André Tousch recently shared some news from the Iski church in Papua New Guinea. The Masa church has started a literacy programme in a neighbouring village, across the river. In 2019 during the outreach in Masa, a few people from this village attended the meetings, so they visited them regularly in their village to chat with them and talk about the Gospel. But after a few weeks they had to stop going to this village, because most of the population was opposed to the teaching. What joy to see that now many want to hear the Gospel, even some of the leaders of this community, and Christians are free to visit the village! The literacy programme is a prelude to the outreach that is expected to begin later this year, enabling those who will have learned to read to be able to read Scripture during the outreach.
In February André was able to complete the main stages of the translation into the Iski language of the portions of the New Testament assigned to him. His colleague in PNG, Jason, was also able to check the comprehension of these portions with members of the Masa church. There are still some steps to complete, which will take time because several people are involved in these steps. André only needs to be involved in translation one or two hours a week.
Once the team is done with the final steps, it will still be necessary to have a final check with a consultant before they are able to publish these portions. André hopes that this final check can take place next year.
The activities of the SIM France-Belgium office continue to keep André very busy: interviews with candidates for the mission, various commitments, training sessions for new missionaries, forums and church visits, as well as a number of administrative tasks.
From 14th to 16th André will participate in the “Make a Difference” conference at North Cotes, where he and wife Aurélie studied from 2010 to 2013. This is the first time he will be able to participate since they left for PNG in 2013!
This summer, André will lead a vison trip team to visit SIM ministries in Guinea, West Africa. Pray that this trip will allow the people, who are considering involvement in missions, to discern the will of the Lord for their lives, and to find what their commitment to missions will look like.
Aurélie and their children, who are all getting along very well at their various levels in education, are very much involved in the youth group at their church in Nîmes, France.
Thank you for your prayers!