Making Disciples

Benjamin and Missy Hatton left their home among the Amdu in Papua New Guinea, to enjoy the annual regional conference at the support centre on the coast. However, new Covid restrictions have kept them pinned down there. Pray that they will soon be able to return to their lives in Amdu.

Their co-workers, Bart and Emily Allen, stayed in Amdu. The testimonies that they are hearing have been encouraging. They show how much the Holy Spirit is working to establish these baby believers in their faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Thank you for continuing to pray for them.

Benjamin and Missy are excited to get back to these friends and the others who are hungry for God’s Word. The next instalment of the story they are going to hear is how God’s grace is manifested in the life of Saul of Tarsus. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is such a powerful story. The Amdu believers have already seen in God’s story how no enemy of God is able to overcome Yahweh’s plan.  In this episode, Yahweh not only conquers the enemy but also convinces the enemy to change sides. Pray that the Amdu believers will see in Paul the example of the power of God’s grace that God made him to be.

As the team teach through the story of the Holy Spirit’s work in the early church, they are guiding the Amdu believers towards the all-important question, “How does this apply to us?”  Once they have finished teaching through Acts, they are going to discuss this question at length. Pray that the Amdu believers will be convinced of their new identity in Christ and be willing to submit to His Spirit for all that He has for them. Pray that they will see the life of God’s children not as a list of practices they ought to perform, but instead a relationship of dependence on the One who is the source of Life and the producer of all good fruit.

The team continue to work hard on translation and literacy in order to provide the food that these baby believers need.  The book of Romans is being translated by Bart Allen. Pray for him as he uses up the last weeks of his time in Amdu before going on home assignment to get more of that epistle translated. Missy is translating Ephesians and enjoying the in-depth study and challenge of the translating process. Pray that she will have wisdom and that the Amdu ladies she works with will be able to help her make good progress when they get back to the village.

One of the team’s goals for this year is to see significant growth in the reading abilities of each hungry believer. They are not limiting their focus to just the believers. Anyone with interest can participate in the literacy programme.  Their desire, though, is for the believers to become better readers so that they can begin feeding themselves confidently from God’s Word.

They already prize the portions of Scripture that have been provided for them in their heart language. Pray that the team can, with their help, produce more material for them to practice with to get them up to the level where they can take the Scripture and read it on their own proficiently.

The Christian life is more than reading the Bible and studying it. Pray for the team as they seek to model the Christian life in their everyday interactions. They want to be the kind of examples that help their Amdu believing friends to understand what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Pray that they would remain in step with Him.

The team are grateful to all of you who pray for them and enjoy hearing about all that God is doing in Amdu.