Though it rained all night, not a drop fell from the sky as evangelistic Bible teaching started Monday morning among the Dinangat people in Papua New Guinea.
About 150 people showed up for the first day of teaching. That represented the entire village, and friends from on top of the mountain who hadn't been in the village for a very long time.
"You cannot imagine the sense of joy we all felt, as we watched more and more arriving to our little knoll on the hill that had been designated as the teaching area," wrote missionaries Jeremiah and April Markley.
Gary Smith taught the first lesson with a brief history of the Bible's origin and how it's been passed on. In the middle of the lesson, the rest of the team got up and gave short testimonies of how they came to know the Bible was true, authentic and the ultimate authority.
A few of the people said they always wondered where the Bible came from. One woman remarked that she couldn't understand why it took so long for the Bible to come to them. The Dinangats have been exposed to the Bible in the trade language, but teaching in a chronological manner is needed to give them a clear understanding of the Gospel of Christ.
After the lesson, Ralf Schlegel did a brief review and opened it up for questions. The missionary team wasn't expecting a lot of participation from the usually shy, reserved community, and they were amazed and excited to see several men speaking up and asking questions.
Jeremiah is making audio tapes of the lessons for the people to review in their homes. The team handed out special hand-crank players for the people to use, since most of them do not have batteries.
"We are praying this will be an effective tool for review along with printed summaries of the lessons for those who can read," the Markleys wrote.
"We gave them the cassettes and the people were thrilled. They immediately started listening again to the lesson. There were about 20 people gathered around each of the six tape players. … It was incredible to see. Never have I seen so many people so hungry to understand God's word," wrote missionaries Gary and Esther Smith.
About noon, three leaders from a neighboring village asked Gary if they could get a tape each day of the lesson so they could take it to the other village and everyone could hear it. After explaining to them the process of taking God's Word to other villages the men answered, "Hurry up and finish here so we too can understand God's talk."
"God is at work here and we are getting the huge privilege of a front row seat!" the Smiths wrote.
Please pray that the people's interest and enthusiasm will continue and that many Dinangats will place their faith in Christ.
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