We just arrived back into Iski-land the other day.* Our home-coming was celebrated with the discovery that our office’s charge controller had broken while we were away, so we won’t be having any power in the office until it gets fixed.
We were also welcomed in by a heat-wave that seems to have taken it upon itself to ensure that I am suffering from heatstroke before I have sat down for lunch each day.
For those who are genuinely curious as to what temperatures are like for us here in the tropics, if you were to wrap yourself up in your favorite blanket, turn your oven to its “self-cleaning” mode, climb inside, and attempt some sort of aerobic exercise, you would probably be able to approximate my regular comfort level as I go about each day. I usually look like I’ve just come back from swimming, even though I haven’t gone anywhere near a body of water.
Other than those two trivialities though, it’s been nice to be back home. We’ve been enjoying catching up with our Iski friends and settling back into a rhythm of life in the bush. The boys were happy to see that (most) of their pets had lived through our absence (Spider-Man, Tucker’s cat, has yet to make an appearance).
It also seems that, despite our best efforts, the cockroach population in our home is growing at an alarming rate. Let’s just say that if covering one’s eating utensils in cockroach poop ever becomes vogue, then we’ve got our bases covered.
Rochelle and I have been passing our time trying to gear ourselves up for our upcoming language check in two weeks, which has consisted mostly of us furrowing our brows, listening to audio recordings, and wondering audibly if we may have, in fact, gone backwards in our comprehension since our last check.
Our teammates, on the other hand, have given us more than enough cause to celebrate by completing their most recent translation check with flying colors! The Iski now have 1,967 verses fully translated in their mother-tongue language! In case you weren’t sure, that is VERY impressive for the stage we are at in our work and is super cool!
Andre will begin teaching again this coming week, reviewing many of the stories that we had taught through previously when we explained the story of the Savior, from Creation to Christ. This time though, he will be teaching believers (predominately), and so the emphasis will be on the security of those who chose to believe God and put their trust in Him.
He will also be emphasizing that God views each of us as being part of one of two clans: God’s clan and Satan’s clan. There isn’t an extra middle group out there somewhere. If they have not believed God and are not trusting in His way of saving us, then they are not part of His clan, and are therefore still part of Satan’s clan.
This will be a good time for people who are still trying to sort through what they had heard before, and who might not be confident of what their current relationship with God is. This will also be a good time for people who have already believed to be strengthened in the security of their new relationship with their Heavenly Father.
We will be teaching on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Please continue to pray for the Iski as the Lord puts them on your heart, that they would continue to be encouraged and strengthened by the things they will be hearing, and that God’s Spirit would continue to help them let go of the parts of their worldview that are holding them back from understanding.
* All three of our families had gone out to one of our mission centers for a few meetings, and then Williamsons headed out on Home Assignment, and we and Tousches took a bit of a break in the cool highlands weather.
