Stap Olsem Trupela Papa long Pikinini bilong Yu Tude!

Sampela krismas i go pinis mi lukim wanpela piksa. Long dispela piksa wanpela papa i sindaun na wok long pilai wantaim pikinini bilong em. Pikinini i amamas stret. Na wanpels tok i stap aninit long dispela piksa, “Be a daddy to your child today.” “Stap olsem papa long pikinini bilong yu tude.”

Mi no inap stori planti long putim ples klia wanem samting i kamap long dispela kain piksa. Samting i kamap bikos papa i givim taim wantaim pikinini na em i amamas tru. Ol i wokim dispela piksa long soim olsem papa mas givim taim long pikinini na mekim em i amamas.

Be a daddy for your child today!

Wanpela evangelist long Amerika bin tokaut losem: “Wanem ol papa i laik kisim bikpela namba insait long kantri em ol papa i laik mekim gutpela wok long lavim na skulim gut pikinini bilong ol insait long haus pastaim.” Mi prea ol papa long dispela kantri PNG bai gat wankain tingting.

Narapela pastor i bin tok, “Sapos sindaun insait long family i no gutpela, yumi mas askim yumi yet, yumi papa i bin inapim olgeta wok samting yumi mas mekim long lukautim meri na pikinini, o nogat?“ Mi laik strongim yupela ol papa na helpim yupela long kamap olsem wanpela gutpela papa long pikinini bilong yupela. Mi laik bai Bikpela Jisas Krais i kisim biknem long haus bilong yupela wanwan.

Long helpim yumi bai mi mekim klia wanpela tok: DADDY.

Bai mi skelim wanwan leta bilong dispela tok: DADDY. Taim yumi pinis bai yumi klia gut long wanem kain daddy em i gutpela daddy o papa tru long ai bilong God na pikinini bilong em.

DADDY (Dedicated, Action, Directs, Disciplines and Yearns)

D = Dedicated
pikininiDispela tok ‘dedicated’ (o dedikeson) i min olsem yumi mas stap redi na faithful long pinisim olgeta wok bilong yumi tru tru. Em samting yumi papa mas mekim. Dispela kain papa em i no save ranawe long meri bilong em na pikinini. Nogat. Em save dediketim em yet tru tru long wok bilong em long helpim famili bilong em. I min olsem em i no lusim ol wok samting em i mas mekim long blesim femili bilong em. Mi tok tru long yu: meri na pikinini i lavim kain papa olsem. Hamaspela man ol i marit na promisim meri bilong ol olsem, ol bai i lukautim gut ol na lavim ol na pikinini wantaim. Tasol i no longtaim na sampela traim i kamap, narapela meri i grisim ol, na ol i lusim femili.

Tru tumas wanem ol papa i givim ol yet tru long femili bilong ol, ol stap Kristen. Ol i bilip tru long Krais, bikos ol i nidim strong bilong Krais long inapim ol dispela gutpela wok. Olsem na long kamap gutpela papa yumi mas givim yumi yet long Jisas pastaim. Olsem Baibel i tok long Kolosi 3:17, “Long toktok bilong yupela na long wok bilong yupela na long olgeta samting yupela i mekim, yupela i mas mekim long nem bilong Bikpela Jisas!”

Na dispela dedikeson long Krais em i karim kaikai insait long femili. Yumi bai lavim meri na pikinini bilong yumi. Na yumi bai painim taim long toktok wantaim pikinini na skulim ol long ol gutpela samting God i bin mekim. Yumi bai pilai wantaim ol. Yumi bai lavim ol. Yumi bai lukautim ol gut tru.

A = Action
Dispela tok Action (o Akson) em i man bilong wok na mekim ol samting i kamap. Yumi ken tok olsem em wanpela akson man. Kain papa olsem em i no lesman. Em i tingim Gutpela Sindaun 20:4, “Lesman i no save go brukim graun long gaden bilong en long taim bilong planim kaikai. Olsem na long taim bilong kisim kaikai i mau, em bai i go painin nating long gaden bilong en.” Ol gutpela papa em ol lain bilong painim rot long lukautim femili. Ol i save wok hat. Taim ol i kisim fortnait o sampela mani ol i no tingim ol yet na baim wanpela katon bia, nogat ol i putim nids bilong femili i go pas. Tru tumas, pikinini i lukim dispela kain pasin papa bilong ol i mekim na ol i amamas tru.

Na tu ol pikinini i save bihainim pasin bilong papa bilong ol yet. Mi save olgeta papa i laik bai pikinini i lainim pasin bilong wok. Long helpim pikinini yu mas stap olsem wanpela akson man. Yu noken kamap lesman! (Ritim Gutpela Sindaun 10:5; 15;19;22:13; 26:13,26 etc).

D = Directs
Dispela tok directs (dairiks) i min olsem givim stia long pikinini. Taim God i kirapim kontrak wantaim Abraham dispela pasin i stap bipo i kam inap long nau. Yumi mas lidim ol pikinini long tok bilong God.

Buk Song 145:4 “Ol lain manmeri i stap nau bai ol i tokaut long ol arapela lain i kamap bihain long ol samting yu mekim na bai ol i litimapim nem bilong yu.”

Efesus 6:4 i tok olsem, “Na yupela papa, yupela i no ken bagarapim tingting bilong pikinini bilong yupela na mekim ol i belhat long yupela. Nogat. Yupela i mas mekim gutpela pasin long ai bilong Bikpela, na stretim gut ol pikinini bilong yupela na skulim ol long tok bilong Bikpela.”

Skulim ol long tok bilong Bikpela i nambawan wok. Yumi mas dairiktim pikinini long Jisas Christ! Ol gutpela papa i save painim taim long sindaun wantaim wanwan pikinini bilong em na strongim ol. Gutpela papa i no save dairiktim ol pikinini wantaim pasin belhat na bikmaus. Nogat. Gutpela papa i save lidim ol long beten na bringim ol long trupela lotu we Krais i save kisim Biknem.

“Skulim pikinini bilong yu long bihainim gutpela pasin, na em bai i wokabaut long dispela rot inap long em i lapun tru.” Gutpela Sindaun 22:6.

D = Disciplines
Dispela tok discipline (disaplin) – em i olsem stretim pikinini taim ol i wokim rong. I gat tupela rot bilong stretim pikinini. Namba wan rot em i toktok. Pikinini i mas save olsem wanem samting em i stret na wanem samting i no stret. Pikinini mas klia tru long dispela. Tasol, sapos pikinini i bikhet, sakim tok, daunim yu o mama bilong en, papa i mas stretim em.

Gutpela Sindaun i tok olsem, “Sapos yu stretim pikinini na givim kanda long em, orait em bai i kisim gutpela tingting na save. Tasol sapos pikinini i bihainim laik bilong em yet oltaim, orait em bai i mekim mama bilong en i sem.”

Yumi mas pret liklik taim yumi disaplinim pikinini bilong yumi sapos yumi no inap bosim gut belhat bilong yumi. Planti pikinini i kisim taim bikos papa o mama i save belhat tumas. Dispela kain pasin bilong belhat na paitim pikinini em i rong long ai bilong God.

Olgeta taim yumi mas stretim pikinini wantaim lav. Lav! Pasim Laikim! Hau bai yumi stretim ol: rs, taim ol i mekim rong yu mas painim gutpela ples bilong stretim ol na tokim ol long wanem rong ol i bin mekim. Tu, yusim han bilong yu long paitim as bilong ol, na bihainim krismas bilong ol long painimaut hamaspela taim yu bai paitim ol. (Kain olsem, sapos em i gat tripela krismas, paitim as bilong em tripela taim). Tri, bihain long paitim ol yu tokim ol, “Mi lusim rong bilong yu na mi lavim yu.“ Na larim ol i go. Tasol, mi tok gen, no ken mekim wantaim belhat.

Mi askim yu papa: pikinini i save olsem yu lavim ol, o nogat? Buk Baibel i tok, “Bikpela i save stretim ol man em i laikim tumas.” (Hibru 12:6). Bikpela i lavim mipela. Bikpela i stretim mipela. Bikpela em i papa bilong mipela. Mipela mas mekim wankain olsem long pikinini bilong yumi – stretim pikinini wantaim lav!

Y = Yearns
Dispela tok yearns (yurns) em i nupela tok long planti lain, tasol em i gat gutpela mining. Em i min olsem yu gat bikpela laik na wari long bel bilong yu long ol pikinini bilong yu. Wanem krai na beten em i nambawan long laip bilong wanpela papa? Em i olsem em i save krai na beten long God olsem pikinini bilong em mas bihainim Tok bilong God, lavim God Triwan na pas gut wantaim Krais olgeta de long laip bilong ol. Klostu olgeta taim dispela beten bai karim kaikai insait long haus taim papa i save wok long skulim gut pikinini. Mi tokim yu stret: Ol papa o daddy i luk olsem sapos yu nogat dispela laik na krai long bel bilong yu, ating yu no t long kisim dispela nem papa. Trupela papa i gat bikpela hangre long skulim pikinini long Tok bilong God!

Tarangu, planti papa i no bisi long spiritman bilong pikinini na planti ol pikinini i bikhet na ol i no sindaun gut. Hamaspela pikinini i save bihainim rot nogut bilong papa bikos papa i wanpela giaman man, o stilman, o spakman o man bilong tok nogutim na paitim meri bilong en. Olsem na planti pikinini i save bihainim lek mak bilong papa bilong ol na stap wankain olsem papa bilong ol.

Olsem na yu daddy o yu papa, plis lukluk gut na skelim gut ol wokabaut bilong yu long ai bilong pikinini bilong yu. Plis lukluk long Krais na stap olsem papa bilong pikinini bilong yu tude, na olgeta de!

Be a DADDY to your child today!

Sorcery Related Killings in PNG (True Story)

A true story:
The woman was sitting on the ground bunched up like a little ball. Her head – loosely bandaged with a bandana marked with blood – was resting on her thin knees as she sat squatting on the dirt-packed ground. She was old, weak and feeble. Even the slightest breeze might take her away. Her situation was precarious.

She did not move when I arrived. Fear had stolen her heart. Death – the all- consuming intruder, the great equalizer showing no respect for young or old alike – had come. It had come the night before and stolen away her son, Markus (real name protected), at the age of 35. And it had just now escaped her by nothing short of a miracle as she was accused by a glasman (witchdoctor) of killing her very own son. In the eyes of the community, especially in the eyes of her immediate family, she was a sorcerer, a so-called kumo-meri, and thus needed to be killed immediately. Attempts were made.

I bent down beside her and held her. Whether accused of sorcery or not, this emancipated elderly woman was born in the image of her Creator; she was destitute, rejected by her own family and without hope, as the tentacles of death seemingly closed around her.

sanguma2

Photo: © Vlad Sokhin (used with permission)

Welcome to the world of sorcery-related killings in PNG. As a missionary, an outsider looking in, I am a mere child to the feelings, the emotions, the fear, the anger, the revenge and hatred surrounding those who are suspected of killing a loved one by engaging the spirit world, the sanguma world, the world of black and dark magic. Yet, I have preached and taught in the settlements of Lae for almost nine years now and I weep at the revenge killings of those who have been accused (without any evidence save the lying tongue of a witchdoctor) of an act of sorcery. Families are being torn apart, moms sometimes with their children are killed, communities divided and all because of an accusation to sorcery. It is PNG’s very own witch-hunt. “But ‘so and so’ put a curse on him,” they will say, “and therefore ‘so and so’ must die.” But why are these ‘so and sos’ almost always women with the occasional (elderly) man thrown in? Rarely, if ever, is it a young or healthy middle-aged man. Is that not curious, when in Jesus’ time evil spirits did not show respect of age or gender?

The thought is that the sanguma spirit, the evil spirit, or whatever it is must die, and supposedly by killing the person the sanguma will die. But no one really knows. Does it? There is no proof it is dead! None. Sadly, the only proof that something is dead is the charred remains of a body – a mother, a wife, a grandmother or bubu who wanted to keep living and serving her family as she had been for many years. Their blood, like the blood of Abel, cries out to God for justice!

Let us back up two days. It was a Tuesday evening and I had just finished preaching the Gospel of God’s abundant grace and love to a group of some 80-100 people in a settlement known for its production of homebrew (“steam”), its thievery, and even its murders. As I preached, Markus, the young man mentioned above, was listening rather intently. After I had finished, I shook his hand and said “gutnait” (Good night), not knowing this would be the last time I would ever speak to him. That evening he went to sleep, never to wake up again. The intruder had come. And God, who is sovereign over death, had marked his last breath sometime between midnight and six AM.

But what transpired after his death was not mourning as one might expect; rather it was blood-thirsty revenge. The question that needed an answer was: who can be charged? No one killed him… at least there was no murder that could be recounted. The family was right there, and no one heard anything. But revenge had to be meted out. “Who killed him?” means, “Who put a curse on him?” He must have been cursed! It did not matter that Markus lived on beer and home brew, betelnut (buai) and drugs for the last 20 years of his life. It did not matter that he had some organ failure the week before and was “cleared” from the hospital because they couldn’t do much more. Those facts mean nothing when death rears its ugly head. Who cursed him is the only legitimate question that needs to be answered, it is thought.

Photo: © Vlad Sokhin (used with permission)

Photo: © Vlad Sokhin (used with permission)

Immediately the witchdoctor – the glasman – was requested to come. Bamboo in hand, hungry and in need of money, it took him only moments to produce his verdict: “The mother” he said. Pointing his bamboo stick at the most destitute of the lot, an aged mother crippled over in grief – the charge was made. Who could revoke such a charge? Who could acquit her? The sentence was given. So her own family and friends moved in to kill their mother, grandmother, acquaintance and friend. It had to be death then and there – blood relationships notwithstanding – while the lying glasman, with some 200 kina ($100) in hand, rejoiced over his day’s work. He could now buy a nice 40 kg bag of rice with that, lots of tin fish and satisfy a lot of bellies with his hard labours. The cruel injustice of his act! PNG has re-established the death penalty; and one day, I imagine, witchdoctors will be filed into a waiting cell awaiting their own turn to die, as the blood of countless mothers and grandmothers are on their hands! But now, this glasman is still living with impunity.

He left and retaliation began. Someone swung his knife and cut the mother’s head. A few others tried to rip her from the tree she was holding to bring her to the kunai grass to kill her. Thankfully, a leader in the community was brave enough to stop them at risk of his own life. Had this leader been a son or daughter, they would have killed him or her along with the mother. You can’t stand up for your dying mother if she has been accused of sorcery – it is instant death. Stories abound of children trying to save their mum only to be slaughtered with her. So the group of thugs waited until evening. Their plan was simple: pile 5 tires up under the nearby bridge and when people are overcome with tiredness, they would steal the mother away, put her in the centre of the tires and set it alight. It is one of the more common ways to kill those accused of sorcery in the settlements of PNG. Just burning some rubbish, they would say, but what about the blood curdling screams? Is anyone listening to those? Does anyone care? But thank the Lord, the community leader who stopped the kunai grass killing, had given his life to guarding this poor woman. He cared enough to risk his life for her. And God in his infinite wisdom sent a torrential rain that washed the tires away deep into the ocean. Satan’s evil plans were thwarted, again.

It took more than 24 hours after the death of Markus for someone to call me to come. I have yet to learn why. When I arrived, Markus’ mum could not look up at me and neither could many of those sitting in the area round her. Fear and darkness, guilt and shame, anger and revenge had settled in and the mourning process was grossly interrupted. It had become the devil’s playground. Still, the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings light and hope and peace and that is why I had to be there. And as his workers, we know there is nothing to be ashamed of or fear when we preach Christ and him crucified. Because the Gospel has the power to bear on every situation – even the dark, evil, anger filled situations that Satan tries desperately to retain. Nothing to fear… though I must confess at least a few waves of fear filled me with some extra adrenaline as I prayed for Christ’s protection! We do Christ’s bidding in so much weakness!

What did the power of the Gospel wield that day? Only the Lord really knows, but what I could see was this: He normalized the situation and allowed truth to expose lies. They heard me speak strongly against the witchdoctor and to the people for asking him to come. He is a worker for the devil who does not care about their lives: he does not come to save lives, but to harm. In complete contrast, the Gospel saves, because Christ saves. Christ gave his life not to destroy ours, but to call us back from death to life. He even rescued those possessed by evil spirits as he tarried with us on this earth. He sets captives free. And on the cross, He dealt a fatal blow to death, Satan and all the forces of evil in the heavenly realm (Col 2:15). There is hope in Him. So I put it plainly:

“Why? Why? Why did you not call me first – I have been preaching the Gospel of peace and life in Christ in this area for some 4 months, because I want you to know Christ and his love for you. But Markus dies and you call a glasman. Shame on you! He needed to get paid – he received his pay and where is he now? Is he going to comfort you in the death of Markus? No, he is gone. But the Gospel comes and brings life and hope and it is free and you reject it! But it is this Gospel that I bring to you today… and it comes at no cost to you, only to HIM. He died so that you might live and be set free…!”

Photo: © Vlad Sokhin (used with permission)

I pleaded with them for over 45 minutes demanding that they become life-promoters, not destroyers, as they mourn the loss of Markus. To promote life is to first repent and seek by faith the giver of life, Christ himself, and then love and protect the vulnerable. That’s living out the Gospel!

After I left, some relatives came down from the Highlands of PNG bent on killing the mother of Markus because they had learned that she was suspected of doing sanguma. I praise God that the Gospel had begun its work – the family that had heard the Gospel defended Markus’ mother. Even months later, another one of her children died, but there was no talk of sanguma this time. Maybe they had become life promoters and not destroyers by the power of God’s grace in them.

In the end, my prayer, my humble plea, is that God will open people’s eyes to see the darkness that consumes them as they live in fear of sorcery. I pray that God will bring to justice those false prophets who accuse our mothers with the use of the devil’s tools (bamboo stick or black magic) and leave them to die a horrific death. I pray for the murderers who kill their wives and mothers or aged fathers that they will stop and repent or face the full brunt of the law. I pray that the mothers of PNG need not fear the death or torture when they mourn but they can cry as everyone else does, grieving the loss of life and praying for the comforting hands of the Lord to surround them. I sincerely pray that the witch-hunt will end and for justice and truth to prevail in PNG! God bless Papua New Guinea!