A house divided….

Jesus said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Mark 3:25

This past week has been very difficult.  The main question I’ve been asking God is why?  Why do churches not heed your words God?   In America I know of churches divided during worship.  One group meeting in one building the other in another.  I see them divided over which building is proper for worship and so they meet separately.  I’ve seen a lot over the years.  How can these churches thrive?  They can’t, they are literally divided over preference not doctrine.  Here there is a group of people we have been pouring ourselves into over the past 5 years. They meet under the best shade tree with the cleanest dirt.  They sing what songs that are on their heart.  This place has changed me, and my perspective. 

This past week I was accused of dividing the main denominational church here. This denomination is hurting and has many issues and I believe they were looking for a scapegoat.  This hurt greatly as our goal has been to bring the good news of Jesus in a clear, understandable, and reproducible way to all people here. That is happening and Satan isn’t happy.  This isn’t the first time this has happened as some of you know back in 2007 the church treated us very badly.  So this week I’ve been swatting away ghost from the past and now the present.  Pray that I can finish this race strong!   I sorely miss my family and support network.

I have 6 weeks left here and there is a lot to do.  This week we finish the 30+ oral Bible story set.  This is a broad overview of the Bible and its main characters and leads us to why Jesus came and what He did for us and the early church.  We will put it on the solar audio players and visit the villages to update them of the new stories.  We will also show the passion of the Christ film which we just translated into Ju’hoansi and the sermon on the mount series set to video.    I’m also training the translation team to prepare for their new assignment.  In case you missed the announcement, the Namibia Bible Society received money for a 3-year oral bible translation project here in Tsumkwe. They asked me to oversee the beginning of that project and that is my main task until I leave.

So please pray for Claudia and Anastasia as they are in America trying to adjust to life there. Pray for me that I will be able to finish strong and pray for the spiritual battle that is on going here.  Let’s pray for those churches that choose to divide rather than unite!!!  Let’s pray for the sake of the gospel.  Our world is hurting, and we are called to be salt and light. 

The word of God is going forward in a clear, understandable, and reproducible way here and in that I rejoice amongst the suffering.

Jeremy

P.S. If you would love to pray together, chat for a moment you can always reach me on what’s app. Email me if you don’t have that number.