In Ukarumpa, there are streetlights and most of the houses have outdoor lighting to aid in night security. On clear nights we can see the moon, two planets and a handful of stars—including Orion, who is upside down here in the southern hemisphere.
But in Yemli and the other Malei villages, there are no lights. The crescent moon sets at 9 p.m. and the night is cavernous dark. Between 2 and 4 a.m. (the time one arises to make a ‘pit’ stop, literally), countless stars are visible in the sky. On the first night of the hike-out, Jon and I and the Lindstrom’s pastor from Wisconsin arose at the same time to ‘nature’s call’. But the beauty of the night held us looking up into the sky in silent wonder.
Some of the stars were large and bright, others were small, faint and distant. But each and every one was placed there by God and is known to him by name.
God also created all the language groups of the world - nearly 7000 of them. He knows them all by name. Like the stars, every one of them is significant in His eyes.
John and Amy Lindstrom and their children have lived in a nearly inaccessible, hardly visible, barely-on-the-map village with the Malei people for 20 years learning their heart language and working with the people to give them God’s Word in Malei.
700 New Testaments were printed for the dedication. Just 700! There are only two to three thousand Malei people. Twenty years devoted to bringing the Word to less than 3000 people! Was it worth it? Are they worth it? For twenty years people back home have given and prayed so that John and Amy could be here doing this. Was it worth their investment?
“When I consider Your heavens and the work of Your hands, the moon and stars which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8)
We respond, “Yes!” — a heaven-shattering, resounding ‘Yes’!
Some of the stars were large and bright, others were small, faint and distant. But each and every one was placed there by God and is known to him by name.
God also created all the language groups of the world - nearly 7000 of them. He knows them all by name. Like the stars, every one of them is significant in His eyes.
700 New Testaments were printed for the dedication. Just 700! There are only two to three thousand Malei people. Twenty years devoted to bringing the Word to less than 3000 people! Was it worth it? Are they worth it? For twenty years people back home have given and prayed so that John and Amy could be here doing this. Was it worth their investment?
“When I consider Your heavens and the work of Your hands, the moon and stars which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8)
We respond, “Yes!” — a heaven-shattering, resounding ‘Yes’!
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