NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

How would you explain the Biblical concept of justification to your nextdoor neighbor? How about explaining it to a recent immigrant to your area who is learning English? What about a group of people who speak a language with no one word for “justification”?

For us, one way to answer that last question involved bamboo joints and dirty sticks.

So what does justification have to do with bamboo joints and dirty sticks?

Well, a lot, if you happen to be a Tobo believer coming to our weekly gatherings to study Romans.

At the end of chapter 3, we discussed the fact that our faith in Christ does not mean that we stop sinning and become perfect people in our daily lives on this earth. But it does mean that God says of us, or declares of us, that we are straight and righteous people now. This not of ourselves, we know that we still mess up and sin on a daily basis. But the righteousness we have is that of our Lord Jesus Christ! When God sees us, He no longer sees our sinfulness, since Christ took care of the penalty for that when He died on the cross. Instead, He sees us as covered with the righteousness of His Son and our Savior. Wow! All that is wrapped up in that big term “justification”.

To communicate this important (and freeing!) concept of justification, I had Tingon bring me a nasty brown bamboo joint that was old and covered in dirt, and another freshly-cut shiny clean green bamboo joint (bamboo joints are hollow tubes with segments between the hollow spaces at top and bottom). These two joints were cut open at the top, and the bottoms left on, so they formed 2 long cylinders like large cups that a small child could reach their arm into. I then had Tingon bring me several dirty sticks, which I put into the dirty joint.

I had a number of curious eyes on me as I held up the dirty joint and pulled one of the dirty sticks out of it.

“Is this stick clean or dirty?” I asked.

“Dirty!” was the response.

“What about the bamboo joint?”

“It too is very dirty!”

I then took the stick and put it into the glistening green joint. “Is the stick clean now?”

“No, the stick’s still dirty.”

“That’s true. What about this joint?”

“The joint’s very clean!”

“Can you see the stick now that I put in down into the joint?”

“No, only if you take the stick back out.”

Then I put a few sticks into the clean joint, and left the rest in the dirty one. “These sticks are all dirty, and they represent us people. At first, we were all in the dirty joint, stuck in our sinfulness, in Satan’s joint and under the hand of (meaning control or power of) Satan and sin.

“Then, just as I grabbed some sticks and put them into the clean joint, God has put us into the clean joint of Yesu. Just as the stick is still dirty, we are still people who sin even after being placed into Yesu’s clean joint. However, just as the stick is hidden in the clean joint and all we see is the good cleanness of the joint now, so now God looks at us as hidden inside of Yesu and His cleanness. Because of the cleanness of Yesu, He now says of us that we are straight people in his eyes.”

At this point, there were lots of nods, smiles, and whispers of “Élok!’ (“True!”) from the group. I then asked them this:

“So, did God take some of these sticks and put them in there because they were a little bit cleaner or better than the other dirty sticks still in the dirty joint?”

“No, they are all the same, all dirty.”

“You’re right! So then we too are not better or cleaner than our friends who have not believed in Yesu. But we are now in a better place in God’s eyes, aren’t we?”

“Oh, yeah! We still sin even now, but God still took us out of Satan’s joint and put us into Yesu’s joint because of what He did for us!”

So, readers of this email, if you have trusted in Christ to pay the penalty for your sin once and for all, then you along with our Tobo brothers and sisters are all safely in His bamboo joint and God sees us in that special place as perfectly clean—not because we are better than other people, but as a result of the righteousness of Christ He covered us with when we first believed! Can I get an “Amen” now? Or perhaps an “Égat migi i élagék yamda,” (Tobo for “This talk is hugely true”)? 

Thanks for continuing to pray with us as we explore the richness contained in Romans. Pray that these truths will find their way deep into our hearts here as we learn and grow and see God manifesting them in our daily lives.

Your fellow joint-heirs with Jesus,

Chad & Janeene (& Elijah & Zekey)

It has been a real privilege and joy to dive into the book of Romans with our fellow believers here in Toboland. We are currently poised to begin the third chapter of this incredibly deep and rich epistle, and so far we’ve been encouraged by the truths that are being picked up on and reinforced in people’s minds and hearts.

One prominent theme that has come out again and again in the teaching has been the gospel of grace through faith alone in Christ alone as seen in the key verses of the entire book, chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, and then in the rest of chapter 1 and into 2 and 3, the sinfulness of mankind and the wrath of God toward that sin which could and can never be satisfied by the good things we try to do to appease him. To many of us with a lengthy Christian background, these truths seem so simple that we often take them for granted. But even last Sunday, as we discussed the situation in chapter 2 of the Jews who were trusting in their religious heritage and ritual circumcision to make them clean in God’s eyes and clearly (in their minds) superior to the “heathen”, the application to the Tobo of today was not lost on many in our fellowship.

Stela Nangia, a very astute lady in our group, was tracking intently during the lesson and had this to share: “I have something to say. It is true what God’s Talk says here about how following many different customs like skin-cutting or doing other good works like going to church, how that cannot make us clean in God’s eyes. And many people in this area are doing just like Adam and Eve did when they sinned and then made the fig tree leaf clothes for themselves as a false covering to try to straighten their wrong. But we know that God saw it and was not satisfied, so He himself gave them the animal skins and covered them Himself and that is a good picture talk of how people want to cover their bad with their own good works and not believe in the sacrifice that God helped us with in Jesus. He is the only road to God, not these other things, and many people in this area have heard this but still do not understand or believe this. We need to pray for them.”

Many in our group are still quite shy about sharing their thoughts as they have been steeped in a culture of secrecy and reluctance to ‘go against the flow’ for decades and even centuries, so speaking up in this manner is still a stretching experience for people here, even believers. So you can see how encouraging it was, not only to hear this dear sister speak up in our meeting but also to hear how she’s really taken hold of these basic truths and going back to the gospel of grace!

Please be in prayer for us as we will soon be moving on from the universal guilt of man to a more in-depth look at how God is both just and justifier; that is, the amazing way that He in his righteousness provided Jesus as a sacrifice who properly took care of the sin problem and appeased His wrath and can now say of those of us who believe that we are right in his sight because the righteousness of Christ is covering us just as the new clothing God provided Adam and Eve covered them. These are exciting truths, and we would ask you to pray that our believers would all be faithful to come as we study these upcoming chapters of Romans which are vital to their growth as individuals and as a body.

Thanks for your continued faithfulness in praying for us. It is a real privilege to stand together with you as we watch God at work here!

Chad, Janeene, Elijah and Zekey

We wanted to fill you in on some of the neat things that God has been doing in the lives of some of the Tobo believers as well as in ours.

As you might imagine, checking Scripture is no simple task, but one that requires attention to detail and good concentration. My helper Kips was feeling quite sick before our check of Romans 1-3. We prayed, and God answered in a great way. Not only was Kips completely better the next morning in time for the check, he was better the rest of our time out in town and going back into the bush. You should have seen how happy he was. He related to me, “I was so sick, and I thought, how can I do God’s work of looking at his True Talk tomorrow and be able to think well? But now I see that God has answered our prayers and healed me today so that we could do that important work together! God is truly real!”

During our time at the translation workshop, Tingon as well was rejoicing at seeing God’s hand in his life. Just before leaving for the workshop, he was told of a problem in the clan dealing with some immorality that was going on. The young woman’s offended clan had said that the situation needed to be resolved by the middle of the week, or right about the time we were to return from the workshop, or steps would be taken. Obviously, this was heavy on his heart and he was beginning to struggle with worry over it. I was able to get word to them to tell them to wait for us. This still did not ease Tingon’s concern for his family back in the village. As Tingon shared his struggle of worry with Kips and me, we were both able to encourage him that having sent word back, the main thing to do was to pray and put the problem in God’s hands. We decided to pray for him right then and there.

That next day, it did seem as if Tingon was a different person with a weight off of his back. He said, “I also had decided to pray and ask God to help me not be worried about my family and the problem back home, and listen, God did help me. From that time, I wasn’t worried any more, and I haven’t been up to now! God gave me easy insides (peace) and I had easy insides and still do!” And the neat thing was, just a few days before we returned, we got word that the situation had been resolved without the need for him to be there. So God answered that prayer before we even returned. Recently, as Tingon shared some more struggles with another worry of his, he and I had the opportunity to look back and praise God as we remembered the easy insides He gave Tingon during that tough time. It gave me a good opportunity to remind him once again that God wants us not to stand in our strength and struggle and worry, but instead to give our worry to him and put it in His good hands.

And then, (…some of you know what’s coming here, right?) God has time and again recently reminded me to practice that same trust that I have been encouraging my brothers and sisters here to exercise. There are times when it seems like spiritual growth and progress here is slow. Most people in this community are hard-hearted and view our little band of believers with apathy at best and disdain, ridicule, and even hostility in other cases. And some of our believers are still struggling with the idea that they are different now from the others and such a small minority at that. Many, like Tingon, have worried that so many have chosen not to believe and that we are such a small group. And honestly for us as well it has been frustrating at times to see areas where the believers could take opportunities to be a witness to their peers or take a stand but do not always do that, or not without our gentle promptings. In spite of all this, the Lord continues to remind me through His Word not to worry but put it into His capable hands.

One of Elijah’s memory verses, Colossians 3:15, struck me lately and I have been meditating on this verse quite a bit lately. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts…and be thankful.” Wow—those 12 words speak volumes to my heart! May you also be encouraged by these words as the new year finds some of you looking for a new job, as many are tightening belts in the current economy, or some are dealing with the loss of loved ones during this holiday season. Whatever your unique set of challenges and hardships, I believe that we need to allow God’s peace to hold sway over our hearts and minds and that we can always choose to be thankful regardless of whatever God has for us. And then as we thank Him and meditate on his goodness to us, we will find as I’ve testified in the above stories that God is at work in our lives and the lives of those we love and care about, and in so many ways has blessed us far beyond what we were first seeing as we were focused on all the worries.

I’ll wrap this email up with 2 more stories evidencing God’s blessing and a glimpse of progress that he privileged me to see in the lives of 2 of my brothers here. A couple of weeks ago, I went up the mountainside to help Welsen work on his new house. As is typical, there were half a dozen other guys helping out as we cut and nailed hand-hewn planks onto the walls of the structure. I was working with one young guy, Nembos on one side of the house. As we took a break, Welsen showed us the large wooden door which he’d stolen years ago and then used for his older house Nembos mentioned how Welsen was a good guy now, and not only did I jump at the God-given opportunity to share the Gospel of grace with Nembos, but I quickly found Welsen joining into the conversation and it was my joy to let him jump right in and take over where I started! The talk did not continue for long, and Nembos did not give much of a response to the talk other than the typical Tobo outward agreement with what was said, but the encouragement for me was to see my brother boldly sharing his faith.

Another day recently, a bunch of people were sitting outside in a large gathering when I found myself in a conversation with a friend and the subject again turned to the Word of God and belief. Ambox was with me and this brother is a very quiet, soft-spoken man with a dry wit but usually not too much to say. I was surprised and delighted when after my first few comments to the other guy, Ambox began to jump in and reinforce what I was saying and then again he finished up with a pretty good summary of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone! Again, the response was something to leave in God’s hands, but the message was communicated, and not just through me the white missionary, but through a guy who rarely even speaks up in our believers’ meetings!

So you see, God truly is at work here, slowly but surely. And one day, we may see more and more Tobo believers not only jumping in to share their faith, but even seeking out and initiating these conversations of faith on their own. Would you join us in prayer for men like Kips, Tingon, Welsen, and Ambox? That they would have boldness to share their faith, and that peace and thanksgiving would rule in their hearts even in the midst of opposition and apathy?

One more exciting bit of news…next week, Lord willing, the Tobo people will be taught in the book of Romans in their own language! We will take many months to move through this foundational epistle. I am still making good progress through the translation of the book itself, and would ask for your prayers as we as a team (missionaries and Tobo believers) work together to see the believers not only taught, but discipled in the truths of this treasure-trove of Scripture.

Thanks again for all the love and support, and my prayer for you today is that you would “let the peace of God rule in your hearts, and be thankful.”

Thankful for His peace,

Chad, Janeene, Elijah, & Zekey

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to express a verse like John 3:16 in another language? How about Paul’s epistle to the Romans? The Tobo language is a challenging language with its own unique set of words and phrases and ways of expressing things. In order for the meaning of Paul’s letter to get through to the Tobo people in a way they can understand, we have to know how to put words and sentences in the right order (which is often almost exactly backwards from how we do it in English) and not only do this, but also keep the essence of everything that Paul wrote as we communicate it in the Tobo translation of Romans. And of course we aren’t talking about translating a manual for putting together a bicycle or model airplane, but the written message of God himself to all people. Sound like a daunting task? Absolutely! One of our good friends has confessed to us that he would be terrified at the thought of taking on the responsibility of Bible translation. We too are extremely aware of our inadequacies for this work. Many great men of the faith have felt the enormous weight of the task. Consider the following quote from Martin Luther:

“I have undertaken to translate the Bible into German. This was a good thing for me, otherwise I might have died in the mistaken notion that I was a learned man.”

So we see the difficulty of the task and are sobered by it. This is good. But does this mean we shy away from it? To that I would say, many Bibleless people in the world are counting on someone willing to throw themselves and their inadequacy on the Lord and look to him for help as they take on this task so that these people too can read and understand what God dearly wants them to know. The book of Romans is an especially important message for people, as it tells us how we can be made right in His sight and enjoy everlasting fellowship with Him, not to mention how we as believers can live our daily lives in the power of the Spirit and growing in that even as we look forward to future glory with Him (yes, even in the midst of our often mundane and even painful lives here on this earth). This rings every bit as true for the American mom running ragged from shopping to school to soccer practice as it does for the Tobo mom toiling by hand on a steep mountainside harvesting sweet potatoes to help feed her family. The truths of Romans are just as relevant for the busy Christian businessman in the US tied up in meetings or in rush-hour traffic as it is for the busy Tobo Christian man outside of his village chopping firewood in a cold, steady rain and building log fences for his pigs.

So we are very thankful for the wonderful men and women God has provided to help us in this great work of Bible translation. The introduction to epistles translation workshop proved to be a valuable time of gleaning from the wisdom and experience of translators from PNG, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We spent most of our time during the 2-week workshop studying and working through the first 6 chapters of Romans and discussing how to communicate the truths in other languages so that God’s Word will truly communicate to the people in these their heart languages.

Many of us translators who converged on this workshop brought 1 or 2 of our local translation helpers along with us from the villages across PNG that we call home. A real highlight of our time occurred on the very first evening where a missionary friend and I went down to visit with these men around the fire outside where they were housed. My Tobo translation helpers Tingon and Kips were very excited to tell me that “We all just finished giving our testimonies. Every single one of us has believed in Yesu!!” They were so happy and the talk went on for several more hours. I had virtually nothing to say, just drinking in the enthusiastic comments in the common trade language of Melanesian Pidgin about the Lord’s work and the great things He has done. What an encouragement to those guys to see that no, they are not alone. They have brothers in Christ, some of whom are facing similar opposition from their friends and family and communities for their newfound faith. We are looking forward to returning to the village and sharing about this wonderful time of fellowship. Thanks be to God!

After the workshop ended, Tingon sat in as Kips and I evaluated the first 3 chapters of Romans in the Tobo language with consultant Wayne Baker. We were so thrilled to see that Kips was able to repeat back the content truly and consistently with the meaning of these Scriptures, and even some of the longer paragraph sections were no problem for him to pick out the main themes and supporting details of Paul’s arguments in these passages. The check went very smoothly, and we praise God for helping us see the good fruit of months of hard work and help from a number of people both on our missionary team and our brothers and sisters in the village. This is a huge encouragement as we press on in translating this incredible epistle.

I would encourage each of you the next time you grab your Bible to stop and breathe a quick prayer of thanks to God for giving that most precious of gifts to you—His words in your language!! And then also add a quick prayer for the Tobo people who are still waiting to get more of that gift.

Thanks so much for praying for us and for these our (and your) brothers and sisters in Toboland. We thank God for you!

Chad, Janeene, Elijah, & Zekey