Jason and Toni Stuart Working in Papua New Guinea Dear Friends,
Greetings from muddy Inaru, where our airstrip has flooded twice in the last
week! We had a nice long dry spell, but that has ended. We are all healthy
here with nothing worth complaining about. I know that is an answer to many
of your prayers and we thank you for praying. Actually, it is not just
because of your prayers. Almost every time our more faithful Inaru
believers pray publicly, they pray that we as a family will stay healthy and
will be able to live with them until we have finished our job here.
We are in the midst of preparing for our two week "Bible school" that is
coming up in the last two weeks of February. At times, I feel a bit
overwhelmed by the thought of it and wonder if we have bitten off more than
we can chew, so we really need your prayers to see this come off well. Some
items to pray specifically for would be:
-Pray that the Inarus would gather enough food to feed all the extra people
who will show up in our village. The Inarus are not generally well-known
for their hospitality and I am praying that the Bible school doesn’t close
down halfway thru because everyone is hungry.
-Pray that I would be organized and have all the preparations done in time.
Right now we have a bunch of girls coming each morning to string traditional
beads to make a rope of over 6000 beads, one bead for every year since
Creation. We will use this on the first day of teaching to show how long
this world has been around and then show when God did key things like the
Flood, the Ten Commandments, the Birth of Christ, and some significant
events in Papua New Guinea history. Also, I will be doing some skits along
with some of the Inaru believers, including a dramatization of the arrest
and crucifixtion of Christ. The Inarus have not done drama before as such
(though they are great storytellers), so this could end up to be a big flop
or a big success.
-Pray that the Holy Spirit would be convicting and preparing the hearts of
those who attend, so that they would be open to learn new things from God’s
Word. Pray also that I would be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit
as I teach to have wisdom to answer questions that arise and the right
illustrations at the right time, etc.
-Pray also for the Inaru church, which seems to be in a spiritual slump right
now. Maybe the Bible school will be the shot in the arm they need, but
right now most of them are focussed on interpersonal conflicts in the
village. Church services have been poory attended lately, though when we
meet there are always encouraging little things. Today, for example, a
widow named Duwei gave a testimony. Awhile back she was involved in
immorality and our elder, Raymond, asked that she not come to church until
she was willing to change her behavior. Earlier this week she came to us
and said she was very concerned that she felt she was "outside the flock"
and wanted to make a change and be involved with the church again. She gave
a very nice testimony this morning of how she wanted to do what was right
and didn’t want her children to grow up ignorant of the Lord. So, even
though many people are in a slump, the Holy Spirit is continuing His work.
Thanks again to all of you who pray for us and are involved in the work here
in many ways. Please at this time also remember to pray for the missionaries in the
nearby villages of the Inanbimali people and the Blackwater people, who are teaching God’s Word for
the first time to these people.
In Christ,
Jason, Toni, Jedidiah and Ella Jo Stuart
