Apeke, Apeke Father, Father, I am a sin man. Ngai Otibibese angena  I am a sin man.  Ebere, nu ngai gubate?  Today, will you help me?  Apeke, Apeke Father, Father, Apeke, ngai otibibese angena Father, I am a sin man.  ~Song by Nduan

Dear Friends,

We are sorry to keep the emails coming, but are always bursting at the seams at the end of the day…and no co-workers to run next door to tell!  J

We had a great Sunday morning meeting with the believers.  My favorite time today (after my husband’s wonderful sermon, of course J) was the Praise time.  There must have been 20 people popping up from all over the group with thanks and praise for Yahweh God for everything from the rain and the food that we ate this week to the gospel message and the literacy class that allows us to read His Word…the list went on and we are so THANKFUL to see them with THANKFUL hearts…the antithesis of the complaining and discontentedness that we saw last year…and the antithesis of the Romans 1 decline of total deprivation!

 We also had several people this week ask about being baptized and then many more today. Hopefully, some of those will happen next week…including Madison and Sabra…while my dad is still here!!!  That will be a very special memory for the girls.

We had such a good time worshipping together as they become more and more comfortable meeting together as believers.

 Later in the afternoon, the guy who is kind of in charge of the music and is putting all of their songs into the computer now came up to talk.  He had made a special friendship with one of the men from our home church, Ray, during the recent visit.  They both played the guitar and Ray spent many hours just sitting with Nduan and teaching him some new chords that he didn’t know.  This meant a lot to Nduan and after the morning’s praise music time, he was thinking so much about their time together again that he came up and wrote a letter to Ray.  I hope Ray will not mind me sharing some of this with you…

 Dear Ray,

This morning we sang in church.  That made me really think about you some more and the time we spent together playing the guitar and singing songs about God together.  I haven’t forgotten about you and your family that you talked about.  O, yes, my friend Ray.  Right now we are very far apart.  It is like that now, but later we two will be very close to each other in heaven forever and ever and we will be happy there forever and ever.  Also, I want to thank you for the song book that you gave to me.  Thank you very much.  Good Sunday afternoon to you, my friend.

Nduan

 As we sat and listened to Nduan talk about the morning’s service and about writing songs to lift up God’s name, we asked him this question:  Nduan,  when for the very first time as you were hearing the teaching in the first “Bible School” (Phase 1: Creation to Christ) did you realize that this talk was really true?

 You know what he said?  He said when we were talking about the law and then later talked about complaining.  He said when we talked about complaining not being towards another person, but towards God himself, he was completely convicted.  He realized that it is God who made us and puts us wherever we are and that to complain is against God, not man.  He said when he realized that, he also realized how deep and thick his sin was and he became “afraid” of this God that he was offending every day and began to see his need for a Savior.  That is when the good news of the Deliverer became sweet to our friend Nduan.

 Then he told us this:

“Bill, Kelley, we had heard things about the Bible in the national language, but what has really messed up our thinking is that we had no idea about the root of our sin.  We didn’t realize how holy God was and how much we sin against him and so we didn’t live in “fear” underneath him.  We had no respect for who he was.”

 We are so encouraged by what the Lord is doing in the lives of these little babes in Christ and we are running out of adjectives to describe the work that we are seeing HIM do here.  It reminds me of when Samson’s parents asked the angel of the Lord what His name was so they could honor him.  The Lord said to them…Why do you ask what my name is since it is too wonderful (beyond understanding). Judges 13:18

 Yahweh God is just that…beyond understanding and able to do far beyond what your human mind thinks possible.  So what are you trusting him for today?  The same God who parted the seas and who is changing these hearts before our very eyes in Itutang is the same God who cares about what YOU care about today…so step out in faith know that HE IS WONDERFUL and will reward those who trust in Him.

 Maranatha!

The Houslys