Fire Showed the Mouk’s Priorities

A fire broke out in the men’s house, not far from where Dave Yunker was teaching the Mouk believers in a small village in Papua New Guinea. Fires are never a good thing — even worse when there are no firemen nor fire stations to respond.

Dave was sure that the fire signaled the end of the teaching for the day. He was ready to cancel the teaching so that everyone could help fight the fire. But the church leaders thought differently.

“You Keep on Teaching.”

“No, you keep on teaching,” the church leaders told him. “We’ll take care of this. It’s more important to hear God’s Word.”

And they took care of it. A few men were sent over to take care of the fire.

“I continued teaching. These guys were up the hill fighting fire. The rest of the congregation was listening to God’s Word being taught,” Dave remembered.

“It showed me where their priorities were … that they were more interested in spiritual food, God’s Word.”

Hungry for Spiritual Food

Dave went on to compare the Mouk’s hunger for spiritual food with the account of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.

Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about “water springing up into eternal life.”

In the same story, Jesus told the disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

Dave explained, “[Jesus] was talking on a spiritual plane. And I think that’s where the Mouk were. Their minds were on the spiritual.”

Praise God for the work He has done and continues to do in the lives of the Mouk people, as evidenced in their three outreaches today. Please continue to pray for the Mouk’s discipleship of the Lusi, Kove and Anem peoples.