East TimorWednesday, January 30, 2008
In a recent E-mail report from Asia-Pacific missionaries Warren and Janet Neal, three testimonies are given by members of their local East Timor church: Sunday morning we always allow time for testimonies. Here are a few inspiring ones from last weekend.
Sabino’s sonSabino, is one of our faithful Nazarene men. He is married with three children. They are a lovely family. His son, Christian, about 2 years old, became ill this past week. He was screaming and thrashing around. He had a fever and his screaming attracted the neighbors and extended family. They all said that Sabino should take him to the "matan dook" (witch doctor).
They suggested that the spirits of the ancestors were trying to get the child or punish them for some reason. [Sabino's younger sister just died after her husband had beaten her only three weeks ago. I am sure this was weighing heavily on everyone’s' mind.) Sabino refused to take his son to the witch doctor. He decided that if God is really who he believed He is, that God could do something about this illness. Sabino took his son into the house and cried out to Jesus to heal his son and protect this family from evil spirits. That night for the first time in several days Christian was able to sleep. The whole family was in church on Sunday morning.
Jil’s honestyAnother young man, named Jil, gave his testimony about an incident at school. Most schools here have a break time in the morning— and during the break if the students have any money they will buy something to eat or drink from local sellers who are waiting for the students just outside the school grounds. Jil didn't have any money, but his friend did, and his friend offered to buy Jil something to eat. When they gave the money to the old woman who was selling, she gave back too much change. Jil tried to get his friend to give back the money. His friend said no this is my 'blessing'. Jil tried to explain that you have to consider all the work she has to do and the people she must provide for.
As far as we know Jil's friend didn't give the money back, but isn't it refreshing to see how God is helping Jil to be honest and compassionate, and not afraid to share those ideas with his friends.Idilfonso’s “medicine” Pastor Samuel came from Lospalos to Dili on Wednesday, in preparation for going to Indonesia with us, and he told me this story. After church last Sunday one of the young men, Idilfonso, came to him and said he needed to confess that he had some "medicine", a book and a piece of cloth. All of these things are directly connected to animistic worship- asking the ancestral spirits for help and power. He told Pastor Samuel that when he first came to live at the youth center he just wanted to have a good time and that he did not plan on following this new way of living. Now he realized that he needed to give his whole life to God and these "magic" things he was holding needed to be dealt with. Pastor Samuel asked Idilfonso to bring all of the items to him, then they would have prayer together and burn them. So, later in the week, Idilfonso brought the "medicine" (actually some dried up fruit) and the cloth to be burned. The book is missing, but is certainly covered by the blood of Christ. They had a wonderful time of prayer and singing and burning of these representations of evil.Keep praying for Idilfonso and the other young men in the Lospalos youth center. God is doing great things there and preparing these young men to bring a revival to their part of the world.
--Warren Neal for NCN News-Asia-Pacific
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