Rainy Season Means Hungry Times

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