September 22, 2019

GOD Fights for US

To help support the Clinic - medical evangelism (read below about many ways you help make a difference) (to run a mobile clinic it is about $3000 per time- we try to do one once every 6 weeks)
https://abwe.org/work/projects/william-lori-smith-medical-clinic 

IMPORTANT NEED:  Praise the Lord  God provided the $10,000 for the dual citizenship. Now pray as it is processed.   Pray for Christmas youth camp meeting planned for the Bena churches (like last year) It will cost about  $5000 to run it plus provide camp for youth to attend GBBC camp.  We saw growth in all of our churches this year.  Praying for MORE!
https://abwe.org/work/missionaries/william-lori-smith

I was challenged this week with a statement I read. “Vague praying is lazy praying”. We have always chosen to pray with great detail and fervency. God has told us in His Word to let our REQUESTS be made KNOWN to GOD , and that the EFFECTUAL fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. We have seen over and over again in our over thirty years of ministry how GOD answers specific prayer with very amazing and specific answers. HE FIGHTS FOR US as we PRAY to Him.

We have been in hand to hand combat the past few months with a very formidable enemy. Satan has been on the offensive as we have seen GOD fighting for us and providing for us in more amazing ways than we have ever seen. GOD is preparing us and equiping us for a huge battle to reach into the very heart of Satan's strongholds here in PNG. Satan is doing all he can to make that difficult, but the BATTLE is ours already and victory is assured. GOD fights for us. All Satan can do is try to hinder.....and hinder he is.

Every step of the amazing blessing GOD has bestowed upon us with the Estate of a man named Dan, has been a battle of great intensity. Dan is gone to eternity but his finances became an unexpected and overwhelming blessing to our ministry and others also. Satan has tried to delay and disrupt this incredible opportunity but as we battled in faith and on our knees in prayer....GOD prevailed. We saw the availability of that amazing gift come JUST in the NICK of TIME to get a 40 foot container FILLED with amazing blessings for the Bible College and our clinic ministry. Literally the last days of our time in the states, that container , our MERCY SHIP,embarked on the world wide journey......and we prayed. It arrived safely and on time. A miracle that started a whole avalanche of blessings in a domino effect such as we have never seen.

WE had battle upon battle over documents and paperwork for the container, but step by step, GOD got us through the mountain of paperwork needed to get the precious cargo GOD has supplied for us approved and ready for processing here in PNG. Even though everything was organized, completed and submitted ahead, and supposedly pre-approved....the battles have remained. BUT GOD has been fighting for us.

More impossible blessings kept coming. Things to hard to really fully comprehend yet. As GOD turned the heart of the head of taxation in PNG to give us a DUTY FREE and CUSTOMS FREE exemption for the ENTIRE container! The only fee required was the 10$ stamp fee! SO unheard of is this expemtion those customs agents have fought daily to try to find SOME way to get more money from us....BUT GOD KEEPS FIGHTING FOR US.

Friday we were told that the Final Clearance of our container to be shipped up to Goroka was under review and a revoking of that clearance was expected requiring a physical inspection of the container. UNPACKING an ENITIRE 40 container stuffed from one end to the other....it was NOT what we wanted to do for sure, but we know that every single item in that container was properly accounted for, so we were ready to do whatever needed to be done in order to prove our documents were accurate. More delays, but GOD still was fighting. Friday afternoon we were told that the decision for the clearance and the decisions for the Tax and Customs fees all came from top offices and they will be upheld. REJOICING!!

Then, the shippers called. They want payment of shipping fees IN FULL before they will take our container up to Goroka. They waited until the Friday that our bank is changing over from one company to another. Our bank is closed for all interactions (even electronic) from Friday at 4pm (well it was before 3 and they were already closed...png time :-) until Monday morning. WE could not even make a transaction, nor do we know the total cost yet as they have not given an invoice. WE KNOW that GOD is fighting for us in this as well. WE wait with expectation of great things. WE are asking that GOD bring our two storage (twenty foot) containers and our MERCY SHIP with it's miracle 40 feet of blessings safety to us this week. WE are praying fervently and expectantly. Join us!

WE know that GOD has been fighting much this week. 

( Safa  the day he came and now  3 days later) I shared about our dear friend Esta. Asapa's mommy. Our hearts have continued to pray for her and David to give their hearts to Jesus. WE held their little Asapa and saw him blossom from emaciation to thriving. WE mourned as he left our home, but we mourned more that his parents received our loving help and ministry to their family but failed to see the JESUS we so desperately tried to display before them in all we did and said. BUT God was fighting for them.....and a very big surprise in the form of an unplanned pregnancy (she was faithfully using contraception) was in GOD's plan. So very anemic, then the horror of a delivery that just all went wrong almost took her life. A small for gestational age tiny baby so weak, and a weak, extremely anemic mommy are not a good combination. I sent her home after four days of treament at our clinic with a load of iron tablets and healthy food....and a TON of prayer covering them both each day. Three weeks and no news. I was HOPEFUL no news was good news. Last week we enlisted the prayers of you all....and GOD heard. Esta was at clinic on Tuesday. My hopes were not realized. Esta was still very weak (her Hemoglobin up from 4 to 6 but that is still far to low.), and her tiny baby was now, after over three weeks of no milk supply coming in, an emaciated, TINY-ER man. He had not had any urine output for two days and no stool for over a week. HE was lethargic and at the brink of death. They were coming for help. GOD was fighting for our tiny little Safa. WE got him just in time. A night of constant fluid input brought his kidney's back. He is now in our arms and held in our hearts and prayers. We are praying this tiny man is the key to the heart of his family.

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I know God continues to fight for my friend Ivon as well. WE have prayed for her, as she is experiencing severe hypertension in her fourth pregnancy. She is over due now, and her blood pressure has been running at times above 200/100. She has been in and out of the hospital all week. She is feeling horrible, but each time she is sent home, without a baby being born and without any treatment. I have tried twice to catch her in the hospital, to bring her a BIBLE and share the Gospel once more with her, but each time I got there right after they had sent her home. I am not sure where she is living right now. I have no way to contact her. I will fight for her with prayer. I will fight for her baby. Will you join me in praying that she comes to know Jesus through this trial, and that GOD protects her and her little unborn son?

GOD has been fighting for the man we shared about last week. His wife stuck a knife through his forearm and cut his scalp. Daily wound care....and daily opportunities to love on him and share JESUS with him has made a pronounced impact on his heart. This week he told me that he wanted to give me “a gift”.land in the Town of Goroka. I told him I did not want land or money or anything. I wanted him to know the GOD that gave HIS love as a FREE gift to me, and I want to demonstrate that gift of mercy with my life and my care and my efforts. GOD is fighting for this man. The spiritual battle is real. He is close to making a decision I feel. IT will be a yes or no to the offer of God's gift of salvation. We start removing sutures this week. I will continue to reach out to him, but the decision is his. An amazing gift is available to him but he must RECIEVE it!

God has been fighting for our Timothy and his family. This week is a holiday week for the School kids here in PNG. We had been planning to help Timothy get to his parents down in the Ramu valley so that he could have precious time with his mommy, as she travels the difficult road of cancer. WE praise the LORD that HE continues to hold her life, but reality is that we are not sure if she will survive until the end of the school term when Timothy can go back home. The students were told this past week that due to teachers wanting to finish early, the holiday was cancelled. WE got onto the battle ground of our knees and pleaded with GOD to make a way for Timothy to have time with his mommy! GOD FOUGHT FOR US! Timothy was escorted yesterday by Amo and three other of “the guys” that often fill our home with love...and eating:-) ….as Bill drove him all the way to the eager arms of his loving parents!! Pray for Ruth and Keith and all their six kids this week. Pray that GOD gives them joy and amazing peace as memories are made and grace is experienced in real ways!!

God fights for so many, and HE gives us the joy of being His mouth, hands and feet to reach out into the heart of those that are seeking. Bill meet a man last Christmas time. He began a conversation with him and found out that he was the Religious Instruction teacher at a Local Lutheran school. When Bill shared the Gospel with him, he realized he did not know much about the GOD he was tasked to teach his students about, because he did not even OWN a Bible. Bill gave him a Bible right there on the spot! Just as the eunuch centuries ago, this man has begun to seek GOD in His Word. A few months ago we had a large evangelistic rally in the town of Goroka, and he was compelled to attend. HE met JESUS that week! One of our local pastors led him to Jesus! He lost his job, as he no longer was satisfied to teach religion....he wanted to teach about a relationship to GOD through His Son Jesus. He claims to have been beaten and abused for his faith, but he is not turning back. PRAY for  ISO. GOD truly fights for him

God is in battle for us. Our hearts are overwhelmed by the magnitude of ALL He is doing right now. GOD is equipping us and enabling us to expand in ways we never dreamed possible. WE shared our desire to establish citizenship here in PNG so that we have longevity here in ministry even beyond our retirement age. This is our home. This is the place of our heart. WE will keep dual citizenship in the USA so that we can go and come, visiting our kids and grand kids, but PNG is the home of our calling. The difficulties of getting visa's for “religious workers” has made this need even more pressing on our hearts....but the cost is SO GREAT! We have utilized our personal finances on adoptions and custodies, on our Children's education, college tuitions and weddings. WE have made trips to be there for our kids in need and to be there for mama's last days, her funeral and for daddy. We have followed what GOD wanted and used what HE gave us...but this is huge! $10,000! What a massive mountain of seemingly impossible height was before us......BUT GOD was fighting for us! This week, in the midst of daily battle with Satan and in the midst of seeing GOD's amazing and overwhelming blessings just being dumped down from the portals of heaven......$10,000 was dumped into our laps as well. We got an anonymous gift given for this purpose...to make the way for our application now for citizenship. This huge door is open and we are jumping through by faith and with BOTH FEET. PRAY!

Yes, we share detailed needs each week. Yes, we ask for fervent faithful prayer from so many of you willing to stand in the gap with us! Yes, we are seeing the amazing victories in battles that are being waged at every side as we advance the GOSPEL message into the territory of Satan's strongholds. We need warriors on their knees to reach the warriors of the Bena!

Please pray:

1. Pray that THIS IS THE WEEK our container will ARRIVE. Pray for safety in transport and for GOD to be glorified in all!
2. PRAY for our baby Andrew as his time of transition is coming soon. Pray for wisdom as to when and how that will happen. PRAY for our hearts!! We are so amazed by the transformation of his family. HE goes home to a godly mom and dad now!! Our tears will have purpose!!
3. PRAY for Safa to grow. PRAY for GOD to reach into Esta and David's hearts with their need of trusting in Jesus.
4. PRAY for Ivon to have a safe and healthy delivery of her son this week.
5. PRAY for the process of our PNG Citizenship application. PRAISE GOD with us for the provision of the money to cover all of that.
6. PRAY that GOD will fight for our Amo and Aaron and that HE will enable them to learn. Both struggle so much in school We praise GOD for amazing teachers that have been such a blessing to help them. PRAY for GOD to show us the path the boys need to take, but pray mostly that they will both give their lives fully to love and serve GOD!
7. Pray for Timothy to have an amazing week with his parents. WE miss him a lot but we are so thankful for this time for their family!
8. Pray for Vito. She came to clinic this week with her mom. Mom is still mentally a bit foggy. She seems to be caring well for Vito, though. Pray GOD heals her mind.

WE know that GOD fights for us. WE have such joy in following Him on this journey of AMAZING He has called us to embark upon over thirty years ago. NEVER a dull moment to be sure living in the “land of the unexpected”. It has been truly much more than we could have expected, hoped or dreamed to see!

No Restraints. No Retreats. NO REGRETS. Fearless. Faithful. Fervent in prayer!

Bill, Lori the boys and Dad.