It's been a wild month
The village and its airstrip were under water for a month and a half, missionary Brooks Buser wrote. In fact, the flood waters were 10 feet deeper than the riverbank.
It’s enough to turn a missionary into a master canoe paddler, Brooks says.
In short, “Walking was out, paddling was in.”
The high water over the airstrip prevented supply planes from landing, so they were supplied by NTM pilots who dropped supplies to them. Daily life during the flooding included a lot of ramen noodles, cereal and —almost—a bite from a centipede.
But God sees to it that ministry happens in every kind of circumstance. Brooks lists some of the highlights, which included Yembiyembi believers correcting damaging false rumors about him, 31 people being baptized, translation work consistently being accomplished on 2 Corinthians and on the Gospel of Matthew, and 14 Yembiyembi men who are leaders in the church having been selected for formal leadership positions to be later confirmed as deacons and elders in the Yembiyembi church.
“Like I said,” Brooks adds, “It was a wild month.” Brooks explains that this season of ministry has been sometimes gratifying, sometimes terrifying—“but never boring.”
One man, Bill, who has “never set foot in the teaching house and has been openly antagonistic to the Gospel for all the years since it was first presented” came to church for the first time this month. Brooks says that in the last 10 minutes of the meeting, Bill’s wife showed up and publicly shamed him for attending by spitting on him.
When the believers gathered around afterward to encourage Bill, he responded, “She has chosen her path and I have chosen mine. I will not be fenced off from this talk. I will follow this path and see where it takes me.”
“Please pray for Bill,” Brooks requests. “He is under a mountain of pressure and is going to catch some fire if he keeps coming. Pray that God will continue to provide the courage he will need.”
Brooks wishes that many faithful prayer supporters and team partners could sit in on a Yembiyembi teaching time and see first-hand how God’s Word is impacting lives there.
“It’s unbelievable,” Brooks writes, “to witness what God has done.”