There I stood, covered in blood not my own and standing in the doorway of a tribal hut as 4 angry men wielding various weapons tried to push past me and get to the woman who knelt behind me on the bamboo floor, weeping and clinging to me. The men were telling me and my coworker to leave, to let them kill her. She had been in an argument with her husband who had taken a second wife and during the argument she had accidentally cut him while trying to attack his new wife. It was her husband’s blood that I was covered in. He was demanding blood for blood. But we didn’t move. We knew these men; they were our friends, our language helpers and guys that we hung out with on a regular basis, and to see them like this was a stark reminder to us that our people are still in darkness. The lady was brought out of the house to where our houses are, where they tied her to a tree until her husband’s anger had subsided enough that it was safe for her to go home.
Fights are common in our village as the kids are taught from a young age that when someone hurts you, the right and fair thing is to reciprocate in an equal or greater capacity. It makes us sick to our stomachs when we see parents drag their children, screaming in fear, back to be beaten by a kid they have just hurt. It is hard not to get angry when the spiritual leaders in our village tell us not to give medicine to the sick but instead let them die because they are lazy and don’t listen to their teachings. Our people need a heart change that only comes through our Savior and we are working hard so that they can one day know Him as we do.

As human beings, we have been created by God with the need for relationship and community. For believers, this goes one step further. We have the need for fellowship with other followers of Christ. We have never felt that need for fellowship and community more strongly than these last few months while we were living in Lembena without coworkers, surrounded by people who speak a different heart language, have different cultural customs, and are trapped in darkness with no true knowledge of their Savior. Although ministering in this context can feel isolating at times, we are so thankful for His indwelling Spirit who helps us and sustains us through hardship. We are grateful for the prayers of His Church that strengthens and empowers us to keep going. We know that whatever the Lord asks of us, through His Spirit, He also enables us to accomplish, and in that there is great encouragement and hope. He has called His children to bring the Good News to all the nations and we can trust Him to be with us in that task. Our hope and prayer is that one day our Lembena neighbors and friends may become our brothers and sisters in Christ and we can enjoy that sweet fellowship with them.

The Hughes Are Back!

Along with providing His Spirit to enable us to do this work He has called us to, God has also provided us with two amazing sets of coworkers. Our coworkers, the Hughes, returned from their nine month stateside Home Assignment and joined us back in Lembena in late August. We are so thankful to have them back in here with us. It’s been so encouraging to catch up, work alongside, and see our kids get along so well together. They jumped right back into life here in Lembena with several big events in the village happening since they arrived, including deaths, fighting and illnesses.

Village Life

These last few months in our village have been very busy with major events seeming to happen on almost a daily basis. We had just arrived back from a break in town when we heard shouting and were told that a stone had broken loose at a nearby spring and fallen on a lady who was filling water. We grabbed several crow bars and made the hour long hike to where she was, only to be met with the heartbreaking sound of people wailing, as the rock had crushed her to death. Good friends of ours had their house burn completely to the ground with all of their possessions still inside, due to an out-of-control garden fire. A lady was brought to our village with her ankle almost completely severed from her leg (I’ll refrain from posting the graphic picture) because her husband accused her of being unfaithful and hacked her leg with his machete. She was medevaced the next day. A man was brought to our village convulsing and foaming at the mouth, so we helped give him medicine to control his seizures. A plane was dispatched to take him to the hospital but his family refused to let the doctors look at him as they believed it was a spiritual sickness and the doctors would be no help. We could go on and talk about attempted murders, theft, clan warfare, and the like. We will definitely have some stories to tell when we see you next but we say these things so that your prayers may be targeted and specific. This work is hard but our God is faithful and we have been able to see how these events have helped us have a better understanding of our people’s worldview. We are becoming Lemben so that when we share the Gospel we can share it as an insider and in a way they can understand. Please remember us in your prayers us we continue to learn the Lembena language and culture.

• Praise: The Hughes made it back from their Home Assignment and have settled back into bush life well.
• Pray: For continued patience, grace and wisdom in parenting.
• Praise: One of our co-laborers serving in a Sepik bush location just passed his final language evaluation and is now able to begin teaching chronologically in the tribal language!
• Pray: For endurance in language and culture learning, and for wisdom and grace in our interactions with the Lembena People, so that we can be living out the Gospel now even before we can communicate clearly.
• Praise: For the Maliyali people and missionaries who are going through the gospel teaching for the first time in the Maliyali language! Pray for the Maliyali people to have receptive hearts and that they will very clearly see their sin and their need for a Savior.

In His Strength and Power Alone,
Micah, Laura, Adalia and Declan