After showing the video Ee-Taow!, I often hear comments such as, “How nice it must be to work with a people group who are ready to receive the Gospel!” “I would like to work with people like that!” “Missionary work in Papua New Guinea must be easy.”
I often hear comments referring to the Mouk as “a prepared people.”
What people don’t realize is that the Mouk people had their own very strongly held system of beliefs.
There is no doubt that God did prepare the hearts of the Mouk people. You may not have seen the prayer, hard work, and other Biblical principles or patterns that God used through His messengers to bring that about. These principles were implemented long before Bible teaching began:
1) Urgency. Persistent, faithful, diligent hard work. “A very important message is coming and I am working hard to bring it to you.” Especially the Zooks, and many other people on the missionary team, worked diligently day and night to communicate God’s message to the Mouk people.
2) Intentional relationships. Mark and Gloria diligently invested themselves in the lives of the Mouk people, caring for them as individuals, treating their wounds, working in their gardens, discovering their personalities, learning their fears, identifying with their sorrows, discovering their relationships and their life challenges.
3) Listening before answering. A common folly in missions is to drop in to a culture and distribute answers before listening to discover the questions. Listening first enabled the Zooks to teach the truth of God’s word to address the false metanarrative and resultant worldviews that were holding the Mouk people captive.
4) Foundational Bible Teaching – Mark and Gloria did not start teaching about Jesus the first day that they arrived in the Mouk villages. What they did do when they had properly prepared is begin where God began with revealing Himself to all people through His written word: In the beginning. A key focus of each lesson is God’s character and purpose. The Mouk people had no context to understand the identity of the person called Jesus. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, begins to give a framework for people to understand the identity, power, character, goodness, righteousness, of Jesus Christ, and the relationship we have with or against Him.
What changed the hearts of the Mouk people was the Word of God which was carefully and specifically applied in the context of loving relationships under the power of the Holy Spirit to strongly held false beliefs which were holding them captive.
They responded with faith when their views were lovingly contrasted with God’s written word.
As they responded a little at a time, their faith in God grew to the response you saw in the video.
What is even more exciting to me is what God has been doing through the Mouk people after the times shown in the videos. For many years I worked as a missionary pilot serving the Mouk people, delivering supplies, providing medical evacuations to hospitals, supporting their work with other missionaries, and their work with tribal church leaders to share what they have learned about God with other ethnolinguistic groups of people. The Biblical principles and patterns that were taught to the Mouk church have been carried through them to other places far from their homes.
Since the videos “Ee-Toaw! The Mouk Story” and “Ee-Taow! The Next Chapter” were published, the Mouk people have reached all of the villages of their own language group with the Gospel. In 2003 they sent three missionary families to the Lusi people. Rick & Anji Zook joined the Mouk missionary team to the Lusi people as the Bible translators and consultants. In 2014 the Mouk churches sent three more families to plant churches among the Lusi people, six families to plant churches among the Kombe people and six more missionary families to plant churches among the Anem people.
The Mouk churches and leaders continue to be active in ministry to other churches and language groups. They have taken up personal responsibility for the commands of Jesus concerning reaching the whole world and teaching “all things”. (Matthew 28:18-20) Newer expatriate missionaries are working as co-workers with the Mouk churches, under the local church leadership, providing technical skills, such as Bible translation, which the Mouk churches need to succeed in ministry.
Ee-Taow, The Next Chapter shows what happened in the next village that heard the Gospel.
The Mouk people have reached every village of their language group with the Gospel, and continue to pass on what they have learned to others, including the younger generations. The Mouk church leaders have been very active in encouraging the leaders of other language groups nearby where missionaries are no longer serving. They have continued to see the importance of passing on the vision of reaching a lost world for Christ, equipping people for ministry, supporting other outreaches, teaching, and encouraging people across language and cultural barriers.
On one of my flights to bring medicine and supplies to the Mouk people, they brought a financial gift they had collected for me to transport to their intended recipient. The money had been collected in two five-gallon buckets, nearly full of coins. They were heavy! It encouraged my heart to think of the great effort and the great sacrifice of the Mouk churches that were represented in those two buckets. This was a physical demonstration of what God had done in their hearts to change them from takers to givers. To God be the glory!
More Mouk from Ethnos360 Magazine… “Embers Fanned Into Flame‘
In 2003, the Mouk church leaders began asking for assistance to reach into the Lusi language group with the Gospel. Mark and Gloria Zook’s son, Rick and his wife Anji began assisting the Mouk outreach a few years later with the three Mouk missionary families that had lived among the Lusi people for several years.
The Gospel was presented in the Lusi language in 2013. Rick and Anji have continued with Bible translation and assisting the Mouk believers with tools for effective outreach across culture and language barriers.
In 2014, the Mouk churches sent fifteen more missionary families to assist with outreach. Three families joined the team in the Lusi language group, six moved to the Kove language group, and six moved to the Anem language group. The Josiah Van der Decker family has joined the Mouk missionary team working with the Anem people and they are learning the Anem language to translate the Bible into that language.
Ministering With the Mouk to Reach the Anem
Here is an audio update on September 20, 2020 from Rick Zook. https://www.cornerstonebroadway.org/sermons-teaching/