We wanted to share with y’all this exciting report.  This comes from another tribe in Papua New Guinea.  The Gospel is being presented in several language groups in PNG for the first time this year and the reports have just been amazing. 

Please remember all of these new brothers and sisters in Christ as you pray.  

Blessings, Linn Beall

Dear Friends and Family:  

We are so excited to be writing to you about the end of the teaching, and the new believers in Yembiyembi. Our team has been meeting with people from the minute the teaching was over with, all through that night, and on into Sunday, but it is the best kind of tired we have ever felt.  

Saturday afternoon we went down for the teaching and the drums fired up nearly 3 hours early to announce we were starting in an hour or so. Within 30 minutes the bulk of he people were there ready to go, which is a first for Yembiyembi. By the time we started 95% of the village was packed into the teaching house, or sitting outside on the grass.  

The lesson lasted for 3 hours and it was…amazing how quiet 300+ people can be when it is something this important. God was working, and the babies, village dogs and even the rain cooperated so everyone could stay and hear. About an hour into it a rain storm was bearing down on our village, but as it got closer it slipped by less than 100 yards from where we were teaching and kept going past us, allowing the people that couldn’t fit in the building to stay on the grass and keep listening.  

As we taught the lesson you could literally watch and see the people that were understanding and putting it all together for the first time. As the concept of the Lamb of God bearing the sins of each one came out, people started smiling, nodding and just shaking their heads at what they were hearing. The Yembiyembi’s are not prone to huge bursts of emotion, and Sat. was no exception. But it was clear from the reaction of a few, and the ones that couldn’t hide their emotions, that they had put together what it meant to be a child of God. Afterward some of the older “mamas” came around with tears in their eyes shaking our hands, some younger guys just kept saying thank you, thank you, thank you.  

As soon as the meeting was finished people had cleared out we got back up here to the houses to prepare for the men’s meeting that night.  We knew that in the meeting with just the men we would get a clearer picture as to what was going on in their heads, but the ladies would not be denied, and some of their wives and other ladies decided to crash the party. So our wives stayed up with them and reviewed the lesson going over the main points, and listening to them talk about what they knew and ask questions on things they were still confused in.  

Some of the ones that Nina or I were able to talk to, and what they said are awesome testimonies to God working in their hearts and minds.

These are a few:  

One of Ninas’ mothers Anastasia right after the teaching said through tears “Jesus was my sipsip (sheep) He is my bridge-man. Because He carried my book I am able to cross to the other side and be in His family-group, I have been living a lie, nothing I can do can get me across to God’s side, He took on my sins”.    

Nina’s brother Kelly said this, “Jesus is the last sacrifice, He is my offer sacrifice, and because of Him I am on God’s side. That curtain broke, and there was a way for me to come on the short way (a direct path) to God, on my own I  can come to God, I have no need of a standing in the middle man (priest),  Jesus made the road open for me”.  

My father Robert (A year and a half ago he was banished from the village for trying to hold up our co-workers at gun point. 2 months before the teaching he was allowed back). “All my life I thought I could work my way to God…no I can not. But Jesus was my sheep too, he paid my sin-debt with God, so I am able to cross to God’s side as well”.  

My half-brother Paul said this: “For too long we have sat playing like children of God, only through this talk did we truly know whose children we are. My eye water comes when I think of how many downed Satan’s trick talk (believed lies) and how many are in the lake of fire because they did not know this talk. But now is my time, and I am across. I know I am on God’s side, he took that steal-man (the thief on the cross next to Jesus) across just for his thinking. He thought straight (understood clearly) about the bridge-man, he looked inside straight (recognized his own sin) and Jesus took him across. Like that my thoughts are, I am on God’s side.  

Nina’s aunt Prisca: “I am done, done with things that have no stump (are meaningless). Why would I ask pieces of plastic or wood to help me, how can they help me. The bridge-man alone helped me, and I know he was my sheep. I will only give my thoughts to one being, only to the one who is able to take me across will I put my thoughts”.  

Roger my brother said this: “I am no longer a teeth-fish downing any talk that comes (a certain kind of fish that will bite on almost anything). No I stand on true talk, and only that talk will I down (believe). Jesus is my way across, He is my bridge-man, His death bought my book so I would not feel the flames of the lake of fire.”  

Edward one of Nina’s fathers “This talk has showed us the roots, the stump, the middle and the head of the whole tree. We are clear on God’s talk for the first time. Jesus was the bridge-man, and he came to finish the promise that went to Adam. He (God) followed His talk (fulfilled his promise) and made a way for us to come back to his side, there is a way for us to be on God’s side.”

These are snippets of long conversations that went on all night.  

Now it is on to the task of sitting down with each individual and listening, encouraging and gauging where their understanding is at. There are many that understand clearly, but also many that are almost there just not yet. This is the task ahead of us, to get to all these people and help them understand clearly the parts that are not quite there.  

Thank you for your prayers over that last 4 months (and for many the last 6 years of getting to this point) and the fruit that has been seen because of them. Honestly you guys kept us going through hard times, and were the difference makers in this whole process. Some things that were prayed for that have been answered are.

1. We did not flood since the second week of teaching (it is coming up rapidly as we speak)
2. We did not loose any more people to death since Leo’s death.
3. There have been no major village fights for nearly 4 months (usually it is an every other week occurrence).
4. Our team had a spat of minor health issues, but we were all able to stay in the tribe for the entire teaching time.
5. The members of the tribe that were against the teaching never openly opposed or tried to stop the teaching, and some of them came, and some of them we believe are saved.

Even though the teaching of 5 days a week is now finished in some ways the harder work begins.  We ask that you will continue to pray for your individuals.  For those that now understand that they will continue to grow and have a heart for God, and for those that don’t yet understand, that their eyes would be opened.  If you haven’t heard about a certain individual and you would like more information write us and we will try and tell you where they are at as best we can.  Thank you so much for your part in this ministry.  We appreciate your continued prayers as we seek to train up these new believers, and show them the immense love and care their Father has for them.  

Thanks so much guys, appreciate you all,  

Brooks for Nina and Beau