"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news."

A Few of the Kriol Baibul Study ladies! From L to R: Jocelyn, Dinah, Mari, and Anita!

Today’s Kriol Baibul Study went REALLY WELL! What a blessing. We asked the ladies what they wanted to study, and Anita(one of the church leaders) suggested Romans 10, to surprise Allan (a fellow from Katherine that comes each Sunday to lead a Bible Study). What transpired was so encouraging!! The ladies talked and talked about various things. Specifically about being saved by grace, not by all our good works. We could see how God was speaking to their hearts through this chapter.

As a result of reading through verses 14&15 they have decided to reach out to the community through regular Tuesday night (4 o’clock) “Kemp services”, as well as holding a Sunday evening service and possibly every Saturday(or at least one Saturday) going to Beswick to sing! Beswick is the community "next door", about 29 km(approx. 18 miles) from Barunga. They are also going to have Sunday night services where the ladies take turns leading it!

Our part will be to help them study the Word and understand it better. Perhaps if we study it early enough, they will have time to let Scripture work in their lives and they can come up with examples from their own life. At the same time, I'm sure they have many life experiences already! Mari is the one doing it for this Sunday. AWESOME! I feel like we are reaping where another has sown.

There have been years of work in Barunga, since Mari (pronounced "Ma ree")was a high school student, and she’s in her 60’s now. Australia Indigenous Ministries (AIM) Missionaries started coming to Barunga in the 50's. There have been many different missionaries living in our spot, ministering here, building relationships and sharing God's Word(in English) and we are seeing the fruits of their labor!

Anita was organized and volunteered to make a roster, so they know whose turn it is to lead the Sunday evening lesson. It’s humbling to be included in this work... and totally awesome! But at the same time, that’s a LOT of stuff. We’ll see what comes of it all, and if anything, there will be outreach this next week. There was so much discussed this meeting, it blew me away! Something else that may have tipped off all of this was going to the AIM Church in Katherine, that is completely run by indigenous people, with very little help from a “white” pastor or anything! They only have an older non-indigenous man to oversee them this year, and then he’s leaving, and they are completely on their own. They are self-governing, and don’t rely on anything from the “outside”. So, I’m thinking that might have tipped off Anita coming to the Kriol Baibul Study for the first time, and then reading the passage in Romans about sharing God’s Word with people which in turn made them all want to take action! Praise the Lord!

At the same time, though this is all very exciting and encouraging, it is A LOT of work, responsibility, and commitment. Anita pointed out that they needed to be consistent if they started this ministry of Kemp(Camp--another word for someone's home) Services, going from house to house, asking if they can have a service at the people’s houses each Tuesday evening, AND having a Sunday night service… However, something that really encouraged me about the whole study was it was lead by Anita and Jocelyn, from the songs we sang, to the Scripture passage we read, Please be in prayer with us for:
1. Strength for these women, wisdom and discernment in what to teach.
2. Consistent outreach to the community and their families, and
3. For God's Word to take root in the hearts of all the people here in Barunga.
4. Please pray for Cheri and me as we seek to enable these women and help them to reach their community! Pray we would be wise in what to do... and what NOT to do! :)

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It is a blessing to serve with you, and we are excited to see what God has in store for us and this church in Barunga!
In Him, Jared for all