“Come on out! We know you have traveled a long way to get here and so you must be tired!” Yoni (top right picture) yelled out toward the jungle. “Yeah, come out of the jungle and eat with us, we will cook you some good food! Drink with us we will give you good water too!” Metokui (top left picture) added in as he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted out at the top of his lungs. They were quoting word for word some of the things they had learned in our villages daily Bible class , from Romans twelve a few days before. “Yes, come and sit and talk with us because we have some good words we want to tell you! Let’s leave behind the spirit of anger and just sit and eat and talk together…you must be tired and hungry aren’t you?” I yelled out in agreement with the others towards the edge of the tree line where the enemies were said to be hiding.
This last Thursday was the third time in less than a week that we had spotted their tracks and caught them trying to sneak up on us. We had seen the bushes moving as they tried to creep through the jungle in hopes to get close enough to shoot with accuracy. Just two days before they had surprised us as I was in the middle of teaching the daily morning Bible class. There were a few of the enemies that had quietly come up along the side of the school house and gotten within only a few feet of those gathered for the teaching. That day however, they had only come to let us know that they had succeeded in battle in another village farther up valley. They got close enough to where all of us in the school house could hear them and began banging their hands against the bamboo shafts of their arrows and wood bows, making a loud clanging noise. Then they suddenly darted back off into the jungle again. They were letting us know that they had been victorious. In the Dao tribe, this is a sign meant to instil fear into those that hear it. At the moment that all those in the class heard the clanging of the bamboo shafts and wooden arrows, everyone in the room scrambled for the corners of the building farthest from the windows just in case the war party decided to open fire.
No one seemed to know what to do so I walked to the side of the building and began to call out to the enemies on behalf of my students and fellow believers “We are gathered to listen to the Creator’s book, not to fight! You also should stop your warring and join us in listening to God’s book which tells us not to kill each other but instead to love. Either stop your warring and join us or leave! Because we will not act against the words of the Creator and war with you!” I walked back into the classroom and after a few moments of silence to see if there would be a reaction from the enemies, went on and finished the day’s lesson on Romans which included the words; “Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting – and any other commandment – are all summed up in this one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ For love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God’s requirements.” - Romans 13:8-10
We were greeted by a message carrier from two days hike up valley later that same afternoon with the news that “...three more men have been killed in the fighting, two from our clans and one from the enemy’s” This was what those enemy clans had been trying to tell us earlier in the day during the school class. This is why they had come close enough for us to hear the clanging of the bamboo shafts and bows but had not opened fire. As the believers heard the names of those that had been killed they stopped for a moment and grieved together that all three of the men were from areas that had not yet had their first chance to be taught of their Creator and His son Yesusi.
Thus far, none of the enemies have taken us up on our invite to “come out of the jungle and join us” for a meal of both physical and spiritual food, but also, no one in our village has yet been shot and no attacks have taken place in any of the believing villages. It seems that so far, the words of the Creator’s book and specifically the words written by Paul in Romans have been sovereignly used by God not only to work for the preservation of the Dao people souls but also the preservation of their bodies against the physical attacks of the enemy clans. It seems that up until now hate has been diffused by love. I don’t think the words of Romans in relation to “Loving your enemies” and the Apostle Pauls command to “Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good” have ever proved themselves truer to our little family and the Dao believers here than they are proving themselves right now.
Please continue to pray for the Dao believers as they continue to study through the end of the books of Romans this week. Pray that they and our family as will continually see God’s Word as a message to be not merely listened to but to be followed and obeyed. Pray that God will continue to give all of us here wisdom in the way we approach the warring presently going on in the Dao area. Thank God with us that thus far no attacks or murders have taken place in our village and that none of the believers have yet been killed .Please pray that He will preserve the unbelievers as well so that they can hear His message of salvation and be changed. Please pray also for Jennie as she continues to prepare and translate through 1 Corinthians so that it is ready to teach to the Dao believers when we finish re-teaching through Romans. Thanks to all of you that have been praying for our son Moses as well and his tumor. The tumor is still there but we are trusting that God will heal it completely in His good time. We appreciate you all very, very much and thank God for the way He uses you to bless us through your prayers and giving.