Burns May, 2008 Update

May 23, 2008
Dear Pastors, Friends and Supporters

We are excited about the news we are hearing from some of the tribes in New Guinea these days! There are quite a few of them who are hearing the Gospel message for the first time ever!! We will try to inform you of some of the happenings there.

For the last few months the Dinangat people of Papua New Guinea have been taught chronologically through the Bible. Then in April they were taught the lesson on Jesus’ death and burial. Then on Monday they heard the resurrection story for the first time. First a skit was acted out and then the missionaries explained the meaning of what happened.

Here is a testimony from one of the tribal people: 
All my life I’ve turned my back on God. I’ve never come to any of the religious meetings that the people have. But as I watched those men beating Jesus I realized that I was one of those men. What Jesus did for me I can’t even put into words and I don’t want to turn my back on him anymore.”

Gary and Esther Smith wrote from the tribe:

The words above already are a wonderful testimony, but when you understand who they are coming from it adds so much more weight to them. Totne (pictured to the left) is a man that lives way up the mountain and usually keeps his distance from the community. He’s always seemed like a hard man, and thus we haven’t been able to develop much of a relationship with him. But God has drawn him to the teaching meetings everyday for the past 4 months, and as he watched the drama unfold (picture attached) on Friday of how the people treated Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of the world, it became very personal for Totne.

On Monday, as missionary Gary Smith portrayed Christ dying on the cross he was literally shaking. “Which actually helped it seem more real,” he wrote.

A few people were moved to tears, but overall the response to the death, burial and resurrection by the Dinangat people in Papua New Guinea was described by Gary as “seemingly lackluster.”  

“These people are an extremely quiet and reserved people,” Gary wrote. “And even though many of them have believed they still are afraid to say anything to anyone.”

But by talking to people one on one, Gary and his wife, Esther, are hearing testimonies of people placing their faith in Christ and are convinced that a church has been born among the Dinangats.

Please pray for boldness to be evident among those who have believed in Christ and that the teaching of God’s Word will spread to other Dinangat villages. Please uphold Smiths, Markleys and Schlegels in prayer as well as the hearts of the Dinanget people as they contemplate the message they have heard.

Our family is doing fine. Heather didn’t flunk her classes like she feared, Cody comes home a week from Monday and will spend the summer with us until time to go back to Bible school and Haley only has 4 more weeks of school. I only have 6 1/2 more days of teaching classes at my school – so that is even better! We have finished up another year of Awana. It has been a good year working with the 7th-9th graders. I have attached a couple of pictures from Awana.

Phil is back to working on our downstairs bathroom – hope to have it usable within the next month. He stopped working on it for a long time because of the roof project and some outside jobs but hope it won’t take much longer now.

That’s all the news for now. Wanted to let you know we are still here – haven’t had heat stroke yet, though it is warming up here in Florida. Thank you again for partnering with us to reach the tribes with the Gospel. Your prayers and support are much appreciated.

For more information on the Dinangat see the following article: www.ntm.org/news/7390

We love you,
Jackie for the Burns Bunch