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DINANGATS EMBRACING THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD

The people are fully embracing God`s message.

February 4, 2008

by David Bell

Faced with God's awesome character, the Dinangat people in Papua New Guinea are realizing the inconsistency of their beliefs.

Last week, when missionaries taught that God created all the angels, one man said, "My head was shaking thinking about God being greater than everything. I used to think that He had a great enemy that has the same strength as He does, but now I see that He is alone. There is nothing like Him."

"We are in awe of what God is doing," wrote missionary Gary Smith.

On Wednesday the people heard that a boy in a neighboring village died. Normally this would mean that they would all go there and spend a few days mourning with the family. This is a huge part of their culture, but the people decided not to go because they don't want to miss any days of hearing God's Word.

The Dinangats are listening to God's Word from Monday through Friday each week.

"I think they'd let us teach Saturday and Sunday if we wanted to do that," wrote Gary. "They are listening to the tapes three and four times. It's incredible how hungry they are."

"We've heard some of God's talk in other languages," one man said, "but now that we are hearing it in our own language we are able to understand the depth of His talk."

"The people used to think that God needed food so he created it like we would plant a garden," wrote Gary. But after teaching about the first three days of Creation, "now they see that God is independent of everyone and everything. He doesn't need anything. … They shook their heads and were amazed that he made all these things for mankind. He didn't need anything, but mankind does."

"I'm not even working these days," one man told Gary. "I just sit and think about all this. We've separated out our food so it can last many days so I don't have to go to the garden. I can just sit and think about all this big talk."

One of the people's stories of origin is that there is a large white snake in the jungle that is the mother of all the tree kangaroos. After teaching that God created all the various animals, the missionaries asked the people if their belief about the white snake is consistent with God's Word. They all answered, "No!"

One of the community leaders said, "We believed that because we didn't know better, but now we hear God's Word and see that what we believed in the past is wrong. What God says is true."

The people are fully embracing God's message, listening to the lessons over and over. Soaking in every truth God gives them.

Please pray that they will continue to be receptive to God's Truth. This week they will hear about the creation of Adam and Eve and of the entrance of sin into the universe through Satan.