Brus’ story

Many moons ago, a nervous me, landed in our bush village between the Mengen valleys and mountains. It was only for a short visit, to meet our future co-workers and meet the Mengen friends amongst whom we would live for the next roughly 20 years of our lives.

During this time I met Brus and his wife Apite, who only had about 4 kids at that time. I immediately got to like them, with Apite who had a great sense of humour and Brus being a bit of an introvert and serious. They lived in a typical hamlet, in their own little bush house, close to Brus’ parents. As I walked into their house, it was obvious that this family as all other Mengen families was very confused, about God, sin, and salvation. They had a statue of Mary which they got from who knows where, and she was standing right next to all the paraphernalia they use to produce “white soup”, a potent local alcoholic beverage. Later as I got to know the culture better, I could also distinguish all the marks of animism and superstition. As I met with our future co-workers, they told us that Brus was a real troublemaker who caused a lot of problems to the missionaries who lived in our village before us. Indirectly he was part of the cause why one of the families left permanently. And so when we moved into the village, he soon proved this to be true.

However the case may be, I got a liking in him and early on in our missionary career, used him as one of my language helpers. These were hard times for me, as he often lied to me and stole from me. There were times that he got angry with me and threatened to hurt us or damage our property. Yet, through God’s grace, we became very good friends and this, of course, opened up the opportunity for us to develop a very close relationship.

When our teammates, were eventually ready, they started to teach our village friends evangelically from Genesis to Christ. We met for four months, four times a week and twice a day. Brus and Apite attended most of the sessions and even came to the revision lessons in the evenings. From the beginning, I could sense that Brus was touched by what he heard, but in typical Mengen fashion, he was not going to show any signs of interest. This is due to the Mengen people, being very proud, and not willing to show or admit any need. But as we approached the end of our second phase of teaching both Brus and Apite expressed that they have trusted Christ alone as their Lord and Saviour.

Brus was one of our first literacy graduates, and also became one of our first Mengen literacy teachers, with Apite following him soon afterward.

Since then Brus and Apite continued to grow in maturity as we taught and discipled them through the New Testament. After about 6 years, of teaching and discipleship, they became our first missionaries, whom we send to plant a new church.

We are looking forward to returning to our bush village, and be reunited with these friends of ours. This next season of ministry, we would like to focus on leadership development and would hope to disciple Brus to become an elder within the Mengen church.

-We thank you guys for making it possible to reach the unreached! We cannot make a difference without you!

• Would you pray for Brus and Apite?
• Would you like more information on the Mengen Work? – Check out the rest of our blog, or follow the YouTube and Facebook links
  
• Will you consider financially supporting this effort amongst the Mengens? Click on https://blogs.ethnos360.org/lourens-laureti/give/.

And if you are from South Africa then you can make donations into the following account. Standard bank account at the account number – 238403122.

Blessings
Lourens for the Mengen people