Welcome to the Family! - A True Story
The following is a written account, in their own words, of a missionary team's experience of sharing the story of the Bible, from creation to Christ, with a few tribesmen, in preparation for sharing it with the entire tribe.
Before standing up in front of the entire village and teaching them, we’ve been teaching the Bible lessons to a small group of three guys – Keko, Tapman, and Yadaasi – to make sure the lessons are communicating well, to correct our grammar mistakes, and to add better illustrations. Though these guys have been an amazing help, an even more amazing byproduct has emerged! They have been taught foundationally through God’s Word! Let’s go on their journey for a bit.
They heard that God existed as a trinity from before the beginning of creation. He, the Son and Spirit had forever existed in a loving relationship. Love had always existed. God is love. Then they saw the trinity at work in creation. They saw God’s power in creation, and that he only created things perfectly. They heard that God created mankind to fellowship with him, and that man was fellowshipping with him in the garden.
During these lessons about creation they also saw that God is a perfect “maremwaalei.” This word has a range of cultural meaning. A maremwaalei is a provider, care-giver, protector, benefactor, boss, someone honorable, and a leader. They are expected to help in times of trouble, and if they fulfill these roles well, people are expected to depend on and be loyal to them. The Wantakians have people in their culture who fall into this category, and they’ve even put us into it. BUT they had never thought of God as a maremwaalei. He has always been some distant entity that was removed from their daily lives. But when they saw in this lesson and others that God is actually the only truly good maremwaalei who does all of these things for those who are in His clan, they couldn’t believe it! He created this world for the people he would also create! He was looking after them. Suddenly, God was brought down into their daily lives. Suddenly, being in his clan mattered. Our people are always afraid of spirits, and sickness, and they live in a state of general fear and anxiousness. When they heard that people in God’s clan weren’t fearful, because He was their protector and provider, their maremwaalei, they got so excited!
They heard that when The Enemy, Satan, fell from heaven and came and deceived Adam and Eve, they fell as well and that relationship with God was broken, and is broken for all of humanity.
At that same point they first heard about a Promised Helper whom God would one day send to crush The Enemy and take away the punishment for sin - eternal separation from God. We told them that in God’s eyes there are only two clans on this earth: His clan and The Enemy’s clan. Since then everything has been pointing forward to this Helper God would send to take people out of the Enemy’s clan and put them in God’s clan.
When we got to God’s promise to Abraham, they were amazed that when Abraham believed God’s promise, God said he was righteous. All Abraham had to do was believe! They were so happy to hear this. He didn’t have to do good works to be righteous. This was their first encounter with the concept of belief being the only requirement for salvation.
Then after the next lesson when Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, and God tells him to stop and provides a sacrifice in his place, they said, “Hey, we’re just like Isaac tied up on the altar! We can’t do anything to help ourselves; the Helper is standing right there next to us wanting to cut the ropes, but we say, ‘No, I’m going to help myself with my own strength.’ Then we try and hop down these different roads to help ourselves. We try and follow God’s law, and sing songs, wear nice clothes, brush our teeth, and do good works, but at the end of all those roads is a noose. We’re just hanging ourselves, while the Helper is right there asking to cut us free! Now we see there is only one road to be cut free. It’s the Helper God is going to send!”
After a few more lessons Tapman said, “Hey, all these lessons are about the Helper God is sending.” And we said said, “That’s what this entire story is about. Everything is about the Helper, and that’s who you’re going to keep hearing about.”
Later, we got to the lesson where God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt, and took Moses up the mountain to give him the Law. While he was up there, the rest of the people built a Golden calf and started worshiping it.
At that point, Yadaasi said, “Hey, they were quickly forgetting that God had shown his strength to them and rescued them just a week before. We’re like the Israelites. We always forget about God! We forget huge!”
Then we taught about why God gave the Law to Moses and the Israelites, and they were blown away! We told them the Law is like a mirror to show you that you have sin, can’t help yourself, and need to be ready for the Helper! Yadaasi just started crying he was so happy! He said, “My whole life has been a lie! I’ve been trying to follow this, but I can’t! Now I know why it was given. I’m just waiting on the Helper now!”
Tapman added, “God’s word doesn’t just speak for fun. It doesn’t guess. It knows about all the crooked things we do, and it marks it straight.”
Then Yadaasi said, “Hey, all of our ancestor stories just change and change, but God’s word doesn’t change. God doesn’t change. No. He stays the same!”
After this we moved into the life of Christ pretty quickly. In their language they finally heard that “Christ” or “Messiah” actually means “the appointed savior/helper,” and they were so giddy! Tapman said, “Hey, we always said ‘Christ’ nothing. Now it’s in our language and we understand it! Jesus is the Helper! His name is Jesus Helper!”
The giddy-ness didn’t die down. As they saw Jesus go about his ministry with his disciples they were amazed at his power: healing the sick, walking on water, casting out demons, feeding thousands with just a few pieces of bread and fish, calming storms with his words. They started discussing it. Tapman said, “If Jesus had picked learned people to be his disciples, they would hear Jesus and then just add their own thinking to it, and mess it up. But he picked people who hadn’t been to school and only knew how to do the work their parents taught them. They were ready to hear Jesus and listen to his words.”
Keko added, “Jesus was their teacher, their classroom, their everything!”
At this point Yadaasi jumped in, “The learned people knew a lot about the Bible and God, but they didn’t know Jesus. They didn’t know Him. That was their problem.”
Then we taught them about Jesus saying he was the Bread of Life, the true food that gives eternal life. The people ask Jesus how they should be doing the work of God, and Jesus responds by saying that their work was to believe in him, the one God had sent.
Keko jumped in, “That’s it! That’s all there is!”
Tapman said, “Hey, we’ve been like the prophets of Baal. We’d go to lotu and sing, and dance, and cry, to try and get God to be happy with us. When we did those things, we thought that was our work. That’s not our work! Satan the Liar, hey, he doesn’t want us to leave his clan! He tells us so many lies, so we won’t go to God’s clan.”
Then we got to the lesson where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. When Keko heard Jesus say that he would be lifted up just like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, and that everyone who thought it was true about him would receive eternal life, Keko lost it and just started weeping. He cried for a while, and we all just soaked in those words. When he was able to speak again he said, “I’ve heard this talk a bunch in the trade language, but I heard it nothing. I had never heard the meaning of it clearly before just now.”
Then Tapman said, “Hey, it’s really good that Nicodemus asked that question about being born again. If he hadn’t asked it, we wouldn’t be hearing it now!”
Then we got to the lesson where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. At this point for almost 50 lessons, Tapman had been hearing: “God is sending the Helper, and people need to believe in him when he comes. Only the Helper can take away the payment for our sin — separation from God forever. We can’t help ourselves. We need the Helper to come and help us. God loves everyone and doesn’t want anyone to get the punishment for sin. He’s marked a road to help us. There’s only one road, and that’s the Helper that He’s going to send.” He’d heard these statements over and over, and then after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, some of the people who saw the miracle ran to the religious leaders and told them what Jesus had done. The religious leaders responded like this: “Hey, he’s doing so many miracles. If we don’t stop him, everyone will believe in him!”
When Tapman heard what all the leaders were saying, he looked away in disgust and started tearing up. He couldn’t believe that anyone could react that way to Jesus — to the Helper! He said, “All of that thinking is from The Enemy, Satan. The Enemy doesn’t want any of us to believe in the Helper, and he tricked those religious leaders too just like he tricked us.”
We then went through the last supper, the garden, the arrest, the trial, and the crucifixion. They were glued the entire time. When Jesus told all his disciples that in order to help everyone, God wanted to use his blood to finalize a new contract between him and the whole world, they got really excited! The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place for them. In the garden, they heard that Jesus wasn’t in anguish because of the pain he would receive, but because for the first he and his Father would separated. The gravity of our sin began to really sink in. Jesus was going to take on the entire weight of our sin.
When Jesus died, and the centurion said, “Truly that man was the Son of God,” Tapman started crying hard, and Keko added, “Hey, I can’t help myself. I’m a sinner. Only the Helper can help me.”
Then we taught the resurrection, and they were so excited. Jesus defeated death! He’s alive. He’s at the right hand of God! He’s the king! After this lesson, the guys began discussing the meaning of the gospel, and the work Jesus had actually done for them. Then they talked again about their work.
At that point Tapman said, “Hey, in the trade language outsiders always say, ‘Believe! Believe! Just believe!’ But now we know what the actual true meaning of ‘belief’ is. We used to think it meant we needed to ‘think strong’ by doing many things. But that won’t take away the punishment for our sins. Trying to follow the law won’t take away the punishment for our sins. Going to church, and singing, and praying to try and get rid of our sins is what the Pharisees were doing. We’re like them, when we do that. Sometimes people say, ‘Show your belief. Buy a pig for K1000 or K500 and show your belief!’ What is that!? That’s not belief! When we hear ‘believe’ in the trade language we think, ‘think strong’ and that means you need to try and do all these different things. But ‘believe’ in English just means to think that something is true. Hey those two aren’t the same. They’re different. In our language “believe” should be expressed as, “Yeah, that’s true!” That’s what we clearly heard in our language just now! Now we know what ‘belief’ means.
After the resurrection, we taught them about Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. Again, they heard the nuts-and-bolts of the Gospel. We could tell from everything they were saying that they were clearly believing in the Gospel, but they were almost being timid about just coming out and saying, “Hey, I’m in God’s family now.” It was like they didn’t want to be presumptuous.
On the chalkboard we had previously written “Satan’s clan” on one side and “God’s clan” on another. I went up to the board and wrote all of our names under Satan’s clan. Then I told the group that when I was younger, I had heard this same talk and had believed in the Helper. “At that exact moment God took me out from Satan’s clan and placed me in His.” When I’d finished speaking, I erased my name and rewrote it under God’s clan on the board. Then I handed the chalk to Keko and asked, “Has a change happened in your life?”
He looked at me and said, “Hey, I’m from Adam, and I used to be in Satan’s clan. I was separated from God because of my sin and there was nothing I could do to help myself. But God promised to send a helper to take the punishment for my sins, and that Helper was Jesus. He took the entire punishment. He did the work. My only work is to say that it’s true about Jesus and what he did! That’s what I’m saying! Because of Jesus the Helper, God has taken me out of The Enemy’s clan and placed me inside His clan. Now I’m joined with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit forever!”
Keko then got up, erased his name from Satan’s clan, wrote it under God’s clan, and handed the chalk to Tapman. Tapman looked down at the chalk and said, “Hey, God doesn’t lie. What he says is always true, and he says that If I say, “It’s true,” about his son, Jesus, the Helper, then he will take away the payment for my sin, give me eternal life, and put me in his clan. God promised that, so it’s true. I’m saying it’s true about Jesus the Helper, so God has put me in His clan!” Tapman got up, erased his name from under Satan’s clan, and rewrote it under God’s clan.
Then he handed the chalk to Yadaasi. Yadaasi began to weep and through broken sobs he gave the clearest testimony I’ve ever heard. He was astounded by the grace of God. He knew he didn’t deserve any of it. He had no illusions about his own righteousness. He knew he needed the Helper, and was beside himself that that Helper had helped him. He too erased his name from Satan’s clan, and wrote it under God’s clan.
Words are petty things for describing the feeling of looking at those men — knowing we would be brothers forever. Knowing we are all one in Christ. Knowing God’s church had been born in the village of Pinji.
But the story doesn’t stop there. We wanted these guys to know how the story is actually going to end. So we taught them about the church being persecuted in Jerusalem and spreading the gospel to the surrounding areas. Then we talked about Peter and Cornelius — the first gentile believer. When Keko saw that the Holy Spirit was given to the gentiles, he started crying and said, “This is our talk! This is our talk! It came to us! God sent his Holy Spirit to us!” From here we taught them that the church was commanded to take this gospel to every language. Just like it had come to them, it would go to others who haven’t yet heard.
For the last lesson we went to Revelation. They heard that Jesus would appear in his glory with a sword riding a white horse, and that all the enemies would be defeated. When I read the passage that said Satan would be thrown into the lake of fire, they all cheered! They knew whose side they were on, and were excited to see the ending. They saw that those whose names were not written in the book of life were given the same fate as Satan. Then they saw God coming down to be with his people forever, and that all tears, sorrow, pain, and death had been done away with. This was their hope, and they were so so excited to have it!
Thanks for praying with us for these guys! Continue to pray for the entire village.
Before standing up in front of the entire village and teaching them, we’ve been teaching the Bible lessons to a small group of three guys – Keko, Tapman, and Yadaasi – to make sure the lessons are communicating well, to correct our grammar mistakes, and to add better illustrations. Though these guys have been an amazing help, an even more amazing byproduct has emerged! They have been taught foundationally through God’s Word! Let’s go on their journey for a bit.
They heard that God existed as a trinity from before the beginning of creation. He, the Son and Spirit had forever existed in a loving relationship. Love had always existed. God is love. Then they saw the trinity at work in creation. They saw God’s power in creation, and that he only created things perfectly. They heard that God created mankind to fellowship with him, and that man was fellowshipping with him in the garden.
During these lessons about creation they also saw that God is a perfect “maremwaalei.” This word has a range of cultural meaning. A maremwaalei is a provider, care-giver, protector, benefactor, boss, someone honorable, and a leader. They are expected to help in times of trouble, and if they fulfill these roles well, people are expected to depend on and be loyal to them. The Wantakians have people in their culture who fall into this category, and they’ve even put us into it. BUT they had never thought of God as a maremwaalei. He has always been some distant entity that was removed from their daily lives. But when they saw in this lesson and others that God is actually the only truly good maremwaalei who does all of these things for those who are in His clan, they couldn’t believe it! He created this world for the people he would also create! He was looking after them. Suddenly, God was brought down into their daily lives. Suddenly, being in his clan mattered. Our people are always afraid of spirits, and sickness, and they live in a state of general fear and anxiousness. When they heard that people in God’s clan weren’t fearful, because He was their protector and provider, their maremwaalei, they got so excited!
They heard that when The Enemy, Satan, fell from heaven and came and deceived Adam and Eve, they fell as well and that relationship with God was broken, and is broken for all of humanity.
At that same point they first heard about a Promised Helper whom God would one day send to crush The Enemy and take away the punishment for sin - eternal separation from God. We told them that in God’s eyes there are only two clans on this earth: His clan and The Enemy’s clan. Since then everything has been pointing forward to this Helper God would send to take people out of the Enemy’s clan and put them in God’s clan.
When we got to God’s promise to Abraham, they were amazed that when Abraham believed God’s promise, God said he was righteous. All Abraham had to do was believe! They were so happy to hear this. He didn’t have to do good works to be righteous. This was their first encounter with the concept of belief being the only requirement for salvation.
Then after the next lesson when Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, and God tells him to stop and provides a sacrifice in his place, they said, “Hey, we’re just like Isaac tied up on the altar! We can’t do anything to help ourselves; the Helper is standing right there next to us wanting to cut the ropes, but we say, ‘No, I’m going to help myself with my own strength.’ Then we try and hop down these different roads to help ourselves. We try and follow God’s law, and sing songs, wear nice clothes, brush our teeth, and do good works, but at the end of all those roads is a noose. We’re just hanging ourselves, while the Helper is right there asking to cut us free! Now we see there is only one road to be cut free. It’s the Helper God is going to send!”
After a few more lessons Tapman said, “Hey, all these lessons are about the Helper God is sending.” And we said said, “That’s what this entire story is about. Everything is about the Helper, and that’s who you’re going to keep hearing about.”
Later, we got to the lesson where God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt, and took Moses up the mountain to give him the Law. While he was up there, the rest of the people built a Golden calf and started worshiping it.
At that point, Yadaasi said, “Hey, they were quickly forgetting that God had shown his strength to them and rescued them just a week before. We’re like the Israelites. We always forget about God! We forget huge!”
Then we taught about why God gave the Law to Moses and the Israelites, and they were blown away! We told them the Law is like a mirror to show you that you have sin, can’t help yourself, and need to be ready for the Helper! Yadaasi just started crying he was so happy! He said, “My whole life has been a lie! I’ve been trying to follow this, but I can’t! Now I know why it was given. I’m just waiting on the Helper now!”
Tapman added, “God’s word doesn’t just speak for fun. It doesn’t guess. It knows about all the crooked things we do, and it marks it straight.”
Then Yadaasi said, “Hey, all of our ancestor stories just change and change, but God’s word doesn’t change. God doesn’t change. No. He stays the same!”
After this we moved into the life of Christ pretty quickly. In their language they finally heard that “Christ” or “Messiah” actually means “the appointed savior/helper,” and they were so giddy! Tapman said, “Hey, we always said ‘Christ’ nothing. Now it’s in our language and we understand it! Jesus is the Helper! His name is Jesus Helper!”
The giddy-ness didn’t die down. As they saw Jesus go about his ministry with his disciples they were amazed at his power: healing the sick, walking on water, casting out demons, feeding thousands with just a few pieces of bread and fish, calming storms with his words. They started discussing it. Tapman said, “If Jesus had picked learned people to be his disciples, they would hear Jesus and then just add their own thinking to it, and mess it up. But he picked people who hadn’t been to school and only knew how to do the work their parents taught them. They were ready to hear Jesus and listen to his words.”
Keko added, “Jesus was their teacher, their classroom, their everything!”
At this point Yadaasi jumped in, “The learned people knew a lot about the Bible and God, but they didn’t know Jesus. They didn’t know Him. That was their problem.”
Then we taught them about Jesus saying he was the Bread of Life, the true food that gives eternal life. The people ask Jesus how they should be doing the work of God, and Jesus responds by saying that their work was to believe in him, the one God had sent.
Keko jumped in, “That’s it! That’s all there is!”
Tapman said, “Hey, we’ve been like the prophets of Baal. We’d go to lotu and sing, and dance, and cry, to try and get God to be happy with us. When we did those things, we thought that was our work. That’s not our work! Satan the Liar, hey, he doesn’t want us to leave his clan! He tells us so many lies, so we won’t go to God’s clan.”
Then we got to the lesson where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. When Keko heard Jesus say that he would be lifted up just like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, and that everyone who thought it was true about him would receive eternal life, Keko lost it and just started weeping. He cried for a while, and we all just soaked in those words. When he was able to speak again he said, “I’ve heard this talk a bunch in the trade language, but I heard it nothing. I had never heard the meaning of it clearly before just now.”
Then Tapman said, “Hey, it’s really good that Nicodemus asked that question about being born again. If he hadn’t asked it, we wouldn’t be hearing it now!”
Then we got to the lesson where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. At this point for almost 50 lessons, Tapman had been hearing: “God is sending the Helper, and people need to believe in him when he comes. Only the Helper can take away the payment for our sin — separation from God forever. We can’t help ourselves. We need the Helper to come and help us. God loves everyone and doesn’t want anyone to get the punishment for sin. He’s marked a road to help us. There’s only one road, and that’s the Helper that He’s going to send.” He’d heard these statements over and over, and then after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, some of the people who saw the miracle ran to the religious leaders and told them what Jesus had done. The religious leaders responded like this: “Hey, he’s doing so many miracles. If we don’t stop him, everyone will believe in him!”
When Tapman heard what all the leaders were saying, he looked away in disgust and started tearing up. He couldn’t believe that anyone could react that way to Jesus — to the Helper! He said, “All of that thinking is from The Enemy, Satan. The Enemy doesn’t want any of us to believe in the Helper, and he tricked those religious leaders too just like he tricked us.”
We then went through the last supper, the garden, the arrest, the trial, and the crucifixion. They were glued the entire time. When Jesus told all his disciples that in order to help everyone, God wanted to use his blood to finalize a new contract between him and the whole world, they got really excited! The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place for them. In the garden, they heard that Jesus wasn’t in anguish because of the pain he would receive, but because for the first he and his Father would separated. The gravity of our sin began to really sink in. Jesus was going to take on the entire weight of our sin.
When Jesus died, and the centurion said, “Truly that man was the Son of God,” Tapman started crying hard, and Keko added, “Hey, I can’t help myself. I’m a sinner. Only the Helper can help me.”
Then we taught the resurrection, and they were so excited. Jesus defeated death! He’s alive. He’s at the right hand of God! He’s the king! After this lesson, the guys began discussing the meaning of the gospel, and the work Jesus had actually done for them. Then they talked again about their work.
At that point Tapman said, “Hey, in the trade language outsiders always say, ‘Believe! Believe! Just believe!’ But now we know what the actual true meaning of ‘belief’ is. We used to think it meant we needed to ‘think strong’ by doing many things. But that won’t take away the punishment for our sins. Trying to follow the law won’t take away the punishment for our sins. Going to church, and singing, and praying to try and get rid of our sins is what the Pharisees were doing. We’re like them, when we do that. Sometimes people say, ‘Show your belief. Buy a pig for K1000 or K500 and show your belief!’ What is that!? That’s not belief! When we hear ‘believe’ in the trade language we think, ‘think strong’ and that means you need to try and do all these different things. But ‘believe’ in English just means to think that something is true. Hey those two aren’t the same. They’re different. In our language “believe” should be expressed as, “Yeah, that’s true!” That’s what we clearly heard in our language just now! Now we know what ‘belief’ means.
After the resurrection, we taught them about Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. Again, they heard the nuts-and-bolts of the Gospel. We could tell from everything they were saying that they were clearly believing in the Gospel, but they were almost being timid about just coming out and saying, “Hey, I’m in God’s family now.” It was like they didn’t want to be presumptuous.
On the chalkboard we had previously written “Satan’s clan” on one side and “God’s clan” on another. I went up to the board and wrote all of our names under Satan’s clan. Then I told the group that when I was younger, I had heard this same talk and had believed in the Helper. “At that exact moment God took me out from Satan’s clan and placed me in His.” When I’d finished speaking, I erased my name and rewrote it under God’s clan on the board. Then I handed the chalk to Keko and asked, “Has a change happened in your life?”
He looked at me and said, “Hey, I’m from Adam, and I used to be in Satan’s clan. I was separated from God because of my sin and there was nothing I could do to help myself. But God promised to send a helper to take the punishment for my sins, and that Helper was Jesus. He took the entire punishment. He did the work. My only work is to say that it’s true about Jesus and what he did! That’s what I’m saying! Because of Jesus the Helper, God has taken me out of The Enemy’s clan and placed me inside His clan. Now I’m joined with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit forever!”
Keko then got up, erased his name from Satan’s clan, wrote it under God’s clan, and handed the chalk to Tapman. Tapman looked down at the chalk and said, “Hey, God doesn’t lie. What he says is always true, and he says that If I say, “It’s true,” about his son, Jesus, the Helper, then he will take away the payment for my sin, give me eternal life, and put me in his clan. God promised that, so it’s true. I’m saying it’s true about Jesus the Helper, so God has put me in His clan!” Tapman got up, erased his name from under Satan’s clan, and rewrote it under God’s clan.
Then he handed the chalk to Yadaasi. Yadaasi began to weep and through broken sobs he gave the clearest testimony I’ve ever heard. He was astounded by the grace of God. He knew he didn’t deserve any of it. He had no illusions about his own righteousness. He knew he needed the Helper, and was beside himself that that Helper had helped him. He too erased his name from Satan’s clan, and wrote it under God’s clan.
Words are petty things for describing the feeling of looking at those men — knowing we would be brothers forever. Knowing we are all one in Christ. Knowing God’s church had been born in the village of Pinji.
But the story doesn’t stop there. We wanted these guys to know how the story is actually going to end. So we taught them about the church being persecuted in Jerusalem and spreading the gospel to the surrounding areas. Then we talked about Peter and Cornelius — the first gentile believer. When Keko saw that the Holy Spirit was given to the gentiles, he started crying and said, “This is our talk! This is our talk! It came to us! God sent his Holy Spirit to us!” From here we taught them that the church was commanded to take this gospel to every language. Just like it had come to them, it would go to others who haven’t yet heard.
For the last lesson we went to Revelation. They heard that Jesus would appear in his glory with a sword riding a white horse, and that all the enemies would be defeated. When I read the passage that said Satan would be thrown into the lake of fire, they all cheered! They knew whose side they were on, and were excited to see the ending. They saw that those whose names were not written in the book of life were given the same fate as Satan. Then they saw God coming down to be with his people forever, and that all tears, sorrow, pain, and death had been done away with. This was their hope, and they were so so excited to have it!
Thanks for praying with us for these guys! Continue to pray for the entire village.