Before we even wrote to you Thursday … before we decided Wednesday to pay our daughter’s $1,1162 college bill … before she even came to us with her need … He already had an answer in the works.

Yesterday, a couple who knew nothing about our need gave $1,000 to our ministry. They started the process to give before we even knew we had the need.

We’re certainly very thankful to them. We’re thankful you prayed. And what’s really thrilling is what this says about the way God works to glorify His name.

Thanks for being with us on this sometimes scary, often thrilling adventure!

That’s why it troubled me so much to have to tell my youngest daughter we couldn’t help her.

After a disastrous first year of college, she had to appeal to re-enroll this semester. Now she’s getting straight As. But Sunday she told us she needed $1,162 to pay college bills today, or she cannot return next semester.

Well, Julie and I have been working for years just to pay off bills from when our oldest daughter was seriously ill. Even with $24,000 in annual income, we’ve made progress on that for five years. But the last two months we went backwards, piling up more bills, mostly because our ministry costs have increased 400 percent in the last three years. We had to tell Brynna we couldn’t help.

But that ate at me Monday. It bothered me Tuesday. It irritated me Wednesday. I never want to deny my kids an opportunity because we’re in ministry.

And I didn’t want to tell you about it because I don’t want people giving to us to meet our needs. I believe people should give to God through our ministry to glorify His name.

But Wednesday I realized we can help her … if Julie and I take a step of faith.

In order to pay my daughter’s college bills, I’m taking an advance from next month’s check. I’m giving her the money that has come in for next month. I’m putting myself in a position where I am completely reliant on God’s care and provision, because we have almost no money now and nothing in the pipeline for next month. In fact, at this point, if nothing further comes in, we’ll owe NTM more than $400.

Still, I wasn’t going to tell you. I’m only telling you now because later Wednesday I realized this is an opportunity for you to take part in glorifying God.

You see, Brynna struggles with the idea of following a God whom, she believes, does not keep His promises. She doesn’t think God’s providing for us if we’re always struggling to stay above the line where we’re paying off debt instead of wracking more up.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could change her view of God?

I know I can trust Him to take care of us. And I am so very much hoping that God is going to stun my daughter into His arms with the abundance of His care and provision. You can be part of that by praying and giving, and by sharing this opportunity with others.

Please take this opportunity to glorify God. Find out how you can give to our ministry, online or by mail or phone >>

Awayo

No one said a word for a full five minutes.

In a room full of 700 college students, there were always people talking, oblivious to what was going on in the Reality Conference. But not after AWAYO was shown.

After one of the first public showings of the film you helped make possible, you could have heard a pin drop. Pity the guy who had to speak after that. All he could say was, “Wow!”

Bob Walz, a Navigator who showed the film and shared the story of what happened, is praying that God will use the film to tear down the wall of indifference between young American Christians and the world’s need for the Gospel.

“Who knows what happened?” he wrote. “Only God.”

Will you pray with Bob and I?

Watch the short film that silenced 700 college students >>

Your prayers and gifts helped Ian be part of the team that filmed AWAYO. Ian also co-wrote the final script. Next fall we expect to make another film about a life that God has changed, and you can help make that possible by giving toward what we believe is the minimal equipment we need for the trip. You can give online, and see other options >>

Luis, Selmira and their two daughters

Please don’t ever doubt that your gifts are important.

Luis was about to travel from his remote village in Colombia to the city to help missionary Mark Cain translate God’s Word into the language of his people, the Guahibos. A couple in the USA heard about that, and decided they would give so that Luis’ wife, Selmira, could go with him.

By American standards, that wasn’t a lot of money. Most of us would probably say it was a small gift. Some might also think that the purpose of the gift wasn’t really important. But Luis and Selmira were very grateful to be able to make the trip together.

In the coming days, Selmira often sat in as Luis and Mark went through the difficult task of translating and checking and revising. And she was there as they again discussed a difficult issue.

In traditional Guahibo culture, all punishment is seen as evil. So for 30 years, the fact that God punishes the sinner, and is just in doing so, has been a stumbling block for the Guahibos. And now here they were translating Romans 1:18-3:20, and they needed to get across that God is just in punishing the sinner. And they still couldn’t figure it out.

That’s when Selmira said, “Dioso apotopibisiacuenetsi penaneconitsia-exanaenexa pibisiacuene pexanaewi.”

Now I realize that answer may seem to you as plain as the nose on your face. Oh, sorry, the Guahibo isn’t, is it? Here’s how it translates: “God does not sin when He punishes the sinner.” That may seem pretty simple, but it’s a very precise, clear way of expressing a concept in the Guahibo language that is foreign to the Guahibo culture.

It happened because of what you and I might call a small gift. It happened because a couple followed God’s leading to give to something that might seem trivial to some folks.

And that’s the key to understanding why every gift you make is important. Because it’s important to God. Not because He needs the money. And not because missionaries or the people they work with need the money. But because God’s name is glorified when you and I walk in obedience, when we give to Him as an act of worship.

Your worship and obedience are always important – and sometimes they lead to exceptional results.

Wikipai

Wikipai has died.

The Dao Bible teacher seemed for a time to be recovering from the illness that struck him as he taught in an unreached Dao village. However, the missionaries to the Dao people learned this week that he had unexpectedly died last week, leaving behind his wife, Moipi, and their two children.

At least Wikipai was prepared. Earlier he had said:

No man knows the day that I will die, but the Creator knows. Will I die while I am young? Will I die while my wife and I have only cut the cords of two children? Will I die when I am old and have lived a long life? No man can know such things, but the Creator knows. And if I die while I am still young, then the Creator has chosen that for me. I am ready to go up to that good place above the sky and live with Jesus.

And in a way, his eulogy was presented before his death.

The leader of the organization that provides helicopter service to many missionaries in Indonesia, Switzerland-based Helimission, was coming to the area and asked to visit the Dao people. The missionaries and the people were glad to welcome Simon Tanner, and the Dao believers decided to have a feast to show their appreciation for him and his organization.

At the celebration, Kopeedi told him, “If it wasn’t for you …, we would still this day be living in darkness with no knowledge of what Jesus has done for us. We thank you for carrying the message bearers here so that we could hear of Jesus!”

Then Simon turned the celebration on its ear – in a good way. He told them it was a privilege to be used by God to help take the Gospel to people such as the Daos, and then he spoke about Wikipai and his fellow teacher, Daapoi.

“I have heard of how they have been faithfully teaching God’s Word here. … I have heard about how they have encountered many challenges and sicknesses in they’re trying to carry the Message of Jesus to [another village] … and I have great respect for these two men.

“We have come here also to show our appreciation to them.”

With that, he presented each of them with a SwissArmy knife, which he had carried all the way from Switzerland for them.

“The Dao people thought that they had gathered for a special feast just to honor Helimission,” wrote missionaries Scott and Jennie Phillips, “but it … ended up being a feast that the visitors had used to honor the first two Dao Bible teachers and evangelists, Wikipai and Daapoi.”

Scott and Jennie are deeply saddened, but they know God will use even Wikipai’s death for His glory. And Scott feels he has learned something important from Wikipai.

“I feel like he has shown me how to die well,” Scott wrote.

“Because when I die, I want my last weeks to have been spent on the front lines. I want my last days to have been spent commending Jesus to the unreached with a smile on my face no matter how much pain I may be in. And I want my last words to have been spent pointing my family, friends and all those around me towards the Creator so that He is the one people are left looking at – not me.”

Guanano children

If the cure is worse than the disease, is it really a cure?

Or let me put it this way …

A Guanano woman wanted an end to the yelling matches she and her husband were having over their finances. So she went to a “chanter.”

Guananos traditionally go to chanters with their problems. The chanters perform an incantation and – the Guananos believe – influence the situation in the favor of the person who hired them.

The chanter did her thing, and the woman paid her with one month’s supply of food.

Can you guess where this is going?

Her husband came home and wanted to know where all their food had gone. The answer caused another yelling match.

So … does that really seem like a good idea?

Now, I’m not telling you this because I want you to think the Guananos are foolish for going to chanters. What they’re doing is no more foolish than any of a number of things people in our culture do just because our culture says it’s the right thing to do.

The reason I’m telling you this is because you are helping give this woman and other Guananos hope that things can change in the future. Two Guanano Bible teachers, Mario and Getulio, are encouraging people to find the answers to their relationships in God. Or more precisely, to have a relationship with God, and to work on that relationship.

Your involvement in our ministry is helping tribal people like Mario and Getulio and the people they minister to know Christ and make Him known.

Thanks!

Moipi

You can always find reasons to say “no.”

Moipi certainly had some big ones.

The Dao woman was getting ready to move to a distant village with her husband in order to present God’s Word there.

“I know that my kids could get sick and die,” Moipi said, since she and her family would be far from the medical care provided by missionaries in her village.

“Or my family might not have enough food,” because her husband, Wikipai, would be concentrating on teaching instead of hunting and gardening.

“And I am not looking forward to living in a village that is so far from my own home,” she said. Tribal people are not as mobile as people such as you and I, and leaving family and friends is a big deal.

But Moipi wasn’t going to let that stop her.

“God’s message is a big message,” she said, “and I know that the people need to hear as well and so I will go. God’s message is worth it!”

But that’s not the end of Moipi’s story.

Within a few weeks of going to the distant village, her husband became seriously ill. He was doing so poorly that missionaries almost cried when they arrived and saw him. And he didn’t sound like he expected to recover.

“If my body dies here in this place, I know that my spirit will continue to live and will go up to be with the Creator. I do not fear death,” he said.

But with help, and by the grace of God, Wikipai recovered.

And what would you expect from Moipi after something so close to her fears came to pass? Would you expect her to be upset with God? A lot of people would be.

Well, here’s what she said:

“Everybody look! I was already looking for places to bury my husband. I already had a place picked out! But it is as if he has been raised from the dead right in front of my eyes! Look at him now. The Creator has caused him to live!”

Is fear keeping you from saying “yes” to God? Maybe your fears are real, and maybe they’re big, like Moipi’s. But you can find blessing and joy in discovering that God is so much bigger.

Ian’s been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on the website rollout, and still has a lot to do.

But we’re already been getting a ton of good comments, and we’re expecting that God will greatly use this powerful film.