NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

I realize that some people do not appreciate sports analogies, but what has happened over the last couple days has really been amazing. First, the men’s meeting. I really wanted to write about this four weeks ago after our first meeting but I thought let’s give it some time and see how things pan out. Well, after 4 weeks things remain just as amazing as they did before. This has been the grand slam.

One of the home runs is from a man named Jinongke. He is a leader in this community, but rumor has it that he is not with us because he does not want to leave the traditional religious ways. (We haven’t asked anyone to do this, but people are starting to see that not everything the traditional church teaches here is doctrinally correct, i.e. works for salvation.) I went to him and told him that I wanted to talk with him about some things. And I was a bit concerned because of his position in the community and that the rumors were that he was okay with us being forced to leave by the traditional religious higher ups. However going to him and talking straight with him was the right thing to do as I discovered what was going on in his heart. It was a great talk. The other home run is from my neighbor, Benson (pictured above with his family). Today, for the first time he understood and believed the gospel!

So these things were the grand slam and home runs this week. Let me give more details. First the men’s meeting. Several months ago we tried to have a "reading practice class." We wanted to give the opportunity to improve their reading skills. We made three times available throughout the week hoping that many would come. However, it ended up only being the same 3-5 ladies. This proved to be an awkward time as the ladies would not open up to us. So our wives took the class over and now meet once a week, and we decided to challenge the men that they needed to be better readers. So after church one Sunday we told everyone that we wanted to have a team meeting. (Now the team includes the believers!)

In the meeting we challenged the men specifically that they are responsible to teach their families. We spoke directly to them and said that if they cannot read with comprehension then it will be harder for them to do that. We told them that men are the leaders of the family and community and if the men are not existing well in God’s word then it will reflect in family life and community life. Well, the men really sat up for this talk. We talked about how God created Adam and then told Adam what to do and then Adam told Eve. We basically told them that they needed to "step up to the plate." And for the last four weeks that is exactly what they have done!

This reading for comprehension practice has become a wonderful time of Bible study and application with the men and it has shown us who the men are that taking all this seriously. So far there has been 8 – 18 men present and actively participating in this class. We meet with them every Sunday afternoon. And we can hardly stop the discussion. We are thinking that it is from this group that will come the future bible teachers and leaders!

One of the home runs I already mentioned was concerning Jinongke. I already mentioned our concerns and so when I went to talk with him I was a bit nervous. But Got totally turned the tables! Jinongke was influenced by the government leaders that told the people that they needed to get rid of two families in the village because they are not from this village. He stood up and passionately told everyone that this was the right thing to do. However, as we have been studying Acts, Jinongke learned that the believers shared everything as one and we missionaries specifically challenged them on this issue of forcing two families to leave. These two families have professed Christ and therefore are a part of this church. So why are we telling them they have to go? Well, evidently this convicted Jinongke and he was ashamed of his actions, and was avoiding us. He told me this story today and apologized for what he said. He said to me, "I was wrong. When I told them that they had to go I was wrong and I asked God for forgiveness, and I feel sorry for what I did. And because of what Jesus did God has forgiven my sin!" My heart was leaping with joy and we shook hands and laughed together rejoicing over God’s grace.

The other home run late in the game came from a man named Benson. The believers learned the story of Stephen this week from Acts 6 and 7. Benson came to ask me about it. He said, "I see that Stephen was a righteous man and that even though he did not sin, the religious leaders stoned him. He therefore went to God. Now the question I want to ask you is this. I am a sinful man. I sin from time to time so how is it that a man like me can go to God?"

Well, you know the rest of the story! But what you don’t know is that Benson is one of the few people in the village that did not come to all of the Phase One Evangelistic teaching. He came to about half and he has come to most of the church meetings since. We have always wondered what was going on in his heart and mind because he has stayed kind of distant from us. But today we are confident that he is indeed one of us!

So because of the men’s reading/bible study, a certain man’s confession, and another’s second birth we have witnessed a grand slam and two home runs this week! So cheer with us! What a wonderful Christmas this will be.

Your Coworkers,

GECCNZ Smith

“He raises the poor out of the dust, And lifts the needy out of the ash heap.” Psalm 113:7

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

When you think of the word break what do you think of? Well, for us it means several things at the moment.

We were able to go out for a break after some leadership meetings in Madang town and our annual Madang Conference with all the missionaries from our region. It was a very uplifting time and much needed. After these meetings we went on a 8 day break were we did nothing but relax! It was wonderful. We praise God for these little refreshments.

Now for the other refreshments allow me to share with you and perhaps you too can feel refreshed and encouraged with what God is doing here and get your mind off of the pesky politics for a moment. ☺ We returned from our time out to a group of people worried about a woman who was in labor. They were worried because her first baby was delivered via C-section and the doctor told her that her “road for delivery” is too small and she will therefore always have to have C-sections.

So we rallied together with these new baby Christians and pointed them to the almighty doctor who can do anything He wants. We encouraged them to pray for her and see what Got our Father who loves us will do. Well, after 4 days of labor we decided to help them to medevac her out. The plane was scheduled to come in on Monday and this was Sunday afternoon. We sat with several groups of people and their faith was strong. But because this is all so new to them they wondered. We’ve heard the stories of God looking out for His children but we are bad people, will He really help us in our time of need? They didn’t doubt His ability only their inadequacies.

Well, at 11:30 that night God did a miracle and brought that baby down a road too small. And in the morning there was much rejoicing! People everywhere were praising and thanking God for His help. It was a joy to watch and a boost to our faith. Then later this morning the literacy class was outside the school house chatting. The house is just behind my office and I can hear their talk, but they cannot see me in my office from where they are. So I sat in my office and well eavesdropped. I know terrible thing to do, but had I gone out the talk that followed would not have taken place.

People were saying that the reason the woman had such trouble delivering the baby was because someone worked poison or that some evil spirit was preventing the baby to come out. And then the literacy teacher Basa spoke up and said, “You all shouldn’t be thinking that way! This kind of thinking is from before and not true! God is doing a new thing here showing us His power. We are not able to do those things, but God is able! He is the one in control.”

I wrote that yesterday afternoon and woke up this morning to the sound of sorrow. A dear friend of ours lost his son in the night. His name is Bommy. Some of you prayed for him during the teaching. Bommy has helped us so much and has become a close friend and brother. While it breaks our hearts for this 7 year old has passed on. It is a good opportunity for us to see how these new believers will handle this.

And what we are witnessing is beauty amongst ashes. Literally one man that was the boy’s uncle had put ashes all over his body to show his mourning. However, it was the same man that encouraged everyone in the house not to go down the old road. He said, “Let’s remember what we know is true. Don’t start thinking about who killed Max with poison or who is to blame for this. That is our old thinking when we were in ignorance. Don’t even go down that road. Let’s remember God is all powerful and in control.”

Bommy himself wiped his tears from his cheek and said, “I’m happy to know that my son is with God because he trusted in Jesus, but at the same time I’m sad because I will miss him.”

We are praising God for how the people are responding and desiring to walk this new road that God has given them, and even though there is doubts and discouragements God is with us and someday will completely deliver us from these ashes.

Please pray for Bommy and his wife and remaining daughter during this difficult time.

Thank you! Gary for us Smith’s

The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation. Psalm 118:14

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

I just printed off the first ever worship song book in the Dinangat language for the believers to use during praise services! What a joy it was to see the songs come streaming in. If we ever doubted their understanding of the gospel, these songs wipe away any doubt. Listen to some of the songs:

Basa’s song: Father God we say thank to you. You always thought of us and think of us. Therefore we say thank to you. You sent our savior Jesus; therefore, we say thank you to You. Father God we say thank to You.

Bau’s song: O-o-o I want to go to where heaven is. O-o-o we people are not able to save ourselves. O-o-o but there is God’s son, the Christ who is able to save us. He will save us and lead us to God’s place (heaven).

Mesari’s song: We are not able to save ourselves. But Got because You exist You always help us. You gave us Your son. Because of our sin Jesus went up on the cross. Because of our sin He spilled out His blood. Because of Jesus You save us.

Nonjong’s song: Great Father give us Your life. Great Father give us Your life. You give it to us, and we will hold it. You give it to us, and we will quickly hold it. We want to praise and praise God. We want to praise and praise God.

Tears well up in my eyes as I translate these songs. I can’t tell you the joy that comes from what this all means. These people used to be trapped in a lifestyle of bondage to spirits and/or striving to earn favor from a God they didn’t understand. And now they call Him “great Father.” Now they sing praises to Him in freedom and truth because they see the great price the Son paid for them and they are free. Free to love Him. Free to serve Him. Free to worship Him.

The book of second Peter warns of savage wolves coming and destroying truth. Well, that is exactly what happened here last week. The Pastor of the dominating denomination came here to do his work. Many rumors have gone around concerning what these guys teach. So when this pastor showed up I decided to pay him a visit and directly ask him. It was a nice visit; and although I was very nervous, the visit seemed to be profitable. This proved to be an excellent discipleship time with the believers as they saw how to deal with these kinds of issues. However, we’ve heard from several people that he told everyone that they must do good works in order to be saved. The good news is that the believers noticed the different teaching and have been talking up a storm about it. They have been saying, “But God said He was satisfied with what Jesus did. It’s only by His blood that we can be saved. Doing good things to say thank you to God is very good, but it cannot save us because we are nothing but sinners.” There are a couple people that we are not sure about, but for the most part people are recognizing that this teaching is not consistent with Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Praise God!

All your prayers for us concerning discipleship have been bountifully answered. We still meeting with the believers twice a week for teaching and then one evening a week in smaller groups. And some of the men have started to do the review questions before each session. This has been a joy to disciple them through and they do so much better than I could ever do explaining things. It’s beautiful to hear them express it in their own words.

One thing that you could pray for is that the believers begin to sense a burden for the lost.

“We are now new people so let’s celebrate!”

This is what Nonjong told me today as he recounted his story to me. Nonjong is one of the more advanced members of this tribe. He is one of the literacy teachers and has always been one of the more Pharisaical people here. In fact the day before we taught the purpose of God’s law he went around telling everyone that we needed to keep all of God’s laws to be accepted by God. Today he told me how God changed him.

He said that at the beginning of the teaching back in January he planted two of his favorite trees to commemorate the fact that they were hearing God’s word in the language for the first time. He was genuinely excited. But what he expected was for us to tell him how they needed to change their ways in order to be accepted by God.

He told me that he used to think that it was his good works that would get him to heaven, but now he understands that since he was born in sin nothing he can do can satisfy God. Now he believes that only Jesus can save him, not his works. Before he boasted about his efforts but now he boasts about only Jesus. And when the evangelistic teaching was finished in early May and he clearly understood the gospel of grace he and his family went and got a special kind of food that is really good to them. (Sorry I don’t know what it is called in English.) And they had a feast celebrating the fact that they are new people now, because of what God has done in Christ. (The above picture of Nonjong is just him being silly after a drama we did during the teaching. The clothe on his head was part of the burning bush.)

In our last update we asked for you all to pray for us concerning discipleship. Well the Lord has abundantly answered! He has provided many opportunities for discipleship. One recent huge one was to help two families work through a major problem. A young man evidently took advantage of a young girl without her consent and the young girl is now pregnant. This occurred many months ago. So we helped them walk through this problem pointing them to God and praying with them through it. We continue to have many one on one opportunities to lead these new believers into a walk with the heavenly Father. What a joy and privilege this is!

Another change the Lord has done has led us to have more meetings. The believers were expressing a desire to be taught more of God’s word. So we now meet on Sunday and Tuesday mornings and then have small groups on Thursday evenings around a fire reviewing the week’s lesson. It’s been a couple weeks now and they are so thrilled. Also we have added a chance for them to practice reading on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Friday’s. Continue to pray for us that we do not become to program oriented and miss the one on one discipleship. We westerners love programs! However, these times together are providing many new opportunities.

One other change starts tomorrow and concerns the Smith family. School is back in session! Esther and the kids start another home schooling year tomorrow. Charis starts 6th grade. Caleb starts 3rd. Nathan begins kindergarten, and Zachary starts pre-school. Having 4 children at all such varying levels will prove quite the challenge but if anyone can handle it, it’s my amazing wife! However, she knows that she cannot handle it without strength and wisdom from the Lord. So we would appreciate your prayers in that.

Thank you dear friends for so faithfully supporting us through all this. God uses your prayers and notes of encouragement to sustain us. We pray that your summer is going well and that you too are seeing God change things!

“Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47

Praise God! This is indeed what is going on here! Since the lesson on Jesus dying on the cross for sinners, we have heard person after person praising and thanking God for doing such an incredible thing on their behalf. One by one people here are being added to the family of God!

Before the teaching there was nothing but confusion, unrest, and doubt. But now people drop their heads in amazement as they realize what God did for them, and they just keep saying, “Kulom, kulom sinik,” which means, “Thank you, thank you so much.” It’s such a joy to see them being transferred from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of God!

We haven’t had the chance to visit everyone yet; but as we were teaching the truth of the gospel, there were big smiles all over the crowd and people nodding their heads. Here’s the kinds of things that we are hearing:

Peso: Before I was in Satan’s family, but now we know that Jesus died for our sins. I know I can’t do anything to be put in Gods family, only by belief in what Jesus did, only He can save us.

Maangit: Jesus took my place and died for my sin.

Mesari: What Jesus did is true, He died for my sin. He shed his blood for me.

Takido “Before you all came to us we were living in sin and were going to die and go to hell. But now we understand that God sent Jesus to die for our sin so that we can be saved. That’s what I think is true. God is true.”

Kombu: “I believe in God and Jesus, but I didn’t understand how to wash my sin away, but now I see that Jesus washed it away by dying on the cross for my sin. I am not able to do it, but because of what He did I can go to God when I die. I’m just so happy about this.”

Juretnuwo: He said over and over again that he knows that because of his sin he deserves death, but Jesus died for his sin so now he is in God’s family.

Itiringke: “I understand that I should go to hell because of my sin, but Jesus took my place so that I can go to God.”

Raukepe: Jesus died for my sin, He saved me, later I will go to God.

Felix: Today I don’t worry anymore, I know that it’s because of what Jesus did for me that I’ll go to God.

Bau: My head is just breaking open as I think about what Jesus did for me. Thank you God!

And there are many more like this. God is being praised and glorified here as He creates something new. He is adding to the universal church and being faithful to the promise He made so many years ago when Jesus said, “I will build my church.”

Thank you so very much for fighting this battle with us on your knees, and rejoice with us (and the angels!) that God is winning the victory!

“Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40

So many years ago when we set off on this journey and through the years, our biggest struggle has been to continue to believe that God would fulfill his promise that He would build His church. When tough times hit there was a choice to be made. Would we trust God to give us the strength to continue and be used by Him to build His church here in this corner of the world? Or would we give up? Each time we faced these challenges it was almost as if God was saying the above verse to us. Well, we are now seeing the glory of God as He moves amongst the people here.

As the people had another week of the teachings and ministry of the Lord Jesus they too are faced with the same challenge. Will they hear God’s message to them and believe or will they hold on to former beliefs. It is my estimation that the people are already believing, and they are so ready to hear what Jesus did to deliver them. They already clearly accept that He is the deliverer promised by God. They are just desperate to understand what He did to save them.

One man gave clear testimony to this. We’ve mentioned him before. His name is Itiringke, and God is doing a work in his heart. He is one of the leaders in the village, so his words carry weight. On Friday the people held a graduation service for 30 graduates of the literacy class (Praise God!), and after the ceremony he got up and shared something with tears in his eyes. He told everyone that God has displayed His power in his life because now not only can he read but is a teacher in literacy as well. He said that he was not able to read before. He only went to first grade when he was a child, but now God has given him the strength and the ability to finish the course and to be a teacher. He kept saying that God is true. Then he encouraged people who are older not to give up. To know that they too can learn how to read. It reminded me of that old hymn, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.” Well, Itringke was telling everyone that he knows God is true because of what He’s done in his own life. Itiringke is choosing to believe and as a result is seeing the glory of God in his life! And praise God so are we!

What we are witnessing here and what you have been a part of is nothing short of witnessing the glory of God as He changes hearts and draws these men and women to Himself. God is bringing them from hopelessness to a place of hope, from confusion to certainty, and from a life of pain to a life of purpose. They are not there yet, they need to hear the gospel first, but they are well on the way. And because you too have chosen to believe God and support us may you too see the glory of God displayed in His work among these precious people.

Next Week’s Lessons: (last week before the gospel!) Monday – It is foolish to trust in riches. Tuesday – Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus and rode into Jerusalem. Wednesday – Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover. Thursday – Jesus was arrested by His enemies (part 1). Friday – Jesus was arrested by His enemies (part 2).

Your Coworkers, GECCNZ Smith