More pics

 

Pictures

These are some of the pictures from the party that night after the baptism.

Weathering a storm

Dear Friends and Family:

Well Nina and I are currently out at our regional base and recouping from a wild last couple weeks. Following the baptisms in the village we had an incident that required us to get Nina and Beau out of Yembiyembi and call in the police.

I won't go into too many details but the crux of it came down to the teaching and some of the changes (in the believers and their families)  that are taking place in Yembiyembi. The leaders of the other side are starting to see where the teaching is leading and what the eventual outcome is probably going to be (as evidenced by the baptisms and some of the testimonies during it) and they are starting to get desperate.  Because of that there were some plans formed by a small group of men to try and provoke the believers into an all out fight and then go after us (Nina, Beau and myself) with the goal of getting us out of Yembiyembi.

 

In the end the police did a good job (it helped that some of them spoke our tribal language) and the men who put the plan into action were charged, forced to pay a massive fine and threatened within an inch of their lives. Keep in mind that the bulk of the village is standing with us and many would do anything to keep us from leaving. Also keep in mind that these guys are baby baby believers and their knee jerk reaction in the past to these type of situations is to fight back  with everything in them and some of them slipped back into that and the violence that erupted from that was too much to keep Nina and Beau in the bush.

 

But the most encouraging part of this whole incident was how the believers stood up and defended the gospel, the teaching, the baptisms and reminded the unbelievers in the tribe that with or without us there they would never leave what they have come to believe in.  Pita, Lawrence and Michael in particular stood up and together gave the gospel to the village and reminded them of how they used to live and how they could not imagine living in the "dark" again, not knowing what this life, and the life beyond was about.

 

This e-mail is purposely vague because we don't want to go into too many details yet, just know that we are doing well and things are cooling down in Yembiyembi. But please keep praying for the Yembiyembi believers and the unbelievers that are still in darkness, we are in truly in a war for the future of that tribe.  We have had some good meetings with our regional leadership and have a good plan in place, but do be praying for us as a family. In 7 days we will be heading back in and the "war" within the village, we are also prepping for the teaching of the book of Romans,  moving the teaching building, the believers doing a re-teaching from Adam to Christ for new believers and ones that didn't get it the first time, and our second baptism. 

 

Again I leave you with 2 quotes.

My oldest father Lucas said this after the 2 men leading the other side had demanded that the teaching, baptisms, and catching new crossers (what our tribe says when some teaches someone else the gospel and they understand).

"How can we stop any of those…those are the posts (the main points) of Jesus talk, those are the posts that He taught. If we take those posts out of the house the house will fall. NO, we will not, we have to listen to God, not to men, just like the first crosser/followers Peter and Jon did."

 

Micheal, said this when the police questioned him about why he left the other "church" (Micheal was the #2 man there before he was saved).

"The eyes of my thinking were opened, just like the fish scales dropped from Paul's eyes (when Paul received back his sight after the Damascus road, a lesson we taught 3 weeks ago) the fish scales dropped off the eyes of my mind. I saw my massive book (sin debt) and realized that I could not remove it, only one man could, only Jesus. How could I give my back to that, it is the true true talk of God, it is the only way to go to his side. So I give my backside to any other talk, it is only lies, I will only stand on God's talk, I will not go back to lies, my eyes are open now. "

 

Guys my uncle Zaccheus took me aside after the police had left and the village was in turmoil and reminded me that the strongest weapon of this fight is going "talking to our papa" (prayer).

So please don't let up in your prayers for the village of Yembiyembi, the entire Bises language group (the believers are beginning to talk about when this talk is heading to our first sister village Paliagwi/Mensuat in 2009), and the safety of our family in the middle of this all. God is building his kingdom in Yembiyembi in an incredible way, and these trials and challenges are the fuel that are producing incredible men and women of God.

 

Love you all,

Brooks for Nina and Beau