NTM

Celebrate Christmas!

We have been “off the grid” a bit lately due to a trip to Hewa — In the bush we have NO email, internet, cell coverage, or TV. However, we seem to have better access to the One we NEED – Here is one scene we partook in during our time visiting The Church in Hewa.

Sitting in a church building without electricity… some folks are on benches, many are on the floor, the rain storm outside continues to intensify complete with thunder, lightning, blowing wind, and intense rain. It was nearly impossible to hear due to the rain on the metal roof sounding like the inside of a jet engine… Everything within me wanted to stop teaching wondering if everyone was even able to hear? Would my voice hold out as I yelled in competition with the elements? Was there something bigger going on? We had come to the highlight of our block of teaching in Romans — I wanted to cover Chapters 1-3. The people had met with us twice a day every day for the week. They seemed to notice that the teaching was building toward something. Now that we were reaching the climax in the teaching – the storm seemed to be working it’s hardest to push back against the intensity of the message of Romans.

I said “Guys, this is the verse that is going to knock the legs out of all other false churches and religions. These verses should be memorized and re-taught on a regular basis. I am going to write it on the wall of our church so that everyone can see what makes us different than every other church in our area. Do you want me to keep going? Should I quit and try in the morning when we can hear better? People leaned in, a few folks got up and moved closer so that they could hear God’s Word. Sensing that it would be wrong for me to back down at this point, we pushed on and read,

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Romans 3:20-22

One of our key guys nearly jumped out of his skin with excitement – several had a huge smile as they rested in all that Christ has done for us. This message cannot be held back – it will go forward because it is GOOD NEWS.
Thank you – We thank you on behalf of the Hewa People and we thank you from our family for the opportunity to do this ministry. What a privilege to share The GOOD NEWS with the Hewa people.

When not in Hewa, we have been very busy in our ministry at the regional support center in town. We have had a lot of personnel passing through our regional support center and always enjoy ministering to fellow missionaries. Here are a few of the things we do when we are not preparing for, or teaching in Hewa land;

We are arranging all the logistics for a Bible Dedication into the Iwam Language Group in February. We are working on planning and coordinating a Regional Conference in March. Included in this time will be a series of strategy meetings that we will assist in leading. We have also had the opportunity to help in evaluating Current Church Planting efforts in our region and assist these churches in planning their course. We have had some folks go through some very difficult circumstances and we have spent many hours visiting and ministering to these dear friends. We fill in all our free time with whatever needs to be done to “keep the lights on” at our support center.

Overall – We are doing very well. We miss you all dearly. We reminisce about how nice it was to be home last year.

However, we know this is where God has us and we are thankful for the opportunities we have here. THANK YOU for joining with us and making this ministry possible. Your prayers, encouragement, and faithful support have been a huge blessing. Please drop us a line and let us know how you are celebrating your Christmas and your plans for the NEW YEAR.

With His Love – The Copley’s

Deuteronomy 32: 3-4

New believers baptized in “Kul”!!!

Yanis and Ken have done a fantastic job with the church planting effort for the people of the “Kul” village. The Lord has blessed their efforts tremendously over these last 12 months with village wide interest. Attendance for the daily Bible teaching sessions have held steady the entire time at almost 100% from young and old alike (approx. 45 people). Many are now professing Christ and recently ten of these people took a bold step forward, demonstrating their faith publicly through baptism!

The testimonies of faith that we heard prior to the baptism were rich and deep. Alimpu, the village elder said with deep conviction, “Satan had me all tied up, trapped on the trail of sin. Now that I have heard God’s story from the Bible, I understand that God had a right to be angry with me and pronounce a severe judgment/payment for my sin. I realized that I was helpless to pay for my own sin debt. I heard the story of John the Baptist, and how when he saw Jesus coming he said, ‘Look, that’s God’s Lamb that takes away sin’, and when I heard that I realized Jesus had come to the ground to take away my sin debt. When I heard later that Jesus died and rose again, I realized that He died for me, so that I could be clean in Gods eyes, and so that I could be His very own child. Now God isn’t mad at me for my sin debt, but instead has made me His own child. He rescued me from Satan’s trail and has now put me on the trail of Jesus. That’s why I want to be baptized. I want everyone to know that I am tired of the old trail. I am now on the trail of Jesus.”

There were many other testimonies that warmed my heart like never before. Fato said, “Once a long time ago, some men came to our village and told us to build a church. We worked hard to make the building, and then when it was finished, the men told us to kill our pigs so they could eat them, and they told us to give them our money. We did everything they told us to do, because we thought it would make God happy with us. They later explained God’s ten laws to us and told us to obey them. Then, after we heard God’s ten laws, they told us to get baptized so we did. We thought we had done everything right. But now we see that the trail that they had us following was just as bad as the trail we had been on earlier when we were trying to please our ancestral spirits. Now that you have come to live with us however, we have been able to hear God’s words in our own language, and we have been able to read His book with our own eyes. Now we can see the true trail from start to finish, and we have come to understand clearly that Jesus has made it possible for us to be God’s children. Thank you for showing us the trail of Jesus.”

Praise and Prayer

Praise; Keith Copley was able to teach Romans 1-3 for the first time in Hewa and the response was terrific! It was so cool to see the believers get excited over Romans.

Praise; Jonathan has made steady progress in translation and now initial drafts of both Ephesians and I Timothy are finished

Praise; Jonathan was able to make steady progress working on the house in Kul- indoor plumbing and electrical are mostly finished!

Prayer; The Hewa believers need real wisdom as they make plans for an outreach. Pray for wisdom for best timing.

Thank you so much for your continual love and prayers and sponsorship that have made it possible for us to reach out with the love of Jesus to our Hewa friends. These new testimonies of faith are a direct result of your faithfulness in prayer, thank you so much!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!