August 17, 2005

"Go! Why are you here? Are you trying to eat us? Have you come for a payment? Get out of here!"

Shocked out of a sound sleep last Thursday night, missionaries Jonathan and Susan Kopf froze momentarily in their bed, dreading the thought that another village friend had died, or that a serious fight had broken out, or that one of the women was having serious complications in child birth.

At first Jonathan couldn't hear the Hewa man clearly, but then he began understanding a few of the words the man was yelling at the top of his lungs.

He stepped out of his house into the pitch blackness armed only with a small flashlight and a prayer, asking the Lord for wisdom, guidance and protection.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he fought the urge to return to his comfortable bed. His journey past several thatch roofed houses finally ended at an axe hewn plank house. Inside he could hear the apprehensive voices of several of his tribal friends engaged in an intense conversation. After briefly listening he entered the smoke-filled house.

"Is it you that was outside our house just now in an attempt to kill us? Was it you or someone else, tell us now? We told you before not to kill us. What is going on? Do we owe you something so that you will leave us alone?"

A terrified girl sitting on the woven bamboo floor was barely able to respond to the men's questions.

That night, and into the next day, Jonathan was consumed with the meaning of it all.

The men had heard a bird calling in the middle of the night outside their house. According to their ancestral teachings the calls of this certain bird were not actually bird calls but the cries of an evil witch spirit.

The men were convinced that the spirit of a young girl, Fainyam, was roaming the village terrorizing them. Fainyam was a visitor to the village, but it was well known that she had been accused of witchcraft before.

On this occasion Fainyam was able to convince her accusers that she was not involved and gave them the name of another suspect, a lady from a village several days hike away.

"Father God," Jonathan had prayed as he entered into the unknown that night, "please help us to be able to make some true and lasting difference in the lives of these village people. Please show them their need for You in their lives."

Jonathan and his co-worker, Keith Copley, are currently teaching evangelistic Bible lessons to the Hewas.

After Wednesday's session, Was stood and said, "We need to hear this talk. These men have come to teach us the words of life and we need to hear them. They keep talking about the promised deliverer. I don't know who that is. I don't know if He has already come or if He will come in the future, but He is the One that will give us life and we need to know who He is."