NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

‘When I heard God’s laws, I knew that I had broken them and I knew that I was in Satan’s hand, and I was afraid. But now I see what Jesus did, how he completely paid for my sin and I am not afraid anymore. Ronny.

The entire group has not heard the whole gospel story yet; but two men have, and both have made a clear profession of faith like what you read above from Ronny (pictured on far right)! Bau (second from right) also expressed sincere joy in what Christ has done for him. Both men help me as I write the Bible lessons. Thus, this week they heard the rest of the story. I felt like Jesus when I told them to not tell anyone. I never quite understood why Jesus did that, but now I get it. It’s pure exhilaration, getting this glimpse of things to come!

In the meantime the rest of the people heard stories of Jesus’ work, teaching and miracles. Talking with Itiringke (he is one of the main leaders of the village pictured in the crowd there in the middle) after the lesson we were discussing my sore eye and what he said was very encouraging. He said, ‘God can heal your eye. He can do anything! It’s like what happened yesterday. Before when someone was sick I would go get some water and try to heal the person, but now I know that I am just a sinner and that only God has the power to heal. Yesterday I went and visited your papa (Esingke) because he was sick. But I didn’t do what I used to do. Instead the two of us just talked about how God has the power to heal sickness. And now look at him. He is healthy again. God is true! Hearing that made the pain of my eye worth it!

People were shocked that Jesus chose Judas Iscariot who would later betray him. So to demonstrate hypocrisy, we filled a nice shiny new pot with nastiness from our compost pile (picture on far left), and showed them that what counts is what’s inside. That what God sees is our sinful, ugly hearts. This illustration went much further than we expected. People afterwards were asking, ‘How can I clean my dirty heart? Another huge lesson was the parable of the sower. People related with that by admitting that their hearts are like the soil, full of rocks. Then we taught the well known story of feeding the 5,000, and later Jesus walking on the water. So we magnified the person of Christ with the people, marveling at His awesome power. We then moved into the next part of the story that is not so well known. That the crowds of people came looking for Jesus because they wanted more of that free food. As Jesus rebukes their misguided motives, He explains that He is the bread of life and what the work of God is; that the work God requires for salvation is to believe in Christ.

John 6:28-29 (NIV) Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.

Even in this remote culture the drive to earn merit before God is huge. However, when one understands that he is a sinner by nature it’s easy to understand that working for salvation is just a complete misnomer. It’s just impossible. And as a result of teaching God’s word in this manner (chronologically), the people are indeed beginning to grasp this concept. They are beginning to feel the burden being lifted from them as three older men said to me after the lesson, ‘This talk is turning us inside out! I tried to say ‘Amen! but the closest I could get here was, ‘Bulje! (which means true.)

Next Week Lessons for your prayers: Monday -The way of the Pharisees is not God’s way. Tuesday – Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Wednesday – Jesus is the only doorway to eternal life. Thursday – Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Friday – Jesus taught that we need to be humble and admit our guilt.

This week was the first real Christmas in our small insignificant village. (sound familiar?) People heard this week of the promised redeemer, the Kidaak Amna. They heard that Jesus is the Kidaak Amna and as we said those words I could literally see eyes lighting up all over the crowd. The people are sensing salvation coming! Here’s some of the things they are saying

Asa: "For a long time now I’ve wondered how will the Kidaak Amna come. Where will He come from? I didn’t know. But today I’ve heard the story, and I know his name, and I am so happy."

Boringke: "I’m so happy to hear that the Kidaak Amna is both God and man because for a long time we’ve heard now that God would send someone to save us, and that he would come from a certain family line. Well today we heard his name, and my heart is just pounding in my chest. I’m so happy!"

Alex: "Last week I was going to leave the village to go do some government work in the city, but my heart is stirred, and I didn’t want to miss any of God’s talk. Today I heard about Him sending the savior, and I’m so very happy that I didn’t go."

Opangnepe: "We are bad people. We have gone the way of our forefathers, doing bad things; and I really don’t want to go to the fire. So today hearing that God is sending the Kidaak Amna made me so very happy. We are all so so happy because of what we heard today!"

And all they really heard was that God made good on His promise! They haven’t seen yet what Jesus did to save them. However this method of teaching clearly lays out man’s need, God’s demands, and God’s provision. All we are doing is teaching the way God has laid out His truth. So Christmas is happening in this !

A lot of these people have already heard the name Jesus and some of His story, but I don’t think any of them understood the reason for His coming. But now they know. That is why even the ones who may have heard the story before are so excited. Here are some other testimonies:

Tom: "All of us absolutely don’t want to go into the fire; therefore, to hear today that Jesus is our Kidaak Amna makes us very happy!"

Epanang: "I’m so happy, my head is spinning, I don’t even know what to say."

Jeremiah (not our coworker): "I was sick this morning, but I didn’t want to miss the story of the Kidaak Amna, so I still came."

At the end of each lesson we ask review questions to pack things down again. One of the questions was, "Why did Jesus come to earth?" And Boringke’s answer was sweet music. He said, "Jesus came to get us from sin’s punishment and from Satan’s power. Therefore, Jesus is our savior." I just loved that he made it personal!

Next Week Lessons for your prayers:

• Monday – God sent John to teach and baptize.
• Tuesday – Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations.
• Wednesday – Jesus began His ministry.
• Thursday – Jesus taught that people must be born again.
• Friday – Jesus had power to heal sickness and to forgive sins.

For His Glory, 
GECCNZ Smith

Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! Romans 11:33 (NLT)

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

The verse above typifies this previous week for us and the people here in Dinangat. Another incredibly awesome week. It was a roller coaster for all of us. They went from God saving the Israelites in a powerful and miraculous way and sensing that maybe God will deliver them in the same way all the way to feeling the heavy weight and burden of their sin as we started teaching the 10 commandments. Here’s what a mean.

Another village in this language group is starting to spread rumors that the people in our village are believing in a new god. One man from the other village came to check things out and began to challenge one of the men here. And what the man from our village, Asa did was awesome. He said, “Well let me ask you something, did your god create the sun?” And the guy sheepishly said, “No.” And then Asa nailed him with a barrage of questions, “Did your God create all these mountains? Did you God make the moon and the stars? Did your God give life to everything and create humanity? Is you God the foundation of everything? Is your God supreme over everything?” To all of which the guy said either, “No,” or “I don’t know.” And then Asa said, “Well THAT is the true God and that is the God of the Bible that these missionaries are telling us about. Before we didn’t know anything. We followed all kinds of false things, but now we are hearing the truth!” I felt like it was a little scene much like Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal. I kept waiting for fire to come shooting down from heaven. But instead God spoke through Asa and silenced the enemy.

And then the people heard of God providing food and water in the dessert in the midst of grumbling and complaining and from that Epox said, “We should stop praising what we do.” Then Basa got up and said, “What we’ve heard today is big talk and we need to measure it. But one thing I want to add is that God gives us what we need every day. Just like he did for the Israelites . We don’t lack for anything, but we are never thankful. We too complain all the time. Instead we need to be thankful to God who is the provider of all we need!”

Later in the week the people heard of the covenant God made with the Israelites as he said, “If you obey me I will bless you, but if you disobey I will punish you.” To which the Israelites proudly proclaimed, “All that the Lord asks of us we will do!” And ironically enough the people here did the same thing! One of the literacy teachers went to both of the literacy classes and told them that we too are going to obey all that God says. Perfectly setting them up for the next two days. The Law. Now comes the downside of the roller coaster.

On Friday, We started off with again explaining the purpose of the Law and even used an illustration to describe it. I smeared some soot on my face and I acted as if I hadn’t done anything. And the people just looked at me with furrowed brows trying to figure out what in the world was going on. And then Ralf from within the crowd said, “Gary, your face is dirty.” And I challenged him telling him that he was lying. I felt fine. And so Jeremiah walked up to me and handed me a mirror. On the back of the mirror we had written God’s commandments. And so I looked at my face and realized that indeed it was dirty and I tried to use the mirror to wash off my face but obviously failed. It was then that the people understood – OH! The Law shows us that we are sinners!

And then as we went through each of the laws we challenged them to really think about it and see if they have always kept that law. Because if they have always kept the law then God will accept them. So they were excited because they thought, finally we have a way out of this mess! But as we taught each law they admitted that they haven’t kept them. And after they admitted that they haven’t kept them I put a medium sized stone in a carrying bag. On Monday after that bag is filled with 10 heavy stones our plan is to take that bag and try to walk around with it during the teaching demonstrating that this is the burden that each one of us carry. (Obviously after the gospel is presented we will have Jesus come and take that burden off our shoulders and throw it over the side of the mountain! I can’t wait until that day!)

Anyway, as I dropped each stone in the bag it you could feel the people wince. They understood what was going on even though the bag is just hanging there right now. After the lesson there was literally a flurry of activity. People all over were saying that they now see clearly that they have broken God’s laws and therefore stand condemned before God. And that they are all afraid wondering what they are going to do. Even the leader men who we wondered if they would admit their sin we saying they were afraid. Felix, Ralf’s translation helper, stood up and went to the front and confessed that he has broken these laws. He said that he thought he was a good man but now sees that he has broken God’s law. He said that he felt pressure in his heart (conviction maybe?) and so he had to get up and say this. It was amazing. He even reiterated that if we’ve broken one law we’ve broken them all.

Jinongke said to me, “I’m just afraid. I wonder what’s going to happen to us?” Yupete, one of the ladies said, “I can’t sleep and I can’t work because I’m always thinking about God’s talk.” And Mesari said “I’m not feeling well because I always wonder what will happen with us. What is the promised deliverer going to do?”

Next Week:

Monday – God gave the Ten Commandments (Part 2)

Tuesday – God told the Israelites to build the Tabernacle (Part 1)

Wednesday – God told the Israelites to build the Tabernacle (Part 2)

Thursday – The Israelites worship a golden calf

Friday – The Israelites did not believe that God would give them the land He promised to give them.

Exodus 6:6-7 (NLT) "I am the LORD, and I will free you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with mighty power and great acts of judgment. I will make you my own special people, and I will be your God. And you will know that I am the LORD your God who has rescued you from your slavery in Egypt."

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

This is what the Dinangat people learned this week. They saw God take a young boy named Joseph and shape him into a great leader and preserve the people of Israel through a horrible famine. And then hundreds of years later, the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites under slavery. The Dinangat quickly understood that they are in a similar position as the Israelites. Trapped in their sin under the heavy handed serpent of old. They shook their heads as they realized there is no escape! But God said those verses above, and as we stressed this to the Dinangat, smiles and nods swept through the crowd. As the first nine plaques were described to the them we found ourselves glorifying God together.

Even Jimingke said, "We used to think that we could chew our ginger roots and control the weather. But now we see only God really has that power. Only God!" Beautiful. God is being glorified. On Monday they will see the final plague, and God’s road for salvation, and the awesome event of the Israelites being powerfully freed from their dire position. I so look forward to drawing applications to their own lives through it all. Then as they move into the covenant relationship with God and realize that God’s standard is perfection, it will no doubt set them up for their huge need of a savior! (Which of course is the purpose of the Law.) Please pray that they will continue to see their huge need; and that just as they have begun, will continue to look to God alone for that salvation!

Next week lessons for your prayers: Monday – God killed the firstborn of the Egyptians but saved the firstborn of the Israelites. Tuesday – God delivered the Israelites at the Red Sea. Wednesday – God gave food and water to the Israelites Thursday – God made an agreement to bless the Israelites if they obeyed Him. (The purpose of the Law) Friday – God gave the 10 commandments (Part 1 – first 4 commands)

One more thing, Esther and I were talking about the many comments we’ve read that say people admire us for being "on the front lines" and wish they could be here with us. To carry that analogy a bit further, the front lines is not necessarily a glorious place to be. How many of you saw Saving Private Ryan? Wow. Now that was front lines. Absolute chaos! How many deaths, wounds, and lost limbs? Sleep deprivation, unusual diets, confusion. The front lines are not easy. We are on the spiritual front lines, and we too are under attack. It’s not the battle of Normandy, but it’s tough. The benefit we have is you. And as a result we are encouraged. You fighting with and for us on your knees is winning this battle and hundreds of people will come out changed on the other side! Thank you! After all the Battle is the Lord’s!

Your Fellow Co-workers, 
Gary, Esther, Charis, Caleb, Nathan, and Zachary Smith

Genesis 22:13-14 “Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar in place of his son. Abraham named the place ‘The LORD Will Provide.’”

The pictures above are four individual pictures from a drama that Caleb and I acted out. I’m sure you’ve already figured out the story. But for most of the people it was the first time they’d ever seen it, and definitely the first time they’ve ever heard it explained this way. That God provided a sacrifice in Isaac’s place. We all are under condemnation, but God provided a substitution on our behalf! As

Personally I was very moved as I acted out the scene. I couldn’t hold back the tears even in the drama, and afterwards I looked out into the crowd and saw many heads down and heard sniffles rolling through the crowd. It was a powerful moment.

After the teaching Epox got up and said, “I want to say something. You all pay attention! God has shown you today that He is waiting on us to change our thinking and follow His way. We are all sinners and deserve death just like Isaac, but Got is holding up the knife waiting for us. What will we do? Will we listen to Him and follow His way or we will just die. Each of you should decide.” Praise God for this response!

And then Musawe got up and said, “We have all just seen that drama, and here’s what I think. Just as Isaac had his hands and legs bound up waiting for death so we are bound to sin and there is nothing we can do. But God provided that lamb that was caught by its horns so that it would be an acceptable sacrifice in Isaac’s place. I think the Promised Deliverer will do this kind of work. Because God said the Deliverer will save us from sin and Satan.” God is so good.

Still I’m fighting back the tears as I see what God is doing here. God is showing them so clearly that He is worthy of praise because mankind is helpless in sin and God himself is providing a way of escape. We all have been challenged by the people’s childlike faith. We westerners have a tendency to explain away everything, but these guys here just accept it completely as truth. It’s awesome and refreshing.

Thank you all for you steadfast prayers. I am convinced that things are going to so well because of you all storming the gates for us! I wish you could be here and catch a glimpse of what God is doing here. Everyone is still coming to the teaching every day. They listen to the tapes and read the summary sheets every night. It’s just awesome. Nine more weeks to go, but already these people are so close to the kingdom!

Next Week lessons for your prayers: Monday – God guided and protected Joseph. Tuesday – God promoted Joseph and took Jacob’s family into Egypt. Wednesday – God preserved the Israelites and protected Moses. Thursday – God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery. Friday – The Lord sent plagues on the Egyptians.

You Coworkers in PNG, Gary & Esther Smith

Dear Supporting Friends and Family,

One of the things that we taught the people here was that as God created the universe from nothing the angels watched in wonder and amazement of what God is capable of doing because of His unparalleled character

Dream with me for a moment. You have just come to life. You don’t know how but there you are and the only thing you feel is peace and joy. And out of the darkness you hear, "Let there be light!" And wham there was light. A warm glow that sooths your soul. Then for the next several days you watch this incredible world appear out of nowhere complete and perfect. Imagine. From nothing comes utter beauty. What would do? Praise and glorify the maker no doubt!

Well, honestly I feel like one of those angels. We are just sitting here watching God create beauty out of the darkness. The Dinangat people are being changed! Even the people are sensing this. Two consultants flew in this week and Papa Toji said to them, "I just want to tell you that we are so happy. We all are in darkness, but now these missionaries are telling us God’s word and we are so happy." God is creating something new here and we are in utter amazement as He works.

This week probably the biggest thing that happened was for the people to grasp the reality of God’s judgment on the people in Noah’s day. After the lesson everyone literally just sat there. No one moved. Usually people get up right away and look at the pictures, start talking, or someone stands up and says something. But that day, stillness. It was weird. And awesome at the same time.

You could see the wheels turning. We should die like all those people. We are sinners just like they were. We deserve God’s judgment. So just to be sure after 10 or 15 minutes I went to Tom and asked him why everyone was so quiet. And he said, "Because they are all measuring this talk. This is new talk. This story is really something. God just killed everyone. We are all thinking, ‘What can we do so this kind of thing doesn’t happen to us?’ That’s what everyone is thinking. Tonight I will listen to the lesson again and read the summary to think about it some more." So I let that simmer for a moment and then reminded Tom that God did provide a way of escape but the people rejected it, and God promised to send the redeemer. That’s what Noah was trusting in.

Another worldview shake up has that none of us are good enough to please God. After this week they’ve seen over and over how mankind rejects God. They saw God trying to appeal to Cain, but he rejected God. They saw the God give the people of Noah’s day 120 years to change their minds, but still they rejected God. Then with a fresh new start after the flood the people still rejected God and tried to make a name for themselves. So these Dinangat people who once believed that they were good enough are beginning to come to grips with the fact that mankind has a nature that cannot please God. And thus this promised redeemer, this Kidaak Amna is becoming more and more appealing to them. They are starting to see that unless this Kidaak Amna comes to deliver them they too will suffer the same fate as those in Noah’s day. But not just in this life, but forever.

Next Week: Monday – God chose Abram and guided him to Canaan Tuesday – God renewed His promises to Abram Wednesday – God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah Thursday – God gave Isaac and delivered Isaac from death Friday – God chose Jacob and rejected Esau

Continue praying with us and watching as God creates another beautiful creation out of this darkness!

Your coworkers in PNG, Gary, Esther, Charis, Caleb, Nathan, and Zachary

Those of you who are like me and enjoy football are going to enjoy watching the Superbowl this Sunday. So to put things in those terms we taught 5 times this week and so far the score is God – 5 and Satan – 0!

We are in awe of what God is doing. And so that you too can rejoice here are some of the things he did this last week:

Faced with God’s awesome character they are seeing their inconsistent beliefs. After teaching them that God created all the angels one man said to me, “My head was shaking thinking about God being greater than everything. I used to think that he had a great enemy that has the same strength as he does, but now I see that he is alone. There is nothing like Him.”

On Wednesday word came that a boy in a neighboring village died. Normally this would mean that they would all go and spend a few days over there mourning the loss with the family. This is a huge part of their culture. However, on their own they decided not to go because they don’t want to miss any days of God’s word being taught to them! I think they’d let us teach Saturday and Sunday if we wanted to do that. They are listening to the tapes 3 and 4 times. It’s incredible how hungry they are. May they be filled!

One man said, “We’ve heard some of God’s talk in other languages, but now that we are hearing it in our own language we are able to understand the depth of His talk.” The ladies too are hearing the same things. They are hearing how excited everyone is about the teaching. And how much everyone is loving hearing God’s word read in their language.

One day we taught on the first three days of creation and what we can learn about God through His creative acts. The people used to think that God needed food so he created it like we would plant a garden. But now they see that God is independent of everyone and everything. He doesn’t need anything! We explained that he created to demonstrate that He is good, kind, and almighty. They shook their heads and were amazed that he made all these things for mankind. He didn’t need anything, but mankind does. And God thought of that so he created what man needed. To learn that God is loving and kind like that after learning that He is almighty and omnipresent was thrilling for them. One man said to me, “I’m not even working these days. I just sitting and thinking about all this. We’ve separated out our food so it can last many days so I don’t have to go to the garden. I can just sit and think about all this big talk.” Praise God.

Today was another great day. Everyone showed up again. Today we taught on days 4-6 of creation (but not the creation of man yet) and the people were confronted with a big one today. One of the stories of origin is that there is a large white snake in the jungle that is the mother of all the tree kangaroos. So we taught them that God created all the various kinds of animals. So then we asked them if their belief of the white snake is consistent with the word of God. They all answered resoundingly, “NO!” One of the community leader men said, “We believed that because we didn’t know better, but now we hear God’s word and see that what we believed in the past is wrong. What God says is true.” It was awesome. You could see God changing their thinking. And the best news about it is they are responding! They are not rejecting what God has said. They are fully embracing it, listening to the lessons over and over again. Soaking in every truth God gives them. It’s exhilarated!

This is our super-bowl! God is stomping his opponent! And even though we don’t have TiVo we know who is going to win!

Your coworkers in Dinangat, Gary and Esther Smith

Next week’s teaching for your prayers:

Monday: God created Adam. Tuesday: God placed Adam in Eden. Wednesday: God told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thursday: God created a wife for Adam. Friday: Lucifer rebelled against God

PS I’ve received lots of requests concerning our updates. Many of you have expressed interest in receiving daily updates. I’m happy to do this. I just don’t want to become bothersome to any of you. So if you want to receive daily updates then please send me an email letting me know. I’ll make a separate list and send out daily updates. However at the end of each week you will receive a summary of the week. Much like this email that you will not have to read as it will be a bit repetitive.

Day 1 God brought the entire village to the first day of teaching! There was at least 150 people there. All looking forward to hearing God\’s message to them. I wasn\’t too nervous until 2 minutes before the teaching was to start and I looked up and saw all those precious faces on me. How do I start this meeting? What do I say? Oh God give me wisdom! He was faithful. We taught on what the Bible is. That it is God\’s very own words that he had chosen men write over 1600 years! They were blown away. I few of them expressed that they always wondered how we got the Bible.

It was a fantastic start! Yesterday it was so quiet in the village that we all wondered who is going to come? But God moved the whole village to show up! We gave them the cassettes and the people were thrilled. They immediately started listening again to the lesson. There was about 20 people gathered around each of the 6 tape players. We gave them the hand crank tape players, but they brought out their own batteries. It was incredible to see. Never have I seen so many people so hungry to understand God\’s word.

After everything calmed down around noon, three leader men from a neighboring village came to see me. They wanted to know if they could get a tape each day of the lesson so they could take it to the other village and everyone could hear it!!! Are you kidding me? Are you really that hungry to hear? Wow. I had to decline. I felt like Jesus when he had to deny people a visit because it wasn\’t their time yet. But after I explained it all to them they seemed to understand. They left with these words, “Hurry up and finish here so we too can understand God\’s talk.”

God is at work here and we are getting the HUGE privilege of a front row seat! I will try to keep you posted so you too can see God\’s work here.

Well, I just have to put down in writing what the Lord did yesterday so that I never forget. One of the things that we needed to do was to hold a meeting with the leaders in the community here to discuss with them the Bible teaching. This is extremely culturally appropriate and a wise thing to do as it gets the leaders and the community on board with what we would be doing. But it would prove to be a very intimidating meeting and would have to be done all in the local language. Since I am going to be the main teacher on our team I got elected to lead the meeting.

Well, I was very nervous. I laid myself before the Lord and asked for His intervention. I did this over and over and tried to not feel nervous, but I couldn’t just make it go away. I also wrote out word for word what I was planning on saying and asked the team before hand everything we wanted to communicate just to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything in my nervousness. So I did all that. But my source of confidence and strength was the Lord. I knew that I could not do this unless he interceded. And what I want to record is that He did!

What He did was amazing. Not only did he bring the leaders from our small community of 200 people but He brought half the village! So when I talked about the history of our work and what we were planning on doing and how we would be teaching them chronologically through the Scriptures they all heard it. We showed them some of the pictures we would be using and some of the Bible lessons that I have already written. God used that meeting to prepare the hearts of the people. Excitement slowly spread through the crowd. Everyone wants to come to hear God’s story clearly in their own language. One of the leaders said, “Everyone from the youngest child to the oldest man must come to hear this teaching.” We were elated to hear this. They are catching it!

It was an awesome time with them because God worked. For one of the first times ever we felt a strong connection with the people. Their suspicions were laid to rest and they are excited about this. The elected member from the community here said to everyone, “These men have lived with us for a long time. They know the burdens we carry. They are familiar with our lifestyle because they have worked alongside us in our gardens and slept in our houses. They know our seasons. They are thinking of us when they make these plans. So whatever times they choose to show us God’s talk is best for us. Let’s stand with them.” WOW! What a huge testimony. And all those months and years of learning their language and culture has come to fruition. Everything that we’ve been doing with them was to communicate exactly what that man said. That we are thinking of them! We have earned their trust! This is no small matter. We’ve done all we could’ve done, but ultimately this was a work of God! He is going before us and preparing the way.

God is faithful.

We’ve all had the feeling of frantically looking for something very valuable…car keys, a wallet, or a pet. When they go missing you can about lose your mind trying to find them again, and sometimes the despair can bring on some words that we normally would not want coming out of our mouths.

Recently, we experienced that when Esther looked down at her hand and noticed her diamond wasn’t in her ring. This wasn’t just any diamond. It was the diamond that I had used to win her heart. I’m sure I had it won before the presentation of that little stone, but it was still an irreplaceable jewel. We looked in several places. Each time we swept the floor we examined the dirt and dust to see if anything sparkled, but to no avail. We finally gave up and just committed it to the Lord.

Scripture says that angels rejoice when one lost persons is found. You are all familiar with the stories our Lord used to illustrate this. When the shepherd finds his lost sheep and the woman finds her lost coin, friends are contacted and tears of joy are shed. Well someday, my friends, we will write to you and share that the people of Dinangat have been found. The Lord is right now looking for these dear irreplaceable souls, and He’s doing so through each of one us. As you pray for your adopted family and/or us missionaries we get closer and closer. Just this week I started writing the Bible lessons in the Dinangat language that we will use for the evangelistic teaching. My two language helpers that I’m checking the lessons with are literally on the edge of their seats. We are getting closer.

Please pray that these souls will be found. Pray that God will type through my fingers and communicate His message clearly. Pray now that God will continue to prepare their hearts to receive His love and forgiveness. There are about 70 lessons we need to prepare. So teaching won’t happen for several more months, but as we get closer I will let you know. However, rejoice with us that we are this close! These dear people are so valuable to God that He sacrificed His son to buy them back.

What about Esther’s diamond? About a month after losing it, I was defrosting the fridge and had towels soaking up the water. I picked up the towels and was about to throw them in the washing machine. I was curious if there was any ice on the towel. So I opened the towels up and saw some really sparkly ice. I thought,’Wow that looks cool.’ I leaned in for a closer look and my heart leapt–it was Esther’s diamond!!!! So I ran to Esther and told her that if I had life to live over again I would choose her again. Then I handed her the diamond. We hugged and shed tears of joy! Isn’t God good?

Someday we hope to share a similar story of finding something so much more precious. The souls of the Dinangat whom God is desperately looking for! Who knows maybe Dinangat is the next diamond in the fridge?

Thank you for helping!