Tag Archives: intercession

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Day 7: Giving Thanks in Trial and Tribulation

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It is impossible to know at any given moment how our trials are affecting either us or those who surround us as witnesses of God’s handiwork in our lives. During the first several months that we lived in Uria Village back in 1997, things started going haywire. I had gone from being in the best shape of my adult life to almost no ability to function. I slept 12 to 16 hours a day, was sick all the time, and couldn’t think straight. Angela was pregnant with our daughter, having to care for two little boys (3 years and 18 months, respectively) as well as me. Her heart began to sink under the weight of it all.

Garia Crowd compressed

240 of our closest neighbors were watching the drama unfold. As my health deteriorated and Angela’s soul began to anguish, our friends reached out to us. One evening, one of our closest friends warned us not to worry if we heard unusual noises near the house the next morning. As dawn broke we heard the sound of scores of shuffling feet and the murmurs of dozens of people. Every once in a while we’d hear the words “Papa God” (Father God) or “Bikpela” (Lord) float on the surface of the prayers. Around and around our house they marched, praying, asking God to intervene in our troubles. God had used our trials and tribulation to draw these people to prayer, to desperation for Him to do something extraordinary, to call upon Him for help. In reflection, we are very thankful that the Father would use our difficulties to grow the faith of those to whom we went. In the wake of those prayers came a diagnosis for me (hypothyroidism) and relief for Angela. During all the doctor visits, it was strongly suggested by the doctors that we give birth to our daughter in Australia. We went away for a few months and recovered, enjoyed the holidays, and welcomed our daughter into our family.

two men praying

I’ve been wondering lately whether or not the season we are in is not also meant for the good of others. Even as some of the Somau Garia people responded to a call to pray for us in our most desperate hour, I think God is calling believers to encircle the challenge and trial of building a prayer and provision team, to come alongside in those days when resources are short and needs are big, when our energy is spent and more must take place before we can return to Papua New Guinea. I think God is calling believers to encircle the Somau Garia people in prayer, prayer for God’s protection and provision of the people who have both waited and worked for a few decades now toward the goal of getting the New Testament into their heart language. I think that God is calling believers to encircle the whole team that a history altering transformation might take place among the Somau Garia people, that their gifts and energies might be poured out so that Jesus’ name might be known across all of northern New Guinea, perhaps far beyond the borders of PNG to the uttermost parts.

Join us!
I’m praying that as you read this you might be cut to the quick and decide to join the team. If you’d like to join the provision team, click here to see how your donations can get the Word out to the Somau Garia people. If you’d like to join the prayer team, click here to drop us an email letting us know of your desire to pray with us through this great adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Day 6 — Faith and Life Off the Grid

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Lightning spidering across the sky on a dry season night is mesmerizing. And maddening. The clouds that spawn the lightning hold such promise and deliver so little substance. At least that’s how it seemed in the late 1990’s in Uria Village.

Angela and I sat on the steps of our little house staring at the free light show, praying. We had been rationing our water as we watched the level in the fiberglass tank drop an inch or two each day. The clouds would usually gather in the late afternoon or early evening and spew a lot of lightning. No rain. Without rain we’d be unable to stay in the village for lack of water to drink, cook with, wash, etc. Day after day my attitude sank with the level of the water in the tank. I guess I felt like God owed me something. Pity parties are not useful models for prayer. “Oh God, I’ve come out here to the edge of the world to do this impossible work all because you asked me to. The least you could do would be to fill my tank to overflowing . . .” I’ll spare you the running commentary of whining. You get the picture.

2 x 2,000 gallons

2 x 2,000 gallons

A few weeks of this ritual began to take its toll. My selfish demands were going nowhere. God will not be mocked or manipulated into doing my will. To fully appreciate what I am about to tell you, you have to understand the design of my office. It is 11′ x 11′, has large windows on three sides (airflow), and a corrugated zinc-alum roof with no ceiling to muffle any sound from above. I sat down at my desk, opened my Bible, but didn’t read a thing. Instead, I bowed my head and allow the broken, submitted prayer to flow. “Father, you are God. You brought us here. It’s up to you whether or not we remain in the village or go to town to wait for rain. You do whatever is fitting to You. I’m your servant, not your master.” And as I prayed, it sounded like someone was shooting the roof of my office with BB’s. Slowly at first and then a torrent opened up and a month’s worth of rain came in an hour. The boys ran outside, splashing and dancing jubilantly. I stood in the office door and just stared at the rain, slack-jawed. Angela laughed.

Living life off of the grid is standard fare for most Bible translators. It can be wonderful and terrible but almost always faith-building in some way. When we built our “permanent” house in 2000, we installed two 2,000-gallon fiberglass tanks to catch rain water off of the roof. We had several solar panels mounted on a home-made solar tracker. Inside the house we had an 800-watt inverter that changed the direct-current power of the deep-cycle batteries into alternating current that our laptops, stereo, and other appliances could use. For high-load items like our washing machine and power tools we had a generator like what you buy at your local home-improvement store. Our refrigerator and stove ran off of LP Gas (Propane). Not all of it worked perfectly. LP gas refrigeration is a little dicey and very finicky. Even so, these “conveniences” make the task of Bible translation doable. Why?Solar Panel Example compressed

The simple answer is that without them we would spend all of our time washing clothes in the stream, maintaining subsistence gardens, hunting, fishing, carpentry, etc. The men who work alongside us in the task of Bible translation have large extended families that do extra so that they can give time to ministry. We do not. We have Maytag and Makita, DeWalt and ProWatt and Toshiba–and once upon a time, Nissan. Many of these items will need to be replaced or repaired when we return. Would you like to join us in making this possible?

Would You Join Us?
If so, click here to go to the Donate page where you will find instructions about how to partner with us financially. If you’d like to come alongside us in prayer, click here to drop us an email letting us know of your desire to do so. Between now and the year’s end, we are asking God to connect us with 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 special projects partners, and 40 new intercessors.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Day 5: The Wheels of the Work

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The kids had been asleep for a few hours at the other end of our twenty-foot long house. Angela and I were drifting off to sleep, talking quietly, listening to the night sounds of the jungle surrounding our little house. Our dog’s intense barking broke the peace of the moment and signaled to us that something was up. “Brother Todd,” a voice called. Our neighbor was braving our 110 pound Rottweiler-German shepherd to get close enough to get our attention. “It must be serious,” I thought to myself.

“Send Angela, her friend is in trouble. We think she is in labor, but something is wrong. We need help.” Angela immediately leaped out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed her Maglite and headed out the door. I was close on her heels. A few moments later she gave me the news. “Maybe a breach, birth. I didn’t think she was due just yet.” We would discover that it was something more life-threatening than that. I instinctively looked toward the path out of the village. It had been raining a lot and the road was pretty saturated. “Lord, what do I do? Can you get the 4 x 4 out of the village? I need help!”

Nissan Patrol being washed

The Nissan Patrol that played a part in this particular adventure.

We jumped into action. I ran to the house, gathered myself and my things and began loading what I would need in our Nissan Patrol 4 x 4. Angela attended to her friend. Her friend’s relatives got themselves together. I backed the vehicle down close to their “camp”. Angela’s ailing friend, nine guys with knives, and me piled in and headed into the dark, forbidding jungle. Through the bog, onto the main track, through the creek, over the mountain. Sloppy, sloggy, digging new ruts. We were really tearing it up. By grace we made it out to the main road and were headed to the hospital in Madang. Even on the main road, we needed to use power to both axles as the main road is gravel, filled with ruts, potholes, sinkholes, landslides, even stretches where the road is simply what I would call a clay bog, if you can imagine. We made it into the hospital just in time. Our friend was hemorrhaging and needed emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. The baby wouldn’t come for another month!

Tiap Road Ruts

This is perhaps more dramatic than many uses of our 4 x 4, but represents the importance of having the right gear to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a place where there are few resources (like decent roads, hospitals close by, or even electricity in rural areas). The 4 x 4 in Bible translation ministry, as we do it in Papua New Guinea, is a vital tool to help the helpless, get us to and from the village, and support the translation and literacy program in myriad ways. We are looking at options currently–what kind of 4 x 4 will meet the needs of the ministry that God has placed in our hands.

Will You Join Us?
We are on Day 5 of a campaign meant to add 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special-needs financial partners, and 40 intercessory prayer partners to the team. Would you join us? If you’d like to partner with us financially (either monthly or on a special-needs basis) click here to visit the Donate page. If you’d like to partner with us as an intercessor, click here to drop us a note sharing with us your intention to do so.
new Landcruiser

The model of Toyota Landcruiser being sold in PNG currently.

Thank you, friends, and blessings to you!

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Day 4: Ten Years in the Making: Reflections on Translating Mark

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Getting the Word Out Somau Garia Style

Getting the Word Out Somau Garia Style

I think of the guys pictured here when I think of ten years translating the Gospel According to Mark into the Somau Garia language. Don’t picture for a minute a “brave” and lonely translator sitting alone in his study day after day, bent over the desk, scribbling away. My style of working the text over is all about team work and getting people working together rather than doing it all myself.

When I think of the ten years of translating Mark I think of James, pictured on the left. James leads by force of character rather than force. His soft-spoken word carries weight in his community as does is wisdom. I think of Wilolo, also known as Wai (pronounced “why”). Wilolo is longsuffering, faithful, always ready to help. Ezekiel, in the faded red cap, is the father of the group in many ways. His vision and intense passion has turned his Christian name into a name that characterizes his fiery, prophetic personality. Kenny, in the blue shirt, seems ver stern at first, but softens when drawn into a translation problem to be worked out or giving counsel on how a phrase will be understood by hearers. Sominak you met yesterday. Stanley is kneeling on the right. Stanley has been with us from almost the beginning. He once survived being bitten by a Death Adder while attending a worship service being held during a week of translation. God kept him from dying that night and he is still at work today, helping translate Luke and Acts. The man in the colorful, PNG shirt is named Siramia. Siramia is a natural clown, of the physical sort like Dick Van Dyke used to be in younger days. Siramia has fallen on hard times and needs your prayers.

For five years these men taught me their language and their way of life. I knew nothing of their world. They taught me how to count on my fingers, how to hunt pig, how to carve a garamut drum, how their people see the world and all those important events like birth, finding a wife and death. For the next five years I taught them what I knew about how to translate the Bible and together, we drafted, tested, corrected, back translated, checked, and published the Gospel According to Mark in the Somau Garia language. Together we celebrated on Easter 2007 as we sang and danced and sold copies to the 1,000 people who were in attendance for the event.

In September this year, on a visit to Papua New Guinea, I spent time with them again. Ezekiel and I were talking one day. “Ezekiel, we have ten years to finish the other twenty-six. Can we work hard enough to get it done in that amount of time?” Only God knows but we are marking the next ten years for completion of the Somau Garia New Testament.

The biggest hitch in this plan is building the team. In order for Pioneer Bible Translators to be able to send us, we need to build a team of prayer and provision partners. To that end we are setting aside the days remaining in 2013 to connecting with 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special needs partners, and 40 new prayer partners. We started the campaign last Friday. As of this afternoon, God has provided two new prayer partners. PTL!

Would you join the growing team?
If you’d like to partner financially with PBT in sending us out, you can do so by clicking here, which will send you to the Donate page. If you’d like to partner with us in prayer, you may email us by clicking here.

Thank you friends!

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Day 3: Alphabets and Alphabet Makers

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Sominak Yuna

Sominak Yuna

I have a friend named Sominak who lives near Uria Village. He is gentle, intelligent, thoughtful. He has a charming way with people and immediately puts children at ease. He is a school teacher, a leader of teachers. When Angela and I first moved to Uria Village in the late 1990’s, Sominak was working with several other teachers to develop reading primers for Somau Garia speaking children. The idea was to develop a whole library of simple story books, introducing letters, vowel sounds, and simple words along the way–richly illustrated so that young minds could connect the images with the words on the page.

Sominak is gifted at taking the 16 letters of the Somau Garia alphabet and making them interesting. He is an artist who did most of the artwork for the primers, so he can draw a lot of fun cartoons on the board. Imagine having a teacher draw an amazing picture on the blackboard and letting you come forward and write the name below the picture. He knows how to draw the best out of people.

Vowels: A, E, I, O, U. Consonants: K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, X, Y. These are the elements of written Somau Garia. These letters can be combined to make a story about a snake in the jungle or a man who takes off his arms and legs and head to warm them in the sun (weird) or to write Bible verses like the following, “Yesusue pa kapia xekerina kisamaira wati, nupo tatiwopi kanikina, ‘Tini nonomi weinikitari kouwa. Kakixanari taiyeri nikaku. Xuwe. Xoiteu Waiwai Purotai Wese paiya, muanum nono nikau.’ ” which in our mother tongue reads, “But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.’ ” Mark 10:14, Somau Garia translation; ESV

While Sominak’s primary role over the years has been literacy, he has given much of himself to the translation of the New Testament into the Somau Garia language. The Gospel According to Mark has been in use since 2007. The remaining 26 books await translation. Men like Sominak await their translation. The Word of God in the language of the heart has the power to transform a people.

Angela and I long to be in Papua New Guinea again soon, working alongside friends like Sominak, getting the Word out to a people needing the power of the gospel at work in their lives.

Will You Join Us?
Now through the end of 2013 we are asking God to raise up 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special gifts partners, and 40 new intercessory prayer partners to see the Word of God be available in the mother tongue of the Somau Garia people. If you’d like to partner financially with us in this venture of faith, you can click here to visit our Donate page where you’ll find instructions on how to do so. If you’d like to join the cadre of prayer partners, click here to drop us an email informing us of your commitment.

Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving of yourself to get the Word out to a precious people whom God loves very deeply.

 

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Day 1: Dream Becomes Vision Becomes Reality

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Dreams can by misty and formless when they are becoming visions.

Dreams can be misty and formless when they are becoming a vision.

I look back and I see the dreams of yesterday, though mostly formless, possessing enough clarity to bring excitement and motivation to the dreamer. I look in the mirror and I see a very, very clarified dream, energetic and motivational and orderly. I see a vision worth living and dying for. Reflecting on the dream and living in vision, I try to picture the future–how it will all play out, what it will look like when the vision is embraced by others, transformed into something of its own by a community of fellow visioneers.

God’s dream of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language, before the throne worshiping God in gratitude for salvation, gave us our vision of going in response to God’s dream and doing our part to empower one tribe, one people speaking one language to be part of the festive throng. God-willing this vision becomes a reality for a people working and waiting for the New Testament to be available in their language.

The present reality is that the Somau Garia have only the Gospel According to Mark available to them in their mother tongue. Important, but incomplete, this is only the beginning. These dear friends need the Scriptures in their heart language to be able to grow, be transformed, to win the battle over sin and death.

I was talking with someone yesterday about how important it is to our country than men like Martin Luther and John Wycliffe and William Tyndale risked their lives to translate the Word of God into the language of the common people in their respective countries. How different all of our histories would have been had these men been to afraid to risk all to get the Scriptures into the hands of ordinary people.

Today you have a chance to participate in changing the future of an entire people through getting the Word out in their heart language. Would you join us?

How to Partner
If you’d like to be one of forty new monthly financial partners, click here to go to our Donate page. If you have any questions, you can drop Todd an email at towen@shakethegates.org. If you’d like to make a year-end, one-time special gift to help PBT get our family to Papua New Guinea, click here. If you’d like to be one of forty new intercessory prayer partners, click here and we will get you set up.

We are praying for forty new financial partners, forty new intercessors, and forty one-time gifts to help insure that the Somau Garia people will not have to wait any longer than is necessary to have the Word available in their heart language.

Thank you! and Blessings!

 

 

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Please Pray — 24 October 2013

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Thank You for Praying

Many of you prayed along with our family through 40 Days to Freedom. I can’t thank you enough for the commitment, the kindness, and the impact you made in making that sacrificial journey with us. Since returning to the States I’ve taken time to process and reflect on the lessons learned and to thank God for his kindness in taking me on that journey with Him. He helped renew many things, one of which was joy, the kind that is born of purpose and in walking consistently with the way He made me. This rediscovered joy has ignited fresh passion and vision for God and his Kingdom.

The 40 day season of prayer has come and gone. (For an audio update, click here .)  Now it is time to do the harder work of asking God for power to complete the passion, to drive the vision, to bring us once again to Papua New Guinea for service. Would you pray with us regularly toward this end? If you pray for us regularly or would like to do so, would you drop me a line at prayer@shakethegates.org ? In the mean time, would you lift these things heavenward?

Ask God

  • Ask God to provide many, many opportunities for us to share the story, invite others to join the team, and to encourage the saints.
  • Ask God to raise up partners for Bible translation among the Somau Garia people of Papua New Guinea.
  • Ask God to ignite our passion, empower our spirits, and catalyze our actions in order that we might get to the field as soon as possible.
  • Ask God to provide for our physical, social, spiritual, and financial needs.

Thank God

  • Thank God for going ahead of us in all things.
  • Thank God for providing each month for our needs.
  • Thank God for his provision of righteousness through Jesus Christ, without whom we would have no opportunity to be reconciled to God.
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Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Epilogue

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Thank you for praying with us during the last 40 days. Please pray the next few days as you remember; my travel won’t conclude until late Sunday night. Pray also, friends, that we’ll be able to tell the story well when Todd gets back from Papua New Guinea. Blessings!

Be watching for photos and updates in the coming days. It’ll take a few weeks to get things organized (after some significant sleep) and get the stuff up on the site. Thank you and blessings!

 

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Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 40

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September 19 (Day 40) — Two days until return travel. Pray for safety in transit, for travel mercy, for much to be learned and gained through this brief foray back into Melanesia. Pray that our family will have a clearer idea of how to proceed from this point forward. Pray for the Father to move in our hearts that we will have the courage and resolve to re-engage this challenging call. Pray for a clearer vision to grip our imaginations about the coming days.

 

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Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 39

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September 18 (Day 39) — Pray that Todd’s stamina will hold out. Ask God to give him wisdom as he finalizes details and has final conversations regarding a return to PNG with the family in 2014, the sorting out of the mission station at Uria, the translation work, checking, etc. to be done in the intervening months. Pray that Todd will have wisdom in choosing what to bring back to the U.S. and what to leave. Pray that there will also be lasting blessing for the Somau Garia left in the wake of Todd’s visit.