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Davey and Maria Jank
"And this Good News about the Kingdom will be preached through all the world for a witness to all people; and then the end will come." Mat 24:14
**See Past Letters: Letter One
Letter from September 27, 2005-Aug 2005 News Below
A SECOND GENERATION OF TEARS
It would have been quite obvious to even the
casual observer that the tiny little bench was
not carved with my creature comfort in mind; my
knees were pulled up to my chin, and I was
leaning forward to avoid the wet clay of the
wall behind me. The blood-sucking gnats were
immensely enjoying my fresh-from-the-USA flesh,
and the muggy heat was augmented by the press
of people around me.
I was only vaguely aware of all this, though.
I was remembering a time of tears, two years
ago, when many of the Maco people of Marueta
gave public testimony of faith in Christ.
After spending the better part of a year
standing before them and explaining God's
message to them, we missionaries had sat in
tears as we listened to words of simple yet
profound faith spoken by people like Mala,
Camico, Tali and his wife Delia, Kaya and
Anita, Walikilo, Lechu, Ba'aliyu and his wife
Pjoyoka, Gabarra, and many others.
Not long after that, we had to leave for a time
of furlough and further missionary training.
Two years away from the Maco people was a long
time. Perhaps God had wanted to show the new
Maco believers that their spiritual well-being
wasn't tied to us, but rather to God's Word and
His indwelling Spirit. We left, and in our
absence the rest of our missionary team
continued teaching God's Word to these new
believers.
Now it was September 3rd, our second day back
among the Maco people, and we found ourselves
compressed onto a tiny bench that reached not
much beyond our ankles. We were surrounded by
Maco people. In fact, across the room from us
sat our Marueta friends Tali and Delia and
Mimiyu. Mala, Camico, and Walikilo were there
as well, and so were Lechu, Ba'aliyu and
Pjoyoka.
This wasn't Marueta, though. A year ago, when
the new church in Marueta had heard that people
in the neighboring village of Porvenir were
wanting to hear God's talk, they had begun
sending a delegation to this village,
accompanied by others of our missionary team.
Two days out of every week they had stood up
and taught the people of Porvenir about God,
about creation, about man, about sin, about a
promised Redeemer, and finally about Christ and
His life, death, and resurrection.
Now they had just concluded the day's lesson,
with several of the teachers describing their
"coming to God" account, their testimony of
their own inner transformation from death to
life, from darkness to light. The meeting was
then opened for anyone to say anything at all
regarding God's talk that they had been
learning about since last November.
The people from Marueta sat down, and after a
short silence, a man strode up to the front and
announced that he was accepting Christ's
payment on his behalf. Others quickly
followed, expressing similar sentiments, until
29 people in all had voiced, in one way or
another, their decision to rest their soul on
God.
I glanced over at the group from Marueta.
Their concern for these people of Porvenir had
prompted them to give up so much over the past
year. Their leisure activities had been
greatly curtailed, they had forgone
opportunities to make money, their gardens had
suffered - all because they had wanted the
people in Porvenir to have this chance to hear
and understand God's message.
I glanced over at them and saw tears in their
eyes - a second generation of tears - as they
experienced what we had experienced two years
ago - the privilege of listening to new
brothers and sisters in Christ introducing
themselves to the world.
Davey and Marie Jank
http://daveyandmarie.com
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