David and Shari Ogg - Simbari, PNG Ogg's Blog 
I just got back from a trip down the valley to kickoff a new outreach. For years we have been receiving invitations to come down to a very large village to teach but we have not been ready. Recently one of the main teachers at the community school down there sent us an invitation to teach our chronological “Creation to Christ” Bible course as well as vernacular literacy in the school and we decided that the time was finally right. He was wanting us to teach in all the grades but we didn’t have enough trained teachers or materials to attempt that so we came to the agreement that we would teach in the two upper grades and the teachers from the community school would participate so that later they themselves could teach literacy in the lower grades.
Posts Tagged ‘Simbari’
A PNG Summer
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Esther’s visit
What an encouraging summer it has been here in PNG! It started when Esther arrived from California in June and we were able to go with a group of missionary friends (18 of us all together) to climb Mt. Wilhelm, the tallest mountain in PNG. Everyone in our family except Jason and Shari made it to the summit and back to base camp in about 13 hours. (Shari and Jason stayed at base camp where there is a beautiful lake).
After a fun but rainy, cold few days, 
we flew to thecoast and spent a week at the ocean where it was a lot warmer. Esther enjoyed being able to snorkel and dive with us again after being gone a couple of years.
Romans 1-8 translation in Simbari
Monday, June 8th, 2009
David and three Simbari helpers have been working with a translation consultant for last few days doing the final check on the Romans chapters 1-8.
We praise the Lord that it went very well and after a few revisions to improve the translation we will be able to print those chapters and use them for teaching. David is done with most of his work on the rest of Romans so our co-worker, Lori, as well as Shari will be working on finishing their part of the process on the rest of the chapters. As that is in progress David is translating Bible lessons to go with the book of Romans and has also begun the preliminary draft of Ephesians.
More Open Doors
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
We have been so thrilled with the open doors the Lord is giving the Simbari believers to share the good news of Christ\’s love not only in our village but in the surrounding villages as well.
Recently two of the Bible teachers were invited to the largest Simbari village about a four-hour rigorous hike from here to meet with the headmaster of the community school there. For quite awhile now he has been expressing his desire to have God\’s talk brought to his village. The people have been exposed to some religion and in fact there is a big “church” building but he says it leaves them feeling cold. (more…)
A Baby Healed
Monday, June 1st, 2009
David\’s translation helper told us a story about something really neat that happened recently at the other village where the believers were meeting together for a time of fellowship.
He said there was a lady whose baby had been sick and was having a hard time breathing. All of a sudden the baby became lifeless and started foaming at the mouth and the mother believed her to be dead. So she quickly took her baby to some men who are with another religious group in the area and asked them to pray for her. Surprisingly they told her to take her baby over to the house where the believers in Jesus were meeting and ask them to pray for her. This village has seen God do some amazing things when the believers pray, (more…)
Above the noise of the river
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
The noise started a few days ago.
It was the eerie sound of the “bullroar” which is a bamboo switch with a small noise-maker tied to the top which is twirled around at high speed to produce the eerie sound. The noise marked the beginning of a “yumbunja” which takes place a month or so after a death to drive away the ghost of the one who died. It’s not a noise that we like to hear because it’s ringing in the air is indicative of many people who are still blinded to the truth and under the powers of darkness. As the Simbari believers came and went around the village when they came upon the people with the bullroars there was a strong reaction. (more…)