Ready to vegetate
Linda Krieg is an extraordinary example of how God can shape the life of an ordinary believer to reach tribal people with the Gospel.
After Linda was widowed she entered New Tribes Mission training and she and her daughter Christy went to the Siawi tribe in 1986. For the next 25 years Linda ministered to the Siawis, missionaries taught the Siawi people Firm Foundations Bible lessons and a church was born.
When Linda reached retirement age she felt it was time to leave. Her body was failing her and her strength was waning, and her fellow missionaries had all left for health reasons, but God definitely showed her that it was not His time for her to leave.
The Siawi church was well established but still needed the Word of God in their langauge so Linda stayed alone in the tribe and worked on completing the translation of the Siawi New Testament ably assisted by a team of Siawi believers. She spent ttwo and one-half years working on translation and at 66 God directed her to continue working on the translation.
“For me, it has been a tremendous blessing to see that it truly was the Lord’s time for me to leave,” Linda wrote. You have to realize that those last four years in Siawi, as a woman past retirement age, and the last 18 months alone, in a decrepit house, decrepit body—I couldn’t help but feel that it was time. “
“But the Lord made it clear it was not His time, and He did the impossible, and kept everything together and working for those last months. I was able to see the Siawi people step up, taking total responsibility, not only for the church, but for me, making sure that they did everything they could to ease the pressures on my failing systems.”
Her aches and pains and inability to do what she used to showed the Siawi people that missionaries are just normal people, empowered by an extraordinary God. Her translation co-laborer, Nokee, seemed to take care of her as though she were family. The elders of the Siawi church made it a priority to see to Linda’s needs.
Her former missionary co-workers, Jason and Shannon Swanson, have moved back to Papua New Guinea and are involved in a ministry that will allow them to make a few trips into the Siawi village and encourage and strengthen the church. Because of the purchase of a shortwave radio Jason will be in constant contact with the Siawi believers.
"While I knew, humanly speaking" Linda wrote, "there was no way I could continue on alone, God made it plain that this is what he had from me--and he gave help and support from fellow missionaries both support missonaries and those woking in neighboring tribe, so beacuse of them the work did not falter in Siawi. When I told God, 'I can't do this anymore.' He would answer,'No but I can.' And He did.
“It is with joy that I move forward to the next step of my life, getting closer to the day when I can fully retire,” wrote Linda. “I’m tired and know it is time. Once I can get the Siawi New Testament printed and taken back to them, I will finally be able to just settle down and vegetate (though no one seems to believe me, when I say that is my goal).”
During her vegetation time, Linda intends to work on the spelling and grammar of the lesson books and rework the Siawi primers to include new recommendations for the literacy process. She doesn’t seem to have the concept of vegetation down.
Please pray for Linda as she continues to work on the Siawi New Testament. Pray that soon she will be able to take a completed New Testament back to the Siawi church so that they can read God’s Word for themselves.