Saturday, October 21, 2006

Reunion

· One Sunday, several months ago, I held combined services with the work in Sohun and the work in Kudukudu. (Background information: The work in Sohun was started before I arrived in PNG. It was started by a man in the village named Joshua. When Joshua was younger, he left the village and went to the capitol, Port Moresby. While there, he heard the gospel and trusted Christ as the Savior. He became a member of Bible Baptist church in Port Moresby. He left there and went back to his home village, Sohun. He began a small fellowship and some of his family started getting saved. At that time, they began praying the Lord to send a missionary. I never met Joshua though. While I was on deputation, to come to PNG, he died of cancer. He was in his early 40’s at the time of his death. He did know I was coming to the island, though. I preach in Sohun each Sunday before going to Kudukudu. They do have a national pastor, James Able, there. He is not ordained yet. He has had some previous training and I am training him also. I hope to organize the work and run an ordination service for Bro James shortly. The work in Kudukudu was started by me in August of 2004. I am still pastoring this work until a national is trained.)

Alright, now back to the story: During the combined services, one of the men in Sohun, Pius, recognized one the men in Kudukudu, Wesley. Pius has been saved for about five years now, and had not seen Wesley for many years. Wesley and he were very good friends years ago. They used to get drunk together, and they even spent time in a PNG jail together. He had no idea Wesley and his family were now coming to the work I started in Kudukudu. Nor did he know Wesley and his wife had just recently trusted Christ as Saviour and this very service were going to be baptized with several other adults! After Wesley’s baptism, Pius and Wesley hugged and rejoiced that both were now new creatures in Christ. Both had found truth and meaning in life. I had no idea the two men knew each other from years past. I was thrilled to see the Lord give both joy over their reunion! The Lord was in control of all of this. How the Lord loves to give us delight!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is neat how the Lord works it all out. As you know, I work at the local Gospel Mission in my city. About three days ago, someone I grew up with (but hadn't seen for 20 years) came into the Mission. Yesterday we got to spend some time together and catch up on everything. He lived a pretty rough life since we lost contact - but the Lord saved from the guttermost to the uttermost, and he got saved about 2 or 3 months ago. If we had run into each other before now, things probably wouldn't have worked out (we were definitely on opposite sides of the spectrum), but now we are both saved and brothers in Christ! God bless.

Terry McGovern said...

Bro Jerry,

Amazing how the Lord brought him by the mission! No doubt, since he is just a babe in Christ, the Lord will use you to strentghen him in the faith.

Anonymous said...

I love it when the Lord does that!!! This was a blessing to read!!!

Kent Brandenburg said...

Good to hear the blessings you are getting from God's Word.