Hi everyone! We have some exciting news to share~Joel's sister, Sarah and her husband, Derek, who work with New Tribes Mission...have just moved into the Dao tribe to join their co-workers. Please please pray for them as the Lord brings them to your minds...they are building their house now (pict above) and their partners are in the beginning phase of Bible Teaching! These are really really exciting times for them!! :) Please pray for safety, strength as they build and learn language and help their partners with the teaching, etc. Keep posted on them through us or click the link to their blog at the bottom of this post. Thanks so much for your prayers!! Here's one of the latest updates from the Dao..._img.jpg)
“Don’t stop teaching!” beg the Dao people of Indonesia. “We want to hear more!”
This is music to the ears of NTM missionaries Scott and Jennie Phillips and their co-workers, Derek and Sarah Grant.
“Every single day that we taught this last week this is what we heard,” wrote Scott. “It is the Dao people themselves that have decided that we need to teach them at least five days a week for at least two or three hours a day.”
“We want you to keep teaching us until our knees are sore because we have been sitting too long,” they told the missionaries.
Even though they have only been teaching for one full week, the missionaries can already see changes taking place in the people’s world view – and the beginnings of a “childlike faith.”
For centuries the Dao people have believed that spirits roam the earth seeking to kill them and eat their bodies. They believe that the decaying process actually happens as the evil spirits are eating the dead body.
“Little by little they are beginning to understand not only which parts of their belief system such as these are … inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible,” Scott wrote, “but they are also learning that there is a Creator that is even greater than the spirits themselves and that this very Creator is their only hope.”
One example of the changes occurring happened while Scott was walking with a friend, Daapoi. They were on their way to visit another Dao man who had just finished building a small house near their village so that he and his family would have a place to sleep while they were there for the teaching.
“We were just a little ways down the trail when [Daapoi] stopped dead in his tracks and said, ‘I dropped my cigarette! I dropped it! You got to help me find it because a spirit could get hold of it and then cause me to die!’”
Daapoi scrambled around in the bushes looking for it and Scott wasn’t sure how to respond since he didn’t want to reinforce his beliefs by helping him look for it. But before he could figure out what to do, the Dao man stopped suddenly and looked up at Scott with a big smile.
“You know what?” said Daapoi, “The Creator is bigger than the spirits, the Creator can protect me! I don’t have to be afraid of them!” Then he walked off down the trail leaving the cigarette behind.
“I cannot even begin to explain the joy that we have felt over the past few days as we have been reflecting over the awesome things that God is doing here in the hearts and minds of the Dao people,” wrote Scott.
“We ask that you would continue to plead to God on a daily basis and even on an hourly basis if possible that He would continue revolutionizing the Dao people group for His glory,” Scott wrote.
“Pray also that God would continue to give us the strength and grace to continue this teaching schedule. Pray that He would help our voices and lungs to hold out for His glory.”
This is music to the ears of NTM missionaries Scott and Jennie Phillips and their co-workers, Derek and Sarah Grant.
“Every single day that we taught this last week this is what we heard,” wrote Scott. “It is the Dao people themselves that have decided that we need to teach them at least five days a week for at least two or three hours a day.”
“We want you to keep teaching us until our knees are sore because we have been sitting too long,” they told the missionaries.
Even though they have only been teaching for one full week, the missionaries can already see changes taking place in the people’s world view – and the beginnings of a “childlike faith.”
For centuries the Dao people have believed that spirits roam the earth seeking to kill them and eat their bodies. They believe that the decaying process actually happens as the evil spirits are eating the dead body.
“Little by little they are beginning to understand not only which parts of their belief system such as these are … inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible,” Scott wrote, “but they are also learning that there is a Creator that is even greater than the spirits themselves and that this very Creator is their only hope.”
One example of the changes occurring happened while Scott was walking with a friend, Daapoi. They were on their way to visit another Dao man who had just finished building a small house near their village so that he and his family would have a place to sleep while they were there for the teaching.
“We were just a little ways down the trail when [Daapoi] stopped dead in his tracks and said, ‘I dropped my cigarette! I dropped it! You got to help me find it because a spirit could get hold of it and then cause me to die!’”
Daapoi scrambled around in the bushes looking for it and Scott wasn’t sure how to respond since he didn’t want to reinforce his beliefs by helping him look for it. But before he could figure out what to do, the Dao man stopped suddenly and looked up at Scott with a big smile.
“You know what?” said Daapoi, “The Creator is bigger than the spirits, the Creator can protect me! I don’t have to be afraid of them!” Then he walked off down the trail leaving the cigarette behind.
“I cannot even begin to explain the joy that we have felt over the past few days as we have been reflecting over the awesome things that God is doing here in the hearts and minds of the Dao people,” wrote Scott.
“We ask that you would continue to plead to God on a daily basis and even on an hourly basis if possible that He would continue revolutionizing the Dao people group for His glory,” Scott wrote.
“Pray also that God would continue to give us the strength and grace to continue this teaching schedule. Pray that He would help our voices and lungs to hold out for His glory.”
CHECK out Derek and Sarah's blog for more details and to catch up on what they are up to now...currently building their house in the jungle! :)
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