powers that be in the village are investigating and trying to get beneath the whole thing, that justice can be done. Steven brought his dear one, the victim of the attack, to the hospital in Madang and surgical repair has taken place. Emotional scars may remain for a lifetime. Steven has been reading the Psalms out loud in his family setting, in an effort to comfort and to quell nightly fear that floods in.
Two days ago, right before Steven and his family left Madang to travel back out to the village, he Skyped with me and said:
“Marsha, PLEASE ask everyone to pray. Satan came inside and is trying to stop God’s work. We need God’s protection and his “stomach easiness” (peace.) I have been worrying that this bad thing that has happened will block the recording of the Bible, and we would have to cancel. We have waited for this Bible recording for so long. We cannot let this be blocked. Please ask everyone to pray that we will be safe from Satan’s attacks. Pray for “stomach easiness” for us. Pray that God’s work will go ahead and nothing will stop it. GOD WILL WIN.”
What faith our dear brother Steven displays. He and his family are SO dear to us! You can see why! We have lived side by side in Tiap village for many years. We have truly enjoyed our long, deep friendship. We have worked together on the translation of the entire New Testament, and now continue on the Old Testament. We all feel like family to each other. His kids seem like my kids; my kids seem like his kids. I am grieving with the Dazim family as they deal with this trauma.
So, our ministry team is going into this painful situation saying, “Lord, use us to minister healing to a hurting young one, a hurting family, a hurting clan.”
In the meantime, would you please join us in praying for Steven’s insightful requests? Steven knows that getting everyone in a village to work together on a big project like recording the New Testament, when a crime of this nature has been committed will be a huge challenge. The culprits are out there, and they are related to half the village. And the injured person and family have all sorts of painful memories and fears. Please pray, as Steven has asked, that “God’s work will go ahead and nothing will stop it!” Pray for safety. Pray that many people in this very oral culture will ultimately engage and be impacted by the Word of God as they HEAR it. GOD WILL WIN!
Blessings,
(for Nathan too!)
