Have you ever just wanted to know, “Why, Lord?”
Ever been in the midst of trying times or tragedy, and wanted to know what God was up to?
Wouldn’t it be great in circumstances like that if you could get just a glimpse of God at work?
That’s what Scott and Jennie Philips got.
Wikipai’s death troubled the young missionaries. Wikipai was one of the first two believers among the Dao people of Indonesia. He was a leader and a Bible teacher. He had just begun sharing God’s Word in another Dao village.
And he was one of Scott’s best friends.
“From our human perspective it didn’t make any sense at all but Jennie and I were resolved to hold on to the fact that God knows best,” Scott wrote.
Then Paatoma, Wikipai’s younger brother, moved to the village where Scott and Jennie live and started learning to read and write. Since he’d never shown any interest in literacy, Scott asked him what was going on.
“There are only two people in my life that I have ever seen die well,” Paatoma said. “One was my father, and the other was my older brother Wikipai. When I first heard you teach us about the Creator and His son Jesus I believed the message but I never really took it seriously.
“Then I saw the confidence that both my father and then Wikipai had even in death. They were confident that they would go to be with Jesus. They were happy to die and they told all of us that they couldn’t wait to go to the good place above the sky.
“Most of our people die in fear, screaming out to be spared from the evil spirits and asking others to sacrifice their pigs to prevent their deaths. So when my father and Wikipai died without fear, I had never seen anything like it. It was at Wikipai’s death that I decided this message must be true and it must be worth living for.
“After my wife and I learn how to read and write I want to teach God’s Word to our people like my brother Wikipai did before he died. I have moved here because I want to live like Wikipai lived. I want to take his place.”
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