‘They Took It upon Themselves.’

This week’s article was written by Adam and Julie Martin who minister to the Akolet people of Papua New Guinea.

Yesterday at church I noticed that a man took it upon himself to enlist some of the young men to build more benches in our church. You see, we’re having a “marriage conference” of sorts here in this next week.

Discipleship without PowerPoint

This conference is something entirely unprecedented in Akolet church history. We even have guest speakers! They are dear believers from other people groups, traveling here to share with the Akolet believers what they’ve learned about walking with Jesus and growing with their spouses.

This event is something we’ve been working to get arranged for over a year. There won’t be any PowerPoints, and certainly no one encouraging husbands and wives to hold hands and gaze into each other’s eyes or anything equally mortifying to an Akolet couple. But we hope there will be Scriptures unpacked that help the Akolet see, from fellow Papua New Guinean believers, what a Christ-centered marriage can look like. We are beyond excited.

Building Benches Demonstrates Spiritual Growth

But where was I? Oh yes, the benches. There are 13 visitors coming for this marriage conference, and our bursting-at-the-seams church building doesn’t have the space! So this Akolet man saw this need and took it upon himself to get more benches built off to the side of our current structure. And there’s no Lowe’s nearby to pick up more timber, either. We’re talking, “Boys, let’s go chop some trees.”

These are small steps in many ways. Yet for the past seven years since the Akolet church was first born, the believers have relied heavily on us as the missionaries. Slowly but surely, some are seeing the needs and taking it upon themselves to ask the Lord how He wants them to meet those needs.