Major change for tribal man

You may not think it’s a sign of huge change that Piyando decided not to beat his wife last month.

And you probably don’t know how you played a role in that.

You just don’t know the rest of the story.

Yet.

Piyando’s wife, Bagoia, is responsible for the family’s pigs. So when a piglet got hurt, Piyando was supposed to beat Bagoia. That’s the way it works in their tribe, the Moi tribe of Indonesia.

But Piyando chose not to. “He said he was God’s child now and didn’t want to hit her even though he was upset about what happened,” wrote missionary Rich Brown.

That still doesn’t sound like a huge change? Oh, right, I forgot to tell you …

In early January, after months of listening to foundational Bible teaching building toward the presentation of the Gospel, Piyando used a machete to hack his third wife to death.

His son by Bagoia had just died, and someone said his wife Wisideo had worked sorcery on the child. So Piyando killed her. That’s the way it works in the Moi tribe.

Yes, right, I’ve told you about only two of Piyando’s wives. That’s because he killed his first wife, too, not long ago.

Two weeks after killing Wisideo, Piyando and Bagoia heard the Gospel for the first time, and placed their faith in Christ. Piyando immediately went on a trip to apologize to his wives’ relatives and tell them of his new faith, not knowing if he would come back alive. And at his baptism in May, he looked at the crowd of curious Mois who have not believed and said, “In the future you too will be baptized!”

Because you are partners in our ministry, I was able tell thousands of people that story, and help them pray for the missionaries and the Mois, especially in the tense, dark time following the murder, and on that day when the Gospel was presented to the Moi people for the first time in history.

Your ministry reaches around the world!