A Biblical Secret Menu?

 

Travels Tomorrow we leave our temporary home in northern California to begin a jaunt across the country to drop the boys off at their respective colleges. Tim will begin his classes in Ohio on the 18th and Elias will begin his in Wisconsin on the 25th. Noah will join us for the first part of the trip and will fly home from Wisconsin. We plan to be back in California on Labor Day so that Elizabeth can be settled to begin her classes on 2-September. We would love to see aas many of you as we can on this trip - but know that we cannot get to everyone. We will do more visiting soon. A Biblical Secret Menu? "We know that you are hiidng the secret! The missionaries have helped you and you are not telling it to us." Mesi bible teachers, especially Metiu and Sidop, are facing increasing pressure from a group in the community that is convinced that secrets in the Bible lead to material wealth. They think that the teachers have discovered that knowledge and are keeping that secret to themselves. They are wrong. The truth is Metiu, Sidop, and others have planned, worked, and saved for things like metal roofing for their houses and water storage tanks. By simply being faithful and following instructions, they have been able to grow, dry, and sell vanilla when others haven't. They stand out in the community because of their confidence that success is a lot more about obedience to plainly given instructions. That is their powerful secret. It is what makes them great at new or more technical things. It is also what makes them good bible teachers - they have learned to take God at His word and it shows in what they do and how they talk about it. As they stand out, other have noticed and tried to understand the difference. Some have decided to listen to and try to immitate the teachers in what they do. Others, steeped in historical Mesi culture and attitude, have decided that it is unseen special spiritual power at play in bringing such apparent success to the bible teachers. From their point of view it is a ritual or the speaking of a secret name that is producing good vanilla and money. In their minds, the bible teachers are selfish for not sharing those secrets with the rest of the community. Their thought is, "we share common anscestors which is where the power is obviously coming from, you should give us access to something that we have rights to." To many of us that are from western cultures, this may sound like an abstract issue - something that wouldn't necessarily impact our day-to-day. For Metiu and the other bible teachers, it is a much more serious situation. This last weekend, the accusers in the community called the bible teachers together and threatened them. Metiu's wife, Kilingam told us that she hid herself and cried as the false accusations and threats were made. If you are not already doing it, would you take time to pray daily for the Mesi church leaders and their families as they facing this increasing pressure? Pray for us too as we seek to encourage them from a distance.

Water is a precious resource in Mesi-land. Here, Metiu inspects the water tank that he purchased with his own money. The biblical principles of diligence and faithfulness have practically improved life for his whole family. A Quick Update When we came back this time, we had been telling folks that we were planning for a year of home assignment. It looks like that is changing. In June and July, we sat down and thought through some longer term needs and that has us making a change of plans. We hope to inform you all a bit more about direction soon, but for now we are just saying that it looks like we will need to be back in PNG from January through May of 2026 - setting things up for future ministry with the Mesi church and helping out on the field. Thanks so much for praying! Grace and peace to you all, Nate for us Sidop came over for a chat when we were in the bush in May. Here he is checking out some of the new translation that our co-worker Chris uploaded onto his phone. He and his wife Numa have been faithfully serving their community - teaching and encouraging others in God's word and also meeting their practical needs as our trained medical assistants. They are facing more pressure than most of the other bible teacher families because they are tied by marriage to those that are leading opposition to the truth in the community.