Believers from four tribes met together for three days of teaching and fellowship.

Tigak believers have just returned from their first ever believers’ church conference and, “It was awesome,” missionary Aimee Hedrick writes.

Four tribes were represented at the conference.

Aimee and her Tigak group boated 30 minutes to town from their island and then crammed into a small truck for two and a half hours. After that, they switched to a big truck and rode for another four hours to a village of the Patpatar people. After spending the night there, they boated three more hours to Siar the following day. Believers from another tribe also attended.

Though the churches within these four people groups are at varying stages of maturity, and though small groups have previously met other small groups, this conference was the first time all these believers had ever gathered for fellowship and teaching from God’s Word.

The conference was hosted by the Siar church and Aimee says they did a fantastic job.

After one or two days of traveling various distances on bumpy dirt roads or by boat, the believers from these four tribes arrived in Siar and were assigned in groups to stay with different believers from the Siar church.

Siar believers had been preparing for weeks. Homes were prepared, sleeping mats and food had been gathered and everything was ready to host their brothers and sisters in Christ.

For the weeks preceding the conference, believers had been buzzing with preparation and in anticipation of the fellowship they knew was waiting for them.

Thursday evening kicked off with a fellowship meal. The teaching and most of the communication was in Pidgin, the trade language.

Three missionaries and two Siar teachers shared the teaching load. “They did a great job,” Aimee shares.

When Sunday afternoon arrived, they all shared another meal together and the conference ended with another time of sharing.

Hearing individual testimonies and songs in the four languages represented was challenging and encouraging to all the believers gathered.

“Obviously, this was a work of the Lord and I think He was glorified through this conference,” Aimee adds. “On my mind and on many peoples’ lips through the weekend was the realization that this sort of meeting would have been impossible apart from God. He has placed all of us believers into one body in Christ—and because of that unity, we can all love, serve and encourage one another.”