“Is Your Church Miserable?”

“If a church is content when the pool of baptism is never stirred, it is miserable.” – Charles Spurgeon

The above photo shows our son Enoch being carried on the shoulders of one of our good Dao friends during an afternoon tropical rain shower.

“Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, that we too may live a new life.” – Romans 6:3-4

When baptisms happen in the Dao tribe it is not taken lightly. For this mountain tribe, the whole practice of dunking your head under the water goes against traditional culture and tribal animistic beliefs. In fact, in the past and all the way up until this generation, the natural jungle rain of the rainforest that falls as a person is going about their daily work of gardening, hunting, traveling to another village or gathering firewood was the only type of shower or washing that one would regularly receive.

The above photo shows us speaking together with the Dao pastors during the recent Dao baptismal service about the importance of baptism and what it signifies.

For this reason, in the Dao tribe, when someone steps forward and follows Christ’s command to be “baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:18-20) it is a big deal! It is not only a statement of belief and repentance to the watching community, it is a declaration to the whole tribe of ones intent to leave behind the old ways and to follow “Yesusi” as they call Him.

Recently we had an amazing day of baptisms as 18 people (including two of our own sons!) stepped forward to declare their following of Jesus to the whole tribe. The tears flowed, the truths of God’s Word were read aloud and the allegiance to Christ of many new believers was declared far back in the jungles of the remote Dao tribe.

The recent day of Dao baptisms was incredible! We sang, we feasted and we celebrated together! Now that the gospel has taken such a strong hold on many of the villages of the Dao tribe, sometimes it seems that this place is hardly recognizable from what it was when we first arrived two decades ago.

Fears that they once held have been shattered and they have turned into a people that genuinely love Jesus and wants to follow Him. Please pray for the Dao church as it continues to grow and multiply in many villages, that their love for Jesus will grow all the more and that they will continue to reach out to the many unreached languages and villages that border their territory.

The above photo shows some of our Dao friends receiving the recently completed and printed sections of the Pentateuch. They worked hard for many months alongside of us as our translation helpers and so they are overjoyed when these scripture booklets are finally printed and given to them!

In addition, the newly translated Scripture portions continue to go out to even the most remote villages! Praise God, this year alone we have seen over 5500 more verses of scripture translated into the Dao language and distributed to the Dao people. After the booklets are printed they are transported by helicopter from our coastal missions station to the tribal people interior.

The people are always so excited to receive these new scripture portions and they are eager to not only read them themselves but to hike them bare foot sometimes for days so that the people in the farther out villages can enjoy reading them also. In addition to that we have also seen hundreds of new solar audio Bibles formatted and distributed in recent months and we are excited about the affect God’s Word will continue to have in the Indonesian jungles!

The above photo shows us ministering at our coastal missions station in Indonesia alongside one of the new missionary families that is presently in training. This new family is looking to serve alongside our Dao pastors in one of the nearby language groups that have yet to have teaching for the first time and still don’t have the scriptures available to them in their own language.

We are thankful to be able to share with you also that our new coastal mission station in Indonesia is being used for the reaching of the nations! Now that our office / teaching center / guest house is complete at our new coastal missions station in Indonesia, ministry there is moving forward full fledge! The Helimission helicopter organization that provides DAO ministries with air support is storing up fuel at the center for future missionary helicopter flights.

Also, we recently hosted some missionary candidates that are presently in training to do missions full time themselves. Discipleship and teaching is also happening at the property and in addition to all of this representatives of other tribes that have yet to hear about their Creator for the first time have now heard about the station and are hiking out to it to ask for missionaries of their own! Please pray with us that God will use our new center for His glory and for the reaching of the many unreached people groups throughout Indonesia that still have not a single verse available to them in their own language!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Please continue to pray for our family and for DAO Ministries. As we continue with our missions and Bible translation work and see the affect that God’s Word has as it goes out, we are reminded regularly that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”- Romans 10:17. Ultimately it is God’s Spirit working by His Word that will bring a lost people group out of spiritual darkness and into the light. It is such a privilege to be a part of what God is doing and to see His Word move forward with power. Thank you for standing behind us. Please continue to pray for us as we translate, teach and seek to raise up a new generation of missionaries!

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“Is Your Church Miserable?”

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