Monday, March 09, 2009

Ongoing Trials Since The Year 2000

Yesterday was O.'s birthday. After church we celebrated P.'s birth, O.'s birthday and G.'s (almost) b-day by having cake and lunch with all our believers.


After lunch all our co-workers came to our house to give a gift to O. All of the sudden I heard a sound like rumbling thunder but was in reality several pairs of flip flops running across our stone floors. I thought some of our co-workers were going to the back of my house to bring in the gift for O. but alas, no, nothing that mundane. What I didn't know was that just a moment before that one of our Children's Home children came running to my house and said, "Someone is beating Driver Uncle."


Our driver was taking the children home after church and a family who has persecuted us since we came to this city stopped our vehicle and started pushing our driver around.

It became a big bruhaha with people getting beat by belts and threatened with sticks and stones (literally). There was even a biting incident. Then by this time O. and all our male co-workers (and most of our children) had reached the scene. There was a lot of shouting and threatening and eventually O. decided to just report the incident to the police.

O. and all the men went to the police station and all the ladies and kids stayed at my house waiting for our delayed birthday party. We prayed instead and waited some more.

A couple hours later some police came to my house and asked what was going on. I didn't really know much but I said that nothing had happened here and pointed them in the right direction. All the ladies were standing outside and the police asked "Who are all these people?" I think they thought I had gathered a force of women to go fight. I said, "We were having a birthday party..."

The situation is still going on. This family has done things against us again and again. They put a case against us yesterday claiming we were here only to convert people to Christianity. We weren't even involved in the situation yesterday. Yet we see their planning and scheming all over it. Their desire is to destroy O. and the ministry. We know this because they said in front of everyone yesterday.

Please pray with us for wisdom in this case and pray especially that we will have favor in the courts and with the police. As Christians and as a minority no one stands with us in times of trial. Anything to do with religion is a major political issue over here and we can get stuck in all kinds of problems and bogged down in court cases. Pray for victory in Jesus name in every area as well as wisdom for how to proceed according to God's will.

Through it all O. kept saying, "It's my birthday today..."
Sometimes you just never get a break.

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