48 Hours

Dear Friends and Family:

Well, we are 48 hours from starting the teaching and so much has happened
since I last wrote that it would take too long to write, and too much of
your energy to read it. Suffice it to say that God is doing some incredible
preparation on hearts here, and the biggest talk in the village is the
"secret talk" that is coming on Monday night (The Yembi's are calling it the
"secret talk" because it has taken so long to get to them).

Our teaching schedule for now is Mon,Tues,Wed,Sat,Sun evening starting at
5:00 and ending around 7:00. Things change very rapidly here, so that
schedule might not survive the first week, but that is the plan for now.

Monday at 2:00 in the afternoon our entire team (Suttons, Shonteres and us)
will be meeting together to pray, then we will be heading down to the
village and at around 4:00 we will hit the meeting drum (it is the culture
to give everyone an hour or so from the time of hitting the drum to the
start of any meeting).

Monday we will start with an introduction to what we are teaching, "Why
this talk is important?" "Where did God's talk originate?" "How did this
talk come to us?" and "Why it is so important to hear the whole talk?"

Tuesday is Genesis 1:1 and starting on God's attributes

Wednesday is the creation of Angels, Lucifer, the earth and the sky.

During the teaching there will be constant tension on their present
worldview, and the God of the Bible. Be praying that He would give us wisdom
as the two come into collision and the Yembis meet for the first time the
One who has no beginning, who can not be bought off, who sees all thoughts
and actions, and who loves them deeply, but cannot allow sinful people to be
with Him in heaven. It is going to be a rough ride for many.

Keep praying for Kerobim Manu. Last week he stood up in the Catholic
"church" and blasted the other "teacher" for NOT joining the literacy class,
and for putting it down. Kerobim graduated with no absences and near the top
of the class last Saturday and although he is not on our side by any
stretch, it was nice to have him backing the literacy program (which we will
have a graduation for the third class in a few more weeks).

Remember we have the website http://www.flickr.com/photos/yembiyembi/ that
has all the pictures of the Yembi's on it.
Some of the people that we have talked to in recent days (I know some of you
have the pictures of them) that are very excited about the coming teaching
are; Sylvia, Micheal, Sabina, Job, Roger, Robert, Stanley, Sophia, Joanna,
Malkiol, Lukas, Prisca, Alex, Angela, Andrew, Donald, Bosco, Max, Hellen,
Herman, Bill, Nancy, Siril, Regina, Josie, Jacinda and many many others.

In the last few days the rumors have really started to fly about what is
coming in the teaching. Some Yembis believe we will be showing them the
road that the cargo comes from, some that we are going to bring dead loved
ones back to life during the teaching, some think we are dead loved ones
come to save them from whatever death has in store, and some believe we will
be calling the spirits of the jungle out to bring death and destruction to
the tribe.

In all this remember that we (yourself included) are in a spiritual battle.
Yembiyembi is a very strategic place in the Sepik (A province of Papua New
Guinea) and if this tribe understands clearly the gospel of grace it would
have a powerful ripple affect through the entire region. So neither you or I
should be surprised if we hit opposition early and often through the
teaching, the key will be to keep praying through all of the distractions.

Remember to pray for these key issues.

1. Attendance. Partial understanding is very dangerous, if they miss or step
out of the teaching it will keep them on their present path...which is
separation from God... and eternity in hell.

2. The lessons would resonate in them. Only God can bring about change, but
as we teach He can give us the wisdom to knock down, build up, and explain
all the areas that are not clear to them. We really need that wisdom.

3. Health for our entire team through the next 3 months. The list of things
that can go wrong health wise in the tropics is long, Malaria is the most
common, please be praying we would be healthy.

Guys that should do it, I am off to bed. Thanks for your patience, I don't
care for long e-mails, but this is a once in a lifetime event and I had to
let you know what was going on, our other e-mails will be much shorter than
this I promise.

We love you all, we are glad you are on this team, we would not be here
without you, thanks for standing with us.

Your friends,

Brooks, Nina, and Beau