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25
From: Jason
Swanson
Date: Friday, October 16, 2009 5:25 AM
Subject:
October Update from Siawiland
Greetings from never dull
Siawiland, (please use discretion when viewing this email.
The content may be a little too violent for younger children.
It is our desire to give you a true picture into the life of the
Siawis so that you all may know how to better pray for them.
Our intention is to better equip you, our prayer warriors, for the
battle that is going on in here- AT THE FAMILY LEVEL. So please
read and pray with discretion- Thanks. J & S
Healing and Homeschooling:
Linda has returned from Cairns with a bionic wrist (okay maybe just a titanium bar and screws). She was able to get the translation checked out in Wewak and everything went very well. The incision spot seems to be healing nicely and she is excited to be back sleeping in her own bed. Please pray that her wrist would stop giving her pain as she types. She is already back at the translation full time but she can’t do a full day of typing yet because of the pain.
The kids and Shannon are doing fine. Homeschooling is in full swing and the kids are outside every minute they have a chance. They are enjoying looking after the 3 bunnies and Blake’s new Kus Kus. He is a cute little guy who still has to sleep inside the house. Praise God we are all over our bouts of sickness.
A Hardened Heart:
As I walked home from the village this morning after cancelling our discipleship lesson class I ran into Ubae. Ubae is Sabien’s 6th wife. Many of you have asked how Sabien is doing and ,unfortunately, I do have some news to share about him. Ubae had bandages on both legs just below the knees. Apparently Sabien got mad at her yesterday and decided to use his machete on her. The cuts were pretty bad but today there is a group of nurses in the village giving immunizations and they will be able to keep an eye on her and treat her wounds. Please be praying for Ubae and the rest of Sabiens wives. Shannon says that he has forbidden any of his wives or kids from coming to any of our teaching sessions or Ladies memory times. Are you surprised that a husband could do such a thing to his wife? I am not. You see without Christ we are all capable of far worse atrocities. What we see in the life of Sabien is the outworking of an unchanged and unregenerate heart. Oh yes, he can say all the right key terms and give back a pretty decent picture of Christ dying for his sins but there is no repentance. There might be some shame based sorrow over what he has done but not a Godly hatred of sin. He lives in sin too much to really hate it. And as an unsaved man he has no other choice. Please pray that Sabien would truly repent of his sin and turn to Christ, His Saving Man, for his salvation. This verse comes to mind.
2 Cor 7:10-11
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 1
Hungry Hearts:
Praise God there are many Siawis who are no longer content to live in sin. They are desiring to become more and more like Christ and change some of their lifestyles. It has been exciting to teach on Husband and Wife relationships as in Siawi culture the husband wife relationship is a very abused state of anything but “oneness”. Husbands , historically, never help their wives and have treated them far worse than they treat their dogs and punish them much as they would punish a dog with blows from a stick, throwing of rocks or even worse- beatings from a machete or axe. Wives, historically, have shown little or no respect for their husbands and show submission usually to escape the punishment that they would suffer for not obeying their husband’s wishes. I could go on and on but I think you all get the point that their husband and wife relationships need some major transformation. And that transformation can only come through the Holy Spirit changing them from the inside out. God’s standard and directives for the marriage relationship are extremely high. It is a divine instituted covenant union that is to be prized, cherished and worked at. The Siawis are seeing for the first time what God desires for them as husbands and what God desires for them as wives. And most of them are pretty overwhelmed.
Beiyem said, “I want to wrap my heart strings around my wife each day and have compassion for her but I think about myself. I want to help her but what am I to do? Do you mean I have to cook Sak Sak(the main staple here which is woman’s work)? Do you mean I’m supposed to cut up the sak sak pudding and put it in leaves? If I do that all the ladies in the village will laugh at me. I’m not sure if I can do that.”
Nokee said, “Yep this week I started off strong. I was doing like God’s word says and was washing her with the water of the word (meaning he was teaching his wife the bible). But then two days ago I got tired. Then yesterday I forgot. This is hard. I want to help my wife know God’s word but I’m not strong. Pray for me.”
Yaniwi said, “This talk is very large. I keep going back to my wife ,Ukabei, and we talk and talk and talk. We keep discussing all these things. How she’s supposed to sit under my talk and how I’m supposed to love her like Jesus loved us. How I am supposed to give up my own skin(not be selfish) for her. Now, with this talk about the kids, I’m really full up (overwhelmed). I used to beat my kids so hard on the head that they would get lumps. And sometimes I would break a big stick because I was hitting them so hard. I was really angry when I was hitting them and now I know that was wrong. We have been doing all these things wrong for so long. But it is good to be hearing how God wants us to walk His road on this ground.”
Nowiele came to us one night with a troubled heart. His wife, Ani, died a couple years back and he has been wanting a new wife for quite a long time now. The village of Amto has marked a girl for him. One day they came to his house and just dropped the girl off with a mosquito net and said you need to marry her. He came to us and said, “I know that this girl doesn’t believe. I asked her questions and she is all confused. I know how hard it is to have a peaceful marriage. I don’t want to marry an unbeliever. I know that God doesn’t want me to marry her yet. So I am planning on sending her back to her village so she can keep hearing the talk that the guys are giving. Please pray for me.” Unfortunately, the Amto men wouldn’t take no for an answer and so Nowiele has taken this young girl for his wife. Please pray for Nowiele and his new wife Cecilia.
Molo, a woman whose husband took a second wife a couple years ago, came to Shannon and I with a question (which was more of a statementJ). “Okay you two, I want to do what God’s word says. I want to listen and obey what my husand says. But if I do , what about the other one (the 2nd wife)? What will I do when she gets mad? I used to love him and listen to him real well before he took her (2nd wife). Now, I am just unsure. Will she fight me? Will she fight him? Will I be able to love her too?” How is that for a little counseling session?
Lobuae said this when we were talking about our wives being taught God’s word by their husbands. “Where is my teacher? Who’s supposed to teach me? Him (points to her husband with her chinJ)? He’s a lazy man. He won’t teach me. Who’s going to teach me? I want to know God’s word better.” Pray for her husband Woula.
I’ll close this update with some excerpts from a conversation I had with Okweb when we were going over how children are supposed to obey their parents. We were talking about how kids respond to their parents in ungodly ways. He said that many young men and even little boys who are like 5 or 6 years old say this to their mom. “I’m not going to obey you. You go get that thing yourself. Your legs and hands aren’t broken. You do it yourself.” I then asked Okwebe what happened if the mother asked the boy again. He got a little more uptight and said, “Oh, then they would say this. Don’t you try me or tempt me. I will kill you. Don’t try again. Will you die or not? Don’t do this. I’ll get my machete and then you will see.” As if that conversation wasn’t scary enough what he said a little later on was very indicative that the men’s view of women really hasn’t changed much over the years yet. I then asked Okwebe if that was okay for the boy to say those things. He looked kind of funny and said, “Yes Tiesen. She was pushing him.” So then who was to blame? Whose fault was it that this boy got mad and said those things? “Oh it was that mom’s fault. She should have left him alone. That isn’t her place to go and keep talking and talking to him like that.” We talked awhile about what the word of God says and how the mom is also an authority over the children-boys and girls. It doesn’t even matter the age. You need to support your wife. You need to teach your sons that they are to obey their mom. That is what this verse says, right? So, Okwebe, now I want you to tell me that back in Siawi. You know about how the mother is above the boy children just like the father. The boy children must listen to her and cannot treat her like that. Okay? Can you say that to me? Okwebe looks at me and looks at the computer and says, “I’m sorry Tiesen. That is too much. I can’t say that. What you said sounded good. It is true. I am just so lost in my thinking that I don’t think I can say that yet. Give me some time. Give us all time. That is big and heavy talk.” Hmmm. Well, there you have it. These truths go counter culture to such a strong extent I don’t think I could communicate what kind of a struggle is going on in the lives of some of these Siawi men who want to obey God and lead their families in a Godly way. Generations of Siawis have taught their children that boys don’t have to listen to their mothers. Girls cannot fight back if a boy hits them or a man does something to them. Please pray for changed lives. Sometimes this work seems almost overwhelming but then I remember the cross. I remember the price that was paid for our redemption. I remember HIS Grace. And things become more clear…. It’s not about me. It’s about Him- calling a people unto Himself. It’s about Him- changing lives one person at a time.
By God’s Grace, For His Glory and until the Siawis are grounded in the truth,
Jason for us all
From: Jason Swanson
<jason_swanson@ntm.org>
Date:
Friday, September 18, 2009 3:48 PM
Subject: September 2009 Update
from Siawiland
Greetings from across the Globe,
We could hear some muffled sounds coming from somewhere. “Lioume yoko lelemi?” …. Jason did you hear that? I think Linda is calling you. As I made my way towards Linda’s house the sound became more understandable. “Can anyone hear me? Someone come help me?” I asked Linda if she was alright and she said “No, I’ve broken my wrist.” I quickly went in to give Linda a hand and Shannon was right behind me. We mobilized her right arm and began making the preparations for the flight. Just another day of serving our Lord in SiawiJ. Please be praying for Linda as this is her good wrist and she really doesn’t want to be slowed down in the translation process. She was supposed to be getting James, 1 Thes., 2 Thes., 1,2,3 John all checked next week, but the Lord had other plans in mind. After trying to fix the break numerous times yesterday the NTM Doctors have sent Linda on to Cairns, Australia. Linda arrives in Cairns on Wed. the 16th (our time) and has an appointment on Thursday and surgery scheduled for Monday. Please be praying for her. I’m sure it is hard to switch gears and the thought of doing tons of work on the computer with a cast can’t be very invitingJ.
It seems lately, the Lord has given us a lot of opportunities to trust Him in. At least that is how I should interpret the last 2 months if I am looking at how great, good and big our God is. At times, though, the situations tend to get the best of us. That is what learning to walk by faith is all about. Let me recap the last 2 months. Upon travelling up to Goroka to have some dental work done we decided to check on Kara’s eyes. The news was not very good. Her bad eye had completely stopped trying to work and her good eye was doing all the work. We found an eye doctor in town who seemed to be knowledgeable but his equipment and supply of glasses were really not adequate enough to meet Kara’s needs. What to do? Trust the Lord. We talked to Kara’s eye doctor in the states and he agreed with the current diagnosis but said that Kara’s glasses in the bush should fix the problem. It was great to have God give us clear direction and wisdom through His servants (Kara’s eye doctor is a believerJ). Another neat answer to prayer is that Kara had stopped wearing her glasses because they were giving her headaches. When we returned to Siawi we figured that one pair of Kara’s glasses were to small and that was the problem. She is now wearing her other pair of glasses and doing fine.
My trip to the dentist was a little easier as I found out I did not have enough of the tooth left to do a crown. A bridge was going to be needed sometime in the future but first the dentist suggested trying to fill it. So, that tooth was relatively simple to fix. The other dental checkups went well. There was no other family member who had any cavities or dental issues- Praise God for His goodness to us.
Now, came another trying time in the form of a routine skin check on a mole. We were wondering if the mole might need to be removed from my back? Nope, my lower back and all was fine, but then our New Tribes Medical doctor began looking at the back of my neck and shoulders. His diagnosis for those areas wasn’t so encouraging. He informed me that the back of my neck and shoulders looked like the beginning stages of skin cancer. That wasn’t fun to hear. The cream used for helping such an ailment can really turn your skin raw. I wasn’t sure about coming back into the hot and humid climate of the Sepik while still on this cream (that along with all the fliesJ). And the cream was to be applied for 6 weeks. Again, what to do? We trusted the Lord and put out feelers to friends and family. I went back to the doctor for another consult and he informed me that I could wait until we were back in the states, in a couple of years, before using the cream. A dermatologist from the states, my pastor’s skin doctor, confirmed our decision to not take the cream just yet. So, we are thankful for the Lord’s direction. And we are being more diligent with wearing sunscreen and hats. In fact, I am now walking around the village with an umbrellaJ.
There have been other things happening as well, which have probably been harder on the kids than my skin issues. Just 2 days ago our White Cockatoo bird escaped from his cage. We saw him in the village one day, after church. He would not come to us so we left him alone and travelled as a family to one of our favorite river spots about 30 minutes hike away. As we were finishing up our time, a Siawi man came right up into the house we were staying at and said that a certain man had killed our white Koki (pidgin English for cockatoo). Apparently, he got mad at the bird and hit it with a stick. We decided to tell the children before we entered the village and they heard about it from their friends. When we finally made it home everyone was pretty upset and then Linda said she wanted to talk with us. Apparently, someone had just brought our bird back. His wing was badly injured and he didn’t look good. A couple hours later he died. We buried him last night and then the next morning Linda falls and breaks her wrist. At times our perceptions of life get twisted because we interpret situations through the pain and pull our emotions bring upon us. Don’t get me wrong, emotions have their place. But not at the front. They are not to be the driving factor in our lives. God’s Word is. God’s Word is what brings stability to a crazy and mixed up situation. God’s purposes, direction, and constant control are the pillars that we are anchored too. So, even though I may not understand why these things have happened to us and our dear Aunt Linda (that is what the kids call her). I know the WHO. I know that God is there and will give me the words of comfort for my children. He will sustain Linda through this time and work out all the future translation issues. I know that He is working all these things out for my good, for Shannon’s good, our children’s good and Linda’s good. Not to mention the Siawis that were involved in the bird incident. As a little point of clarification. It turns out that our bird lodged itself onto a little 5 year old boy’s shoulders and tried to steal his coconut from his hands. Apparently, our white Koki bit the little boy on his finger and that is what started the entire event. The men involved weren’t malicious or trying to kill our bird. They were trying to capture it to take it back to our house and it’s cage. They came and apologized, offered money and shook hands. The situation has been totally resolved. And we were able to show the love of Christ throughout the entire situation.
I would be doing our Lord a grave injustice if I didn’t mention something about the teaching of God’s Word. Things continue to press on with the teaching of Ephesians. Over the last couple of weeks I have had several men in our nighttime discipleship discussions make comments about how God is helping them to walk on God’s road. “Before when I would have a thinking of sinning it would just pull me along. And then I would do that bad thing. Today, it isn’t like that anymore. I know that those kinds of thoughts are like an old dirty shirt. I need to throw that bad shirt away and put on a new shirt. I need to wear my new shirt. And Spirit God is helping me do it. I have been throwing away the bad acts and replacing them with good acts.” Another man put it this way. “This week my wife got so mad at me she was screaming right in my face. She hit me on the side of my arm. But I didn’t put on my old shirt. Nope, I didn’t hit her back. I just stood there cooling my anger. Then, I put on the new shirt and told her God didn’t want me to hit her back. He wants me to give her kind talk.” There are still a lot of people not completely grasping some of these truths but anytime I hear a testimony like that I rejoice in how good our God is and how powerful His Word is. Thank you for standing with us. Please continue to pray for us all. We are in a battle, a spiritual battle that is fought through the avenue of prayer and preaching of His word. This coming up week I will be teaching on Husbands, Wives and Children relationships. This is going to be absolutely huge. Please pray that the Lord would bring along the right Siawi co-worker to help me come up with practical illustrations on how to live out these practical truths. Also pray for Shannon and the kids as they get back into the groove of school. Wesley had a little bout of malaria, we think, but it seemed to only last a day. Kylie is using the big girl potty and very excited about the M’s (M&M’s) reward she gets each time she uses the toilet correctly.
By God’s Grace, For His Glory and until the Siawis are grounded in the truth,
Jason for us all
From:
Jason Swanson <jason_swanson@ntm.org>
Date:
Saturday, June 13, 2009 6:17 AM
Subject: July 2009 Update from
Siawiland
Hello from the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
I am so excited to be able to write to you all and let you know that God has seen fit to meet our needs for the dental trip! We will be flying up to our NTM base in the highlands near the end of this month. Thank you all for praying and allowing this trip to become a reality. We are looking forward to getting out from under our mosquito nets and enjoying some cool weather for awhile. Did you know that we close off every day here in Siawi by letting down our mosquito nets in hopes that our beds will be safe from pesky little crawlers that like to climb inside? Yes, to the utter chagrin and anguish of Shannon and the kids, some little critters do manage to come inside our nets. Wesley was bitten by a centipede who managed to break through the defenses of our net. This took place quite some time ago and recently we have been having a real problem with COCKROACHES getting inside our nets. Sometimes they find our little DC fans and well.. I’ll let your imaginations run wild with how we discover these little critters. I will give you a hint that we find most of them at the exact time our fans are turned onJ.
God’s word also warns us about allowing sinful things to creep in to our hearts and take residence there. We all deal with the struggle to let God reign supreme in our lives on some scale. For the Siawis one area that has ruled their hearts and lives for years on end is the area of Sorcery and witchcraft. Although they recognize the deception and bondage that living in fear to the sorcerers places them in, I am afraid that the 18 inch journey from their hearts to their heads often times becomes a slippery slope where they find themselves falling back into their old belief system. As we were teaching through Ephesians Chapter 4:17 this last week the Lord obviously was doing some heart surgery on one particular man in this area. Okwebe, after asking some side questions, finally got out what he was struggling with. “Okay, you say that those outside of Christ (non-believers) have a thinking and a reasoning that is nothing(worthless). And now that we are believers we shouldn’t be looking at things like them. We should be looking at things through the understanding of the Spirit. But that is hard you said. Sometimes we get tied up by their lies and believe that they have great understanding. We believe that they can help, but they can’t. You are right Tiesen. The sorcerers do this to us. In fact, just last month I listened to their lies. They came and said that they would fix my son who can’t walk. They looked at him and said this wasn’t from a sorcerer’s arrow but they did an incantation on him. Now he walks. And I have a heavy about this. That’s all I wanted to say.”
Now before any of you become totally distraught and discouraged with such a testimony let me inform you all that I look at this as a major breakthrough. We have never had anyone be so completely honest in talking about sorcery, ever. This is the first time someone has stood up in a church setting and confessed something of this magnitude. So rejoice with us that things are being brought into the open. God is at work. People are desiring to change. God’s word is performing heart surgery. The more the church body here in Siawi can collectively identify and confess deep sin issues of this magnitude with one another the quicker God’s word will penetrate into these strongholds of the heart that have been untouched for so long. This to me is very exciting. I am also completely overwhelmed with the best way to handle such a testimony. Please pray that the Lord would continue to give me more platforms such as this to clearly communicate God’s truth from. God desires each one of us to change and be conformed into the image of His son. For some of us that looks like turning off a television program that doesn’t draw us nearer to Christ. For the Siawis that looks like turning away from the sorcerers who say they can heal one of your sick children. God’s word doesn’t quit there. God’s word leads us to not only lay off the old ways but to put on the new life. To live for His Glory and help others to live for Him.
Tuesday and Thursday nights continue to be a great time of sharpening one another. As I found out last week, often times, I am not the one best equipped to challenge, teach or even help the Siawis. They are much better at this job themselves. We were talking about how the teaching went in Anu and Amto and one man said that he had a very difficult time reading his walking stick (his bible lesson). Different men were saying that it was dark last week and that made it difficult. Then the man said , “Yes, I kept losing my spot in my notes and then I would have to stop and read it to myself to figure out where I was. It was very hard for me.” I told him that I usually take a pen and mark where I left off to give me a point where I stopped. He said that sounded alrightJ. Then some other men started saying things like: “Well, I place my finger like this when I read. See, right here I put my thumb on the side of the page to mark it for myself.” Another man said, “Yah, and when I read the bible I place my entire left hand sidewise like this to keep my place. Try that.” The man was totally excited and said thank you to the men who had given him the tips. I sat there totally stunned. I never taught these guys anything like that. I said , “Did Tom tell you guys that?” Nope, we just learned this as we’ve been going along. (Sorry Tom I really wanted to give you creditJ). Obviously God is certainly great and wonderful enough to teach these men much better than we ever can.
Rejoicing in our Great God together with you,
Jason for Shannon, Kara, Blake, Wesley and Kylie
From:
Jason Swanson <jason_swanson@ntm.org>
Date:
Friday, June 12, 2009 8:15 PM
Subject: May/June Update from
Siawiland
Hello everyone,
It is a dark, overcast and cold morning in Siawi and the only sounds that can be heard up and down the airstrip are the sounds of our kids running around looking for the “hidden” chicken eggs. We have yet to build a nice pen for our 7 chickens so we play the hide and seek game with the chickens as the kids search out the hidden nesting spots where the white gold might be found. This morning Wesley has recovered 2 eggs which he very excitedly came in and reported to his mom. The Siawis can’t seem to fathom the idea that our 7 female chickens can produce eggs without a rooster. It doesn’t make sense to them and even though they see it with their own eyes many of them don’t believe it is true. They don’t understand that it is all in the way God has created the chicken. He has given them the ability to produce eggs without a male rooster. For me it is just that simple. I’ve seen it done week after week and I know it to be true. For the Siawis, their eyes are blinded by their own perceptions and misunderstandings. Aren’t we all like that in so many ways? Don’t we live our lives in ways that seem to make sense to us? But what if our senses are off? What if our understanding is tainted by sin? What if the deceitfulness of our own hearts have us believing in lies and patterning our lives after the world? It is not enough to plot our paths in life according to our own understandings and even according to what our eyes have seen to be real. We must always live our lives and determine our steps according to truth. Truth must dictate. Truth must be paramount. And perfect truth can only be found in God’s Word. That is why God’s Word says that the wisdom that comes from God’s Word is greater than silver or even pure gold. Let’s not settle for finding the wisdom of this world but let’s purpose in our hearts and dedicate our lives to finding the wisdom that is only found in God’s Word. Then let’s take that wisdom and live it out and teach it to the world around us. That is what we are endeavoring to do in here. Week after week, month after month, year after year the purpose and plan has always been the same. We are here to be used by God, for His eternal Glory, to make His Word known and to teach that Word. These days that looks like this:
Monday Evenings Women’s Memory and Prayer Meetings:
Shannon has started a memory verse time and prayer time with Siawi women believers. She is averaging about 55+ women as almost the entire village has been coming down to our house. Linda has also been coming to this time and answering questions some of the ladies have. It has also turned out to be a sort of testimony time for the ladies to share what God is teaching them. Shannon is praying about transforming this time into small groups at various Siawi ladies’ houses with different Godly Siawi women, who can read and write, leading say a group of 6 ladies each week. Pray that this time would continue to be profitable for all the ladies who attend. Many ladies are enthusiastic about memorizing the Word and it has proven to be a challenge to Shannon as well. Pray that the Lord would use this time in the lives and hearts of the Siawi ladies.
Tuesday & Thursday Night Meetings: These meetings continue to be the highlight of my week as the guys going to the Amto Language Group Villages for evangelism recount how the teaching went each week. Again and again I am surprised and stand in awe of how God is working both in and through these 4 Siawi men and 4 Anu/Amto men. This last Tuesday night the guys going to Anu recounted some pretty tough questions that were given to them. “Oh, I know why God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden. It was that ground. That ground had special strength didn’t it? It was that ground that contained forever life wasn’t it? That’s why there is death today and why things are so bad. Our ground here in PNG is bad. That’s why everything is bad. That’s it isn’t it?” The 4 men teaching took the group back to Gen. 3 and explained that the reason for driving Adam and Eve out of the garden was their sin and disobedience. The ground was nothing. The ground didn’t contain any strong. The ground was just ground. It was God. God was the one who gave Adam life. God is the center of all things.
Thursday nights I meet with the 8 Siawis who are teaching again through creation to Christ’s ascension. We also use this night to discuss how church on Sundays is going and how all true worship, teaching, prayer, and giving must come from our hearts. The heart is where true worship and life change begins. It has been neat to see some of the guys begin to understand this better. When asked about starting communion most of the guys agreed that nobody was truly ready yet to begin communion because they really didn’t understand why you need to do communion. They said their hearts were still “cold” on this particular thing. So we are probably going to wait until we get through 1 Corinthians before we begin this very important sacrament. Please be in prayer for us about such things.
We are still having an accountability time that continues to strengthen us all. One man said this week, “Before my fighting with my wife was always close-close (meaning all the time). Lately when she says something that gets me hot I have been standing very quiet and waiting. When my thinking has cooled inside (no longer angry), I talk to her. That has really helped me. Also my wife is now asking me if what I said is what God would want me to say. At first that really made me mad. But now I understand God is using her to strengthen me. I am doing that with her too and we are strengthening each other.” God is definitely using his word to change lives. Praise God.
Thursday & Friday Teaching Times by 8 Siawi Men (also done on the same days in the villages of the Amto language groups)
It is very exciting to see these guys teaching the Word of God, and teaching it well. But I think I am even more excited to see the impact the Word of God is having on each of the teachers. Just last week one of the Siawis involved in teaching here in Siawi, his name is Beyeme, didn’t come to one of the teaching days. He skipped out on a Thursday teaching day while 7 of his fellow Siawis one-works(guys doing the same job) taught on the life of Joseph. The following day he showed up and taught. The next week I heard that there was some sort of village meeting going on with most of the Bible teachers questioning 2 other Bible teachers (one was this man Beyeme and the other man’s name was Kawi). Later I found out that many of the men were concerned that these 2 teachers were spending too much time out in the bush when they should have been staying in the village more. After all they were teachersJ. (Keep in mind nobody invited me along to these discussions) Both the men said that they were merely working on their gardens and spending time with their families. Beyeme said that the Thursday he didn’t come to the day of teaching was the day he and his wife got in a big fight that morning. He didn’t want to be a two mouthed man (hypocrite) and come to the teaching and answer questions and such when he and his wife weren’t getting along well. So he stayed in the bush with his wife that day to straighten out their little problem. What a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit in Beyeme’s life! I used this incidence to let everyone know that it is perfectly fine for these guys to go out to the bush and do other work as long as they are still being faithful with preparing the Bible lesson they are supposed to teach. Apparently some of the teachers were thinking they couldn’t tend their gardens for fear that it might make them look like they didn’t care about God’s Word anymore.
Tuesday Morning Bible Lesson Teaching Times:
On Tuesday mornings I continue to meet with about 25 Siawi young men and older men who have a desire to learn how to teach God’s Word, understand God’s Word better and write Bible lessons on their own. We have been doing this now for about 6 months and the time is still going well. Each week 2 or 3 Siawis stand up and teach the lesson they worked on the previous week. We then critique the lesson as a whole and I usually spend some time discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each particular person’s Bible lesson. Pray that I would have the time to look at each of these lessons each week. This often times is difficult as sometimes I am receiving 20 lessons a week that are each about 3 pages long.
Monday, Wednesday, Sunday Teaching Times:
These mornings are dedicated to teaching through the book of Ephesians. We are generally starting early in the morning and spending about an hour in the Word. Please pray that God’s Word would continue to ring out truthfully, clearly and above all sweet and pertinent to the believers. Right now we are about half way through Chapter 4 and things are getting very practical. I love teaching through this truth as there is so much meat for our daily living as believers. The Siawis seem to be grasping better and better the struggle with the flesh and the mighty provisions made for us In Christ to live a God honoring, God pleasing and righteous life. Pray that they would take these last chapters to heart. Pray , in particular, that their husband-wife relationships and parent-child relationships would be transformed through the renewing of their minds as the Word of God seeps down into their hearts.
Translation: Monday-Friday and sometimes Saturday if you know LindaJ
The translation of God’s word continues to go along. Linda and her fellow Siawi translation co-workers have finished 2nd Timothy. Right now they are about half way through the book of James. Please continue to pray for Linda and her health. Also pray that the Lord would raise up some new Siawi co-workers who would be able to help Linda do a wonderful translation.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (and weekends tooJ):
Shannon continues to impart the Word of God to our children as she homeschools them each day. Please pray for the children and our work as parents in training them in the ways of the Lord. This is no easy undertaking and we are totally incapable in ourselves.
One last thing: We are planning a trip up to our PNG headquarters in late July. I have been having a problem with a tooth for many months now. The tooth has actually already broken and now needs a crown. Unfortunately, at this time we lack the finances for the trip up to the highlands to visit the Dentist. We do not feel that we can go in debt by traveling without having the finances before our departure date at the end of July. We know that God is in control. We are trusting in Him and Him alone. Please pray that God would provide before we need to fly out. We are trusting the Lord that if the finances for the flight don’t come in, then that is what He has for us. And we are fine with that. If that is the case we will be cancelling our flight up to the Dentist.
Thank you all for standing by our side and supporting us through your prayers and giving.
In Him,
Jason
From:
Jason Swanson <jason_swanson@ntm.org>
Date: Saturday, April
25, 2009 5:45 AM
Subject: Here's the important news along with the
verse. Sorry I guess some of you only got the verse:
Ps 119:49-50
Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
50 My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life.
Greetings from Siawi. God has answered our joint prayers. Thank you all so much for coming to the throne of Grace on Kounasi and Kerol’s behalf. We received word from Linda while we were in the village on Friday, just 2 days after Kounasi was taken out to Hospital, that he was all stitched up and doing fine. In fact, he was doing so well that he was already released from the hospital. He was walking around a little. And the doctor had already peformed surgery on Kerol and she was doing fine. God is good and He is the one who preserves our life. Kounasi is proof positive of this. It looks like they will all be returning to Siawi next week! Praise be to our wonderful Lord whose faithful love- endures forever.
In Him,
Jason for us all
Date:
Friday, April 24, 2009
Subject: Great
news from Siawiland- Our Great God has answered our prayers
Ps 119:49-50
Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
50 My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life.