Reason to celebrate. Guess what season it is here in the jungle? It’s not Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving, but it is equally exciting. It is now the season for collecting wild fowl eggs! Each year, as soon as the jungle acorn nuts have fallen, a certain wild bird no larger than a chicken scrapes together all the rotting leaves and vegetation from the jungle floor to make a pile that is sometimes over four feet tall and eight feet wide. The bird will then lay one huge egg each day for the next few weeks in that pile and leave it to be incubated by the heat of decomposing matter. This is the time of the year when our Hewa friends love to search through the jungle for these nests of treasures. They have already been bringing a few of these sometimes partially developed delicacies back to the village to share with us and they are anticipating a big harvest this year. Is anyone ready to join us for an egg hunt?
From the translation desk. I have been translating passages from Luke again, and when I translated chapter 15 I was able to teach the story of the prodigal son to the Hewa believers for the first time. They immediately caught the beauty of the father’s forgiveness for his son and also the need to forgive rather than to hold a grudge in the way the oldest brother had. Our Hewa friends talked about the story through the week and when the next weekend came around Waina said, “The story of the father who forgave his son is so important, please teach it again. It’s a delicious story and we want to hear it all over again.” Susan and I are very blessed to be in a place where the believers are hungry for God’s Word and eager to learn more, PTL!
Construction update. Our new co-worker John Michael flew into Hewa recently with a team of volunteers to cut logs into lumber (pictured above) and to clear a plot of ground in preparation to build his house next month. They were able to cut the required amount of lumber with chainsaws so we are planning to build his house starting on October 8. Please pray the house construction project goes well so John Michael and his family can join us in the village to start learning the Hewa culture and language.
Airstrip progress. Susan and I are very impressed with how the Hewa men and boys have worked tirelessly every day to dig trees out from our future airplane runway site. They have now passed the 400 meter mark pushing toward the 600 required meters. We are very happy at how hard they have worked at this first phase of the project as the cost of using the helicopter has been a hardship these last few years. The next phase of the airstrip project will be to burn or remove all of the stumps and logs in preparation for the last phase which will be the most difficult. The entire 600 meters will have to be leveled and brought to a proper grade so the nightly rainwater will drain well. Please pray the Lord will provide a tractor for this last phase of grading the earth as to do it by hand could take several years.
Thank you so much for your love and prayers and gifts that have made it possible for us to minister in the Hewa tribe. We are deeply grateful for your part in sharing the love of Jesus in the jungle.
Thank you!!!
Jonathan, Susan & Mikenna