So much has happened since Sara moved to serve among the Pwo Karen in Southeast Asia, she has experienced a lot, and it already feels so normal for her to be there.
After a year of language study, it was time for a visit from the language consultant. Sara and her coworker Angie are very grateful to God that He helped them to successfully complete the first stage, which is mainly about learning lots of nouns and simple verbs so that they can form short sentences. You can’t explain the Gospel yet at that level. So, they will keep on learning.
In the second stage, they will focus on processes. For example, they will learn how to describe the individual steps of doing laundry or how to cook something, work in the garden, etc. They are excited to see how this works out. Their two language helpers are fun to work with and a great help and they enjoy getting to know each other better.
There is still so much they need to learn about Karen culture too.
Both Sara and Angie have been blessed to be able to spend time with visiting family members in recent months.
As their colleagues have been on home assignment since November Sara and Angie have continued the teens meeting in their absence once a month instead of weekly. Pray that God’s Word will bear fruit in their hearts and that they will truly understand who God is and that He also died and rose again for them. All these teens come from non-Christian homes. Please pray that God will reach their hearts.
The children from the village enjoy visits to play at their house. They communicate in the national language, which the children learn at school. One day a week Sara teaches them some English, another day Angie tells them a Bible story and yet another day they can just play. Angie has been telling stories from the Old Testament but will now start with the New Testament. Please pray that the children will really understand who Jesus is, especially as sometimes they miss a story that was told, which makes it hard for them to see the big picture. Please pray that they can still get to know God.
At the conference last year national believers from different regions of the country attended, many came from the churches founded by the mission. It was so beautiful to see how the many years of hard work are bearing fruit, and how many people God has already added to His church. In some ethnic groups there are stable, strong churches. In other people groups there are only a few believers, and they still need a lot of help and biblical teaching. In a country with less than 0.5% Christians, it is always good to see that God is building His church in this part of the world, too. Please pray that these conferences will encourage the local Christians and show them that they are not alone on this pilgrim journey.
PRAISE:
- Great language helpers and a good relationship with them
- A successfully completed stage 1
- God’s help with language and culture study
- Avery encouraging conference
PRAY FOR:
- A good start into stage 2
- Relationships in the village
- The teenagers to know God and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour
- The kids in the village to understand the Bible stories and get to know God
Thank you for ministering with sara and Angie through prayer.