Fato-June 2012

(Fato is a local leader and his house/hut is next to my house here)

01:06 Long ago at the time when my grandparents and father lived they used to say, “Evil spirits are alive and living all around us.” That’s what they said and because of that at that time of my grandparents they would never live in valleys/flat ground (like here at Yifki), they only lived on the mountains and ridge tops. That’s how they used to live and in order to keep the evil spirits [called] Kimiyo from coming out of the valleys to eat them (causing their sickness and death) they used to take flat stones and set them upright in the ground (on the trails overlooking valleys and ravines). They would set those stones upright and get certain vines to cover the areas/trails (to keep the evil spirits from knowing where the flat stones were hidden) and only after that would they return to their houses (to live).

01:55 (After moving from one ridge top to another), If later they returned to location they had previously lived, one of their customs was to split certain palm trees into planks and drive them into the ground to keep the evil spirits from coming up to the area of their new houses. They would drive those planks into the ground and then (feeling secure) they would live in those locations.

02:07 They would never stay or live down here (Yifki valley) on the flat ground at all. They only stayed on the mountain tops and ridges as they lived. As (my ancestors) lived on those mountain tops and ridges they didn’t build small (individual) huts but instead the families joined together to build large houses and because they were scared [of spirits and to keep the spirits from seeing into their houses] they peeled sheets of bark off trees to line the insides of their houses. They also spent a lot of time splitting logs into planks to make exterior siding (to make sure spirits could not see into their houses giving them the ability to cause sickness and death).

02:23 Another thing they did to keep the spirits from eating them (causing their sickness and death) was they built their houses up in the air rather than building on ground level. They would then line the inside of their houses with bark [to keep the spirits from seeing inside]. They lived like that and at night they told each other, “Watch out. Don’t go outside in the dark or the evil spirits will eat you,” that’s how they talked to each other at night.

02:47 They would say, “The spirits are like birds/bats flying around here and there in the dark [so don’t go outside]” and because of that they did not walk around in the dark. If they ever did happen to walk down on the flat areas/valleys (to hunt), in order to keep the Kimiyo spirits from eating them they would quickly return to the mountains.

03:12 (Another thing our ancestors did to keep free from spirit attack was) they would call for their dogs to come (with them wherever they might go) and they would say things to each other like, “Watch out, the Kimiyo spirit is going to eat you so be careful,” that’s how they spoke to each other as they lived. That’s how they talked and truly they were living on a very bad trail. As they lived they did not see/understand the real reason for sickness and death but instead they kept thinking only of evil spirits as they lived. If someone died they would say the Kimiyo spirit had eaten them, and that’s all they thought/understood as they lived.

03:39. They didn’t understand the reason for death and so my father and mother felt they were getting devoured by evil spirits and they continued to die.

03:49 The ancestors were living like that when (my father) Alimpu was born. As he grew up, when people got sick and died he and the others thought that one of the causes of death was evil spirits living inside of people so they murdered many men and women (trying to kill the evil spirits living in them that were causing deaths).

04:00 That was how they were living when I was born so very truly I followed the same trail that Alimpu and the rest of them had followed. I followed that same trail so [in fear of spirits] I also murdered a man. The reason was that people said, “He has an evil spirit in him,” so thinking that I killed him. I killed him and then later I killed a woman (for the same reason). The woman I killed was actually a daughter of my mother’s sister (cousin) but I killed her (to keep her spirit from eating the rest of us). The man that I had killed was also a relative as he was the son of one of my uncles’ brothers.

04:37 That’s how we lived on and on until later Jonathan and Keith and Yanis moved to Fiyawena (a different Hewa village/dialect) and lived there. At that time I was living here in these mountains so I didn’t live there with them, but rather hiked back and forth to see them. I went back and forth several times during (those years) and during that time we were in bad shape as my uncles and cousins and other relatives continued to die.

05:14 Life went on like that until God caused it to happen so that later I myself had a sickness that caused me to be in very much pain. At the same time all my kids and my relatives were also [very sick] and on the brink of death. They were dying (three had died and were buried outside his house and many others had died in different Hewa villages) but God caused it to happen so that at that time Jonathan and Yanis carried medicine to where we were living. When they arrived they came into (the house) where our bodies were scattered (on the floor) and they put the medicine in our mouths as we lay there and helped us swallow it by giving us water. They gave us medicine in that way one time and then another and then after the third time we were able to sleep/rest and it caused us to be surprised.

05:49 We were surprised that we were recovering and were able to [get up] and look around. Truly we were almost dead but now we were able to [sit up and] look around so we were very surprised (as we had expected to die). We hadn’t died but instead had returned to life. We had returned to life so at that time we changed our way of thinking. Our thinking changed so later when Yanis and Ken came to live with us (to teach us the Bible) we were so happy we killed pigs for a ground oven feast to celebrate. We were so happy they had come and had killed the pigs in their honor because they had come after Alimpu had told them he wanted to hear God’s words/message. But it wasn’t just Alimpu that had caused Yanis and Ken to come to teach God’s words, it was God that had caused it to happen.

06:26 They came here to teach God’s words but it was because Jonathan had taught God’s words in Fiyawena but the illustration is that at that time the seeds that he planted had fallen on rocky ground and so had not grown up to maturity. Jonathan had then returned to America (furlough) but instead of staying there God’s spirit carried him back so that he came here to plant the seeds (of the Gospel) here with us.

06:44 It happened like that so truly in 2008 at the time I was living with my eyes blinded (not being able to see) and at the time when my mouth was not able to speak (truth) and when my heart was blocked from understanding, and as an illustration it was as if I was tied with a pig leash (and so could not free myself), when I was in that condition in 2008 very truly Jesus came and he cut away the pig leash to set me free (from the bondage of the ancestral trail).

07:10 Jonathan had come and said, “Brother, come on this trail, take this trail here,” and he cleared the trail for us to follow but truly it wasn’t Jonathan or Ken or Yanis that did it, very truly it was Jesus that came and rescued/saved me.

07:21 It was like that and truly in 2008 I attended their classes and then my eyes became opened so I could see. My eyes were opened so I could read the Bible. I could see/read it and the words were spoken again to me (as I read I heard again the words of truth). My heart was filthy and as if it was tied with a pig leash (trapped and unable to be free) but at that time I could read and understand and for the first time I had the ability to reason. I realized I was not like a dog or pig that has no thinking/reasoning but that I should be a person who thinks and understands.

07:55 It’s not that my heart has the ability to think or reason, but God’s Spirit came to me and gave the support I needed so that my heart was able to think. It was like that and very truly at that time the blood of Jesus did not come to be poured out for a tree or dog or pig or any other animal. Very truly we people were destined for punishment in hell so Jesus wanting to wash away all my sins came here and in the same way that water washes away filth, His blood completely washed away the sins in my heart.

08:25 Jesus spoke the truth when he talked in John 14 after verse one saying, “There is no other trail for anyone to get to God except through me.” (He truly is the only way to a friendship with God).

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Faimpat-June 2012

(Faimpat is the young man who led the evangelistic outreach to the village called Pasife)

00:18 This is how I lived long ago. Earlier when I was just a small boy, at that time the people that I lived with did not teach me all the ways of the ancestors. They didn’t teach them to me but now, you see, earlier as they had lived on until the present time, Taweta Mofi (the witch doctor) and Matiyu and all of the other men had been sacrificing pigs to the spirits of the pine trees and burning pine tree pitch in order to have successful hunting trips.

00:42 They had done it like that but at that time I (was a just a young boy so I) had just seen it with my eyes (without much comprehension) so I didn’t understand it at all. I had observed it without much comprehension but then later when I thought back to that time I thought, It is the truth and a good way to go so I will follow those ways, that’s what I thought.

00:57 It was like that but later as I got older and watched those same things happening I realized they were practices of no significance at all. All those rituals were meaningless. What the (witch doctor and other men) thought was significant was really insignificant, it had no point to it.

1:07 I (heard about God) and began to realize that truly the one God was the one that had made all the grounds (earth) and sky and everything else, that’s what I began to understand.

01:14 It was that earlier I hadn’t realized the (truth) as I lived but later in 2008 Jonathan and Yanis came to our village and at that time I heard the message (of the Bible) and understood (the truth for the first time). That’s when I understood and when I heard their message I thought, It’s very true, all the things that were created are not something of significance themselves, the only thing of importance is God and the truth that He created everything. He alone is the source of everything.

01:31 I understood that (truth for the first time) and so I stayed there to hear all of God’s words/message. I stayed there listening on and on until I heard the end of the story where I heard about Jesus’ death for me. I listened on and on about how the Blood that Jesus spilled on the cross was to pay for my sin debt. I heard that and understood.

01:49 When I understood that I realized that all the things of this ground (earth) that seem so significant and important are of no importance at all. The words that God spoke are so very true and filled with significance that after I understood it I was so happy that at that time I decided I would try to live doing God’s work (working for God). That’s what I realized/decided so at that point I began to help teach God’s words to the people that lived at that village, Kul. It was like that and later I decided to carry God’s words/message and go to teach them at the village called Pasife.

02:20 I arrived there and wanting to try to teach God’s words I first started teaching them to read and write. The illustration was that by teaching I was driving foundation posts into the ground to build a house. I first taught them how to read and write as if I was starting to build a house. I taught several people how to read and write in such a way that all the men and women and children could see what I was doing out in the open.

02:32 I taught on and on in that way so later some of them finished the class (and so were able to read and write). They learned to read so then I began to teach the Bible starting with the first book (Genesis) continuing as it were to build the house. I went on driving posts in the ground to build the house by teaching through Genesis and then I also taught important passages of Exodus. I went on teaching in this way in order to finish driving in posts (foundation) into the ground until [that book] was completed.

02:53 I went on teaching through [the main passages of the Old Testament] and then taught from the book of Mathew. After that was complete I taught from the book of Mark. When that was completed I taught from Luke and John. I continued teaching on and on until I even taught through the book of Acts. The people heard all those stories and they thought, “Very truly the teachings of the Bible are teachings of huge significance and they are true.” I saw that and was so happy. At times (as I was teaching), some of the people [of that village] became sick and so I would pray to God for them and right then they would recover and get up. When that happened they thought, “God is truly alive,” that’s what they began to realize.

03:31 They understood that all the possessions and things of the ground were of no significance and they realized that the only thing of significance was God. They saw that God was very truly the source of all people and all the things of the grounds (earth) and sky and all possessions were just things that had their existence when they were created by God so they were not things of huge importance. I observed all that and realized even more that the only thing of significance (worth living for) was God.

03:56 The people (of that village) heard the stories I told of Jesus and they thought in their hearts, “This is really true,” (believed/faith/trusted). They thought it was true (believed) so when I saw this I helped 13 of those men and women take water (get baptized). It was after they believed that I helped them get baptized. It was like that and the illustration of baptism is that Jesus died and was buried and raised back from the dead and so in same way I baptized those people thinking of what Jesus did for them.

04:25 They were getting baptized knowing that they were quitting their old way of life to follow the Jesus trail and that’s why I allowed/helped them to get baptized. When they all got baptized I was so very happy by what I had seen.

04:36 Now I understand that (instead of living in the same way as the ancestors had lived) many of us are now living as Jesus’ children and we are living (as it were) under the blood of Jesus (our sin debt is paid by Jesus’ blood). When I saw that I became very happy (overjoyed).

04:44 It all happened like that so now I look back and realize I never really got (caught up) in the practices of the ancestors but now I have seen and understand the trail of Jesus and I know (am convinced) that this is the trail I should go on. I am under the blood of Jesus (my sin debt is paid by Jesus) so I should live on and on under the blood of Jesus. Later when Jesus comes back to get me, at that time I will take a break/rest at his ground. That’s the end of my story, it’s finished, thank you. 05:08

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Maikol-June 2012

Why I no longer kill people

4:24 Earlier it was true that I followed the practices of my ancestors because I believed that evil spirits who possessed people were the ones that (ate us causing our sickness and death), so I followed the practice of killing those people (he had murdered a man and a woman). Now I have heard the story of how Jesus has died for me so I shouldn’t kill anymore. My ears have heard (from the Bible) how Satan (and thus other evil spirits) never ate anyone (causing their sickness and death). I heard the stories of how instead of eating people, Satan tried hard to get people to break/disobey God’s words.

04:38 When Satan came to Jesus (after His baptism) Satan did not try to eat Jesus but rather tried to get him to disobey God. When I heard that I thought, wow, my ancestors fed me a bunch of lies, so now I realize that when I killed the man thinking he was possessed by a spirit, I actually killed him for no reason.

04:52 Now that I realize that I can no longer kill men. I can no longer kill women. Now I will follow Jesus trail realizing His words are true.

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Waina-June 2012

Waina is the widower that has a passion to share the Word and also to treat the sick villagers at our medical clinic

01:54 Earlier from the time of my birth, I grew up in my father’s house. I lived with my father so I took on the practices he (and the other Hewa men) had been following and I lived in the same way they did. My father (and the others) was convinced that evil spirits ate people causing them to get sick so they would rub stinging nettles on their skin and speak magic words/incantations (to stop the evil spirits). It was like that but that practice didn’t stop sickness and death so he and the other men took white clay and got it wet in their mouths and spit it from their mouths while saying magic words.

02:48 (My father and the other Hewa men) lived in that way so as I was a young man growing up I thought those practices were fine and good. I lived on like that but later I also got sick. I was sick so my father and the men split a piece of wood from a tree called Keyana and painted wavy lines on it using different colors of clay. They then took the painted wood and waved it all around my head and my body, and then drove it into the ground where I was lying near my feet (while speaking magic words to make me recover).

03:20 After they drove it into the ground there and it was true that I did slowly recover.

03:31 We lived like that on and on and (during that time) my father taught me his practices/customs. He would say, “If one of your brothers/cousins gets sick, do this, do that,” and that’s how he used to show me what to do.

03:53 During that time, one day one of my mother’s sisters got sick so my father showed me how to break a stalk of leaves from a certain plant and dip them in water and then slap the wet leaves all over her body (to drive away the evil spirits). He then showed me how to take the leaves and wipe them in a certain kind of dirt and then we planted that stalk of leaves by the trail (near our hut). We planted them there in order to drive away the evil spirits (that were causing the sickness).

04:15 At that time I took on the practices of my father and learned how to speak the magic words/incantations that would drive away the spirits that caused sickness and death. But at that time, one day he got sick saying his head was hurting. He had a bad headache so he broke off a small branch of a tree that had leaves on it and painted it black with a certain sap of a tree. He painted it until the entire branch including the leaves were black. Then he began slapping his back and head with the blackened branch, calling out magic words (in order to recover). That was his practice for driving away (spirits) that cause headaches.

04:49 When my dad (painted the branch and slapped his head and body) speaking those magic words, I heard it and learned how to do the same thing. He had said to me, “When your mothers or brothers or other relatives have head pain, this is what you should do as you are speaking the magic words,” so I thought it was truth and those were the practices I followed.

05:04 It was like that and so at that time (when we did those things) people would quickly recover. We lived speaking magic words and it was like a time of darkness in our lives.

05:15 It was at that time that my father got very sick and so we went to chop down a certain small tree. We cut it down and brought it back to our house where he was lying. We then peeled off some of the bark and chewed it and then spit it out in a fine spray and we yelled magic words (to drive away the spirits causing the sickness). After calling out we cut off the top branches of the tree and waved them all over my father’s body and then drove them into the dirt and ashes that made up the fire pit inside the house. That was how my father had showed me to do it so that’s what we did.

05:56 That’s how we lived on and on and then later, I went with some of my cousins to a valley to hunt game animals. It was a valley in the low lands and at that time one of my cousins got sick. He was sick so we asked him questions saying, “What happened? Why are you sick?”

06:13 “I came here to this valley,” he answered, “so the evil Kimiyo spirit has eaten me.”

We realized he was going to die (from being eaten by the spirit) so we broke off a branch of a spirit plant and began coloring it with yellow and orange and white clays and we also painted it with the black pitch of a tree. We then waved it around his body while speaking magic words to drive away the spirit that caused the sickness. We continued calling while motioning with our hands in this way.

06:58 We continued doing that, also taking tree leaves and waving them in the air. We did that on and on until he truly recovered to full health.

07:07 My cousin recovered so I was convinced thinking, “My father’s practices are based on truth.” Because of that I continued to follow those practices. I was living on in that way when one of my mother’s brothers became sick. Since he was sick I spoke the magic words (incantations) over his body.

07:24 I spoke magic words on and on but the (spirit) didn’t listen so the man got deathly ill and eventually died. I was so angry by his death that I found out which woman was possessed by the evil spirit that killed him and I went to where she was at and murdered her.

07:33 The men were saying, “She is possessed by the evil spirit that ate him,” and so I murdered her. It was that I was following the practices of my ancestors and that was what caused me to kill her. People were saying, “It’s her evil spirit that ate him and has been eating other men and women causing their deaths,” so when I heard that I killed her.

07:44 Later during that same time another person died so I joined others in killing a different man who was believed to have been possessed by an evil spirit who had caused the death. I was simply following the practices the ancestors had passed down to us. Earlier I had killed a woman and now I had also killed a man (believing them to be spirit possessed).

08:05 I killed them and that’s how we lived at that time. I lived on and on and during that time I never quit the practice of incantations/magic words. Those practices stayed with me on and on continually.

08:18 Another custom I learned during that time had to do with the dogs. One of our dogs wouldn’t hunt so we peeled the bark from a tree called Falima and chewed it well and then blew chunks of it into the dog’s nose while speaking magic words. After speaking the words I called for the dog to come with me and we went hunting. As we went (through the jungle) the dog killed a game animal.

08:38 I was thinking of the magic words my dad had taught me to speak so that’s how I handled the dog who wouldn’t hunt.

08:42 Later during that time another thing I did was to travel to a different village named Yano to learn the practices of one of my relatives. In order for my dog to become a better hunter I paid the man a lot of money to buy things like pakapakai and miyaka.

09:10 I bought a bunch of stuff and brought it back to the village called Fiyawena where I was living at that time and used them on my dog. I then went hunting and he killed lots of game animals. After he killed all those animals I was convinced of the power of the things I had purchased and was very happy.

09:23 I lived on and on like that while at the ground called Fiyawena, continuing to follow the trail of my ancestors. I lived on and on like that until later I moved to (my grandfather’s) village called Kul.

09:32 When I had lived at Fiyawena I wasn’t a leader of any type, I was just a young man. When I got older, the same age as (my cousin) Feyo I married a woman but then she later died. After that was when I came to Kul.

09:50 Living there I followed the practices of my grandfather (mother’s father) Alimpu. I followed his practices somewhat but mostly I continued to follow the practices my father had taught me.

10:05 I continued following the ancestral customs on and on but then later we who were living at that village got very sick. A big sickness had come so we planted the sapling of a tree called Keyana by the doorway of our house and also a certain palm and also another spirit shrub. We planted them all there together by the doorway/trail. We also planted some of them at the base of a popako tree along the trail. We did all that but the sickness didn’t stop so we were all confused thinking, what should we do?

10:59 We didn’t know what to do so we called for a “prophet” (witch doctor) (named) Taweta Mofi to come. He traveled to our village to see us but all his efforts proved futile.

11:06 Taweta Mofi wasn’t able to help us (by chasing away the evil spirits) so we realized we were all on the verge of death. Then two men died at the same time. One of them died in the heat of the day around twelve o’clock and the other died after dark about twelve o’clock, they both died in the same day.

11:22 After they died I should have ran to tell people in other villages about their deaths but there was no one with me that was healthy enough to help me and I felt all alone so I just stayed there.

11:29 That’s how it was at that time and we were on the brink of death so someone carried the news to Fiyawena. That’s when you (Jonathan) and Yanis and Kelefi carried medicine and came to the house we were staying at.

11:52 You all came and gave us medicine to swallow. After you had given your medicine no other adults died, and even the children were restored to life. After you left us to return (to Fiyawena) I continued to distribute the medicine until it was all eaten and because no one else (that had been deathly ill) died we were very surprised.

12:06 Wow! Everyone has recovered! This is a different kind of practice, that’s what I/we were thinking (after there were no more deaths).

(Paused to change camera battery) 14:32 That was what happened and truly no one else died. When you had arrived and were passing out medicine I had told you to give the medicine to me so I could continue distributing it so I was helping to give the medicine.

14:47 I was giving out the medicine (after you left for Fiyawena) and very truly some of the (sick people) people recovered immediately. Some took longer to recover.

15:02 I went on giving medicine (morning, noon and night) and finally every person was fully recovered. The sickness didn’t return at all. We were all recovered and we discussed (the recovery) among ourselves saying, “What should we do?”

15:13 We didn’t understand how the recovery could have been so quick and complete so we discussed the matter over and over not being able to understand. You (Jonathan) and Keith had been living at Fiyawena but the ground had become bad (people were fighting and killing each other) so you had decided to return to your ground (America).

15:35 After you had left and then later after you returned (to Fiyawena) we discussed it realizing you had been living at Fiyawena to teach them the message of the Bible and at the time we had been sick you had saved us by bringing medicine and so we began sending word for you and Yanis to come to live with us (in Kul).

15:52 We were calling for Yanis to come live with us so at the time we were clearing land for a garden (in that area) he arrived and planted his garden and built a house and at the same time you (Jonathan) also came. You came with him and lived together with us (in our tribal houses).

16:05 At the time you came to live together with us you worked together with us to clear land to plant gardens and build houses. When the first houses were completed, you were saying that you could not stay to live with us full time so we decided that (in order for Yanis to teach us reading and writing) we would build a small shelter (that would serve as our school house). We didn’t understand what we would need a house for but as we discussed it we realized you were planning to teach the Bible and we would need a place to gather together to listen to the message.

16:40 We were surprised when we realized you were going to teach because we didn’t know the meaning of significance of what you would be teaching. Earlier I had been a man who used the magic words and had been a man who knew the secrets of how to drive away the evil spirits (that caused our sickness and death) and I was a person who killed people (to save our village from death), so when we realized you were going to teach we had no idea what the meaning or significance would be.

16:51 I didn’t understand what you would be teaching but at that time I said, “We will listen to you teach God’s words/stories.” That’s what we were saying to you so you started teaching us how to read and write (in our own language). You (mostly Yanis) taught on and on and on and eventually some of us were getting it but some continued to be confused by the classes.

17:17 Fato and Toni and some of the other boys were the first to learn how to read and write. After we had learned (to read and write) you started to teach God’s words/stories (from Genesis). You taught on and on and on until you reached the stories about Jesus.

17:43 You taught on and on until we heard the entire story (through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus) and then you returned back to the beginning to teach through the stories again.

17:49 During that time you had been handing out portions of the Bible so we were able to read along for ourselves. As we were reading along we saw it for ourselves and said, “This is very true! This is nothing like the stories we have learned from our ancestors.

18:00 The stories we are hearing now are totally different,” that’s what we were saying as we listened to you (and Yanis) teach.

18:04 “These are not like the stories we learned about how to stop the evil spirits (from eating us). These are not stories about how to kill people (in order to stop death). These are not stories about how to get our dogs to hunt better by blowing bark fragments into their noses. These stories are not like our stories of using stinging nettles and magic words to save lives, or about how to plant spirit (plants and) trees along our trails, these stories are completely different.”

18:25 We were hearing your stories and were searching for the meanings in order to understand them well and we realized that very truly in the same way Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and were actually following Satan’s practices, we also during our lifetimes were disobeying God and were on Satan’s trail, following everything he had told us.

18:39 Now we were listening to God’s words and we realized that God’s ways were completely different (than the practices we had been following). At that time I saw/understood (the message) and was completely shocked/surprised. 18:44 I was so surprised and I thought, very truly this is the straight trail, this is the trail of truth. Truly God has shown us his grace through the life of Jesus even though we did not earn or deserve it. Jesus has shown God’s grace to us and it is through that grace that we can have good lives, that’s what I saw/understood (for the first time).

19:01 We saw that and we started to follow the life that Jesus had demonstrated. At the time we started following His life we put down (discarded) the practice of speaking magic words (to stop sickness and death). We also quit the practice of speaking magic words to get our dogs to hunt well. At the same time we quit the custom of killing people who we had thought were possessed by evil spirits. We began to follow only the Jesus trail. We followed that trail and continued to learn (the significance) of how Jesus had been killed and was buried and had returned to life.

We continued to listen (to Bible teaching) and went into the next phase of teaching and studied through the book of Acts.

19:32 When we got to the place in Acts where it talks about the (Ephesian believers) who burned all their sorcery books in a big fire (Acts 19), we also decided to burn our spirit possessions.

19:50 The (Ephesians) had been told to burn everything from the practices of their past and so in order to follow the straight and true practices of the trail of Jesus death for us we also gathered together and burned the things from our past like the miyaka and awafi and the kinds of clay and other things we had used to speak the magic words. We burned it all and now that those things are behind us we now only think/depend on the strength/power of Jesus as we live.

20:21 As we have lived on and on since then we have seen/understood we are thinking, “the practice of speaking magic words was a practice of no significance at all. Satan had been causing us to go down that trail by telling us lies. It was that long ago some of the angels had rebelled against God because they wanted to take his position as God and so those are the ones who were lying to us. In the same way they had lied to Adam and Eve to get them to disobey God they had also been trying to get us to disobey God by lying to us, so now we have seen what they have been doing and have thrown away that part of our lives.

20:40 Now we have gotten rid of the magic words (to recover from sickness) and the magic words to help our dogs hunt and the magic words to stop the evil spirits (from harming us) and the practice of killing people. We have discarded all those practices.

20:51 We have thrown away all those practices (from our past) as we think, the trail that Jesus showed us is a very good trail. If we trust in how he died and spilled his blood for us on the cross, that trust is what puts us on the right trail, that’s what we saw/understood.

21:03 That’s what we saw/understood though earlier we had not seen the trail that started with the blood of Jesus. Later, after we understood the death of Jesus we took water (got baptized). We demonstrated the way Jesus died and rose again by taking water (baptism).

21:18 Later we listened as you (and Keith) taught us Ephesians. Now we know we should live well under the blood of Jesus. In doing that we are living together as brothers and sisters underneath Jesus. It’s the straight trail (righteousness) so wanting to live on that trail I have thrown away the practices of the old trail. That’s the end of my story.