As Posilonge held his little son, Tom, in his arms, missionary Joey Tartaglia spoon-fed him trying to give strength to the 6-year-old who was fighting for life. Posilonge was obviously exhausted. His 11-month-old died during the night from the same sickness that was now making its claims on his older son.
Being a day-and-a-half from the nearest medical facilities, all that the Mibu believers could do was to pray in their simple way, "God, give us this boy."
After spending the whole day with them, Joey walked back home with mixed emotions. He was saddened at the Mibus' lot in life, so far from simple medicine so that even the most elementary of illnesses often claim their lives. Yet he was encouraged to see the believers' dependency on their new-found Father.
At 6:30 the next morning, Posilonge's brother, Sivi, appeared at the Tartaglia's house. Little Tom had died at 1:00 in the morning. Joey immediately went to the house where little Tom was.
After a period of mourning, Sonde asked Joey, "Why did God allow this? We've often seen two people die around the same time, but we've never seen one man lose two children inside of a day's time like this."
The men spent the next hour talking about God's purposes in sorrows and about God's plan for men to become like Jesus. Joey emphasized how God uses suffering in our lives to cause us to depend on Him even more.
"I told them how in America we purify metal by melting out its impurities," wrote Joey. "I asked if they had anything similar in their culture."
"When we attach arrow tips to the shaft," said Sonde, "we use tree sap to hold the tip in place. But in order to make the sap work, we have to cook it in the fire first until it melts, only then can we apply it to the arrow. When the sap cools it hardens, securing the tip in the shaft."
Those present concluded that all their pain and suffering was for a purpose, so that they could be further used of God.
"The next day at church," wrote Joey, "guess who was the one to stand up and publicly pray for a sick man?"
It was Posilonge, who had just lost his two sons.
Pray for the Mibu believers as they learn to depend on God through loss and suffering.
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