It has been five weeks since André and Aurélie Tousch and family returned to their village in PNG.
They enjoy being with their village friends again, and seeing them grow in their Christian walk.
André and Aurélie are very thankful for their village friends. They love to talk about faith. The Holy Spirit is at work in their lives, in their marriages and in their families. It is very encouraging. These dear people are very poor but they keep praising God and they are full of joy.
The children are very happy to be back in their house and back with their friends. Aurélie still home schools every day. They have a new pet and are very happy about it. It is a sugar glider (a small gliding possum). It got used to them very quickly and now they play with it for hours. It is a real blessing for them.
There has been fewer people attending the meetings, compared to last year. Sunday meetings attendance is about 130. Several families have left the village to go back to their home village and now, as a team, they are thinking of different ways to take care of them in spite of the distance. Pray for direction for the next outreaches. what village they should we go to and when? There is a lot to think about in organising an outreach but they hope will happen next year.
Currently André is working on translating Romans. It is not easy; there is a lot of abstract teaching that is hard to translate. He is also teaching on Sundays. Now they have two church meetings each week, one on Sunday, with new teaching, and one on Thursday for review. Faithful believing men from the village do the review teaching on Thursdays and are now training to be teachers for the next outreach. André and Aurélie are encouraged to see that some of them are good at teaching.
The people have written many songs in their own language and have made up their own tunes. Now they have a songbook with 45 songs.
We would like to ask you to pray especially for two people, a mother and her daughter. The mother is about 50 years old and she is part of the current literacy class. She really wants to be able to read God’s Word for herself. However, she has never been to school before so it is very difficult for her and sometimes she is discouraged. Please pray for her!
Her daughter has always been a great language helper for Aurélie. Since she became a believer, it has been even more encouraging to Aurélie as she works with her. This younger lady is full of joy and she can talk about her faith for hours. She has a gift for encouraging other people, for instance at the ladies’ meetings. However, André and Aurélie are concerned about her health, she has lost a lot of weight and they do not know why. They hope she is not sick. Please pray for her health.
This is her testimony, “I want to talk about God all the time. When other people talk about all kind of things, it does not satisfy my soul. I love to talk about my brothers and sisters and praise God for what He has done, that is what helps my soul. God is the only almighty God, the things of earth will pass away, but He prepares a place in heaven for us and that is what really matters. I am not afraid of dying anymore, if I had to die tomorrow, I’d be ready.”
Praise the Lord; He is the almighty saviour! A little more than a year ago, these dear people knew nothing about the meaning of the Bible. They lived in constant fear of death and of the spirits. But God has saved them! A year ago they heard the Gospel and many of them believed. Since then they have grown in their understanding of what Jesus has done for them and last Sunday they had baptisms for the first time. Eighty-three people gave a testimony in front of the whole village who had gathered for the occasion.
The baptisms took place in a river in the jungle about half an hour’s terrible hike; in some spots, the children had mud up to their knees. Probably the worst hike the Touschs have done as a family! But their village friends helped the children a lot and it ended up being great fun. This day of baptisms is probably one of the best, most encouraging days that they have had in the village.