Do We Go or Do We Stay Now?

The day after I arrived in Wewak, we got word that a lady in our village had committed suicide.  She was the second wife of one of our main guys and although they’d been married for two years, the two wives still did not get along very well – and with good reason.  That particular day, the ladies got in a fight and it kept escalating.  Then when things seemed to have settled down, this lady cut down all of her garden things – greens, bananas, etc. so that no one else could eat them.  She cut up her clothes and anything else that someone else might have use for. Then she took some of the poisonous root that they use to fish with and squeezed some in a cup with water and drank it – twice.  A third cup was knocked out of her hand by another lady but the damage was done and she died within an hour.  But the people of Papua New Guinea, in the West Sepik anyway, don’t believe in suicide. They believe that sorcery caused her to do this.  So again, the people are terrified of the local witch doctor.  Harmony is a huge thing here – the most important thing to be maintained as disharmony is one of the main sources of sickness and death.  When there is disharmony, the village is really vulnerable at that time for sorcery to come in and kill people.  So the land dispute with another village, Beymaf, has our folks running for their lives.  They own the land here but this other village has claimed that this land is theirs.  They of course only started saying that once they knew that white missionaries were going to be moving in here.  And although this village is part of another language group and right next to the village where other white missionaries are located – that speak their language and help them all the time, they see this as a way to get money and things for themselves.  So over the years, they’ve demanded money and an outboard motor and drums of fuel from us but it’s not our land nor is it our dispute really.  Because of their fear of the witch doctor in this village, our folks are ready to run for the hills (swamp actually) to avoid the disharmony that comes with this disputed ground.  Because of Awe’s death, they’ve started counting up how many people have died since we got here and they’re pretty convinced that they’ll all die if they stay here.

 

As we came back in, we heard that we were having a meeting on Monday to talk about whether the village should move to their old village deeper in the jungle. Some said it was just a question – that if we say yes, we’d all move and if not, that’s ok too.  Some said it was far more serious than that.  Some didn’t even come back from their makeshift houses in the jungle for the meeting.  There was a large majority of the folks here though and although it was the main reason for the meeting, they started out trying to figure out who stole Paetrik’s tobacco and who stole bananas, sugar cane and tobacco from another guy’s garden, etc.  So we sat all morning talking about these things, just waiting for the heavy topic of moving to come up.  It seemed to us like they kept pushing it back as they didn’t really want to talk about it and yet we’d have to get to it eventually.  So finally, when they could avoid it no longer, the guys started laying out their case.  To us, it was hard to know how to respond to them.  We’ve talked about this in the past but the end result was that no one really went anywhere.  This time though we sensed that even the guys who have stated that they’ll die here were leaning more towards going too.  This made it all the more serious and so much harder.  We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the chronological teaching – from the truth that will set them free from their fears of sorcery – and yet, they’re ready to run off and not be here for the most important message of their lives.  They want to hear it, we definitely see that and hear that from them – it’s not a question of being uninterested in it, it’s all about their fears of sorcery and death.  It was a pretty hard meeting for me – seeing the darkness and deception they live in so clearly.  It was hard to see the faithful ones who have always stood with us now considering this so seriously too.  They’re in a really tough position.  They are terrified of this witch doctor and yet they want to hear the teaching.  There’s no Holy Spirit to guide them and empower them to stand up against the fear – they’re entrenched in their ancestral beliefs of life and death being held by the witch doctor rather than the Creator of heaven and earth! 

 

So once they were finished laying out their thoughts and concerns, we stepped up and started with a skit.  Elias had a shirt over his head and he stood in the middle.  Matt was on one side with a bow and arrow pointed at Elias the whole time.  He represented Satan and the lies that he tells.  I was on the other side, holding a fresh-off-the-presses copy of Scripture in the Uriay language.  I was trying to ‘lure’ Elias to my side with truth – with a way for them to have peace and not live in fear.  All the while Matt is telling him that he has good things for him and that I’m lying – that I want to kill him.  It was amazing to see how they responded to the skit!  I saw complete countenances change as they said how true this was.  It was a good foundation from which to share our heart and thoughts with the village.  We really tried to stress that life and peace are in God’s Word – in hearing and believing this message that they asked us to come and teach.  The long and short of our message was that we were asking them to at least stay and hear the teaching and then we’d talk about moving after that.  All three of us shared different things and reiterated what the other had said through various approaches.  Matt challenged them that no matter where they lived, trials and hardships were going to come up.  The men who stole the things from Tyems’ garden or Paetrik’s tobacco, they’d be moving to the old village too.  And we stressed that we’re not afraid of witch doctors because the One who made everything knows the number of our days – our life is in His hands.  They all agreed but when push comes to shove, He knew what day the witch doctor was going to kill Awe, as opposed to him being the giver and taker of life.  So we presented our case and although they didn’t stand up and commit as a village to being here for the teaching, we felt like there was a shift in their thinking.  Elias and I both thought that many were saying that they’d be here – at least for the teaching.  Matt felt like most had gone from absolutely moving to now being torn as to what to do, open to staying but not seeing how they could do it and live.  So we were encouraged with the outcome at first, but since then the village has emptied out.  Some guys have traveled to Vanimo to get their royalty money from the timber company while others have gone to their temporary jungle houses.  We’re not sure at all as to how many will be here for May 30^th.  As a team, we all feel that we need to wait on the Lord.  He is the changer of hearts – and He will draw them to Himself.  It could mean that we push the start date back a bit – especially if the guys aren’t back from Vanimo.  It could mean that we have half the village here and a few from our other two villages.  It could be that everyone is here.  We don’t know – but He does.  It will take an act of God for the Wabuku village to be here, ready to go for the teaching – and staying for the 12 weeks it will take to present all the lessons.  So we wait….we wait on Him.  He will build His church – in His way and in His timing.  The enemy cannot thwart the plans of God.  Right now, quite a few of them are gone, but we don’t know how temporary or permanent that is, but He does.