Christ Church Congregational

Abbots Cross

Dear Praying Friends,
Warm greetings to you in the Name of the Lord, and we do pray that this time of celebrating the birth of the Saviour will be one of great blessing to you. What powerful words; “for unto you is born this day, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!!”

Let us rejoice with the Wana believers in Indonesia, they are hoping that very shortly they will have the first 2000 copies of the New Testament in the Wana language. There have been various difficulties with the printing but at last the first few copies are printed and the people are very excited, please pray that over the next couple of weeks that the rest of the printing will be finished and the believers will have their own copy of the New Testament.
While the Mibu Tribe are praising the Lord, as the first 3 Mibu Bible Teachers have returned to their village full of the wonders of how the Lord blessed and undertook for them as they reached out to other villages in an evangelistic outreach trip. For 2 hours they reported to the other believers, who hung on to every word of the report, and they were delighted to hear how some of their relations from other villages had responded to the gospel.

While in the Bena Bena tribe of Papua New Guinea, about 40 people began hearing evangelistic Bible lessons last week. They are meeting 3 days a week. The oldest women in the area, is so keen to hear God’s Word that she keeps asking to hear more Bible teaching, even when it is not time for the meeting to begin . Please pray for this lady, her name is Yagaso, she is over 70, which is extremely old for a Papua New Guinean, that the Lord will bring light to her darkened soul and for the rest of the group too.
Recently a group pf 19 tribal folk from the Philippines, where able to be helped to see better, when a team of Doctors and Nurses were able to fly in for two days to perform eye surgery, the Lord was gracious and everything went well, even down to the weather being perfect for flying. They were also able to help improve the general health of the people, and even to deliver a baby on the second day. The people are very excited to have improved vision, and this means they will be able to read the Word of God for themselves too.

January 7, 2008 is going to be a wonderful day for the Yembiyembi people of P.N.G. That is the day when evangelistic Bible lessons are hoping to be started. The preparations are going well, at present the first of the lessons are being checked and doubled checked, and the men helping with this are getting excited by what they are hearing. The first class of literacy students have just finished too and being able to read the lessons for themselves is always a blessing. While plans are moving on to teach literary to many more of the people. Please pray that the Bible teaching will be able to go ahead as planned, and for safety, good health and strength in the run up to Jan 7th.
The Dinangat people also of P.N.G. are due to begin the evangelistic Bible teaching towards the end of January as well. Please pray for the translation of the lessons to be accurate and that steady progress can be made towards this goal.

We have just completed a week of meetings with Gracia Burnham, you may remember Gracia and her husband Martin were taken hostage in the Philippines a few years ago, and were held for over a year, before being rescued, and while Martin went home to Heaven on that day, Gracia was able to return to their 3 children. We were privileged to be involved in meetings all over the country with Gracia, and it was a good week, the Lord used Gracia to encourage and challenge many. We also were able talk to many folk who showed an interest in the work of NTM.

We are also keeping busy in other meetings and church services, and do look to the Lord to speak to many of the need for reaching the lost with the gospel, thank you for praying as we press on serving the Lord.
Stephen continues in his Portuguese language study in Mozambique, and is doing well. While Rebecca is kept busy in her nursing post. Andrew meanwhile is gearing up for more exams, in this, his last year in University.

We are so grateful for your continued prayers and support, it is such a privilege to serve the Lord, and we are very mindful of the fact that you are standing with us. We trust the Lord will encourage you as you read of these wonderful things the Lord is accomplishing around the world.
Yours in Christ,
Matthew and Liz Cuthbert, Rebecca and Andrew