How do we say we’re sorry?

July 20, 2014

How do we say we’re sorry?

Visiting friends in one of the Pal hamlets that we hope to reach with the first ever Creation to Christ teaching in the Pal vernacular this August.

Worries, the good kind.

How do we make this right? We have been going to the grave sites taking bones out and praying to our ancestors. Now we realize that all is a lie. We want to come to hear the truth that you are teaching, but we are afraid that God will be mad at us for what we have been doing. - Uitem, one of several Pal men who has been helping us check our Bible lessons for clarity.

We have taught Uitem and others through the first 20 lessons out of approximately 65 that we will be sharing with the whole group of Pal people. Although we have not put extra emphasis yet on the weight of personal sin and consequences, he is clearly thinking along those lines – so much so that he took a special trip to see us today. He wanted to be assured that people who would attend God’s teaching would not face His wrath for animistic sacrifice. His most clearly expressed thoughts were about his desire to be right with God – in spite of the wrong (as he put it) that he has clearly done.

Grandma and grandkids, all gussied up for family portraits… not sure what to think when the LCD is turned in their direction…

What a joy to sit with him and talk about the two hands (truths) that he is holding. In the one hand, the growing weight of conviction, of personal responsibility, and guilt. In the other, the promise by God Himself (who never lies, changes, or is ever wrong) that He Himself would make a way for man to be right before Him. While we have a bit to go before Uitem and other Pal men hear the details of that promised way, we are extremely excited and encouraged by the response of our friends so far. They are all listening carefully, thinking about what is said, and taking it as the truth.

Is that not what we hope and pray for? Please keep up your prayers for us and our Pal friends.

Comedy Club: What missionary kids come up with because… hey, you can only build so many forts. The kids thought this up the other day – stand up comedy – taking turns telling each other funny stories.

Empty Promises, Prepared Soil

Like most people, our Pal friends are the most vulnerable to deceit when it has to do with something they would like to happen. We could literally write a book (not a puny 100 pager either) about all of the different schemes that they have chased after to try to get wealthy. Here is one example – as short as I can make it.

A while back, several men came through our local villages and claimed a special dispensation from God called “Teninap” (tok pisin that translates – “Ten is enough”). The promise of Teninap was that for every 10 kina ($3.60)that was given to these men (or the church group they represented), a special highway to wealth and prosperity would be made by God Himself on behalf of the giver. Sickness could be banished, past wrongs could be made right, it was the time of blessing. Those guys reportedly walked out of our (very poor) villages with thousands of kina… never to be seen again. This is just one example of many – time and again our guys spend significant portions of their wealth on empty promises.

Honestly, it makes me mad when I hear about all of the trickery that goes on here in PNG. I know how hard these guys and gals work for that 10 kina. At the same time, there is a silver lining for people like us who are bringing the truth. It is that our guys have had their faces rubbed in tricky schemes so often that they are left longing for some solid truth.

In fact, that is one of the things that Uitem said that his whole family is saying – “All those things that people have been telling us will work – they are empty promises, lies. We want to hear the real truth.”