Photo via tawali.com

Missionary team starts 'building the house' in Papua New Guinea

New Tribes Mission's Nita Zelenak says they had a breakthrough in Papua New Guinea just last week, reports MNN.

Their team just launched its first teaching series in the remote Yembiyembi village that goes through the Bible. "About 80-percent of the tribe of the village showed up to hear the lesson."

When rumors that the spirits would kill anyone who attended proved false, even more people came to participate. The missionary team is using the analogy of building a house to help the people understand that this teaching will take a long time.

The Inanbimali people (who live in the YembiYembi village) understand this idea, knowing that building a house is a painstaking, step-by-step process. Zelenak explains, "They started actually planting the seeds of the Gospel by beginning to teach from Genesis." Missionaries will be teaching 5 nights a week for the next three months.

"Towards the end of that, they will start with the story of Christ and bring them to a clear understanding of how God has provided a way of salvation for them." The missionaries have also taught how the Inanbimali people fit into history and how God's "talk" made its way from Israel to America and around the world. They also taught about the omniscience of God, the Trinity and how God spoke creation into existence.

The commitment to the Inanbimali drives the team forward. This people group is very tied into the surrounding area through marriage and trade. If they clearly understand and believe the Gospel, it will have a powerful ripple effect throughout the entire region. Representatives from 6 other language groups are sitting in on the lessons.

Zelenak says the effort needs prayer. "The main three prayer requests that the missionaries are asking is: First, pray that the tribal people will consistently attend because they will not have a clear understanding unless they attend consistently. Then, they are asking for the health of the missionaries, for wisdom as they teach. Pray also for clear understanding on the part of the tribal people."

Pray that the Yembiyembi people would respond to the Gospel as they continue to hear God's Word taught in their language.

[01/29/2008]

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