Exciting News from Mursiland!

It has been six years since the church was birthed in Mursiland. The SIM missionaries have faithfully discipled Olisarali and others, and the Holy Spirit was faithful to distribute His gifts among them. As the Mursi believers have matured in their faith and their knowledge of God's Word, they have gradually assumed more and more responsibility for one another. They decided in March 2004 to meet to discuss baptism. SIM missionaries Paul and Carol Lukins describe what happened:

"So when they met under a huge tree and publicly asked all their members, one by one, about the basis of their faith in Christ, their understanding of the trinity, the sufficiency of the death of Christ for their sin, and their desire to follow him regardless of the cost, it was a truly momentous time. It was also unexpected. The interviews went for 6 hours; any weaknesses exposed were addressed on the spot through Bible teaching by the Mursi leaders. All ages were interviewed, beginning with the church leaders themselves. And then came the big shock - the decision to proceed to baptism while the people were all still gathered from the wider district!"

"Some have recently faced death threats from other Mursi, and powerful ritual priests have cursed them. The same ritual priests have also cursed some younger non-christians, resulting in their deaths, such is the reality of the spiritual battle going on. But no christians have died; the Lord is protecting his own despite Satan's attempts at intimidation. And, amazingly, new believers are still being added almost every week to the number of Mursi saints in spite of the adversity, praise God; many have been teenagers."

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