NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24

Week 8, Wow! We are a little more than half way there for this stage of teaching Creation to Christ, but as most of you know, that’s when the real work of teaching, training, and discipleship begins!

We are excited to share with you the following quotes from this week’s teaching. They taught about the Ten Commandments, the Tabernacle, along with the story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. Here’s what a few people had to say:

Piriye stood up and said that he has broken God’s laws and deserves God’s punishment. He said he feels sorry for himself and everyone else. (This statement is specifically significant because in PNG culture, it is typically easy for people to confess their sin as a group, i.e., ‘Yes, we’ve all sinned!’. But it is much more uncommon for people to admit to personal sin.) Piriye was crying as he confessed to everyone that he knows he is not good enough to be accepted by God.

Royu (David’s wife): “My sin is not small, it is very big. I have told lies, and done other things, and didn’t think it was a big deal but now I know that it’s big. I too deserve hell.” She was also crying.

David (yes, David, whom many of you have been praying for by name): “I used to be a leader in a church, so I thought I was ok. The church told me that if I went to church and gave offerings, it would take away my sin. I saw the skit of the paper man holding on to the rope with ten knots in it, each knot representing a commandment. When he broke one commandment he was guilty of them all, and fell into the fire. My breath was taken away. I know I am a sinner too, and nothing I can do can take away my sin.” He also told everybody that he was going to go burn all of his ginger, which is used for many of their animistic rituals to protect them from spirits.

Sawang: “You all know me, you know that I do sorcery work. But now we are studying the Bible from Genesis and I know that what I’m doing is wrong. I’m not going to do that work anymore. You don’t know if I’m going to keep my word or not, but God knows.”

This understanding of personal sin is the work of the Holy Spirit among the village. Through the hearing of God’s Word, the foundation for Faith in the Saviour is being laid, for understanding our position as desperate sinners in need of a Saviour is key to the work of salvation that God wants to do in their hearts! God be praised for His awesome work among these precious souls! And thank you for your faithful prayers on behalf of the villagers, our teaching team, and our family! We are humbled and blessed beyond measure when we consider the sacrifice of time, energy and finances that so many of you are making for our Lord and His work, so that we can be here. We have avoided major sickness and catastrophe, our hearts are encouraged, and we know His presence moment by moment as He guides us and enables us in teaching and discipling. We can’t wait to get home in a couple of months and hopefully be able to see many of you and thank you in person for what your partnership has meant to our family!

Thankfully serving a God whose strength is made perfect in weakness, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

PS- In the picture of Alayna (3), she is welcoming Daddy home after his trip to the village this week, and letting him know that all of her ‘friends’ missed him, too!

Dear Praying Friends,

Along this church planting road, there are many crossroads, where the basis of what you believe concerning certain Biblical doctrine will determine the grid through which you filter all the rest of the teaching. For example, if after hearing the teaching on the Garden of Eden, you didn’t believe that everything truly was perfect before sin, and you believed that death existed before sin did, then death (physical and eternal) as punishment for sin does not seem like a punishment for sin as much as merely a part of life. It would be impossible to understand the gravity of sin in contrast to a righteous and Holy God, and therefore even cancel out a true need for a Saviour. This week we came to another crossroad: The teaching of the Law. The Crossroad: Would they understand that by breaking one single law, one single time, they are guilty of sin and therefore deserving of death? To demonstrate, on Wednesday the teachers did a skit showing how the purpose of the Law was not so everyone could obey it and be righteous, but rather, it is like a mirror, showing us our sinfulness and revealing our need for a Saviour. We cannot ‘wash ourselves’ with this mirror, but we can see how sinful we are in contrast to God’s standard of righteousness. According to Ralf’s report, the Lord was really at work convicting hearts and the people were really responding to the truth of what they were hearing. Baumo’s comment was, “We are just like the Egyptians! This talk is killing me!” Bun is a very interested young man, maybe in his late teens. On Monday, the teachers taught about the Passover. In regards to this, Bun said, “The Israelites were able to escape the penalty by putting blood on their door posts. What do WE do to escape the penalty of sin?” Praise the Lord with us for the understanding that provokes this type of question! These foundational lessons are necessary so that when the time to teach about Christ comes, the significance of His perfect sacrifice will not be lost, and by God’s grace, at that time, they will be able to place their trust fully in Him who died for them, with no misgivings about trying to “be” good enough, and no confusion about what God thinks about sin.

Your prayers are being answered! Galap has returned to the teaching, and David’s Mom (I’m sorry, I don’t know her name!) has begun coming. Ok, it’s not his dad that’s coming, but one step at a time, right? Thank you so much for standing with us! We appreciate so much your encouraging notes, we love to hear from you! Do not cease your prayers for the villagers of the outreach village! Some are still openly involved in their ancestral practices, and yet still coming to the teaching regularly. Our heart and prayer is that God would enlighten their blinded eyes with the Power of His Word. Pray that they ALL would be saved! And pray that those who are walking the fence do not set their sights on those who are sincere in their desire to understand the Truth and try to pull them away!

Please continue to pray for the teachers as well. The last couple of weeks have been challenging, and they haven’t had as much support from the village as we would like to see. On the other hand, it has been a great couple of weeks here in the home village as we are walking with them through the book of Romans. It’s such a joy to see them begin to internalize what it means to be “In Christ” and no longer a slave to sin. Please continue to pray for them as they seek to live out these truths in their day to day lives, and pray for their missionaries, for wisdom and strength to be able to disciple these precious souls to that end!

Thanks for reading this ( I know I can get long winded!)

In Christ Alone! Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Dear Praying Friends,

We apologize for being out of contact for a couple of weeks. Our tech department has been revamping the methods of sending out bulk emails, and unfortunately we’ve been a bit caught in the transition. Thanks for your patience!

First, we need to tell you again how much we truly appreciate your prayers for our family, our team, and this outreach! We are truly the beneficiaries of amazing grace as week after week we receive the Lord’s strength and guidance for these tasks that would, without His intervention, be completely overwhelming! We find ourselves rejoicing over God’s goodness to us, His abundant provisions and the sweet fellowship we’ve enjoyed among our missionary team and our tribal team. His love is indeed enduring!

The past two weeks have been…surprising. Attendance to the meetings has remained pretty consistent, for which we are very thankful. For the most part, the people have been very receptive; they are excited about what they are hearing and are really seeing themselves in the Old Testament stories that we’re teaching through. Many have said, “Yes, that’s true, we are just like Sodom and Gomorrah!” Or, “True, just like those people try to be right with God their own way, we try to be right with Him by different cleansing rituals, or giving offerings, or going to religious services.” They are understanding more and more that our sin is a real problem, and that no matter how hard man tries, he simply cannot ever make himself clean enough to stand before a Holy and righteous God! Next week we will be teaching on the Law and its role in revealing our unrighteousness, versus making us righteous. For those whose hearts are open to understand it, we expect the impact to be great, as many have always prided themselves on keeping rules.

We are so thankful for the Word of the Lord and its POWER to teach and convict men of our need for the Lord! Please do NOT stop praying! The surprising comments have been those by people like Jacob, who said it’s ridiculous to give up idols and performing the ancestral rituals. He said with God, when you pray, you don’t get results, but with their ancestor’s ‘ways’, you do get results! We have heard that another man, Galap, who was coming faithfully to the teaching but hasn’t come for the last two weeks, has commented that he doesn’t want to hear any more about sin. By the questions that some are asking, it seems as if a few are simply trying to find ways to use the Bible to justify their life style. This is surprising to us because in the first village we taught, there was none of this kind of opposition, and perhaps we expected that it would always be the same way. Yet we know that God is not the slightest bit surprised. As one person commented, the resistance we are feeling in this village is an implication that Satan has much to lose. He has been the master of this village for a long time, and is reluctant to give up his territory. We are grieved at the level of deception that exists among our friends there- they are blind. BUT- God has made His LIGHT to shine in the darkness, and we are confident that His Word will not return void. Please pray for these people! And please continue to pray for wisdom and strength for our Bible teachers, Jeremiah and Ralf, Basa, Felix, Lukas, Epox and Ronny, as well as our literacy teachers, Itringke, Nonzong and Jaspa.

At 4:30 this morning, Epox’s wife gave birth to their first child, a beautiful baby boy! A safe baby delivery in the bush is no small miracle! I’m sure the happy couple would appreciate your continued prayer for them as they adjust to life as parents. We’re not sure yet when Epox will rejoin the teaching team. None of us here take our physical well being for granted. Last week, the rains were so heavy that the guys were unable to take their normal route up to the village. They ended up having to cross the river over a extremely precarious bamboo/pole bridge, and then take a different route which added extra time to their hike. On the way back, some of the villagers were so concerned about the ‘white skin’ hiking back over washed out paths, that they hiked ahead of them to dig out some sort of foot path so Jeremiah wouldn’t have to climb up steep sections with no foot holds. This was a very kind gesture, and one that he was very thankful for!

We can’t tell you thank you enough for standing with us! The Lord is answering your prayers and we are so blessed to be able to watch the works of His Hands! We couldn’t be here doing what we’re doing, without you all!

His Servants, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

As myself and 2 other teachers reached our destination for the fourth week of creation to Christ Bible teaching, it felt good to take my backpack off and sit around the fire with the 6 other men who had come earlier. We talked about the hike and the previous week of teaching and the response from the people. One man said he was concerned for the ones who haven’t been coming to the teaching, and suggested that we get a bunch of tape recorders and take them to the houses of those who aren’t coming and “force” them to hear this important talk. As we talked it over though we all came to the same conclusion that only God could change their hearts and that we needed to really pray that God would impress on them the importance of this message and that they would come. Tuesday morning after praying for specific people individually we were all so encouraged to see Tuwe sitting right in the middle with a huge smile on his face waiting to hear God’s Word. It thrilled our hearts to see him again on Wednesday soaking up every word that was taught. Then after we were done he addressed the entire group and said, “We are all like Cain, we have turned our backs on God. But now we are hearing God’s Word in our own language and its good.” What an encouragement it was to each of us to see God’s hand at work, bringing these souls to Himself.

But please continue praying for David and his family. It sounds like they, especially, are really having a hard time believing that there is only one God. Their hearts have been deceived for so long, and there is a very real battle going on for those hearts right now!

As you are praying for the outreach, please don’t forget to pray for the literacy class that is going on at the same time. Three teachers from our home village are teaching 13 students how to read and write in their own language. One of the ladies in the class had a baby two weeks ago and obviously wasn’t able to make it to the classes that week. How encouraging it was for me to see one of the teachers, Jaspa, take a primer and go to her house to help her understand that day’s lesson and make sure she didn’t fall behind. This week she was back in class with her little one laying in a string bag next to her. Learning how to read and write in their own language is key to these men and women having a deep relationship with the Lord. How can they know what God wants to tell them if they can’t read his Word?

Thank you again for your continued prayers for us. We appreciate your partnership more than words can say! Serving the Lord in this way, and having the opportunity to go and teach a new village the Gospel is such a privilege. It is however taking its toll on me physically. Tuesday evening I started to develop a bad chest cold, then Wednesday, hiking back in the rain, didn’t help things! I’ve been on my back for a couple of days. Thankfully Ralf will be going this week so I’ll have a week to recover. Please remember him this week that God would give him strength and wisdom as he disciples the Bible teachers as well as teaches some of the lessons.

Because He alone is Worthy, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Dear Praying Friends,

We are so thankful for your involvement with us; your prayer and encouraging emails have been a tremendous blessing! We go out each week knowing that there is a huge support team going with us, and we are able to anticipate great things!

Week 3 of this outreach was no different. This week we taught on the fall of man, and the origin of sickness, pain, death, etc. Coming from a culture where they’ve always been taught that the hardships of life were a result of sorcery or some sort of payback they were receiving. Although the majority seem to be right there with us, accepting Scripture as Truth and excited about finally understanding things, we are finding that the culture in this village is a bit different than the village where we live. Over there, some of them seem to be a bit more resistant and suspicious of the teaching. A few of them are so steeped in their animistic ways, it’s taking longer to explain things. But we are so thankful for their honesty. They are very open about their confusion and their beliefs, such openness is taking us by surprise!

There are a couple men in particular that we would ask you to pray for. David has asked a couple of questions that seem antagonistic. He has come faithfully to every single lesson, extremely attentive. But his father has refused to come to any of the teaching. We’re guessing that David’s father may be pressuring him and the things that he’s saying are coming from being caught in the middle. But his desire to learn and know the truth is evident. Please pray that the Lord would continue drawing him, and give him the understanding to know that is Truth. Please also pray for his dad, that he would feel burdened to come and listen as well.

Baumo- Baumo is also very resistant. When you talk to him one on one, he seems excited to come and listen. But he has yet to show up for any of the sessions. He is a practicing polygamist, and knows that his choices go against Biblical teaching, and therefore is probably afraid of coming. We have assured him that this teaching is for him, too. Pray that he would have the courage to come and hear!

The teachers continue to do a great job! Lukas, one of the youngest teachers, has been growing in leaps and bounds. As one of the others was teaching about God Himself covering Adam and Eve with the skin of an animal, because they could not cover themselves, Lukas leaned over to Jeremiah and whispered, “That’s just like what we’re learning in Romans now – how God Himself covers us with Christ’s righteousness because we could not do it ourselves!” We are so excited to see what’s happening in the believers’ lives, as well as those who are hearing for the first time! God is doing marvellous things! Please also be praying for Lukas’ wife and young daughter. They sometimes make the long trip and stay with him during the teaching. The separation from family is not always easy.

For His Glory, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Week 2 started with a BANG! As Jeremiah, Ralf and the teachers approached the village on a rainy, Sunday afternoon, they could see that the whole village had gathered to wait for them, as well as some leaders from another village. A runner had met them on the trail and told them what was happening. Last week, after the teachers had left, some strong winds had blown through the village. It knocked down several trees, including some banana trees. It also knocked off part of the roof of the house where some of the teachers were sleeping. Also, last week, one of the teachers had struggled in the beginning with nervousness. These events combined made the villagers believe that the spirits were unhappy about something and were trying to keep the teaching from happening. They concluded that they had forgotten to do a certain ritual that would appease them and keep them from wreaking havoc. After making some strong speeches, passing out the ritual food (pictured left), addressing the spirits in front of the group and assuring them that everyone truly is ‘one bel’ (of one mind with each other and with the teaching) the leader proceeded to “wash” everyone by dipping some special leaves in water and splashing it all over the crowd. Now these spirits would be satisfied and the teaching could continue.

Our teachers did great. Even though they knew in their hearts that what was taking place was wrong, and they wanted to scream out that there is nothing they can do to wash away their sins, they very wisely held their tongues. The time will come when they can make clear that Jesus is the only way. But for now, they need to focus on patiently laying the foundation and making a clear path for the Gospel. Man, were we proud of them! What the Lord is doing in the hearts of these guys is precious, and a joy to behold!

This week the villagers learned about God as the One and ONLY Creator. This goes directly against some of their beliefs about the spirits they’ve been appeasing. We recognize that this village has been in bondage to the lies of the enemy for years. How FREEING to know that their salvation is not dependent on our performance as missionaries, but that it is the Word of God, which is sharper than any two edged sword, and WILL prevail against the gates of Hell!

Please continue to pray for our teachers. Two of the teachers are Basa and Epox (pictured right doing a skit about the garden of Eden). Basa leaves his wife and 8 children every Sunday. They have a very large coffee garden which provides the income they need to pay school fees for their kids, but Basa is gone for a big chunk of the work week and unable to work in the garden very much. Epox, another teacher, is Jeremiah’s main helper for writing lessons. He is newly married, and his wife is due to give birth to their first child any day. There is no cell phone or email for his wife to be able to contact him when she goes into labor, but Epox feels strongly that God wants him teaching right now, and trusts that he’ll be able to get home fast enough when he needs to. Please pray for these men! Satan would love to discourage them, and as we’ve already seen, he’ll use any tactic possible. We praise God for sustained health and unity among the team! And listen to this- of their own accord, some of the young people from here have volunteered to help the teachers get extra work done in their gardens on Friday. What a joy to watch the Spirit drawing the Body of Christ together in unity to see this job done! This kind of volunteering is not normal around here, it’s hard work, and keeping up with their own gardens is extremely time consuming. Praise God with us for the way He is growing the believers, even the ones that stay behind! The other Bible teachers are Lukas, Felix and Ronny; I’ll tell you more about them in another letter!

Please also be praying for our health as a team. Jeremiah has been fighting some sort of cold or sinus infection for several weeks now and just cannot seem to kick it. Last week I had something that gave me a really high fever in the night, lasted a day, but Thankfully was gone by Monday. Jaspa, one of the literacy teachers, also fell sick during one of the teaching days and was unable to go to class. We are reminded that these bodies are frail and are trusting the Lord to carry us through this not only emotionally and spiritually, but also physically challenging time!

Thank you so much for standing with us. We could not be here without your support in so many ways; YOUR prayers are among our greatest defences, we need them desperately and are so thankful for your partnership!

Because He is Worthy, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Wow what a trip!

I got back a couple hours ago from our first evangelistic outreach to the outreach village (T). What an amazing time. God truly is at work.

The hike there and back was an “adventure” for sure, but God gave all of us strength, even when I felt like I couldn’t take another step God gave me the ability to keep going. It did downpour for the last 30 minutes on the way there, but it didn’t take long to have a fire going to warm up and dry off once we got to our house.

Myself and 5 teachers from the home village (S) taught twice on Monday, twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. The first day we began talking about the attributes of God. God’s work in their hearts was already evident. One man from T was talking with Felix, one of the Bible teachers, and asked him how it is possible that God had no beginning. He said that someone or something must have created God, then God created everything else. Basically, the gist of what Felix told him was this: “If you can come with any explanation for how God came to exist, it will always be false, because we as mere men simply cannot understand that God had no beginning or end. What a thrill to see the Bible teachers grasping these kernel truths and sharing it with others!

That same day Epox, another Bible teacher, was talking to a group of people about God being all knowing, and that we can’t hide from God. Many of the people worship idols, but they have heard from another religious group that doing that is wrong. So this man was doing his incantations at night in secret so God couldn’t see him. However as we studied that God sees everything, even in the dark, it was clear that this man was becoming pretty uncomfortable!

We’re off to a really good start. We will continue teaching like this for the next 14 weeks. Please keep praying for the T people that God’s Word will convict each one of their hearts and that they all would see their need for the Savior and believe only in Him. Our desire is not for them to ‘change their ways’, but that God in His grace would change their thinking, and that they would know His love and forgiveness through the Son, completely apart from their works!

Thanks again for praying!

Together for Him, Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Dear Praying Friends,

A couple of weeks ago, Jeremiah and I listened to an audio sermon.  In it, the pastor asked, “Who is Jesus discipling through you?  And who are they discipling?”  The question stuck with us as we considered the kinds of relationships we have with different ones in the village, and we got excited as we thought of the new disciples the believers here may be working with within a few short months! 

With Scriptures’ mandate to go forth making disciples in mind, and a tremendous heart to be obedient to the Word, 14 believers from our home village along with Jeremiah and Ralf hiked the mountainous trail for 3 hours to reach a small village in the Dinangat tribe.  Here, together, they would seek to determine whether or not this village would like us to go up there and begin teaching them God’s Story in their own language.  As this group of travellers (including some women carrying babies and large heavy string bags with supplies slung over their heads!) approached the village, what seemed like the entire village was literally lined up at the entrance ready to greet this caravan with warm handshakes.  After a while of explaining to the village how and when we would like to come teach them (and that the initial teaching will be 3 days a week for 3 ½ months, and that the teachers would need a place built for them to sleep), the answer was a resounding, “Yes!  Come!  We have been waiting and want to hear this Talk!”  We are praising the Lord for this open door, and trusting that the Lord will use this outreach to bring many souls to Himself and strengthen the faith of the believers in the home village!

 So on January 18^th of 2010, Lord willing, we will begin teaching God’s Word in the outreach village!  Much has been done already, but there are many preparations yet to be made.  We had anticipated going to a different village at first, the larger and more influential village in Dinangat.  However, some of the leaders there remain seeped in the other religion that has opposed us in the past, and for now, unfortunately, remain suspicious. Yet there are many from that village that desire to hear the Truth, and so our hope and prayer is that they would travel to the outreach village to listen to His Word.

 Along with 5 Dinangat teachers helping us with the Bible teaching, we will be assisting the believers here in launching a literacy program over in the outreach village at the same time.  This is a HUGE undertaking for this young church (probably bigger than they understand at this point!)  Please pray for strength and wisdom for these teachers and their families, as well as grace for the church as a whole in the home village.  The Bible teachers will be gone from home for 3 days out of the week, and the literacy teachers will be gone for 4.  Pray that the church would unite together in helping to make sure that these families that will stay behind are helped and cared for.  There are children to be looked after, garden work to be done (and their gardens are usually on the other side of the mountain!) fire wood to be gathered, pigs and chickens to be looked after and food gathered for them, and much more.  We are praying now and would ask you to join us in praying that the Lord would be preparing hearts in the outreach village to receive and believe the Truth of His Gospel Message!

Would you please also be in prayer for the situation of the community school here in the home village?  You may remember that a couple of months ago their main office building with all their text books was burned down.  The PNG government has designated funds to rebuild the office as well as a couple of new classroom houses for the village, and are offering to pay the villagers to get these structures built so that school can resume.  This would be a wonderful thing for the students as well as a great opportunity for the men here to make some money.  However, the very ‘uncertain’ talk is that this project will begin in January, which would make an outreach impossible since it would affect all of the Dinangat villages.  Yet, God knows the plans He has for His people here, and we are confident that He will build His church!  Please pray for wisdom for all of us, and that through all of the planning and preparing, the Lord would strengthen us all in our knowledge of and love for Him, and that we would seek to glorify our gracious and merciful God in all that we do!

As Thanksgiving approaches, we want you to know that we are exceedingly thankful for YOU who have faithfully stood with us through the years with your prayers and support in behalf of our family and the Dinangat church!  Please don’t stop!  The enemy has made it clear already that he has taken notice of the Dinangat church and is not happy with the abundant life they are now living! And we continue to pray for you, that you also would continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord!

 For His Glory, 

Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

“WORTHY are YOU to take the book and to break its seals; for YOU were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from EVERY TRIBE and TONGUE and PEOPLE and Nation!”
Revelation 5:9 (emphasis added)

Everyone was there. One man hiked the three hour trail from their coffee garden to make sure he didn’t miss the final talk. He hiked back again that afternoon, after the teaching, to set the beans out to dry, then hiked back again in the middle of the night for the teaching the next morning.

Gary groaned in agony as Ralf drove the long, merciless nails in between his fingers. With every blow of the hammer, you could see the faces cringe, others just hung their heads and would barely look up. Jeremiah strained to balance the Cross between he and Ralf, and they hefted it into position in the pre-dug hole. And there he hung. Face dripping with mock blood, he cried out in another language, “Father, forgive them!”

And then, in answer to your prayers and the desire of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Father reached down to this small, remote village in PNG. As one by one, individual hearts cried out to the Father in confession of their sin, and thanks giving for the price that HE paid in their place, the God of the Universe did indeed forgive them for their sin!

There was no dancing or singing. No lifting up of the hands in spontaneous outbursts or worship. In fact, after the scene at Calvary, you could have heard a pin drop for a full five minutes. But as we work our way through the village to talk with people one on one, what we are hearing is God’s name being praised! We are seeing hearts bursting with joy! Many have told us that they know they have been in darkness for so long, but now they know the truth. There is nothing they can do to resolve their sin problem, but Jesus has paid the debt. He did it all. Read these snapshots of the testimonies we are hearing, and rejoice with us that HE is building His church! HE has redeemed his people!

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 know is true. God is true."

Kombu: “I believed 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!

Epox: I’m in God’s bilum because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.

These are a few quotes that we’ve heard, and of course I’ve not included all the testimonies that the people have given. Nor have we spoken to everyone in the village yet. What we are witnessing is also hugely emotional. (Being saved from your sin for eternity is an emotional thing!) God Himself only knows the sincerity of their hearts, who is professing faith in Truth, and whose hearts are secretly unbelieving. We know that there are years of teaching ahead of us, for these new babes in Christ will need nourishing food, and lots of it! But for now, we want to say a huge THANK YOU for standing with us in this spiritual battle for the souls of the Dinangat people! REJOICE! God in His faithfulness is winning the battle, He has added many Dinangat names to His church, and one day you will meet them in Glory!

REJOICING in HIS FAITHFULNESS,
Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever! Amen!
Ephesians 2:20, 21 (exclamation points added )

I’ve been itching to sit down and write this update! God is answering all of your prayers. He is showing glimpses of Who He really is, and our finite minds are about to explode!

Personally, it has been a very long time since I’ve seen a heart really changed and turned towards the Lord. What a precious thing it is, and a joy and a privilege to witness, and I wish you could all be here and watch as the God of the universe is gathering up His sheep from the Dinangat fold. Your prayers, support, love and encouragement have afforded us the passage of a front row seat, and we are forever grateful.

Yesterday, at the end of the teaching, we portrayed Jesus being brought before Pilate, condemned to die and beaten. The people here have seen this drama before, as I have mentioned they have been taught much by the other religious group in the past. But now they have the context of their own sin and the desperate state of their souls. They know of Jesus, that He is God, born a man. They have seen His power and His compassion through the stories of the Gospels, and have come to love Him. Now, as they watched Him being falsely accused and mercilessly beaten, the lights came on for many of our friends. Tears were streaming, heads were hanging, tongues were clicking (the cultural sign of shock or amazement.) They know and believe from the Scripture that the penalty for sin is death, and now they are understanding that the Kidaak Amna’s work would be to stand in their place, and pay the price for them.

Totne lives way on top of the mountain and is ordinarily not in the village very much. In the past, he has been suspicious of our motives for being here. But he has hiked down from his house every single day, and not missed a single lesson. Yesterday, Gary witnessed this hard heart break and told us what he said: “All my life I’ve turned my back on God. I’ve never come to any of the religious meetings that the people have. But as I watched those men beating Jesus I realized that I was one of those men. What Jesus did for me I can’t even put into words and I don’t want to turn my back on him anymore.” And then he wiped the tears from his eyes and started to laugh joyously.

Do you remember our new brother in Christ, Bau? A couple of days ago, he stood up and exhorted all the people to keep coming to the teaching. He said, “Now is the time to be rescued from the hand of Satan, do not miss it!”

We know that there are hard times coming, and that we won’t be floating on this cloud forever. But oh, it is sweet to see faith starting to bud! We haven’t actually taught on the death, burial, and resurrection yet, nor have we done the work of tying it all together for them. But this was a harvest ripe for the picking, and I believe that there are many out there that have already put all the pieces together and have placed their faith in the saving blood of Christ. God is doing the work, and we are sitting, watching every wonderful move He makes. After Wednesday, and throughout the next weeks, we will sit down with as many as we can, and Lord willing we will hear many clear testimonies of precious souls understanding the Gospel message and trusting Christ as their Savior. Please keep praying!

Final Lessons of the Chronological Teaching:
Monday- Death and Burial of Jesus
Tuesday- Resurrection of Jesus
Wednesday- Tie in Lesson, Old and New Testament

Rejoicing in His Goodness,
Jeremiah, April, Jordan, Judah and Alayna Markley