Prayer Letter Archive

March 2004

Yesterday we witnessed one of those occasions that don't come around often in a lifetime and that was the dedication service of the New Testament that had been translated into the Myu language.

The Myu work started in 1988 with a family, Det and Vicki Doose building their house in the middle of the jungle. Not long afterwards they were joined by a single girl, Lenore Tillitson and another family, Tim and Jodi Spanton. This girl, now a lady worked on the translation for 15 years. I can hardly imagine all she went through these past 15 years yet I was here, taking her supplies in, bringing her out, helping to straighten her house when an earthquake tried to topple it down. I'm sure many times she felt like giving up and running away. For some reason, and I'm trying to figure it out still, she stayed and finished the job.

And yesterday was the dedication service. There were 350 people there in the makeshift "auditorium" not including the dogs and pigs. Believers, as a witness to the commitment of missionaries from 4 different language groups came together. Some hiked all day to be there. We were all encouraged to what God had done and challenged that the Word of God that has now come to us is not to be left on the shelf, it's our responsibility to read it, learn from it and act on it...we have no excuse.

A ripple from the event was that a new group of believers began to see that the missionaries would not be with them forever, holding their hand. They started asking, "when will we get God's word in our language?" They are beginning to realize the task of reaching this land will someday be in their hands. We have not come to do business for profit, we have not come to heal their sick and bring them material things, we have come to give them God's WORD. It also strengthened us missionaries to regain focus on what we're doing here.

Wish you could have been here to witness this event! Thank you for making it possible that we could be here to witness it for you.

Mark