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When people died and they buried them, they stuck a cross on the grave.
But the cross was not just a symbol for anything.
They thought that is the ticket for them, for the spirit of that dead
To actually go to God and say, "See I have a cross so I can go to heaven."
New Tribes missionaries saw all around them the religious practices
of baptism, communion, and going to church.
The children even sang about Jesus in the trade language.
Had the missionaries come to the right place? Did the people already know Jesus?
In the past I was a religious leader over our village.
In my heart I really wanted us all to live the way the Bible says to.
When people would build a new house we would do the rituals to bless their house.
And I gave offerings to the idols.
I thought the Bible tells us to do these things.
These religious activities were done to appease God,
much in the same way the Dinangats feared their dead ancestors.
So, whenever problems came up, people got sick or people died,
they believed that it was because of the spirits of their dead ancestors.
They used a magic man to try to communicate with those dead ancestors.
They had all kinds of rituals, killing pigs or chickens, to try to appease them.
I was befriending these women, getting to know them, their culture, their village, their way of life.
They had so many heartaches, so many issues in life,
that I knew the answer to their problems,
but because I didn't know the language, I didn't know the culture well at all,
I was not free to be able to share about those things.
They didn't have anything written down before so we developed an alphabet.
So that they could eventually one day read the scripture in their own language.
We first taught the Dinangat people starting in Genesis,
where the old testament always points forward to the Promised Deliverer,
and so then we came up to the New Testament where the Promised Deliverer actually was born,
and so he did fulfill all those promises in the Old Testament.
And then as we were teaching we used dramas to illustrate.
In the weeks following you could see the lights going on,
and people really coming to understand who Christ is, what he did for them,
and believing and trusting in him as their Savior.
So we know that hearing God's Word in our own language is the best.
And because of hearing it in our language we have believed.
And because we've believed we are in now under God. We are new.
When Jesus died and rose again we were with him in his death and resurrection,
and later we will go and live with him forever.
Some have seen their wives die in labor or their kids dying because of sicknesses.
Now when those kind of things come up, now they go to the Word of God.
Because they know this is true. This is the God that holds us in his hands.
And so now they apply what they know is true and precious to them, even in hard times,
where you would think they could go back to those old beliefs, old thinkings.
Gone are the days of worrying if the ancestor spirits are going to haunt them
or do things to interrupt or harm them in their lives.
Those are gone and are replaced with a biblical perspective,
that is changing every aspect of their lives.
And we're just so thankful to the Lord to be able to see it, watch it,
be challenged by it every day.
Now who I am is very different than what I used to be.
The Holy Spirit has changed me.
In the past I used to try and teach people with the trade language,
but now things have changed.
Now I am teaching God's Word in our own language,
and people are hearing it and understanding.
And now not only are they teaching here in the home village,
but now they are taking God's word and taking it to other places,
to other villages that speak this language here.
As they're teaching other people and they're able to communicate straight to their heart,
man that's been exciting for our whole team to watch this,
and to see God just transform their lives.