Lift up your eyes!

What you've got there, we'd like some. 

If you've been following our blog over the n last year, you'll have heard us mention the Kovol language group. Located right next door to us here in Mesi-land, they speak an entirely different language and have their own distinct culture. Representatives have been coming from Kovol almost since the beginning of our work here requesting missionaries*. In January, representatives from all of the major Kovol speaking villages presented us with a formal request for NTM to come and work among them. As we have evaluated the maturity of the Mesi church, it's capabilities for outreach both to the remaining 6 Pal speaking villages, and to the surrounding language groups, we have come up with a tentative plan to bring an NTM team on board that will reach out to the Kovol people with support from the Mesi church. That said, we still need to gather first hand information about the Kovol language group. So, on the 19th of December, I (Nate), along with several maturing Mesi believers will meet up with some other NTM missionaries and travel through each of the Kovol speaking villages. We will be explaining exactly what NTM does, discovering peculiarities of the language, and seeking to understand how best to locate a team among them. Pray with us for wisdom and great connections. We are so pumped about the Mesi men and women lifting up their eyes and looking to be part of bring the Good News to their own people and beyond. 

Stretched

Even as we are pumped with the growth of the Mesi church and the work here, we are, more than ever before, feeling stretched. More and more our believing friends are asking us to help them practically apply God's Word and character to their daily lives. And that takes lots of time. We also have 3 levels of Bible lessons to work through.  The literacy school is mostly self-sufficient, but we are beginning a completely new school 3 hours hike away from us in 2 short months. We are training Bible teachers, checking translation for clarity, and are doing basic medical work as well. Along with those things, our house (now, almost 9 years old) is acting its age. We have cranky appliances, cranky batteries, and a cranky roof. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks our cranky internet connection will be replaced with a satellite system. Please don't take this as complaining - just look at these things and pray for us. We want to use our time well. We don't want to waste time on non-essentials. We want to grow in wisdom. 

"How do I apologize to my wife?"  - Mesi believer

Yesterday, as we were walking through Ephesians 3 with some of the believers, a friend took advantage of a pause in the conversation to ask, "How do I apologize to my wife? I'm afraid that if I apologize to her, she will speak bad of me and no longer feel the need to obey me." Traditionally, Mesi men controlled the women by physical and verbal domination. That meant beatings, loudly expresses anger, taking the first/best of everything, and making the women do the more shameful jobs. As they have understood the gospel, the men have shifted away from physical violence and (albeit much slower) shifted away from domination/belittling words. 

So, yesterday, we talked about how it was that Jesus did not consider his position as the eternal Holy Son of God, but gave up his position of honor and rights as king and creator to take our place in shame and death. When the guys were confronted with the picture of a Savior who allowed himself to be mocked and shamed in order to express God's love for us, they spoke up to encourage each other to do the same thing in the home. To not think of their own honor or position as men, but to think of God's love and to honor His name by making things right when they wrong their wives. Praise God with us for the growth in Mesi believers! 

Thanking God for each of you who give and pray for us. 

Nate for us 5

* The first representatives from Kovol came to us in 2010. They brought a smoked rat and a live (but very anxious) chicken in order to curry favor with us. Somewhere in the ancient blog archives is a picture of that rat. When I look at it, it makes me think of the unregenerate heart of man - if you find it, take a look and let me know if it does the same for you.