Friend
I need to tell you about what has been happening here. It has been very stressful for Perry and me at the Bible school the last months. The source of the stress is not coming from the students but something that is happening with a key church leader.
Let me explain a little about what has happened. We recently had the national conference and this year elections related to the national leader were held. The conference elected a new leader and he was from a different tribe than the previous national leader. The conference was peaceful enough but when it came time for the former leader to leave the house set aside for the national leader, he refused to go. This has created a great deal of tension in the church.
Perry has consciously decided not to become part of the debate and to not discuss it at the school. We have students from both tribes and are very concerned about what could happen if it became a topic of discussion. Emotions quickly become part of such debates and they can quickly bring about physical response. We have been spending a great deal of time praying about this and how to handle it. Perry and the men and me with the women.
After a month the students came to Perry and asked what he thought about what was happening. He told them that we would come and have a meeting with everyone to talk about this situation. God was clearly present and they listened calmly as we shared that we needed to pray for God to take control of what was happening. We needed to pray that those involved would listen to wisdom and do what was right before God decided to pass judgment. An action that could have serious consequences for those who were causing the problem. We avoided passing judgment and the students decided to pray that God would work. As a result relations on the campus remained cordial.
Well last week God opened a door to help resolve the situation. The father of the wife of this leader died. One of our students was her brother. Once we heard the news we met with the students and discussed how we would help him as he returned home to deal with his father’s death and the funeral. We decided to gather up an offering of finances and different items, like rice, to send with him. We also decided to send two students with him to carry our condolences to the family of our student.
Perry picked them up and then dropped them off at the bus stop and came home. The next day we discovered two things. The students had talked with R and together they decided to give him the money for their transport. They all felt that that action had more value than their presence would; in fact, their presence would cause a burden for R as he would be responsible to feed and house the two students.
The second thing we learned was that the former leader had refused to let his wife attend the funeral of her father. This was because he was afraid that while they were gone others would come and take over the house and force him out. This action caused a serious reaction of the family of his wife and of his tribe. They became ashamed of the leader and withdrew their support of what he was doing.
In a few weeks he moved out of the house and left Mt Hagen to return to his village. R was pleased with the decision and also relieved that he would no longer have to deal with the issue. God had responded and provided a solution that avoided elevated emotions and potential physical attacks and revenge.
We are so pleased with how the students responded and have grown through all of this. We are seeing a deepening of relations as a result of what they have learned through all of this.
Love Nancy
How do you help those around you find God’s solution to difficult issues? Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?