Twice Egged

JD

M&T Updates, Twists and Turns During the Journey of Life

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Off they go again!!

Even in the midst of intense hardship and difficulty, God’s work moves forward on thousands of different fronts all around the world, and one of those fronts is our beloved Host Country. Yes, even in times of severe upheaval, turmoil, corruption, suffering, hunger, fear, and death, God Almighty continues to work to open doors and prepare the way for his servants to move forward.

And so YES, our coworkers are indeed moving forward!! In spite of many delays and setbacks, this past week they were back on the road once again with their beat up vehicles heading out to Pretty Water to minister to the beloved P people. Even with the many challenges of finding the needed car parts, getting sufficient gas and oil, as well as groceries, God has brought this together for them and they were excited to be heading back their homes among the P people. And as they passed checkpoint after checkpoint, they finally let us know that they had cleared all the potential problem areas, and none of their supplies were taken away, PTL!! Yes, they had wanted to get back in there a long time ago but circumstances didn’t permit. They made their plans, but God directed their steps, in HIS time and in HIS way.

As they were heading out, we were in contact with them, praying that God would open the needed doors for them. And as we communicated and saw the pictures they were sending to us like the one above, well our eyes teared up as our hearts filled with emotion, wishing we were going back out there with them. But no, God has us in the north writing Bible curriculum for these dear believers. Again, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways and thoughts so much higher than ours!

As far as a trip for us to rendezvous with some of the P pastors this Dry Season, it isn’t looking too likely. However, we continue forward trusting our Chief Strategist to work things out for His honor and glory when it comes to the P work. Thanks again for your prayers regarding this. How good to know that our great Lord Owner Boss God is all-powerful and that He is the one who sits at the helm of world events…. and so we continue to rest in Him for the future.

Another Twist in the Road

For at least the last year, I have been having a slight discomfort in my throat. It would be there sometimes, and at other times I never felt it. However, I felt recently I should get it checked, and here it turns out I have a lesion on my vocal chords. So on the 20th of March I’m slated for surgery for a micro laryngoscopy with laser. The specialist plans to take a biopsy from the lesion, which is about 3 mm long, and then cauterize it using the laser. He said he doubted that it was cancer but that we needed to find out for sure. He also mentioned that the procedure could be damaging to the vocal chords. So this is a call to pray for God’s healing hand. He could easily heal that lesion completely before surgery! But he may want to use the surgery to take care of the problem too. So yes, your prayers are much appreciated!! Again, as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are His plans and thoughts higher than ours!

Prayer Items

  • Please pray for our coworkers as they continue to encourage literacy among the bilinguals and share truth with them, and as they make a trip out to the monolinguals where the 9 village churches are. Because of all the turmoil in the country, they were delayed from going sooner. Usually they get out there in December or January. So the people will be very anxious to see them
  • Please pray for continued freedom for our coworkers to minister to the people, as there are a several dangerous groups living in that area
  • Please continue to pray for this wonderful country as bad leadership has brought it into severe ruin. Pray for God’s will to be done, and that His Name be hugely glorified in it all
  • …and thanks for praying for healing and the upcoming surgery. Pray for the safety of my vocal chords, and that no complications take place
  • Thanks for your continued prayers for the Bible curriculum. We plan to get a book published this month and sent to the P before Rainy Season sets in

Rejoicing in the God whose thoughts and plans are higher than ours,
Merrill and Teresa

Please Pray for Our Host Country!

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Intercession is Urgently Needed
Wild Things are Happening in our Host Country!

News From Our Host Country

As many of you have probably heard, there are some big things happening in our beloved Host Country these days, and I wanted to give you a quick update, as this all definitely requires our prayers.

Recently the Ruling Body of the country declared that the Leader who had assumed power once again after “elections” was not legitimate. And just the other day, one of the members of the Ruling Body officially declared that per the constitution, he was stepping in as interim Leader, until elections could be held. The US, Canada, most of Latin America, and several other countries have all officially recognized this new Interim Leader as the legitimate one. And several big countries from Europe have strongly encouraged this illegitimate Leader to hold national elections once again in eight days.

Well, the illegitimate Leader refuses to step down, and announced that he is severing ties with the US, and ordered all embassy personnel to leave within 72 hours. And the new interim Leader countered that saying that the orders of the illegitimate leader are null and void, and asked all embassies to stay. So far many countries have chosen to go with what the interim Leader is saying.

We don’t know where things are going but we recognize that things could go really crazy. There are some real big power-players involved from around the world and they are supporting the illegitimate Leader. Yes folks, this is a potential powder keg!

Huge marches took place across the country on January 23rd which was the anniversary of the fall of another dictator they had not so many decades ago. We are thankful that the marches have been peaceful for the most part.

Could you please join us in prayer for this beautiful country that is so torn apart? Her are some key things to bring before the Lord:

  1. Pray that God would bring change in His time and in the most peaceful way possible.
  2. Pray that HE will get the glory and His purposes would be accomplished.
  3. Pray for wisdom and caution for all leaders to make God’s choices.
  4. Pray that when humanitarian aid is sent that it will reach the people who need it and that it will not be stolen or sold.
  5. Pray for us who still are involved in working with different peoples in the country, that God as our Chief Strategist would guide us through these times.
  6. Pray for continued open doors for the Gospel in this beloved country.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers for the dear P believers whose lives are also affected during these tumultuous times.

Thanking God for you all,

Merrill and Teresa

M&T Updates: Merry Christmas

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Let’s speak prettily to the Lord Owner Boss of the descendants of Israel….
“I have seen your salvation which you have prepared for all people.“


Merry Christmas!!

Teresa and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as you celebrate the riches of all that our Great God has done for us!! How blessed we all are because of this marvelous Story that began in eternity past!!  A big hug for you all from us up here in the North land!!

Here is some of the Christmas Story from Luke 2 from the P. Bible:

     And at that time, there was one who lived there in Jerusalem.  His name was Simeon.  And this one, who lived in a straight (righteous) way, was continually thinking about the true God.  He lived continually thinking and waiting for the Savior whom God had chosen.  Yes, he was living waiting for that one who would help the descendants of Israel, the one who would give them salvation.  And upon this one who was waiting (Simeon) came the true Spirit.  And coming upon him, the Spirit caused him to think about the Savior that the Lord had chosen.  The true Spirit caused him to realize beforehand that he would see the Savior in person before he (Simeon) died.

Well on that particular day, the true Spirit led Simeon to the house of the true God (temple).  And then, when Joseph and Mary arrived to present their son in a setting apart prohibitively (sanctifying) sort of way, when they came to do according to what the hemming-in words (law) said, Simeon saw them.  And seeing them, he picked up little Jesus.  And thinking prettily, he quickly began to speak prettily (praise) to God.

And speaking like this he said:

“Yes Lord, you told me ahead of time that I would see the Savior in person.  Now I have seen precisely this one.  It’s true!  I have seen this one that you sent, this one who will provide passing through (salvation) for those who live in all lands, this one who was sent for everyone.  For he resembles a light.  And precisely he will cause the non-Jews to think in the light regarding yourself.  Its true!  To every person and to everyone who speaks a different language, yes, he will give them knowledge in order that they know you well.  And by his doing, he will cause the non-Jews to see the ones descended from Israel with true value.  And so now God, since I have seen this one, I will be able to die thinking with a refreshed liver (with peace).  So go ahead and give me, your servant, death,” Simeon said to the true God.

Down below here is our son Josh, his wife Josie, and their four children.  Thanks for your prayers for them as they continue to serve the Asian-Pacific Region, and as they transition to new things.  Their oldest son Spencer is in College now, and so that is a real adjustment to have him far away.  Pray for God’s continued leading in all of their lives.

And further down below you see our daughter Jodi, with her husband Brent, and the two little ones all bundled up for the cold.  Pray for them as they continue to work in northern Canada to reach the First Nations of this great land.

How thankful we are that our children know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and that they want to live for His glory.  We are thankful too that the grandchildren know the Lord as well…..except the last two….who are still just a couple of little peewees!!

Josh, his wife Josie, and their four children
Our daughter Jodi, with her husband Brent, and the two little ones

Thanks again so very much for your partnering with us.  We are indeed thankful for the ongoing opportunities to serve the P. believers by preparing additional resource material for them.  We hope to get some more Bible lessons sent down to them shortly…and trust God for continued OPEN DOORS!!  Thanks for praying about continued ministry down there.  Thanks again for all you do to keep us going!!

Rejoicing in the Lamb that was slaughtered who will come again as the Lion of Judah who will reign supreme,

Merrill and Teresa

M&T Updates, News from Pretty Water

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Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. – Proverbs 25:25

We have been out of the loop here for a while as we have been traveling, sharing at different churches, seeing doctors and cornea specialists, visiting family, and also hanging out with many of you who have been partnering with us in the work. Thanks again for your partnership as we continue to work to provide all the spiritual resource material we can for the beloved P churches in the very deep south.

Proverbs 25:25 in the P language:

My “inner” is as if with great thirst, but when tasty words arrive from a land far away, it is as though cold water refreshingly wakes it up in such a way that it finds pleasant relief.

Câ tjo üdë ui jâbomî darî cjiadique mâê oa târëdëâ oaiä, jabo jachi ârêmê chiriri pio judiri mânâmê mâê goae üdë mânânârâ oaiä, jabechjî ui chjöchja üdë câ tjo oa mâ chjupî bagari bedü tänêmî darî japadique goaerî cjatäcjie jôrêtareâmî darî.

Good News From a Far Country

What a thrill last week to get good news from our country of ministry! Our coworkers, who we’ll call Jack and Roz, had just come out to town from the P community of Pretty Water. They had literally used up the very last of their food supplies, and so needed to get to town to replenish what they could. They hated to leave as they were seeing God do some pretty cool things.

Pretty Water is a bilingual community of P people located along a river system where multiple villages have been established with about 7000 inhabitants. For several years some of these P people have been exposed to Bible teaching in the national language that has pushed a message of salvation by good works. But most who attend have very little comprehension because the Word has not been taught in their heart language.

Then, two and a half years ago when we completed the Bible translation in the P language, some of these beloved bilinguals from Pretty Water also received copies. However, there were problems. The village chief, who had embraced a religion of works, was suspicious of the translation because he thought it had been written with an inferior dialect spoken only by the monolinguals! And others mistakenly thought the Word of God could only be taught in the Spanish language, that God wasn’t interested in their language. Plus they had only been taught to read and write in the national language which didn’t at all enable them to read the many foreign symbols in their own. So even though they now had a Bible in their heart language, they couldn’t read it, and were suspicious of it!

Well, ever since the translation was completed and the P Bibles were distributed, we have prayed daily that God’s Word would go forth powerfully and accomplish all that God had purposed it to do in this beloved people group. Now we hear that there has been a change of heart. While efforts have been made down through the last five years to teach them to read and write in their own language, the investment hasn’t seemed to bear much fruit. However, Roz told us in her text message to us just last week that 18 people came when they recently organized the reading club so that the people there could learn to read and write in their own language. The Scriptures are still being taught in the national language but now several key people have begun reading from the P Bible during their gatherings. They are getting a taste of how much better God’s Word communicates in their own heart language, and this is spurring them on to learn to read in their own tongue! So you can imagine the thrill this news has been to us who labored long hours, days, weeks, months and years to get God’s love letter into the P language and into the hands of the people! It truly is good news from a far away land!

Now just the other day, we were able to do a voice call with our coworkers and catch up on more of the news from the country there. Jack told us that it felt like they were living on the edge of a very high precipice, and that things there can suddenly change drastically from one day to the next. Grocery stores in their supply town have empty shelves. Instead of finding food, there are only rows of soda pop and cheap plastic dishes. Food and medical purchases as well as some of the required legal work must be done thru black market channels at inflated prices. The reports are that things are very bad but still continue to worsen. The whole country continues to spiral downward. Let’s continue to pray!

Teachers

Here below you see a picture of one of the many monoligual P pastors who continue to teach the Scriptures. (they will just hang their hammock up in the middle of a village and just share the Word with people seated all around them) Thanks so much for your continued prayers for them. With the country as it is, they continue to suffer many hardships, but PTL that clear teaching continues among these dear monolingual brethren.

Prayer Requests:

—Please pray the following for the P believers:
1. that they will have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God
2. that they will be strengthened in their new being
3. that Christ will be totally at home in their hearts, being the captain of their lives
4. that they will know the width and depth and height and length of God’s love for them
5. that they will realize what is the mighty power that is at work within them
6. that they will think on those things that are lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise
7. that they will know what their hope is in Christ, and what Christ’s inheritance is in the saints

  • Pray for our national coworkers that they will be encouraged, have much wisdom, and push on with diligence and a sense of urgency. Pray that God will meet their every need in this context where most everything is no longer available
  • Pray much for Jack that he will really move ahead in the language. He has the gift of teaching but still lacks in the language to be able to clearly communicate….so thanks much for your prayers for him
  • Thanks in advance for your prayers for the people of Pretty Water. Pray that they really move ahead in their reading, and that they would continue to focus on the Scriptures in their own language. Pray too that the marvelous Gospel of grace would become clear to them as the move thru the Word.
  • Please continue to pray regarding a national family living close to one of the P villages that continues to be involved in theft, extortion, rape, and other preposterous things. They have manipulated and abused the P people for years and it only seems to be getting worse. Would you please pray that these people would either come to Christ, or fall into their own nets and traps that they set for others. Thanks so much!!
  • Please continue to pray for our Host Country. Things are increasingly difficult and there is much pain and tragedy. However we praise God that even in this bizarre context, God continues to build his church. Why, even in the last few months several people from a totally different Language Group in our host country have come to faith and have been added to the body of Christ!! So yes, thanks so much for praying for the work in this country.
  • Thanks for your ongoing prayers for Teresa and I as we work on behalf of the P brothers and sisters. I continue to work on the Bible curriculum and Teresa is doing the formatting. Your prayers for sharp minds, strong backs, and much wisdom is so needed!
  • Thanks for your many prayers regarding my eyes. I just saw the cornea specialist and he is very pleased on how the eye looks….and I am very pleased at being able to see so much better. And PTL that my other eye continues to do well, and even improve at times. So the only surgery that I have planned is for cataracts for they are the cause of some problems now. So thanks so much for your ongoing prayers. They are much appreciated!!
  • Please pray for wisdom on our part when to make the next trip to visit with the P pastors and connect with our team

And Thanks Again…..

….for your partnership with us, for your prayers, for your encouragement, for your notes, and for your fellowship in the Gospel. God is working and is building His church among the Unreached People Groups of the world. Thanks so much for being a part of the team!

Desiring to always be strong in His strength,

Merrill and Teresa

Rainy Season Means Hungry Times

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Palm fruit season is drawing to a close

Rainy Season for the P people is a difficult time because food is scarce. The plain truth is they are often hungry. Death, due to undernourishment, often happens during this time. Thanks for your prayers for the people that they will trust and rest in their sovereign Lord, even during these trying times, and that they will ever hope in the ONE who is truly worth hoping in.
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Rainy Season

Right now the P people are in the middle of their Rainy Season. Due to heavy rains and flooded bodies of water, most fish aren’t biting. The deer and other animals are finding lots of food in the woods and jungles, and so they aren’t roaming the plains where it is easier to shoot them. Garden produce ripens toward the end of this wet season, and the wild roots, fruits, and seeds are scarce. However, the P people have been enjoying their “tju” fruit, as they call it, from a particular palm tree. This kind of palm fruit doesn’t do a lot to fill them up, but they do enjoy the little bit of flesh on the outside of the large seed. They will take the scale-like skin off and then eat the flesh, or rub the soft flesh off in water to make a drink out of it. We have enjoyed this fruit with them on numerous occasions. It is a real treat….and we miss it!

The fruit is found on the ground or in the creeks and swamps that surround the palm groves. The ladies usually take their baskets to go out and gather it. It sort of ties them over until more options are available later on in rainy season, but what they are really waiting for is the produce from their gardens, as well as good fishing times.

Prayer Requests

  • Please pray for the people during this Rainy Season time when food can be very scarce. Pray that they will trust God with all their needs, and that they will rest in His loving care
  • Pray for them as their carry on without any external supplies at all. What they have they get from the creeks, rivers, lakes, woods, plains, and jungles. Pray that they would rest in the sufficiency of their great God
  • It is during this time that many deaths can take place. Please hold the people up in prayer that they will trust the great Sovereign Healer for all their physical needs, who heals and works according to His infinite wisdom and immeasurable love. Again, let me just mention that they are without any medical aid at all in their isolated area
  • Pray for an ever-growing love for the Scriptures, to learn more and to see the Word of God boldly proclaimed
  • I ask you once again to pray diligently with us for many more good readers of the Scriptures and the Bible lessons. There are about 150 people who can read, but only about 35 who can read well. Please pray for God to do a mighty work in this area
  • Praise the Lord that Teresa just finished updating the Literacy Teachers Guide. Pray that the teachers will continue to be motivated and encouraged to teach the next generation to read, so that the Word of God will continue to be passed on to their children and children’s children, etc
  • Thanks again for praying for the pastors and leaders, that they would be getting “fat” on the Word, and that they would continue to boldly proclaim the truths of God’s Word
  • Thanks for your ongoing prayers for me as I continue to revamp the Bible Lessons for the people, and as Teresa works on formatting and adding graphics to each lesson. This is a huge job but will be so worth it. The teachers have asked for it so that is like “gasoline in our tanks”!! But yeah, thanks for praying for wisdom, clarity, and diligence
  • Please continue to pray that the Word of God in the P language would go far and wide. We have heard many reports of bilingual P who know how to read in Spanish, but who are also wanting to learn to read the Bible in their own language. Pray that God would open the needed doors for His Word to go forth all through the P world which numbers about 11,000
  • Thanks for your ongoing prayers for our beloved country of ministry. It is falling apart. Multiplied thousands continue to flee. Innumerable families have suffered deaths, separations, hunger, severe deprivation, depression, and so much more. Please continue to pray for this land, and that God’s will be done
  • Pray for continued open doors for ministry. We hope to return when God gives us the green light
  • Pray for the growth of the P believers, that they will live in the joy and strength of the true Vine, and that walking in the Spirit would evermore become a constant way of life for them

Continuing to Gather as the Called Out Ones

Above you see our P brothers and sisters gathered together in the evening under the stars worshiping God. Some are singing. Some are praying. Teaching will happen later on in the evening. The singing and worshiping time can easily run an hour or more. Pray for these beloved brethren as they journey forward, looking for a city whose Builder and Maker is God. Pray for these special saints of the Most High as they seek to be light and salt in their world until Jesus comes to get them.

Thanks Again…..

….for your being part of the team as we push forward to cross the finish line in the P work for the brilliant glory of our Lord. We count it a huge privilege to invest our lives to see His church established among this beloved nation. So yes, thanks so much for praying and giving and encouraging and hanging with us down through the many years. We truly appreciate you all and thank God for you.

Continuing to count on the bigness of God,

Merrill and Teresa