{"id":2916,"date":"2017-06-07T13:09:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T17:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2017-06-07T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T21:00:14","slug":"chris-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/2017\/06\/07\/chris-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris&#8217; testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1524 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-600x451.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-600x451.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-768x577.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-146x110.jpg 146w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844-250x188.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2011\/10\/Sansuwa-teaching-e1496853595844.jpg 1071w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sansuw\u00e0 (a.k.a. Chris since that is easier for you to pronounce) was a son of the witch doctor. He had joined the rebel movement as a young man and was living with his wife near her parents and under the influence of the rebels. In late 1983 he moved back to his home village and listened to the teaching of God&#8217;s Word. This is his testimony that he wanted us to share with you.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>When the gospel arrived in our village, I had no clue about eternal life, let alone that it was from Almighty God.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I was married in a place called Buk which isn\u2019t too far away from a major city here and it was at that time that Ron and Lance began their ministry here in the mountains.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Monsing was one of Ron\u2019s first disciples. He was the first one that Ron worked with, teaching him how to teach the people here in our village. After a while, Monsing sent word for me to return home because if I didn\u2019t come home, he said I\u2019d miss out on the message of eternal life; I thought that I would get left behind and I didn\u2019t want that to happen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So when I heard about that, I came straight back my home village. I was afraid to be left behind because our belief was that if we did not follow the panoos, (the religious mandates) then we would not live forever.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There was about a year between when I got married and when the missionaries arrived. After I returned home I began to listen to the teaching but I had no idea that I could actually live forever. It was like a dream because it didn\u2019t even come to my mind that that I would suffer when I died. I had been led to believe that one feels nothing after they die. My thinking was like an animal because I didn\u2019t know to have any fear of God. The only thing I thought was that it would be nice to have eternal life but it wasn\u2019t something that I thought about all the time. The truth is, I was looking for eternal life but I wasn\u2019t looking for it wholeheartedly.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Also back then, the thing I thought about most was to make friends with people who would ask me for alcohol to drink because I had a way to get alcohol. But apart from that, I had no concern for my friends. When we are outside of the kingdom of God it is like our thoughts are blocked by darkness and we don\u2019t recognize the meaning of the Word of God.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As I listened to the teaching of God\u2019s word it was like I was in a dream and I really had no mind to listen to what was being taught. But after a while, my mind slowly opened up to the stories and then what got my attention was when I heard about the rich man who died and was thrown into Sheol<\/em> (see the picture above) <em>where he suffered greatly.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>My mind continued to open up and I came to understand the good news that Jesus Christ paid for all my sins. I was so happy and thankful that I knew that I would go to heaven w<\/em><em>hen I died. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was saved and I loved talking about the Word of God.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2919\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2919\" style=\"width: 130px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2919\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-600x633.jpg\" alt=\"He goes by Sansuwa at home and Chris in the lowlands. \" width=\"130\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-600x633.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-284x300.jpg 284w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-768x811.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-104x110.jpg 104w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa-237x250.jpg 237w, https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/files\/2017\/06\/Sansuwa.jpg 865w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2919\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris is one of the church leaders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>If you aren&#8217;t t saved, I testify and am convinced that you don\u2019t understand God&#8217;s message because you don&#8217;t have the ability to remove the darkness from your mind. And then you just stop trying because you really have no desire to listen. That\u2019s what happens when faith isn\u2019t real.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sansuw\u00e0 (a.k.a. Chris since that is easier for you to pronounce) was a son of the witch doctor. He had joined the rebel movement as a young man and was living with his wife near her parents and under the influence of the rebels. In late 1983 he moved back to his home village and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3621],"tags":[112239,302,300,318,448,2778,321,7153,244,112241,112238,299,826,2633,112236,303,400,112237],"class_list":["post-2916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","category-news-article","tag-alchohol","tag-darkness","tag-death","tag-eternal-life","tag-ethnos360","tag-good-news","tag-gospel","tag-heaven","tag-higaonon","tag-higauonon","tag-insurgent","tag-jesus-christ","tag-kabuhayon","tag-redemption","tag-sasnuwa","tag-sin","tag-testimony","tag-witch-doctor","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}