Ready or not?
When the Mibu church in Papua New Guinea met for Bible study last week, missionary Joey Tartaglia asked them an important question.
"There will be a day when we missionaries will no longer be here on a permanent basis," said missionary Joey Tartaglia. "If that happened even now, would you be ready?"
Several of the Mibus spoke.
"We’ve learned a lot, but we feel like we are baby birds, unable to get our own food, but still needing to receive food from our mother."
"It’s like we are half-castes -- sometimes understanding and doing the will of God, and sometimes acting out of our own selfish sinful nature. Almost as if the Holy Spirit’s power in us is flickering on and off. We wonder how we can get God’s Word to stick with us so that we can bear lasting fruit."
"We need to understand the Bible better. Sometimes we have thoughts and we don’t know if they are from God or just our own thinking. And we need a practical theology. We need to grow in teaching our own families. We need to understand and obey good business principles because we will be solely responsible for acquiring the supplies for literacy and for ministry."
"Some areas of theology we don’t understand. For example, in Revelation where it talks about the seven churches and seven lamp stands, what is that talking about?"
"I thought these answers were very insightful," Joey wrote, "in showing some areas of need that the church here has."
Please pray for the missionary team as they meet the needs of the Mibu believers.
"There will be a day when we missionaries will no longer be here on a permanent basis," said missionary Joey Tartaglia. "If that happened even now, would you be ready?"
Several of the Mibus spoke.
"We’ve learned a lot, but we feel like we are baby birds, unable to get our own food, but still needing to receive food from our mother."
"It’s like we are half-castes -- sometimes understanding and doing the will of God, and sometimes acting out of our own selfish sinful nature. Almost as if the Holy Spirit’s power in us is flickering on and off. We wonder how we can get God’s Word to stick with us so that we can bear lasting fruit."
"We need to understand the Bible better. Sometimes we have thoughts and we don’t know if they are from God or just our own thinking. And we need a practical theology. We need to grow in teaching our own families. We need to understand and obey good business principles because we will be solely responsible for acquiring the supplies for literacy and for ministry."
"Some areas of theology we don’t understand. For example, in Revelation where it talks about the seven churches and seven lamp stands, what is that talking about?"
"I thought these answers were very insightful," Joey wrote, "in showing some areas of need that the church here has."
Please pray for the missionary team as they meet the needs of the Mibu believers.