Now that missionaries have completed teaching evangelistic Bible lessons to one Dinangat village in Papua New Guinea, they are looking at ways to further disciple the believers.
"This new discipleship role is not as clearly defined and this requires much faith and patience," wrote Gary Smith.
As Gary worked in his office this week on more Bible lessons and pondered the transition to discipleship, he looked out his window and saw some of the key leaders sitting and talking.
He decided to join the men and listened as the talk bounced from person to person.
"Everything that we believed before was false," Gary heard. "We went to church and tried to live a good life so that God would accept us. We trusted in our own efforts to get us to God. But now we understand clearly that all of that was false.
"Now we understand that it is only because of Jesus completely washing away our sins on the cross that we can go to God. It is about believing in Him not about our efforts. … We want to leave all that and come to God on the road He made, and that road is believing in Jesus."
Esingke later told Gary that he is not sleeping much these days. "Last night I stayed up with Jinongke until 3 a.m. talking about God," he said.
Looking for more opportunities to teach God's Word, Gary has offered to teach one young man, Moris, who only attended a few of the evangelistic Bible lessons. While other Dinangats were listening to the lessons, Moris was busy paying off his bride price.
Moris said he was wrong in not coming to more meetings and was happy that Gary offered to teach him and his new bride. He wants to understand what everyone is talking about.
"We will invite a couple others who also missed the majority of the teaching," Gary wrote. "This could also prove as a great discipleship time with the new believers who may attend."
Please pray for Gary and the missionary team as they minister to disciple the new believers.
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