Tag Archives: missions

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Day 9: Finding Rest in the Daily Toil

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The notion that a rooster crows when the sun comes up is largely rubbish. All the roosters I’ve ever shared real estate with are early risers that take some perverse pleasure in crowing at 3 a.m. under my house (which is on poles). The more I became accustomed to living in Uria Village, though, I realized that the insomniatic chicken was really awakened by some of our village neighbors, up and around, stirring the fire, making an early breakfast for their children, some of whom might walk two or three hours to school (and back again at the end of the day). When their kids would head off to school, they would head out for their mountainside gardens, which also might be a few hours’ walk away. The Somau Garia are mostly subsistence farmers and they must work or they will not eat. Period.

There is another toil that my friends labor under. Though I will write in more depth about it in coming posts, I will say here that my friends labor under the weight of a worldview that keeps them bound to appeasing ancestral spirits, animistic rituals, and consensus in society. This labor is exhausting to the soul and only adds to the heaviness of life. It adds a fatalism and desperation that cannot be removed short of divine intervention.

Jesus spoke to this kind of toil: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Aruamu Child Sleeping in a Meeting

How can any of us come to Jesus for rest without having access to his word in a language that makes sense to us, that speaks to our hearts? How can we begin to know or love or follow him if we cannot know objective truth as it is proclaimed in the Scriptures? Pray for the Somau Garia translation committee and for the Owen family, too, that God will see fit to bring us all together around the task of Bible translation–that we might, together in Christ, finish the translation of the Somau Garia New Testament. Pray for divine intervention for all of us involved in this process. Pray for the Owen family, involved in building a prayer and provision team to partner with Pioneer Bible Translators in sending them out to get the job done. Pray for rest for all of our souls. We are in desperate need of Jesus’ yoke, touch, and power. Pray . . .

Join the Prayer and Provision Team!
During the remainder of 2013, we are asking God for 40 new provision team members to financially partner with us monthly, for 40 provision team members to contribute to special projects, and for 40 new prayer team members to join us. For those of you feeling called to join the provision team, click here to visit the Donate page. For those feeling called to join the prayer team, click here to drop us an email letting us of your commitment.

Rest well, today. Allow the Lord to wash over you and to heal and restore you. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace.

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Day 8: Black Friday: The Future for Bibleless People

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I was sitting at the wheel of our Nissan Patrol one afternoon preparing to take a sick friend the 40 miles to a hospital situated several miles outside of the provincial capital, Madang. He was a young husband and the father of two toddlers. He had been sick for some time with what appeared to be tuberculosis. Just as I turned in my seat to see whether or not he was ready to get going, something odd happened. The club-footed shaman named Peter hobbled up to the back of the Patrol and, leaning in, he blew a handful of grayish powder in my friends face. He started wailing and speaking some sort of incantation over him. A few guys who were standing at the back of the vehicle grabbed Peter and took him aside, warning him to control himself–or else. They slammed the rear doors shut, I pushed in the clutch and put the 4 x 4 in reverse, turning around. Peter was still shouting at the vehicle as we rolled away. Three days later, the young daddy died.

A few weeks later, as I was trying to verbally unpack what had happened with one of the men who taught me language and culture, I became angry and disgusted at the whole affair. The young husband had been to town some months earlier to see a doctor. The doctor had diagnosed tuberculosis and prescribed appropriate medication–which happens to be a certain kind of antibiotic that must be taken for several months. When the local shaman found out what had happened, he upbraided this young man for taking “white man’s medicine” and told him to throw it away, that his real problem was that he had offended ancestral spirits. The Somau Garia view of the world is much more likely to see troubles as having spiritual roots than physical ones. My friend threw the medicine away. He started follow the prescribed rituals given him by Peter. It cost him his life.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, writes the Psalmist (119:105). Peter’s worldview was one that lacked the light of God’s word. His worldview would overshadow physical realities, making all spiritual. (In the West, we overshadow all spiritual realities with physical ones, making the opposite error.) His heart was darkened by an ignorance of the light of God’s word and was not only personally deceived, he led all astray who would follow his direction.

I wish I could tell you that he was the only one. He was not. He was only one of five shamans that lived in a village of 240 people at that time. That’s about one shaman for every fifty people. It is vitally important that the 4,000 people who speak the Somau Garia language have the opportunity to have God’s word, his lamp, in the language that speaks to their heart.

When Jesus began his ministry, he moved to Capernaum, fulfilling a prophecy from Isaiah, “Galilee of the Gentiles–a people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ” (Matt. 4:16-17)

Many Somau Garia people live in the shadow of death, dwelling in the darkness of those who would lead them astray into demonic practices and fear. Will they have the opportunity to know the light of life? Will they have the opportunity to have a lamp for their feet and a light for their path? Will they have the opportunity to step out of the shadows into the light?

You Can Make a Difference!
You can make a difference by partnering with PBT in sending us to Papua New Guinea to finish the New Testament in the Somau Garia language. If you’d like to join the provision team by partnering financially either on a monthly basis or for special projects, click here to visit our Donate page. If you’d like to join the prayer team, click here to send us an email to let us know of your intention to pray with us. This will give us the opportunity to keep you informed by email as prayer needs are published.

Thank you, friends, for your ongoing prayers and support.

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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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His Dream, Our Vision

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If our dreams are intensely personal, they are also intensely fragile. But whisper a dream and the whisp might snuff it out. Our dreams are choked by the weeds of life: health or sickness, good relationships or bad ones, opportunity or lack, that which we can control and that which we cannot. Our dreams are intensely fragile.

His Dream

His dream–singular, piercing, soul-wrenching, awe-inspiring–is woven with different fabric. His dream evades capture, overcomes obstacle, penetrates enemy territory and liberates the heart of man, freeing it from enslavement to sin and self, offering life and love, even power, in its place. His dream is revealed little by little from the earliest syllables of Genesis through to the end of the Book.

It is John’s uncovering (Apocalypse) of God’s dream that speaks most powerfully to me, revealing ultimate things. “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ “

In that day, man in all his variety and uniqueness, will be represented before the throne–praising God for salvation. Not for money or ease or convenience or entertainment. For salvation.

His dream pierces my right to be selfishly indulgent. His dream rips me from my excuses and forces me to consider the 6,877 languages and language groups of the world. His dream fixes my gaze on today’s 209 million people speaking 1,967 languages that do not have adequate access to the Bible in a language that speaks to them. If only His dream allowed me to look at faceless masses representing vast numbers of people–then I could ignore it, overwhelmed by the size of the group–but NO!!! His dream paints familiar faces on the canvas of my mind. This canvas is alive. These faces are tribal people, uttering exotic words in the mountain jungle where they live. They are our friends with whom we’ve had many adventures, joys and sorrows, victories and losses. They are our loved ones with names like Lim and Torenimas and Natika. The are people without the Bible in their heart language. They grow the coffee you drink in the morning and the chocolate you eat at Christmas. They cultivate vanilla which goes in all those wonderful holiday treats. They are people that God dreams of standing around His throne–wearing white robes, clean before his eyes. Their eyes are fixed on the Savior, on the throne, on Him.

Following the Dream

Close friends from Uria Village, Lim Auwi and his family.

Close friends from Uria Village, Lim Auwi and his family.

His dream compels us to do the same, to step forward in promise, eyes fixed on the Lamb that was slain, wavering between falling like a dead man or crying out with the throng, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. . . Here we are, Lord, send us! We will go!”

Ahead is forty days, friends. When you drink your coffee in the morning, think of the Somau Garia people, without the Word in their language. When you eat your Christmas chocolates, dream His dream and see those people gathered around the throne, eyes fixed on Jesus. When you mix up a cake or bake cookies for your loved ones, remember our loved ones on the side of Mt. Somau. When you celebrate family during these remaining forty days, take your buoyant celebration before the throne of God and cry out for the people of God’s dream. As you pour out your love to friends and family over these forty days, remember us, too. Forty new financial partners. Forty new prayer partners. Forty special gifts for getting the Word out to the Somau Garia. Pray. Love. Give. Dream. Envision.

To respond in some tangible way to this challenge, click here to visit Donate page on this website or click here drop us a note at prayer@shakethegates.org and let us know of your prayer commitment.

Blessings!

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What’s in a Dream?

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Dreams are intensely personal. They are expressions of our true self. What do we passionately pursue? What gives us that far away, wistful look in our eyes? What causes us to shed tears or to argue or to take risks that to most seem oddly insane? Dreams are intensely personal.

Some sequester dreams in the shadowy places of their lives. Quiet. Unnoticed. Anonymous. Free of mockery and derision. The dreams of these people occupy their quiet moments and resemble hobbies more than life-altering pursuits. These dreams are the books that never quite get written, the dragster that never quite gets built, the guitar that collects dust in the corner.

Others realize that their dreams are bigger than they are. These realize that these dreams are risky ventures, full of blind corners, pitfalls, and dragons. Their quiet moments are nervous affairs spent vacillating between fear and the potential for huge dividends. These people talk a lot about their dreams with their friends and confidantes, but ultimately it remains an exciting possibility, always just over the horizon, the dream that I’m going to get to just as soon as . . .

Then there are those who are not merely dreamers, but visionaries. The dream for them begins in the twilight pre-dawn hours and at mid-day and in the watches of the night. At first these folks closely guard the dream as they birth it, nurture it, allow it to develop. These folks are taken by the transcendent value of the dream and see that the dream reaches far beyond themselves, beyond their personal benefit, beyond even their lifetime. They too recognize blind corners, pitfalls, and dragons. They feel the butterflies. They too talk endlessly about the dream with friends and confidantes. At this point, the dream transforms into something God-sized, powerful, and compelling . . .

The dream becomes a vision. The dream moves beyond friends, beyond personal acquaintances, beyond close community. The dream ceases to be the sole property of the dreamer, the nurturer, the talker, the motivator. It takes on a life of its own and becomes the property of the community, the network, the . . . generation?

Angela and I once had a dream. We dreamed of living cross-culturally, taking the Word to the far reaches, to the remote, the lost, the forgotten of the world. That dream grew beyond the two of us and birthed something far greater than we would ever have imagine. It became a vision that took us across the world and played itself out over a decade of love and hardship and challenge and hard work. We had to shelf that vision for a while and it was relegated to the role of dream for six years.

illuminated bible

Dream has once again become vision–a vision that I think has the potential to capture your imagination and change the course of your life, not just ours. This vision bears an impact that will span generations and impact the future of an entire culture. This vision bears an impact that will change how you think when you eat your breakfast, read your Bible, eat a chocolate bar, drink your coffee. The vision–I don’t think that I’m speaking too boldly–has the potential to impact how you relate to God himself.

Beginning Friday, November 22, we begin a 40 day period of fleshing out the vision, bringing it to life and inviting you to be changed by it, to set in motion an impact that will change a culture for generation upon generation.

Tomorrow I want to share a dream that is worth living and dying for . . . join me here for an exciting first step into the vision.