The village was stable in October, when missionaries presented the Gospel to the Hewa people and saw several place their faith in Christ, but since January it has been a place of turmoil.
A type of lung sickness that took the lives of 11 Hewas in the past months struck again, taking the life of a baby girl. The parents, Nete and Miriam, who did not attend the previously taught evangelistic Bible lessons, have asked the believers to tell them the story about God and Jesus.
They now sit with a large crowd by the grave of their daughter while the believers, with minimal assistance from the missionaries, teach the salvation story from Creation to Christ. The believers are excited about sharing their new-found faith, and the people, many of whom did not attend the original teaching, appear to be paying close attention.
The death of the baby has provided an opportunity for preaching the Gospel, but it has also brought more killings.
When death occurs among the Hewas the people look for the person who worked sorcery. Lut, a woman who was accused of involvement in the previous 11 deaths, was again suspected of working witchcraft. Several men went looking for her and succeeded in killing her and two other women.
They then returned to dance and sing all night for two nights at the grave of the baby.
"I think they will do the same for a few more days. It is so sad," wrote missionary Keith Copley
Wednesday, as most of the village gathered, Pol bravely stood and said, "This baby that died did not die from a witch eating her. She died because Adam and Eve sinned and so now all of us are separated from God. However, God has provided for us a way to be saved and you all should come and hear God's Talk."
The leader of those who hunted down Lut broke in and said, "That's right, we all sin so God has sent us all to live outside of His presence because we followed Satan. However, we are going to dance and do our thing and all of you children of God need to go somewhere else. We are going to stay the way we are; you leave."
Upon hearing these words, many of the people left to listen to the Bible teaching in another location. "This was a statement to all that the believers were publicly making the break from their traditional ways," wrote Keith's co-worker, Jonathan Kopf.
"We are meeting with about 10-20 believers three times a week and going over the life of Christ. We really want to ground them in all that it means, now that they are in Christ," wrote Keith.
"There have been many tragic incidents recently in Hewa," wrote Jonathan, "but we want you to know that we are taking all the steps necessary to make sure that we and our kids are safe. Though the many situations that we find ourselves in are terrible, they are not aimed at our family. Please pray for our Hewa friends."
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