The faithful anonymous

Mokia, faithful Mesi man, checking to make sure that we have student names written down properly.


²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. - 1 Corinthians 1:26-30

Busy days
These are busy days in the Mesi church. We are spending hours with the church talking about and working through how to be gospel-centered in our homes and in our villages. In our group meetings we are beginning the book of 1 Corinthians and the Mesi church is feeling a real connection with those early Corinthian believers. Our friends love to be reminded that spiritual maturity takes time. As we've encouraged them, they have begun seeking out accountability in their own hamlets. There have been several occasions recently where men have asked others that they trust for wise counsel to come and help them resolve community conflicts. There has been a trend in the Mesi church to just get together and do work for each other. They are telling us that working together has made short work of the weeding and caring for their gardens.
We have begun rewriting our evangelistic lessons (60+ teaching sessions that teach from Creation through the Crucifixion) and are training men to teach them. After a trial run here in their own community, we are hoping to unleash them on other villages in the Pal language group. I have to say that the smiles on their faces as they are going back through the same lessons that they heard 4 years ago is so encouraging to me. I wish you all could hear their excitement as they talk with each other about the changes that have come to their own thinking because of God's Word and how others will be changed too.

A team to reach out
This week was also the first week of our outreach literacy school. Yup. Mesi men and women are heading up the next steps of reaching out to their own people. The men in these pictures are the ones that are leaving their own home and work to spend a week at a time teaching others to read and write. We've watched these guys grow together, taking responsibility for tough decisions, responding to questions well, and deferring to each other. 3 years ago, they themselves were just beginning to understand God's great love for the world. Now, they are working to express that same truth through loving their families, learning new truths, and teaching those new truths to others. Guys, these are exciting days!

Faithful and Anonymous
Have you ever stopped to think about the millions of men and women who, because of Christ, are faithfully serving their local communities and their families? Most of these people are not well known. Most of them are not wealthy. Most of them are not considered important by the world that we live in.  Most of them hold down regular jobs right along with their kingdom work. Many of them have had to deny themselves this world's comfort or advancement in order to serve faithfully. Many of them continue to serve in the midst of opposition. Most of them will never post to a blog about what God is doing in an exciting and distant location. You won't hear their names mentioned from pulpits. Their life stories do not necessarily capture our attention. Yet, in God's great grace, He has chosen them to bring great glory to His name for all of eternity. I know that someday, you and I, relatively anonymous, will watch as God calls out these men and women by name and honors them with fitting great rewards. I know that I, with all of the strength that my new body will have, will be shouting; "Great and Mighty, Worthy of Faithful Service, God of Grace, Eternal, True, and Holy"... and when I recognize one of these faithful Mesi men or women called out by the King, anonymous no longer, I'm going to really flip out! Please, do not stop praying with and for us for growth in the Mesi church. We cannot wait to tell you in person about the things that God is doing here.

Speaking of which - we are coming back to the States for the months of May-August. Would you like to hear more about what is going on in Mesi-land? How you can get involved? What is next for the Mesi church? Drop us an email or call us. We have a US-based phone number that can take messages 1 (707) 702-2135.  -

Power Stats - Want some things to thank God for - read on.
Here in the bush - more than 50,000 pages of lessons, translated scripture, literacy, and study materials have been printed in the last 4 years.
In the last year - we've been able to provide medicine for more than 300 serious illnesses and wounds.
We've held more than 80 training sessions for Mesi Bible teachers - these guys are taking on Creation to Christ teaching right now - and knocking it out of the park!
We have 40+ trained literacy teachers.

Prayer Stats - Lets trust God together for these things.
We've only done ~1/6 of the job here. In practical terms, that means 250,000 more pages to print, 420 more teacher training sessions, and (since medical care in the country here is really degrading) at least 1,500 more serious illnesses to try to help with.
We are not trying to do all that on our own, but we do need to help with infrastructure. Praying for wisdom in how to meet these giant needs.
We have 6 more months full time here in Mesi-land before we begin to help our boys transition to school out in town. We are also both involved in teams that care for and support the wider church planting effort here. This means lots more travel and discipline in our use of time. 
There are open doors in all 5 of the other Mesi villages. There are also open doors in all 5 Kovol villages (a language group right next door to us). Pray for God to continue to raise up Mesi men and women to grow and shepherd His church. Is God calling you to church-plant in New Guinea? He has the people ready, He provides the strength and wisdom that you'll need.

"I want you to know that I am so happy that Jesus came and died in my place. I wanted to tell you before, but was embarassed about not knowing the language well enough. Now that I have gone to literacy school, I can talk without making mistakes. I'm so happy that I was able to come and live here and learn what God's Word has to say." Sinmin - woman from Kuyu - another language group - who married into Mesi-land in 2013.