Blessings from Malaumands. We got back from our regional conference the middle of last week and life is finally starting to settle in. There are many exciting things going on here - we figured it was about time to catch everyone up on what the Lord is doing here.
Phase 1 -This is the tem that we use to describe the initail evangelistic teaching (creation to Christ). This was done way back in 1999 (for the first time), though in the ensuing years many of the kids have grown up without a clear understanding of the Gospel. In February of 2011 our co-worker, John, started up a new Phase 1 teaching and has up to 50 kids and a few adults coming faithfully to the teaching. This should finish up in June of 2011.
Teaching - We are currently working our way through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings. This has been very profitable as the life of Paul in the later portions of Acts is full of God's Faithfulness and demonstrates Paul's tenacity to finish the job that God gave him. Again and again we seem to focus on Paul's single minded devotion to God which is a challenge for all of us.
Teaching continued - In July we are planning to start teaching through the book of Ephesians. Bob Kennell is currently working on the translation for this book while I will work on the lessons. The book of Ephesians is rich in both positional and practical truth. This is exactly the sort of "meat" that this church needs and we are looking forward to seeing how the Lord uses it in the believer's lives.
More Translation - I will also mention that I am in the midst of translating Romans 4-16.
On a personal note - It is going to be a bit of a challenge to balance my time between translation, lesson writing, discipling, and helping Judith with the boys. Judith is currently homeschooling Stephen and Daniel, but we are hoping to arrange her schedule so that she can start doing some language study at least 1 day a week.
Blessings,
Eric, Judith and the boys
CC Nampa Involvement
Prayer Support
Prayer Requests
Pray for John and his Phase 1 teaching and all the kids and adults attending the teaching.
Pray for the Malaumandan Bible teachers, especially as they are learning about the sacrifice that comes with serving God.
Pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit on Bob Kennell as he translates the book of Ephesians.
Pray that God's Word would continue to penetrate into the hearts of the Malaumandan people.
For more information contact:
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(208)989-7952 or at
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Missionaries OTM
Mota-Lava, Vanuatu
On Thru, 1/26/12, Larry Baker
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wrote:
Dealing with Heartbreak
I was getting ready to leave Vanuatu for the second time. My family and I felt both time that we moved there it was because God had called us there. I will never forget the Sunday afternoon that my wife told me that she just couldn't live there naymore. She had some health issues and had been suffering from depression and she and the kids couldn't handle living in Vanuatu any more. On top of that, our home church was going through a "financial crunch" and couldn't afford to bring the whole family badk to Oregon. I decided to stay an extra couple weeks to sell some personal items and to raise some finances to pay for ticket back to the states. Most of the Ni-Vanuatu friends that I was close to came from a small island up on the northern province called Motalava. I decided to take a week to visit the home island of my close friends.
As soon as I got to Motalava, I was greeted by the warmth of a people that were absolutely incredible. They had very few wordly goods, but they would literally give you the shirt off their backs if they thought you had need of it. Life is extremely hard on this island that is at the utter ends of the earth. No running water, only pit toilets, no electricity, supply ships that are supposed to come once a month but sometimes don't get there for 6-8 months. It was during this week long visit that the Lord decided to form a hurricane and make my stay a "little longer". What I intended to be a weeklongstay ended up to be several weeks. As I watched incredible power of the sea and wind, I stood on a beach in 70 mile per hour winds wondering why the Lord had allowed me to move to Vanuatu on two different occasions only to come back to the States in defeat, as far as I perceived "Ministry".
During that storm I heard a still small voice say, "Right vision, wrong island". I didn't get it. Again I heard, "Right vision, wrong island". I didn't have a clue what the Lord was telling me!
While on the big Island of Santo, I tried to start a school for drop outs. Now a drop out in Vanuatu doesn't actually mean that a student wanted to end their education. They take these "State run tests" in the sixth, eighth, and tenth grades and if the student fails any one of those tests your schooling is essentially over. I felt for these very bright kids who wanted to go to school but couldn't because they failed the test. I was given some land by a chief who saw my vision and I immediately got a chain saw and started cutting timber for the first building. Some other chief claimed I was on his land and put the land in dispute. (This is the same time that my wife informed me that she had to go back to the states.)
Meanwhile in the midst of this building hurricane, one of the chiefs on Motalava came up and introduced himself and said that all the shiefs were meeting over at the village and requieste tha I come and speak with them. Why me? I heard His voiceagain, "Right vision, wrong island". When I got to the council meeting, the chiefs said that they heard I tried to start a school on Santo. I said, "Yes, but there was a land dispute." They said, "W would like you to start a school here and assured me that no Chinese, English, Vietnamese, French, Australian or any other person except Ni-Vanuatu had ever owned any land on Motalava so land disputes would never be an issue. I'm thinking, "Yeah right!" Little did I know that when I left on a plane there was a letter drafted by those chief's asking my Pastor to send me back to start a Christian School. Well, a few months later, I was on my way back to Vanuatu as the Missions Pastor for Table Rock Fellowship. I was going to be done a month.
The day before I left our Pastor got sick and called me to do the Services for him. I was more than happy to, but I asked him if we could take a "special offering" for Vanuatu (after we took our churches tithes and offering). Pastor Tom was more than agreeable and when the offering was taken, over $5,000 came in. This was to be used to help a sister church with a building project. When I arrived on Santo we jumped on the project, completed it in three days and only used halp the money. As I started pondering this I heard, "Right vision, wrong island"
I know Jesus wanted the Christian School in Motalava. Two days later I was in Motalava and we built our first "Kinder Classroom" in 2002. Today, thanks to the faithfulness of Table Rock Fellowship, Clavary Chapel (Nampa, ID), and many individuals and families, Island Rock Christian School is providing Christian Education starting as young as 3 yr. olds and going through sixth grade. We have by faith decided to hire a 7th grade teacher this next month (February 2012). Please pray for our teachers and students as we press on to spread God's Kingdom in the northern province of Vanuatu.
God Bless You Pastor Larry Baker
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For more information contact:
Pastor Brent Bowden at 989-7952
or
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