193 Baptised!!

Incredible things are happening in Lapoc!

GOD is amazing us and exciting us and filling us with wonder at all HE is doing!

 

This is some of what has happened in the past two weeks:

*We ordained another elder - Gabril – in the church here in Lapoc.
*We baptised 193 new believers! 
*Six hundred plus gathered for a believers conference from many different villages. We saw people serving each other – the cooks for the conference cooked for two days and nights with no sleep.
*We saw the oldest believer here in Lapoc, Maas, get baptized by her previous enemy. 
*We had a prayer time with hundreds of believers sitting outside the church in groups of five.

Everything that happened just amazed us and is the evidence of God working here in this place in ways we can only wonder at. 

Special Prayer Points for this week:

·       Barb (Jubab’s teacher) is in Hong Kong at the moment seeing a Doctor. Please pray fervently for her health and safe return here to Lapoc.

·       Preparations for the Translation Consultant check of the book of Luke starting April 13.

Much Love from Paul, Deb and Jubab

Arriving in Lapoc!!!

This is an account of our first few hours back home here in Lapoc – this actually happened on Feb. 1st so it is over a month ago but we didn’t want to inundate you with updates so we are spacing the news out!

Arriving in Lapoc.......

So.......as dusk was approaching our laden down 4WD weaved its way up the dusty track (that is dust you can see in this picture, not fog!).

On board was Mrs. B and Mrs. Pems and all of our belongings as well as groceries and supplies enough to last a couple of months.

As we pulled up near the top of the road leading into the driveway to our house, we saw crowds of people waving and cheering.

You probably know what happened then – our eyes began to fill with tears and we had this great sense of being back amongst loved ones.


Feet back on Lapoc ground......

We hardly had time to put our feet on the ground and we were surrounded by our friends and family in the Lord Jesus!!

Paul almost disappeared in hugs and handshakes – a lot of the children had grown so much in the 15 months we were away that we could hardly recognize them!

Jubab’s dog Sparky was jumping all over us! People were crying – so were we!

Jubab disappeared amongst his friends.


Babies......

While we’ve been gone, there were new babies born to our friends who we’d never seen!

Their chubby little arms and soft cuddles were something I had been looking forward to!

And in the midst of all the reunion and excitement and hugs and tears......

........there was another surprise for us!


A party.....

Our neighbours and friends had been cooking and preparing all afternoon for a surprise party for us when we arrived!

There were special songs - in this photo, the women scripture teachers were singing to us! After this the Bible Teachers sang a song as well and then there was a short message and welcome address to us from our co-worker Rodil.

And then the ladies served a beautiful meal to everyone who had gathered and the time of fellowship and laughing and cuddling babies went on well into the evening.

We had lots of help after the party with the unpacking and that went late into the night and we finally got to bed absolutely exhausted but soooooooo happy to be back with our precious friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord here in Lapoc.

So that was our first evening back home here in Lapoc, and since that evening many more exciting things have happened and are happening as God continues to walk with us on this missionary journey here in this place. The things our God is doing are more amazing then words and emails can do justice to.

Love Paul, Deb and Jubab XXXXXXX