After our trip to the USA, we had a few weeks to recuperate, review, and revitalize until we received our friends Rachel Musser and Amber Walker from the 3D Training Center in Texas. We carefully thought through our many connections and endeavors and went before the Lord, committing anew to the tasks of Bible translation, pastor training, and child evangelism. Many of you prayed with us, knowing the challenges of our field and our special requests for God’s loving intervention. As I write, I marvel at His answers with thanksgiving. Not everything is perfect; many challenges remain; but we are busy with several new opportunities while planning for others in the long term. In July, I (Mark) will travel to the small island of Rurutu, some 300 miles south of Tahiti in the Austral group. Just 12 square miles and having around 2,400 inhabitants, Rurutu is one of the little places ideal for our small footprint ministry. Our small team will be preaching the Gospel, doing child-evangelism, and teaching Bible studies over the course of five days. Other new opportunities for child evangelism and Bible study are also developing on Tahiti and some of the small islands of the country.
The visit of our ministry friends for a short term mission was a smashing success. They taught, shared their testimonies, and served in a variety of ways. They both had a great knack for connecting with people, which blessed us in turn.
Another benefit of the visit of Americans is that it reconnected us with one of our favorite groups, Amota’s (Amos) home cell group. To say the least, they are great listeners, eager for the meat of God’s Word. On Friday night in Arue, Mark taught a lesson on how to interpret Scripture, highlighting the importance of context and cumulative revelation. At the conclusion of that study, the group was eager to discuss the possibility of establishing a Bible school on Tahiti, starting as soon as this September. That conversation remains active…Please keep this in your prayers.
Many of you are asking about the Tahitian Bible retranslation project. The work continues, mostly behind the scenes. We plan to take our translation of John 1:1-18 to Rurutu next month and use it as a basis for a Bible study on the famous prologue. Many final tweaks need to be made in order to make it presentable, and even so, this will be a working copy. Please pray that this work is completed by the time that we leave.
Our Instagram is @evaneliapf, where I share photos and videos of the beauty of our island.
Our Twitter account, in the early stages of development, uses the same, @evaneliapf.