Like the Ninevites; the lights are turning on.

Nolemak followed me home from the teaching on Friday. “How do I trust in Jesus?”

 

Sinking in.

These are indeed exciting days for us as we present more and more of the story to our friends. They, for the most part, are excited as well, taking time to ask questions and make sure that they clearly understand what we are saying. One very encouraging thing has been that the guys who have been helping us check our lessons have stepped up this week to verbally support our teaching. This is a normal part of PNG culture and is exciting because it means that they are personally invested in the value of the message (i.e.: they are siding publicly with God’s Word)

 

One of those fellas is especially set apart by his desire to be helping us in the office at other times. He has been helping me by reading through my translation and checking for spelling errors etc. Yesterday, he was in the office and read through my lesson on John 6 along with the translation of that passage. After reading through the lesson and the scripture, he had this to say to me.

“We are learning about the hard hearted Jews. They had seen God’s power over and over. They had His Word to read and see that it was true. They saw Jesus’s strength with their own eyes. They had all of these things and still they rejected God. We can’t be like the Jews. We need to be like the Ninevites. Their grandfathers did not know the true God. Even though they had no teaching and hadn’t seen any miracles, when Jonah came and told them God’s message, they listened right away and repented. Our grandfathers did not know the true God. You guys are here to tell us the truth about Him. We need to be just like the Ninevites, they listened and believed.” - Uitem

Top: Hot rods in the bush. This is the extended version of our old go-kart. Bottom: Roasting bread over the fire was a fun treat for us last weekend.

 

Teaching this week:

Monday – Lesson 49/65 – We’ll be doing a review of the John 3 lesson and then going on to talk about how Jesus revealed His true strength by many miracles. He showed His power and authority. He could forgive sin.

Tuesday – Nate will be teaching on Jesus’s prediction that He must die. Then Chris will teach a lesson on how the Jewish leaders plotted to kill Him.

Wednesday – Chris will teach on the parable of the sower and how we are like the different kinds of ground. That we must listen to and understand the Word of God.

Thursday – Chris will teach on Jesus’s calming of the storm. Then Nate will teach on the feeding of the 5,000. We’ll be focusing in on how the people failed to see that Jesus was there to make a way for them to spend eternity in Heaven. Instead they thought that he would be their servant – providing protection, food, and health for them. They failed to see their true problem – their sin debt.

Friday – Nate will teach on hypocrisy. How the Pharisees thought that by their rules they were more holy and more valuable than those who did not follow the rules. We’ll talk about how God’s judgment deals with the heart.

 

Again, thanks so much for praying for us. We are nearing the end of the evangelistic teaching time, (Only about 3 weeks left out of 12) and we are seeing quite a few people who are ‘getting it’.

 

Please pray for us as we plan for the next months. We have a new set of literacy classes coming up in the winter along with lots of discipleship, translation work, and preparations for Home Assignment in June 2015. 

 

By His Grace,

Nate for us