Papua New Guinea (MNN/NTM) ― New Tribes Mission says evangelistic Bible teaching to the Yembiyembi people in Papua New Guinea has met with great enthusiasm.
In fact, the original launch of the material was delayed to give students more time to learn to read and write their language.
Says missionary Brooks Buser, "We weren't sure how this would affect their thinking, so we explained to the Yembi's that they would be able to read God's talk for themselves."
As a result, literacy classes have seen a huge influx in the last three weeks and are completely full, despite resistance from village leaders. A couple of Yembiyembi leaders told the people that "whoever joins the literacy program will die. God will strike them down, or the spirits of the dead will rise up and kill them."
Yet, the classes continued to grow. According to NTM, it was evident that much of the fear in the village was replaced by a desire to "know what God says about them."
Further, their team writes that the man, Job, who has been
helping Brooks prepare the teaching lessons, gave those in his house an
illustration of what the teaching will do for them.
"Our tribe is like a house full of people who are sitting in the dark. We
are in so much darkness that we don't know if friends or enemies are sitting
with us. We stumble around and don't know where the door is, and we don't know
what will happen. We are helpless.
"But there is a torch coming down the path, and very soon that torch will
be coming up the ladder and into the house, and for the first time we will see
clearly who and what is in the house with us. We will see the doors. We will
see the people. We will see with good eyes and have knowledge clearly for the
first time."
Please pray that the hearts of the Yembiyembis will truly be ready to receive God's wonderful knowledge.
