NIGHT OF TERROR
Two things I’ve never experienced this close up before:
- Anger
- The devil face to face
It’s already 9:10p.m. Lights are out. We are settling to sleep when a motorbike is heard grinding up our steep hill with lightning speed. Oh Dear Lord, it must not be good. Someone coming so quickly after dark is never a good sign.
Two young men from WST stammer to describe a stabbing. “Knife went all the way through to the back!”
Two BYT guys are with us this night, so we all instantly jump in the truck. “Oh Dear Lord there’s big trouble, please help!” We are racing over the bumpy road to WST. On the way BletJhaw says: “It’s ChaPo!”
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ChaPo and his wife just 2 months before His murder
I think about ChaPo. He is 60 years old, a very kind man. We helped him stop smoking 9 years ago, but he went back to it again. He attended our church many times, and later in 2017 he was convicted that the seventh-day was the Sabbath and wanted to join our church, so he pulled his membership out of the Catholic Church. We helped him and his wife both quit smoking for good, and they were baptized during our very first evangelistic series in December 2017.
He is sincere and has faithfully attended church since that time. God has blessed him with a tremendous rice harvest year after year – the tallest, strongest, highest yielding crop that I have seen in these mountains. He brought us to his garden last year so we could conduct thanksgiving worship. We hiked way up the mountain to praise the Lord with him. He told us that one tenth of his rice harvest he will sell and give that money for tithe – and he did just that!
Worship in ChaPo’s beautiful rice garden, ready to harvest.
Two years ago his relative, Bli, in MooDooKee village wanted to become a Seventh-Day Adventist but ChaPo didn’t know how to answer his questions, so he hurried to call us to come visit and help Bli understand the Bible. Since that time we have studied together and Bli, his wife, two daughters, and one husband were baptized during our 2018 evangelism series. The other daughter just got married and her husband was baptized December 2020.
Baptism of 2018
This entire family is now baptized!
We are very drawn to ChaPo. He is doing all that he knows to do that’s right.
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But now back to reality. At this moment I am breathless, my heart is standing still, or is it racing? I don’t know which. Wickedness and evil hit me square in the face with all the demonic forces of hell! Blood is everywhere – huge pools of it. ChaPo is lying there on the ground – dead. I lift the blanket covering ChaPo – such a large stab wound to the heart made by a very large knife. That wound went all the way through diagonally to the right lateral chest. Nobody is around all is eerie and ominously quiet. The wind is blowing sending shimmering shadows of leaves and trees from our flashlights. We see no lights in any of the houses. Two young men are there, the ones who had come to get us. They tell us that nobody knows where the murderer is. His house is just across the pathway from ChaPo’s house. He gets very angry when he drinks, plus he takes drugs, perhaps ‘mad horse medicine’ that causes horrific madness. He must have come to ChaPo’s house with all intentions to kill, because he began to pull the bamboo fencing across to enter his house. ChaPo heard the noise and thought it was a cow. We found out later that as he opened his door, before even stepping outside, the murderer, DeePo, stabbed him through and through, then while the knife was still in, he dragged him by the knife outside to the gate, then he pulled the knife out. It is a horror movie in reality! My mind cannot process what my eyes are seeing.
Now it is just the 5 young men and myself gazing at the horrifying scene and trying to process this atrocious heinous thing that just happened. Presently the 5 young men decided to go to the murderer’s house and see if the daughter or anyone is home. Each one selects a large stick of firewood as a weapon to investigate the house. I’m standing in the road praying under a starlit night. The half moon is calmly staring down at me. “Oh Lord,” I pray, “We don’t know where the murderer is. We are in a very dangerous position.” I lift my eyes to the moon and say: “Lord protect these people – what is going on?” BletJhaw did not go up to the house, but the others said only the man’s shoes were outside covered with blood. I said, “Let’s get out of here, we should not be here!” Little did we know how dangerous our position was!
We drive to the headman’s house in BYT and get him out of bed. We all go to the school where there is just a little phone service. It is not too good. After many attempts to call, they finally get in touch with the chief of police in Omkoi, who will send police from MeDooGlow, but they don’t know where BeYoTa, or WaSuTa are located because we are so remote.
BletJhaw and I return home, unable to sleep. At 1:00a.m, two young men come to ask BletJhaw to help in the hunt down of the murder! Apparently the police are on the scene now. I do not go.
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BletJhaw’s story: 1:00a.m. to 3:30a.m.
Finally the police arrived. There were 4 of them equipped with guns and M-16s. They had long metal forked sticks to push off offenders. Every villager in WST who knows what has happened is terrified because they heard the wife screaming and also know that this man has a big knife on him one and a half feet long, and owns an AK-47! Most of the bamboo houses are open and do not lock. Nobody is sleeping. They huddle in the dark in their houses, with knives and hunting guns ready. The search party consists of 30 people, equipped with knives and big sticks. They divided into 2 groups with 2 policemen heading each group. After searching high and low, up and down the mountainside, they finally find him in the bushes. They called for him to put the knife down, surrender with hands up and come out of the bushes, but he broke away and ran to his house, with police and others in hot pursuit. There was chaos while the police fought him down and got him under control.
ChaPo’s nephew, a soldier, hit him with the end of his gun. Others punched and hit him with sticks. One strong young man took a large heavy stick like a baseball bat and hit him in the forehead as hard he could. It made such a loud bang and caused him to fall and hit his head on the ground with great force. He should have been bleeding and knocked unconscious. The strange thing is this man did not bleed, no hematoma, and no sign of pain or swelling seen. He is conscious and alert. He just stood right up with a strange smirk. BletJhaw and the headman saw it! Later we learned that this man is super demon possessed and much more than that! Several years ago he received a very rare injection, after which they say he cannot be injured! That has been proven true today by the power of the devil!
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It is the custom for all the villagers to stay with the family of the deceased for 2 or 3 days and nights so the family can be comforted. Also they stay together because they are afraid of the ghost, which they believe can appear after someone dies.
In this country, when there is a crime the police do a reenactment and bring the murderer back to show exactly what he did that night. We were all there at ChaPo’s house when they brought DeePo back to reenact his crime. The police had DeePo restrained with hands tied tightly together, a hard helmet, and a bulletproof vest. I soon find out why he is dressed so. This is all new to me. As he shows the police just what he did, the family and friends of ChaPo are furious, they want to kill this man. There is so much anger pent-up and boiling over in many of the relatives and young men. I never saw such unbridled anger before in my life, but suddenly I am in the midst of it. Strong young men are in a wild frenzy, yelling, screaming, racing to beat, stab, shoot, kill this murderer. By God’s grace I am able to move to the outskirts of the crowd. BletJhaw is able to calm one young man who has a large knife.
The murderer is doing the reenactment
The judicial system here is not right for criminals. There is a limit of 20 years that a criminal can stay in prison, and then they are set free! But this man could work his way out in 4 years with bribery! If he does, the village people here all plan to kill him. (If possible).
We tearfully say goodbye until the resurrection morning.
I am home alone at times, but not afraid. I think back during the 11 years we have lived here in these jungle mountains. We are surrounded with devil worshipers. The devil is literally cordially invited all around us. Opium, mad horse, and other unknown drugs are sold and used right here in our village, and all villages for that matter! I have stayed by myself all alone countless nights in an unlocked house. I always have love in my heart for everyone here and give my life to helping each and every one to get well and, of course, in the process I want to lead them to Jesus. I realize now how our angels have protected us all along the way. A knock sounds at the door at night, and I always run to open it, so happy to help whoever is out there. So this could easily be me too.
Just last night, right in BYT we heard ChweeCoo, (an angry man), go crazy and out of control all night. (He almost shot his oldest daughter 2 times in the past). He is now angry at BletJhaw and especially me! He screamed and yelled and fought with everyone all night long, tearing up his bamboo house. Many strong men had to try to keep him in his house all night so he wouldn’t come to our house and kill us! No one in BYT slept that night. ChweeCoo hears voices in his head that tell him what to do. He says I’m supposed to put money in his account. In the past he walks around our house at night many times. Tonight as I listen all night long I hear him yelling my name. He is yelling, “She helps everyone around here but wont help me!” Thankfully the next day the police came and took him away.
“Oh precious Father in heaven, life is short, it is like a vapor. It is like grass in the field, which today is, and tomorrow cast into the oven. Relatives are in shock and grieving, ChaPo is gone. His entire family is terribly traumatized. The end is near and the devil is angry and working desperately to take me down along with every follower of God. He works from underneath, but I will not fear, because your love and protection is streaming down from above in greater supply. Whenever You want to take me, I’m in Your hands, but if You still have work for me to do then nothing can kill me. I will work for You, Father with all my might while I yet live. By Your grace alone!”
Psalm 138:7 “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth Thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”