Two weeks ago, as we passed Sabien’s house on our way to the meeting house, Sabien stopped us and angrily told us his plan for the people who would attend the teaching.
It seems that some who are attending the teaching have “given him shame” by accusing him of being a sorcerer. He demanded a K200 payment and shaking of hands from those people to buy his shame. This is the culturally appropriate way to handle this situation.
However, Sabien also planned to go an extra step which is culturally inappropriate. He was planning to pitch a huge fit, complete with weaponry, during the teaching time, in order to make those who shamed him bend to his demands.
Sabien feels that this shame is preventing him from attending the teaching. We know what is preventing him from attending is much deeper - including his own pride and sinfulness.
In the meantime, if the individuals who shamed him, Alex, Joseph and others, attend the teaching without first settling their problem with Sabien, we knew we would have a volatile situation on our hands. We faced similar situations in 2004 during the Creation to Christ teaching.
On a positive note, Sabien made it clear that he was not mad at us missionaries, and we haven’t felt we were are in any danger.
We cancelled the teaching sessions on February 14th and waited for a few days for things to calm down.
We resumed teaching last week without incident, and we also taught today (Monday).
This afternoon and evening, there is going to be a court to hopefully settle the dispute that caused the disruption to the teaching.
Please be praying that the dispute will be settled to the satisfaction of all involved and that all the people who want to attend the teaching will be able to do so without fear and distraction.
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