Healing Water
Over the past few months, there have been many meetings for Bill, a sick man in our village. I heard there would be a court meeting for Bill and I also heard there would be a court meeting for two men who had been fighting. One of these men had gone to the nearest city Lae, a 3 day travel by foot and bus ride. The man’s family summoned him to come back from Lae and make amends with the other man here at a community court meeting. I assumed these were 2 different court cases, but my friend and language helper told me it wasn’t two conflicts and court cases, it was all one issue and it would be one court case. I wondered how these two men fighting had anything to do with a sick man getting better. When learning another culture, it’s always best not to make assumptions. The day of the court, I showed up and the court meeting had already begun. People were sitting around in the grass listening, while the community judge, SDA pastor, and the man who had come back from Lae were all standing in the middle of everyone. Bill, the sick man was sitting down nearby. The majority of what was said was in the Uruwa language, so I didn’t understand most of it. I stood with some ladies, observing, and occasionally, they filled me in on what was happening. The guy who had returned from Lae was speaking, and then he handed a water bottle to the SDA pastor. The other guy handed a water bottle he had brought to the judge. The pastor held one of the water bottles, prayed, and then proceeded to wash Bill with the water from that water bottle. The ladies told me Bill would go home and see how he felt, and the next day or so they would wash him with the water from the other water bottle.
The two men fighting and Bill, the sick man, are all related, we found out. The hope seems to be that if the two men make amends and have peace with one another, somehow this reconciliation goes into the water, and when the sick man is washed with the water, he will get better. We have much more culture study to do about the Uruwa people’s beliefs, but we can confidently say that the answer to all their questions about why there is sin, sickness, and death in the world is found in God’s Word and that God’s solution is in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” -John 4:13-15
Our prayer for the Uruwa is that one day, they will respond like the Samaritan women in saying to Jesus, “Give me this water! The water of life!” They keep coming to this water again again, and yet it never fully satisfies or meets their needs. It’s not healing them physically or spiritually for that matter. Jesus Christ offers us living water, eternal life, in himself. Jesus heals us spiritually by reconciling us to God and giving us eternal life in Him. Jesus also heals us physically (at times, but not always, in this present life), but certainly and definitely when he will make a new heaven and a new earth where there is no sin, sickness, or death. He is already victorious over sin and death and is coming back to make all things new again! Our hope for ultimate healing and relief from pain isn’t in physical water, or in being at peace with others (even though that’s important), or in our Western medical intervention even, but in our living God and Savior Jesus Christ. Please pray with us that the Uruwa people will one day know and worship Jesus with us!
The beginning of October, we flew out to Goroka for our annual central area missionary conference. A team from a church in America flew here to be a blessing to us. They presented excellent messages from the word of God and put on a VBS and youth program. It was encouraging and loads of fun. After conference, My parents and aunt arrived for a visit! We spent a few days with them in Goroka before all heading into Uruwa together. We had a wonderful time and it was great for them to see our new home and meet the people here. I have been talking about doing this since I graduated college in 2016 so it’s been a long journey to get to where we are now. It’s hard to be away from family and friends but we consider it a worthy sacrifice and a privilege to be a part of bringing God’s Word to the Uruwa people.
Us and the Weavers have our first language and culture evaluation next week, October 23-25. A language consultant will come in and do these evaluations with us and our language helpers. This will help us see where we are at and he can give us guidance and advice as we move forward. Please pray that our evaluations would be an accurate representation of where we are at, and for us as we jump back into culture and language study.
Prayer and Praise
Praise the Lord that my family got to visit us here in PNG! Please pray over their flights and travels back to the U.S.
Pray for God to help us learn this language and culture. Pray over our first language and culture evaluations October 23-25. Pray that it will be beneficial and give us direction for future learning.
Please pray for continued opportunities for Christ to be shown in our lives to the Uruwa people.
Pray for God’s guidance as we continue to build deep friendships and find our regular language helpers.
Villages you can pray for:
Yawan (where we are located)
Kotet (20-30 min hike)
Towet (1 hr)
Worin (2-3 hr)
Mitmit (2 hr)
Mup (5 hr)
The Uruwa language varies slightly from one village to another. Please pray for God’s wisdom for our team in what that will mean for for future literacy classes and Bible translation, as well as for our own language learning now.
Pray for the current SDA church leaders as well as the attendees, that God would soften their hearts in preparation of hearing His word in their own language. That they will be open and ready to hear truth and to one day realize that we all fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through faith in him (John 14:6). No amount of good deeds can get us into heaven because we are ALL sinful before a holy God. We need forgiveness in Christ and we need to be clothed with His righteousness.
Please pray for our team to remain strong and unified in the Lord as we work together and make many decisions.
Pray for the continued strengthening of our walks with the Lord as well as our marriage.
Want to receive more frequent updates and prayer requests? Join our prayer group via Facebook or e-mail:
Luke and Jessica Thek
Luke:
imessage: +67570245656
whatsapp: +18054236830
email: luke_thek@ntm.org
Jess:
imessage: +67570243653
whatsapp: +18165207474
email: jessica_thek@ntm.org
