I try to keep this blog an even balance of 'life as a missionary in PNG' and 'seeing God's Word change lives.'
This post is one is both. (-;
I can't share the names or the long drawn out story, but here is my personal synopsis.
God chose and sent a policeman from the U.S. here to handle security issues. He has been developing relationships with people and one of the men he developed a relationship with recently came forward and said that his faith in God didn't allow him to ignore the crimes against the missionaries any longer.
A nearby village had for a while, been treating us like their own personal piggy bank. Stealing property whenever they had a financial need or a whim.
So this individual came forward and started secretly being an informant. VERY quickly through these relationships, crime against us came to a stop.
Soon his village found out he was a 'traitor' and excised him, beat him, cut him, kidnapped his children, and essentially ruined his life in every way.
But the man turned to God and forgave the people. He was given 2 opportunities, to demand financial compensation or to send them to jail, and he passed on both, opting to forgive, stating that God gave him the power to forgive them.
He was no longer effective as an informant, but God wanted to use him for something else.
Forgiveness.
From that reaction, a snowball began.
Easter morning, people began coming forward, confessing sins, crimes, and repenting.
We haven't had this long of a peace time here in years.
This weekend is a public 'tok sori' where the repentant men will come forward and make amends with those they stole from.
We don't talk much about security issues here. We find it worries people back home, and it is something that is part of life for us. But this is a new twist.
The longer version exposes the cultural intricacies and would make for very long reading, suffice it to say, that God took a man and used his faith and his heart to bring about change in the valley.
It is VERY rare for what happened to happen because of the cultural boundaries... but God blasted through them in a remarkable never-before-seen way.
He tends to do that.
This opportunity would have never happened if this man, this papua new guinean man, hadn't come into a relationship with Christ.
