Death in Yembiyembi

Dear Friends and Family:

This will be a quick note to catch you up on two events that have happened in Yembiyembi that were very big. Unfortunately both of them were deaths in the tribe.

 

On Tuesday one of my translation helpers came for a final brush up on Romans chapter 7 and some hard talks. Kevin (Gamul) has been a great help to me in the past 2 years with translation but at the time of the teaching he understood but did not agree that he was a sinner and God would judge him someday. Every other week Kevin and I have met and gone over some parts of the Bible translation and then we would have a "strong" talk on where we disagree. The next day (Wednesday) Kevin caught a strong strain of Malaria and by Thursday he was fading fast. On Friday morning he was unconscious and we medivaced him (flew him out on the plane to the town hospital) but only lasted an hour in the hospital and he was gone. Kevin had taken a strong stand against the believers and told many of the first ones that were baptized that God would kill them within a couple months so the turn of events is BIG in the tribe and for the believers and unbelievers.

 

The second death came on Saturday.  Osia was a sickly guy in the tribe and had been battling a combination of Asthma and a heart condition since the time we arrived in Yembiyembi. He had not been coming to the teaching but mostly because his father had threatened to stop feeding him if he did. A week earlier when Osia was fading one of Nina's fathers (Edward) had gone up to the house where he was at and requested permission to give Osia the "talk of life", but the unbelievers in the house would not allow him to come in so he turned back. Then on Saturday as Osia was slipping in and out of consciousness he said these last words "Papa where am I going, where am I going. I think you have fed me bad sago (you have taught me lies), where am I going, where am I going!!!!". 2 minutes later Osia was dead.

 

Donald (Osia's father) has been strongly against the teaching,  but these last words rocked him and he asked for some of the believers to come to his house and talk with him 2 days later.

 

A final note is that Kevin was a strong leader of the opposition and his death has churned up a lot of outsiders (from 5 other villages) to come "investigate" what killed him.  This meant that the changes that have been happening in Yembiyembi are going to come under the judgment of some of these outside leaders and there will be lots of blame handed out for his death.  As Nina and I were boarding the plane to come out of Yembiyembi (for our annual regional conference) one of my fathers Robert came up and said he had just had a discussion with the other believing leaders and said this "White son, this is not a bad thing (outside leaders coming to our village). This will give us an even bigger chance to give them this talk. They will want to know what has happened in our village and why we have changed and this will be a great opening for us. Leave this in our hands, we are ready, we have our spears ready (the bible verses they want to share) this is a chance and we will not miss".

 

Nina and I are out at our headquarters now and we are encouraged. These are the ups and downs, the opportunities and heart breaks of tribal church planting, but through it all we have to make the most of these chances. Thanks for praying for the Yembiyembi believers, this could be a huge moment for the tribe, people group and the entire area.

 

Appreciate you all,

Brooks

 

P.S. the pictures are of Kevin and Osia. Kevin is on the left in his picture and Osia is also on the left.