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Daily Scripture
 
"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."

Psalm 37:5

ONLY 100 YEARS

Inapang villagers prepare a meeting place, as God prepares their hearts.

May 31, 2007

by Dena McMaster

The missionary team ministering to the Inapang people of Papua New Guinea will begin evangelistic Bible lessons in two weeks, and the people will learn about a geographical world beyond their villages. This will be quite a revelation since the Inapangs can only trace about 100 years of their own history.

When Bill gave his Inapang language co-workers a preview of the lessons and they understood the limited amount of time they can actually account for, they were amazed. They realized that the world was much larger than their surrounding villages.

The Inapangs helped translate the Biblical accounts -- Creation and the lives of Abraham, Joseph and Moses -- and they were blown away when they grasped the historical and geographical context of those stories.

They said things like, "We are just new men," "We only know this little part of time," and "There is all that other that we don't know anything about."

To help the villagers visualize the historical timeline presented in the Bible, the missionaries will use a gift they received from a church in the USA -- a long rope of about 6,000 beads -- to wrap around the meeting area. This beautiful timeline can then be used to show how key Bible stories fit into the larger history.

"We all have our own jobs," wrote missionary Bill Housley. "Some of us pray, some of us teach, some disciple and some will listen and hear the message of hope for the first time."

Pray that the Inapang people will listen to the Bible lessons with hungry hearts and minds willing to understand and believe the Truth.