The Gospel of Grace

The Real History of the Mesem New Testament Part 3
We started our second term having completed the Gospel of Mark and the Book of James. The next goal was for a clear and evangelical use of the translated materials. Neil chose to translate Romans. What books spells out so clearly the truth of salvation by faith alone?

The translation of Romans proved to be tremendously challenging and fruitful. It took almost three years to get the manuscript to a place where it was in publishable form. (The Gospel of Matthew and other Pauline espitles were being drafted during this time, so other work was taking place.)

Neil and the men spent hours going over verses and talking about the meaning. One day in particular Esonuc stopped me and said, "I thought we tried very hard to be good and follow God and go to heaven. Know I know that was wrong thinking. True thinking is beleiving in Jesus". As Neil read translated portions to different clans some assumed the gospel of grace was a mistranslation. It was such "good news" that when people heard it they either reacted by saying, "No, this can't be true" or they said, "If this is true...then it is GOOD NEWS!".

The community also participated in the greatest and most daunting cooperative project in their history: the construction of a sixty meter long bridge to span the Sankwe river. With the guidance, materials and funding provided by MAPS workers (short terms missionary workers from the Assemblies who donate their time on construction projects like this one), the Mesem people provided weeks of physical labor and worked together with our MAPS friends build an amazing bridge. Prior to that time the bridges were made of bamboo and frequently washed away by rising waters. The bridge was named "We have made this with our own hands".

Other tests came our way in the form of surgeries and the need to make two trips to Australia for a spinal fusion for Kathy as well as a gall bladder surgery. We periodically joked that removing all non-essential organs might be a way to prevent future trips. Nonetheless, on each trip we met people who didn't know the Lord or wanted to come back to him after many years. Once, a store manager in a mall spoke to Kathy and her friend Grace Fabian and asked them as they shopped, "Are you two Spirit filled Christians?". This was the source of some humour between Kathy and Grace as they come from totally different doctrinal backgrounds, but the Lord used that "chance meeting" in a mall for them to pray with the manager who was seeking God's help for her life. The fields are white with harvest...we just need to look around.

Another continued concern was Joel. His behavoir grew increasingly violent. Likewise there was renewed tension with the cargo cult among the villagers. A portin of the village set up a new hamlet and accusations of sorcery began to circulate.

At the same time, we began to make plans to build an office for future work. We needed more space, a place to hold Bible studies and to teach classes in reading. Teachers had been trained during our first term, but now we needed to teach others to correct Bible studies as we initated a correspondence Bible study program. As we finished our third term in PNG, our second with the Mesem, we believed we were entering into a time when we would begin to see the "fruit" of the work that was the cooperative effort of so many