I am not sure if I should be posting this. It's an email I get from missionaries (Scott and Jennie Phillips) in Indonesia. I don't know them personally, I just "happened upon them" while doing research for children's church/missionary Sunday last year. I now LOVE them. I hope you will too.
This update is sobering. That's why I wanted to post it.
Pray for them and then pray about our stewardship with the people God has brought to us.
Go to their website.
He was only weeks away from hearing the message he had been waiting for and asking for for so long. Multiple times, Ekapitaa sent messengers down from his village, to ask for the Creators message. He even made the two day hike down to our village himself and asked us in person if we would send someone up to his village to teach him and his clan. It was over a year ago now that he began asking. The Dao believers had to make a choice, will we go down to teach the Taomi clans first that have also been asking for teachers, or hike up to Ekapitaa's area and teach the Mokotaka clans first? A year and a half ago there wasn't enough teachers that could read and teach well enough to go both places at the same time. They chose Taomi. Now, finally a year and a half later as other trained Dao teachers are finally starting the teaching in Ekapitaa's area farther up valley, we got word that Ekapitaa, the village leader passed away. He never got a chance to hear the story of what Jesus did on his behalf though he was waiting for and asking for it for so long.
The Dao believers are shocked at the news of Ekapitaa's death. He was one of the most looked up to people in their people group. They can't believe that he was so close to finally hearing the Creators message, yet missed hearing it by just a few weeks before he died. Over the past two weeks people have come hiking through our village from as far as 2-3 days away on their way up valley to grieve with Ekapitaa's family.
Yunus is one of the men that came from over two days hike away, from another yet unreached branch of the Dao people group, to grieve the loss. These are the words he said to us this past week. "Friend, I am afraid. I come and see the people here in your village that have already heard the Creators message and see how they have hope in what will happen to them after death because they know of this message. Then I hear about my good friend Ekapitaa that just like the people of my clan, wanted to hear the good message from the Creators leaf book but never got a chance to. Ekapitaa died before having a chance to hear the message, and I am afraid that it will be the same for me. I fear that just as Ekapitaa, I will die before ever having had a chance to even once be taught about the Creators trail to eternal life."
In a desperate attempt to raise up teachers that can someday come to his village, the following day Yunus chose three young men from his clan, that were also traveling with him and told Jennie and I that he was leaving them in our village specifically because he wanted them to learn how to read and write. All this so that these three young men could in the future carry back to his village the words of the Creators book. "I am leaving these, my sons, in your care. Please teach them well so that they can in the future teach our clan about the Creators message. I must hear this message before I die" he said to us before leaving to make the 2-3 day return hike back to his own village.
The following day three more young men, one named Dabepiyaa, the son of the man named Ekapitaa that died also showed up having hiked two days down from Mokotaka in hopes that they also could join the literacy classes and also be taught about their Creator and his son Jesus. It seems like this is a unique time in the Dao territory that God is using this tragic death of a man that desperately wanted to hear about His Creator but never got a chance too, to stir up various unreached villages all over the Dao territory.
We praise God that He is using this tragic death for His Glory . We ask you to please pray with us that we will have wisdom as we work together with the Dao believers here to teach those that have come to us from these far away unreached areas. We are teaching them not only how to read and write but also trying to teach them through the Creators story chronologically from Genesis all the way up through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We also have more advanced daily Bible classes going on daily for the believers from our village and are co-teaching with the Dao teachers on Sundays as well through the book of Ephesians. We need prayer that these teaching times will also go well. Last but not by any means least, Jennie is also working daily to continue translating the New Testament into the Dao language and there is also teaching going on by the Dao believers in other villages. Please pray with us that we will all have wisdom in teaching and balancing all these different responsibilities. We appreciate you all and also your prayers, encouragement and faithful support!
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