Bill had already seen God's Spirit bring awareness of sin to one Inapang man when he saw his good friend, Ampiankon, respond to his need for a Savior. Bill remembered the first day he met his friend.
Ampiankon had a puzzled look as he sat under his house looking at three white men who had just walked into his life.
"I could tell that he had no idea why we had come," Bill wrote.
But Ampiankon offered his time to help Bill learn the Inapang culture and language and then became his co-worker in translating Scripture and preparing Bible lessons.
"Day after day," Bill wrote, "I kept pressing on him the truth of God's holy nature and the sinfulness of his. It became evident that the Holy Spirit was working in his life. So as we started translating New Testament passages, I began to share the truths of Christ with him."
In Ampiankon’s mind, Jesus was great, but in the end He lost. Death got Him. Death, the thing Ampiankon dreaded and feared. Jesus had lost. How could He help Ampiankon now?
The two men began to talk about the sacrifices in the Old Testament. Then Bill asked, "Who killed Jesus?"
"The Roman soldiers," Ampiankon responded.
"Ampiankon," Bill said, "they did not kill Jesus. Jesus gave Himself willingly as a sacrifice for sin. God, His Father killed Him for a sacrifice for sins."
"I will never forget that day," Bill wrote. "It was the day the Holy Spirit birthed Ampiankon into His kingdom."
After several weeks of Ampiankon's learning and growing, Bill asked him "Ampiankon, when we first came in here, what did you think about us?"
"Bill," the Inapang man said, "When you first came in here, we thought you were all spirits of dead men."
Both men had a good laugh and then Bill asked, "When did you realize we were just people?"
"When I heard the story of Adam taught I realized that we had all come from one man," Ampiankon said. "Then a week later, when we talked about the tower of Babel I realized why all our languages are different. It was at that time I realized that you too were people."
Bill was thankful that God's Word was able to reach into this man's heart and teach him this truth -- something that a good relationship of more than three years was unable to accomplish. Now he looked for God's Spirit to open the eyes of more Inapangs.
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