PNG Mission Project Day 7: training starts

In our group Quiet Time this morning, we looked at Psalm 139 and 1) Who God is, 2) what God did, and 3) what I will do - a good pattern for helping us to mediate on a passage. I got up at about 5:30 am and had my "shower" in the dark (with my new camping light stuck to the metal wall) before we met together. [I'm getting better drawing the water out of the well :-) ]

Today was the first day (of 3) of our training for the local church. We got started an hour late because the church bell rang 20 minutes late and then the second bell never rang (the people are used to a warning bell & a final bell). So we asked someone to ring the 2nd bell and our attendance went up from 4 to 15 (11 men & 4 ladies). 

Because they spoke only a little English (they could understand more), We had to flex a bit - we paired up someone from our project with each of the 15 trainees to coach them during the session - that worked great! Because we were late starting, we invited them to join our compound for lunch and we finished our last session of the day there.

In our last session we taught them how to share the "Knowing God personally" booklet and then afterwards we all went house to house sharing the Gospel. I'm including a photo of the trainees practicing with the KGP booklet. I went out with Haue (pronounced "How A"), who knew English very well, which was great because he could interpret what I was saying into Motu whenever I suspected that someone didn't understand me. Haue shared with one older man who already was a Christian, and then I shared with Oa, who was probably in his late 60s. I shared in English and then let Haue find out if Oa understood and then translate the prayer at the end. After praying, Oa said, with tears in his eyes, that he had heard much of this before, but no one had ever explained it to him & brought him to a point of decision before! I asked Oa when did he receive Christ and he said "just now" - and I asked him where is Christ right now and he said "in my heart"! I'm including a photo of Oa & I and of Haue & the guy he shared with. 33 of us shared the Gospel with 79 people and 60 prayed & received Christ! And Matthew & I were the only white people :-) Afterwards, one of the trainees asked, "can we do this again tomorrow afternoon?"

I'm uploading some photos, in no particular order :-) One photo shows the 3 tents that us men are in! Notice that the whole area is black sand instead of dirt - it's nice on the feet, except that we have to wear flip flops (jandles/zorries) because of the pig droppings :-\

Thanks so much for praying - God is working!