Clay Pots ~ Handing Over

Handing out and splitting up the lessons

“I sat there and my intestines were shaking.. As Tingon started teaching, I just sat there waiting for my time wondering how I was going to be able to do this. Then it was my time to teach. My intestines were still shaking, but I started teaching my point of the lesson. And this is huge! As I started talking, God just gave me thoughts and reminded me of what I had learned before, and the words just came out. I know that God exists (I could feel his presence) because I could not have taught that lesson on my own strength, but God gave me strength and I was able to do it. So now I am giving big praise to him.” – Kips (after teaching for the first time)

“Now that we are meeting in the village again, you all can see that we are not just another “religion”. We have just learned the true meaning of God’s Word, which was hidden to us for so long, and now we want to share it with you. Look, these men who are teaching you are not important men; but they want to tell you what they have learned and show you the way to get eternal life.” – Yaka Siwia (Kips’s father, talking to the unsaved who came to the outreach)

The believers decided a few weeks ago that we would go back up to the village of Dengenu and meet in the village square and teach again from creation to the resurrection of Christ. This is where we first taught back in 2006. There are unbelieving people who desire to hear this story again because it has made such an impact in their friend’s lives. Others still choose to reject and ridicule the believers, but to the believers, it is ok because they know that persecution is a sign that they are believing what is right, and it has strengthened their faith.

As my family prepares to leave, we are handing over the responsibility of the church and outreach to the believers. It was a joy to hand out copies of the lessons from Genesis and watch as Tingon, Welsen, Kips, the Doctor, and Alex all split up the lesson so each of them could help each other and support each other as they taught. And it was exciting to watch them teach God’s Word clearly, even though I knew that they were afraid and they knew that other people were going to ridicule them for it. At the outreach, all the believers and about 10 unbelievers came to hear God’s Word. I did see some unbelieving people out on the fringe coming and going, but not wanting to be a part yet. Pray that these people and others will swallow their pride and arrogance and come to hear the message of life. Pray for the 5 teachers as they faithfully expound God’s Word for the year that we are gone, and that they would have insight and wisdom and be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.

Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here in Lengbati.

Your Co-workers,
His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, and Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots ~ Visitors and Baptism

Dr. Zango

Kips

Nanci Zango

Last Sunday, the rain stopped just long enough for Dr. Zango, his wife, and Kips to be baptized in front of the community. One by one they slowly stepped into the freezing water and gave a public testimony of their faith in Christ before being baptized by Jason and Welsen. They were physically shaking… mostly because of the freezing cold water but partly due to their nervousness. They were ready, but apprehensive to take this step of faith in front of everyone since there has been opposition to the gospel recently. And yet as they came out of the water, every one of them had a smile. After it was all done and we were sitting around the fire trying to warm up, Kips and the doctor were encouraging each other with the fact that this was the same thing the early believers in the book of Acts faced as they believed in Jesus Christ. “Praise God that we finally know the truth,” they said.

The Smith family

We were also blessed to have some dear friends of ours bring their entire family to come visit us in the tribe this past week! We were in awe that the Smiths were willing to make this tremendous sacrifice to not only come over and encourage us, but to meet their brothers and sisters in Christ. They and their three children brought lots of laughter and fun to our home as they interacted and played games with our three kids and the tribal children, and helped us with some projects around the house. They were also our personal CNN correspondents as we asked question after question about what was happening back home. From elections to economy we feel like we can now enter back into “society” without feeling so lost and clueless. And they sat down with us and explained all the new technology out there as well. I know this sounds silly to you, but after living in the tribe for 4 years it was a blessing to have some of the changes explained before we hit home soil again.

They were in tears as some of the believers said goodbye to them here on earth, but reassured them that they will be in heaven with them some day soon! The Smiths commented that it was a huge encouragement for them to see simple faith in action.

We only have a few weeks before we will be leaving the tribe for our year long home assignment! We would appreciate your prayers as Jason is in the process of handing over the teaching responsibilities to a few of the Tobo men. Also be praying for our co-workers, the Williamsons, as they continue to learn language and culture. It is hard to think about leaving them and the church but we know this time apart is a needed time of growth for all of us.

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots ~ 48 Hours and 1%

The kids favorite thing to do on break while in town is ride their bikes!!

We had a nice break… a time to relax and enjoy the ocean and some good food. Thank you for your prayers. Well, we have been back in the tribe for 48 Hours. In that little amount of time we have had….

~ A man come to our house yesterday morning accusing Jason of starting rumors and lies about a plane coming in (seeing how we just stepped off the plane ourselves we were kind of amused that they could think of something to accuse Jason of so fast!).
~Last night we received a letter from some unbelievers in the surrounding area saying that they made a resolution that we need to stop our work here. (don’t worry we aren’t going toJ).
~This morning, a plane landed with the dead body of a young girl who had died out in town. We had sent her out a few months ago in hopes of getting her some more advanced medical treatment as our Dr. was gone at the time. She never received the needed treatment. So today, outside our house on the airstrip, there was loud wailing by hundreds of people… all of them without hope of eternal life. That is a sound you will never forget. The community is split in thinking that she died because a man worked poison on her or because of a sin in her life. So there will be a court held all day today with police from other villages to decide the reason. One of the believers (the Dr.) is being accused of wrong doing, but he was gone when it all happened.

So much for “welcome back.”

For your information. Out of the entire Tobo tribe, only about 1% of them have believed in Christ’s finished work on the cross. That would leave the rest of the community either apathetic or opposed to the believers. Some of the unbelievers even try to persuade the community that we are all just a bunch of liars trying to steal things from them. Satan has used the Cargo Cult to blind them to the truth.

~Could you be praying for the 1% that they will stay strong in the midst of daily persecution and shaming.
~Pray for the 99% that they will see and hear the testimony of the believers and desire the joy and freedom in Christ.
~Pray for us, we are outsiders and it is hard enough living here without the majority against us. We have 7 weeks until we fly home, pray that we will finish well and still have a smile leftJ!

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi

Clay Pots ~ Micah

The last couple weeks have been a bit “interesting” for our family. About 2 weeks ago Micah was running on the airstrip, slipped on some moss, and fell on his knee. His knee took the full impact of his fall on a sharp rock and was split open. We took care of it the best we knew how, but when a part of his skin was still lying on the airstrip it was a little hard to “butterfly” back together! After 4 days, Micah’s knee was very swollen and he had very little movement, so we started to wonder if he sustained any trauma to the area. Also, despite the antibiotics we had given him to ward off infection, the knee was infected and he needed some stronger medicine. Also, during this same time Micah had a double ear infection (that he never complained about) and there was blood coming out of his ear.

So on Tuesday we packed up our family, handed over Jason’s responsibilities to our partner and some men in the church, and flew out to town to take Micah to the doctor. After some local anesthetics, a whole lot of needles, syringes, gauze, x-rays, and medicine, Micah is on his way to full recovery. He will have a “war wound” to brag about for the rest of his life but he doesn’t seem to mind too much and thankfully it is on his knee and not face!

We will be out in town for another week or so in order to recoup from more stress and fatigue that we realized we were under. So we apologize for not returning personal e-mails lately…we just needed some time to catch our breath. We really appreciate your prayers for us as a family during this time. It seems that the last few weeks and months before furlough are some of the more stressful.