“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11a).
When God impressed us to organize an overcomers’ conference in January of 2023 for the people in our village, we did not know how lasting the effect would be. The need was definitely there for the Gogodala people to learn self-control. Our conference aimed to help them find strength in Christ through Bible stories, scripture memory, prayer and encouraging one another. But the questions remained: Would they remember the things they had learned? Would it make a difference in their lives?
One man, whom I will call Roger, attended the conference with his wife. I had known him for many years. He was one of the men who operated the sawmill when we were cutting timber in the jungle for our mission house. Roger was on a spiritual journey. He had been a church member early on in our time in PNG. But he had wandered away from God and gotten involved with things he should not have. Villagers used to distrust Roger because of some of his bad habits.
Then tragedy struck his house. In one year, he lost three of his children. But through this tragedy, Roger started attending church regularly and recommitted his life to God. He became an elder in his local church. After hearing about our overcomers’ conference, he brought his family with him and camped out on our mission grounds so he could attend the conference.
After the conference, Roger asked if he could continue staying on our mission grounds and help at our small church. Each morning before the sun came up, I could hear the lovely singing of hymns coming from Roger’s family staying next to our house. It was such a blessing to listen to them reading scripture and praying together.
A year and a half later, Laurie and I were preparing to move back to the U.S. when Roger reminded me of the overcomers’ conference. He said that the conference had made the largest impact on his life, and he wanted to thank me.
What a joy it is to see the fruit of the Spirit being manifest in our friends. Please pray for Roger and all the Gogodala that they will remain faithful until the coming of Jesus.
