God gets the glory
What appeared to be a tense situation among the Dinangat people has been calmed and has served to unify the church in an “awesome way.”
News arrived a few days ago that a delegation of religious leaders from another village was attempting to remove the missionary team from the area. The threat resulted in a plan of action that brought a team of NTM leaders and police to meet the delegation.
Tuesday morning, the NTM leaders were flown to the village airstrip, followed by another flight that brought the police. The delegation from the other village crested the top of the airstrip as the plane carrying the police had the motor shut down.
“We didn’t have to be with this angry group of men for one minute without the proper support,” wrote April Markley.
The police immediately took control. The delegation was very surprised to see them and right away said that they intended no harm.
The religious leaders were given the opportunity to make their accusation and demands before the floor was given to the believers.
The police spokesman repeatedly declared that Papua New Guinea is a free country, where freedom of religion and freedom of speech are honored and absolutely cannot be denied to anyone, citizen or non citizen. He emphasized that the missionaries have every right to be in the village and the people have every right to listen to the teaching.
About 120 Dinangats were there to testify of how God has changed their lives. Hand after hand went up from people wanting to testify but the police spokesman finally had to put an end to it.
“Testimony after testimony came out as believers stepped up to tell how their eyes had been opened by the hearing of the Word in their own language,” wrote April.
“I literally cried as I listened to them give God all the glory,” wrote Gary Smith.
Some of those giving testimony were new believers from another village who were seen running over the mountains in the morning to be there in support of the missionaries.
“This round definitely went to the victory of the young Christians here and our Lord’s precious name,” April wrote. “Their testimonies were powerful.”
“After these men heard the testimonies, one man proposed that we can stay until we finish the [Bible] translation,” Gary wrote.
Please pray that God will continue to have the victory among the Dinangats and that those who have opposed the teaching of God’s Word will come to know the truth.