Carol Davis - this is the one we've been waiting for. We would be unable to reproduce what she taught but I can give my impressions.
Luke 10:1-7 was the bible study, and we asked the questions:
-what do you like?
-what do you dislike?
-what didn't you understand?
-what did it teach you about God?
-what do you need to do because of it?
-what verse would you like to keep with you?
Sometimes simply having a Bible and those 6 questions are enough to win entire people groups.
We see ourselves as the "go" part of a team whose goal it is to support missionaries in Papua New Guinea, to further bible translation and literacy, to further disciple the reached tribal groups in PNG and to reach the unreached people groups in PNG with the Gospel of Christ.
It's a team. Missions is for every member of the church. Somehow folks got it into their head (and I used to be one) that missions is for the sending agency and the missions committee. But we're each called to play a role.
the roles can be:
goer
sender
mobilizer
intercessor (prayer)
welcomer
God has prepared a ministry and a team to accomplish it. He has been working in all of our hearts to get the job done, He has built us into who we are now (regardless of how much you may struggle with your past, it was built there to make you a specialized member of the team) so that we can join this team.
The task before us is to find each other, join forces, and get the work done. God has already prepared the harvest. In the coming weeks, my wife and I will begin the process of trying to find each of the members of this team.
Wycliffe provides training on the subject, documents on the subject and "how to's" but we already know that God has put all the hearts into play and like the Apostles, what we really need to do now is walk around proclaiming God's glory and unite the team, and then go and get it done.
For those of you that are already on the team, we love you guys, we thank God for you, and we praise God for preparing the special parts of your lives and your hearts that He has.
It is an honor to be teaming with you, you represent a skillset and a willingness specialized by God to hone this team into a glorifying unit for God.
We can not wait to go.... we're waiting on God's timing, but boy are we praying for Him to teach us what we need to learn so that we can go sooner than later!
We're excited.
So... prayer requests for this week:
-pray that God would help us discover those folks He has planned
-pray for the completion of forms and physicals and training that need to be completed before we can go.
-pray for blessings on every member of the team and for spiritual protection, growth, and purity.
thank you.
