Childbirth an opportunity
Mengen believers in Papua New Guinea are using every opportunity to tell others about Jesus.
Missionary Lourens Laureti is amazed at the changed lives due to God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit. The missionary team to the Mengens taught foundational truths for the past two years, highlighting their position in Adam before sharing the Gospel and their new position in Christ after trusting Jesus as their Savior. The believers are living out these principles and the Holy Spirit is taking them to the next level of discipleship.
Recently Pulson and Arnolda used the birth of their child as a witnessing tool. Arnolda refused to call on the spirits to help with the birth as they would have in the past. The baby was born quickly without incident. They praised and thanked God for this. But then, the afterbirth would not come. There are rituals that the Mengens believe must be performed when this happens, but Pulson decided he should just pray.
He went to a friend and fellow believer, Edward, and asked him to pray with them. The two men then went to Lourens’ house and asked him to pray. Lourens’ wife, Marie, and their co-worker, Annika Flanagan, went to sit with Arnolda. Many gathered at the bedside, including a large number of unbelievers. Marie took the opportunity to share with them that only God could help. They then prayed. Marie and Annika massaged Arnolda’s abdomen and soon the afterbirth was expelled. They then praised God for His intervention and even the unbelievers were saying that God is great.
Pulson and Edward returned to the house and used this opportunity to share Truth from God’s Word to challenge those who had not yet trusted Christ to consider their position with God.
Another opportunity to witness came when two believers came to Lourens’ house and Albert was visiting. He had stopped walking with God and was going his own way.
“Eddie and Brus then used the opportunity to call this wayward believer to come back to the truth,” wrote Lourens. “I was listening and observing what is said, and it was amazing how they used God's Word to teach this young man and call Him back. Some of these people could recently not even read but now they are being trained as teachers and using God’s Word to reach out to others.”
Pray that the Mengen believers will continue to tell others about Jesus and that they will be ready to use any means to magnify Christ by their lives