It is Sunday today and apart from a surprise flight in from our pilot (the tribe upriver from us had a medivac and we were in the flight path so we got some supplies) things are pretty quite around Yembiyembi. Beau is going through a bout of Malaria with a fever of 103 right now, so be praying for him, and Nina and I are both spent from a long week of work, but overall we are all doing well.
The big news is the completion of the teaching house and starting into the book of Romans. We had communion last night in the teaching house (always a drama with the strong opposition we have) and taught on the first 7 verses of the book of Romans and introduced some of the bigger issues we will be talking about in the upcoming weeks. The believers are especially fired up to learn about topics like, Paul showing clearly that the Law doesn't take us to God's side, belief in the bridge-man and how He alone can save, what a believer has to look forward to on this ground and the ground (heaven) to come.
Last night at the men's meeting I walked in from gathering firewood with one of my brothers and heard "when we skin change like the snake it will be so nice". I was curious as to what they were talking about when one of my brother-in-laws (Bakago, or Brian) told me they were talking about receiving new bodies when they get to heaven some day. He said "Brother-in-law, we are talking about how it will be at Jesus's ground, when we die our meat/bones (body) from this ground we will shed like a snake, and we will get new ones, ones that don't feel burn, don't feel stings, don't split when knives are put to them, we will be new, we will be joined back to God like that branch brought back in, just like we were supposed to be".
Some of them started getting excited and one of the young boys said, "When I get to heaven I will eat the best food there is, rice, tinned fish and cow fat pieces, and….I will have the cold water chunks (ice) all day long, but only if I have good teeth then." Most of the guys nearly fell off the benches laughing.
Things are going well as far as the teaching goes, we still have the constant tension with the people who never crossed to God's side (or unbelievers) and it makes for some interesting village dynamics these days. Most of the believers were solid going into the book of Acts, but after watching the Apostle Paul and what he put up with and was willing to sacrifice for the gospel they are doubly so now.
The unbelievers made another push about 2 weeks ago to stop the teaching, baptisms, and any new people from joining and demanded that myself and the leaders of the "crossers" come down and answer some questions. We went through the usual gamut of threats and what not, and at the end my father Lucas stood up and said this, "We all know that we are two villages now, some of us have heard, understood, and believed to be true the talk of the bridge-man and some of us haven't. Some of you think that when my white son leaves we will not be able to follow the trail and will fall back to the old ways. But I tell you with my own mouth right now, I will never go back, none from my family will ever go back. Why? Because we have tasted the sweet of true talk, and our eyes are opened to the difference between mans talk and God's. I will follow the path of Paul and no matter what happens to me on this ground, I will never go back. No spear, no stone (verbal insult), no talk from the head of man will change me, that is how I stand!"
If I could impress on you one thing from this e-mail it is this, keep praying for your people. We are still in a war out here and your prayers really are the difference maker in the outcome.
Thanks guys for your letters, e-mails, packages and support of us over here, we are ever grateful for the team we have behind us.
Thanks so much,
Brooks for Nina and Beau
P.S. the pictures of the Yembiyembi's continue to be at http://www.flickr.com/photos/yembiyembi/ and there is a blog of all our update e-mails, a recent video of the teaching at http://bringingthesecrettalk.blogspot.com/
P.S.S. when we get to our base we will try and send some recent pictures of the new teaching house.
