Last Wednesday evening found us nearly
home to Lapoc with our visitors when all of a sudden SMASH!!!!!
Out of the darkness came a BIG rock
which hit us with enough force to smash our windscreen and scare us half to
death.
Accompanying the rock were some shouts
and the shadowy forms of men caught against the silhouette of our headlights.
We kept going as fast as we could and
got safely home to Lapoc, albeit a bit shaken. Early the following morning
there were village officials here at our door to ask what had happened and to
assure us that they were looking into the matter and a few hours later they
came back.
They had found the culprits who had
‘rocked’ us. They were young married men – all four of them – but two of them
in particular were trouble makers. One had even been involved in killing and
was a fugitive. We hadn’t been their only victims, they had also thrown rocks
at a man on a motorbike in front of us and at a truck. There was going to be an
inquiry held the next morning at the chief’s house and they wanted us to
identify these men and to press charges, maybe even get them thrown in jail.
What to do? We didn’t want to be the
cause of these young men going to jail or of their children having to go hungry
with no dads to support them and their wives to be left to fend for themselves.
“Lord please show us what to do,” our
hearts pleaded. We waited all day for direction, not knowing what we should do
and then that evening in the middle of the bible study with the school teachers
over at Ben and Leonie’s place, Paul leaned over and said, “God has told me
what to do.”
So the next morning, the officials came
to get us and escort us to the inquiry which was held in the next village where
the ‘rockers’ live. We were surprised as we arrived that there were four men
who stepped immediately up to us and put our hands to their foreheads as a sign
of respect. The chief took us inside his house and the other officials gathered
around – from both Lapoc and also their village. Then the four culprits were
brought in and we discovered that it was the same young men who had shown us
respect the minute we had arrived at the house. One of these sat down right
next to Paul and the other three sat in a row opposite us.
The one next to Paul said to him, “Amay,
I would never hurt you – I’ve helped you even – helped you dig your car out
when you were stuck in the mud.”
Proceedings started. We looked at
each of those young men who had stoned our car with intent to hold us up and to
rob us and we felt such compassion for them. It was so easy to see their
lostness and their great need for a Saviour. There was a lot of talking
back and forth, and the young men confessed that they hadn’t recognized our
car, that they had been very drunk at the time and didn’t know what they were
doing and that they would never have done it if they knew it was us. At one
point, one of them hung his head and wiped tears from his eyes. They promised
they would never try to hurt anyone again and were willing to sign a statement
to that effect that they took full responsibility and accepted fully liability.
Then came the part they had been
dreading. They must be punished for what they did. They knew that they cannot
afford to pay for a replacement windscreen and that the alternative punishment
was imprisonment. The officials already had men in place outside with guns
waiting to put them in restraints and take them to prison. The house was full
of people watching their discomfort, blocking the doorway, blocking the
pathways outside.
These four young men were so scared and
looked miserable as they waited to hear what charges Paul was going to press.
Paul leaned forward on his seat and looked at each one. He said, “Tell me what
you think that I should do?” They said, “We don’t know.” Paul said, “Well,
since you don’t know, let me give you two choices and you choose your
punishment. I don’t want you to go to prison, but there are two other things.
You could pay for my windscreen to be replaced, that would cost about 50, 000
pesos ($1,000+).” They said, “Amay, we don’t have money like that, we could
never get that much.” Then Paul said, “Do any of you have a buffalo? Do you
have a motorcycle? Do you have a pig?” The answers were, “No, no, no.” Then
Paul said, “Do you have a chicken?” One of them said, “I have a chicken.” Paul
said, “Do you think you could all get a chicken each and some rice?” They all
said, “Yeah.” Paul said, “Here’s what we’re going to do. I will release you
from paying for the damaged windscreen, but on Saturday the 14th,
I’m going to come to your houses. I’m going to bring my family and we want to
have lunch with you and your wives and your children. We’re going to bring
about 10 people with us and you have to prepare a feast and cook it for us and
we’ll eat it together. And we’ll talk and I want to tell you some
things.”
This agreement finished and signed, the
young men came one by one to us to take our hands and to ask forgiveness from
both of us.
The officials who had escorted us were
amazed and on the way home, one of them who has been quite opposed to us,
told us that he has served under 5 different chiefs and he has never seen
anything like this: such compassion and such a solution to a problem like this.
Some of the bible teachers came home early from their outreaches because their
hearts were so burdened about this problem and they wanted to hurry home to see
if it had been solved and when they heard the news they were amazed and praised
God at such a great outcome. The believers were rejoicing last night as they
gathered in family groups talking about the awesome ways that God works.
This whole problem started with a rock
and we hope to finish it with another Rock. Romans 9:33 “Behold I
lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on
Him shall not be ashamed.”
Please pray for these four young men and
their families, that this shattered windscreen will only be the beginning of a
great work that God is doing to repair their broken lives.
Their names are Uyu, Imay, Buling and
Uboy.
