“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
- Matt 4:15-17
Right before we left the highlands in April, I had written on Facebook, about how one of the ladies in my village was killed by a crocodile on March 27th. Her name was Dumi. She left behind her husband and two young children Amos and Roman. (both of who I named)
This was so hard for me to see the family upon our return to Moka. Wacuve is her husband and he was standing there on the side of the airstrip when the airplane landed. He was holding both his children. My heart went out to him. To think about how she died is just horrible. Apparently the Croc came up out of the water while she was on the edge with her feet in the water. She was was fishing for shrimp. There was another girl who was helping her with the net that was actually standing in the water but he totally bi-passed her. He grabbed Dumi and thrashed her to kill her and then she was never seen again. I mean this is like a story you would read in some book not expecting it to happened to someone you know. Dumi was one of the first girls I met in Moka, she was a young adult and just full of life. In my beginning days she helped me with laundry and would just come around to see what “the new people” were doing. After we came back from our first furlough she was married to Wacuve. He was another one full of life and very animated. They had their first baby in Dec 2020 and asked me to give him his “christian” name. I named him Amos after my brother in law. They were honored because just knowing that it was the name of Caleb’s brother meant a lot to them. Sept, 2023 their 2nd son was born and again I named him, Roman. Both of the boys are great little boys living the good life of the village. Every Sunday Coffee night they would come up to our house with their mugs!
Dumi rarely came to any Sunday meetings. She was an SDA. Wacuve on the other hand has come many times and is one of Calebs translators. He is no stranger to the word!
Today I was cleaning up a bit only to hear Him crying out. Being she died by the crocodile there is a lot of sorcery tied to that and can cause many problems among family, and really anyone that they might want to blame for this sorcery. I know that Wacuve has an idea and plan of who he is blaming but we are not involved in that. Caleb and I just keep speaking truth to him, telling him that God knows the day that we will die. That he has to turn from his ways and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We both have told him that with out truly believing he will go to hell. PNG people have very thick skin and rarely get offended by this kind of strong talk to them. He listened. We keep praying for his soul. He is in mourning which means that he wanders around in black (because there is no grave for him to sit by because there was no body to put in it). According to their ways he doesn’t wash, cut his hair, or make food for about 2 months. The sad thing is that many are not helping him with food, only 2 families that I know of.
Last week we had him and the boys up on the porch for a meal, He was so thankful and we were just so happy to have them. Please pray for Wacuve and his boys, that they will be saved.
This is Dumi and Wacuve with her pregnant with Roman in 2023
Roman eating a lollipop after he took a bath at my house.
me giving them a bath, dad standing off to the side. I told him (I could see they were really dirty) I would do at my tank water so we didn’t have to worry about the croc water.
Amos after his bath wanted to play in the tub- just like every other kid I know! so cute to just see his joy!