A fight between two Patpatar clans in Papua New Guinea that began on New Year’s Day continues to spread, and one believer says the only real answer to ending the fight is the message that changed his life.
“I want to say a thank you to God,” the believer recently told missionary Aaron Luse. “If I hadn’t heard the teaching of God’s Word from the beginning, and if the true Good News wasn’t clear to me, I would have gone inside this fight that is happening.”
Since an incident last week that left a woman cut and bleeding on the road, women are afraid to go to their gardens and children are afraid to walk alone on the road.
When a leader in the village — the brother of the believer — tried to intervene, he was threatened and chased away with machetes.
“When they made the action to cut my brother,” the believer said, “that is when I would have got my machete and gone inside this fight. But now I don’t want to be a part.
“They answer with machetes and fights and killing, but it is not the real answer. They are being deceived and don’t know the real source of these wars. They have become like Saul, who went to kill and arrest people thinking he was doing God’s work, but they don’t know they are doing Satan’s work instead.
“It is good if the leaders and government will help this fight to stop, but the only real answer is that they know the truth inside the talk of God.”
As the believer walked away and disappeared into the darkness, Aaron rejoiced in what God had done. To not react the way that tradition demands is a big step.
“I pray that this believer and others will be able to have the opportunity to share the real answer,” Aaron wrote.
by David Bell February 11, 2010