There are a number of unsaved Manubu’ families up in the mountains who have been told by a shaman that a god in heaven is going to lower down to earth a big “house” which is called a salimbae. They are to enter the “house”, and the god will pull them up to heaven. This is a myth passed down from their ancestors. No-one knows what a salimbae actually looks like because no-one has ever seen one – not surprising when we consider that it doesn’t exist but is a lie of Satan! The salimbae was supposed to arrive in December. They forsook their sweet potato fields and moved up on a mountain to wait for it. They cleared a big area of jungle for it to land in. They sacrificed all of their animals. They have been following food regulations and work regulations that are supposed to make them good people so the salimbae will be sent for them. They are still waiting for the salimbae and are having a hard time because the sweet potato fields they forsook were wiped out by wild pigs. They have also eaten their seed corn and rice seed which they should soon be planting. And there is no livestock to eat because they sacrificed it all. After all, why would they need that when they were going to be taken up!
A couple of the believers from our village often visit them and have been encouraging them to listen to the teaching of God’s Word – the truth. One of the elderly couples waiting for the salimbae listened to the teaching of God’s Word several years ago all the way through the evangelistic phase and beyond, but ultimately rejected it. Please PRAY for these mountain Manubu’ people – that God will use this present salimbae situation to draw them to want to hear the truth. It is always exciting as we wait to see how God is going to use a situation like this.