Sending off...

On Wed, May 30th, we sent off three Baka guys on an evangelistic trip to a village called Nkolbikon. Their names are Samba, Nestor and Philip. Samba & Nestor are very strong in the Lord and have shown a desire to serve Him for a long time. Philip is Samba's nephew and is still maturing, though does show signs of desire to serve God. We were thrilled to see them go on their own to do God's work. I've been talking to these guys for quite a while about my dream of seeing them and many others taking God's Word to other camps which have never heard. I've often explained to them that we (the missionaries) cannot do this work alone - and that, in fact, they can do it better than us. They know their own language and culture far better than we will ever know them. With the strength of the Holy Spirit, they can do mighty things for God.

About two months ago they came to me to tell me that they were ready to start going to other camps. I asked them if they wanted to go by themselves or for us all to go together. They said, "You can come if you want." :-) The one thing they asked for was a couple of bicycles to ride to the camps. Samba has partially crippled legs. He can walk but long distances are difficult for him. Nestor said, "Even if you could just get one, for samba, I could walk." I explained that if we got bikes, they would only be fore ministry trips - not just to ride to town whenever, or they would get messed up too quickly. I also explained that since they would be for mission trips, they wuold be available to any Baka evangelist who was ready to go share at a distant village - not just for them (Samba & Nestor). They readily agreed.

I was able to purchase three bikes a few weeks ago. This was their first time to go out without me or my teammate, Barry, to help. The plan was for them to share a Bible story on Wednesday and Thursday nights with me showing up on Friday. Then we would share together Friday and Saturday nights. Things went really well and we left a SABER digital audio player, with all the Bible stories on it, for the village to continue to listen in between our trips out there. Samba and Nestor's plan is to head to another village called Nkoumajop in two weeks to start haring the stories there. We have yet to share any stories there. I told them that they were going to do this one wihtout me. They've told me that htey want to continue to visit Nkolbikon and Nkoumajop once-a-month, alternating every two weeks between the two, continuing to share the rest of the Bible stories. This is a good beginning to the church multiplication that we have envisioned since day one. Please pray for Samba and Nestor and for God to raise up others like them, to take His truth to ALL the Baka people.

Note: Used bikes are expensive here. We payed $110 each, and still had to do some work to repair them. If you desire to support this project and help pay for one of these or others in the future - please contact us.

- Nathan