Pasin Nogut (Bad Behavior)

Sue writes:

We're feeling a bit discouraged by reports of violence and just plain bad behavior we have heard about in our area lately. It's hard to sort out which of the following stories is true since all reports are by word-of-mouth. Anyway, the following stories have come to our ears in the last ten days:

One group of villagers tortured a "witch" to death after she was accused of working sorcery on a child who died. (Those close to the situation posit that the torturers just didn't like the woman, and they thought the accusation they brought would win approval of their actions.)

A man in another village was in the process of hacking his wife to death. When a church elder came to the wife's aid, the husband hacked him too. The woman's tribe did a payback killing of the boskru (fee collector) of a PMV (public motor vehicle). The dead boskru was not from the husband's tribe, however, so war has begun with a third tribe.

In another village, a PMV driver ran over and killed a pedestrian. A riot ensued.

A student of ours from another neighboring village called to say that his relative had been shot and was in the hospital. A security guard from our college was beset by the same villagers in his off-hours. He was hit over the head, had two of his fingers almost slashed off, and was chased back to campus. He lost a lot of blood, but he is recovering well in the hospital. It appears he will keep his slashed fingers.

Two men in yet another village are using guns to fight over land they both claim is theirs.

New books ordered for the college library and individual students have disappeared from an office. It is hoped that they were not stolen.

The judge in the six-month-old case of the college employee accused of complicity in the robbery of college funds has twice this week postponed the ruling on the case. It is hoped he is not waiting for a bribe.

How the people of this nation suffer at the hands of each other! It must get discouraging to be a national here. And it surely is wearing to be a missionary here. We ask our prayer warriors to entreat God that nationals who are true converts to Christ would stand up for what is right and influence others to do the same.