It is so good to get home! Though we were only actually gone from Dao for a few weeks for Moses’ biopsy and for signing our new Indonesian visa, it felt like such a long time! Nowhere else “just feels right” for us like Dao does. As the years go by we feel more and more like God made us specifically for this place and for the spread of His fame among these specific people and I guess in many ways we also feel like He made this people and place partially for us! Why else is this the only place that we feel like we are where we were meant to be? It is so good to be back here in the middle of nowhere, with nobody else but a bunch of backwoods tribal people, weeks worth of hiking from anything “civilized”. We love it! We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!
We were greeted by a lot of different news upon our return last week. It was good to reconnect with the believers and specifically with the Dao Bible and school teachers to see how they had done in our absence. Everything summed up: there was once again teaching going on in five different hamlets and two different dialects while we were out. Debatoma and Yoni, (the two teachers that earlier this year went to another dialect to teach in that place for the first time – top left picture is Debatoma) just completed teaching the book of Acts in the village called Paimokau and are planning a baptism service for all the young believers there. Also, the head teachers for our area- Daapoi, Kogipiyaa & Paatoma- have decided they also are going to hold a baptism service here in our village right around Christmas time as there are many Dao people that have become believers in our area in the past couple years but haven’t yet had a chance to be baptized. In addition to that, another two of our teachers in training have finalized a plan to soon begin another new outreach in the last main valley system of the Dao tribe that hasn’t yet had any outreaches done in it . This area is called Kupekuye and is three full days hike from our village. These teachers are presently sending messengers to that valley to tell them that they should all get ahead on their garden work so that they can “be ready to sit for a while when the teaching begins and listen well to the Big Talk about their Creator”. This specifically is very exciting to us and also to the Dao believers because some of the people in Kupekuye have been asking and waiting for someone to come and teach them for many years now. Praise God that He has raised up people to go to them and as a result they will finally soon have their first chance to hear!!!
Along with all the good news however, we were also greeted with some somewhat concerning news. It turns out that while we were gone a tribal war began in between people from the northernmost edge of the next tribe over and some unreached villages on the southernmost edge of the Dao tribe. There have already been over 15 people shot with arrows one of which was shot right through the head but is said to still be alive as they were able to pull the arrow out of his skull. Also another young teenage boy from that area named Mokota was shot and then stabbed with arrows 6 times and then sliced another 25 times with bamboo knives. He is said to still be alive but he is from an area that has yet to be taught and has not yet heard of the saving work of Christ- he needs your prayers. The main fighting is presently going on in an area nearly four to five days hike from us so we are having a hard time getting him medicine as well. There was also a young believer with that boy during the attack who has become like a son to us over the years, his name is Dabepiyaa (top right picture).They enemies also shot at Dabepiyaa but just barely missed him. We were told that “The arrow came so close that he felt the wind of the bamboo shaft on his stomach as it flew by”. All the believers are praising God for sparing Dabepiyaa’s life and are giving Him glory for His protection of Dabepiyaa during that attack.
The most concerning part is that the enemy clans sent down word this week that they have declared the highest degree of war possible not only on the specific villages they are presently warring with but on our entire area. This “highest degree” of war means that not only are they targeting specific men of specific clans, but they have said “We will shoot anything that moves in your area all the way down to old people, women, children and even the pigs and dogs”. The Dao believers have thus far responded by holding onto the words of Romans 12 (as they are presently being taught through the book of Romans) which say “Repay no one evil for evil….Do not avenge yourselves for it is written. ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore, ‘If your enemy is hungry feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Those in our area have decided amongst themselves to send word to the warring clans in that area saying “We no longer are people that live and die by the bow. We are as people that are unarmed altogether because we have left behind that way of life. We now follow the trail of the Creator’s leaf book and so we want no part in your war. We will not fight with you!”
Please pray for the Dao people in this hard and trying situation. Pray for the unreached areas involved in the warring that God will spare their lives so that they will have their first opportunity to hear of their Creator and His son Jesus as the gospel is in the future carried into their villages also. Pray for the believers also that they will stand strong in their faith and continue to place their hope in the words of “the Creator’s leaf book” and specifically Romans 12. Pray also for Jennie and myself that we will trust the Lord for the safety of our family in the midst of this situation. Although we have at various times encountered situations like these in the past, The local Dao people are still very concerned for us and have actually asked us to on a daily basis not leave our house from early evening until mid morning because they think we also could be shot at should the war begin to spread in our direction. Pray that God will give us wisdom as we continue to teach and translate also in the midst of all these developments. We thank God for all of you that are standing behind us and we appreciate you very very much.