This is Tahak sharing during one of their weekly discussion times. They were talking about their problems and suffering. Read what he has to say:
“As we have continued on with the Lord we have begun to learn that it is through problems and suffering that God causes us to grow. We can see so many areas where we have grown in our spiritual understanding because of hard things.
“One difficult thing that happened was about 13 years after the church was first established in our place, our main church leader committed adultery with the wife of one of the deacons.
“When it happened it was as if we completely forgot our faith and we reverted right back to wanting to deal with it the way we would in our old ways. Adultery is the worst form of sin in Higaunon culture and it is punishable by death if the person doesn’t flee quick enough.
“Those believers who belonged to the ladies’ family wanted to take revenge on the family of the man who committed the adultery with her. It took a long time for us to get sorted out and we nearly ended up killing one another, but the Lord used lots of situations to show us that we were all walking in sin.
“Like when the river flooded really badly and we couldn’t cross it to go and take revenge and the Lord used that to speak to us. Since that time we have actually seen a complete reconciliation of everyone involved. This was absolutely unheard of before we were saved. We learned so much about God’s forgiveness and realized that there are still many things in our ways that are opposed to the Creator’s ways.
“This is another area that we hope that our fellow siblings in the Lord in other places will pray for us in, because we tend to be so stubborn when it comes to issues between family groups.
“We usually get along fine within the bounds of one family group, but when an issue comes up between two or more family groups we are so easily tempted to be loyal to our own family group even if they are walking in sin! We need a lot of prayer in this area.
“Another area that is affected by our family relationships is the church leaders. This happens when the church leaders are having to deal with an area of sin in someone’s life and if there is a church elder who is from that person’s family group, he is expected by his family group to take sides with the person being dealt with.
“This often causes a problem between the church leaders. If the church leader takes sides with the person because of his family group then there is a rift in the fellowship of the leaders. If the leader stays faithful to stand with the church leaders in dealing with the person’s sin, then there is a lot of strife and problems between him and his family group.
“Either way, it seems that this area of family relationships is something that Satan is really trying to use to destroy the fellowship of the Higaunon church leaders and teachers.
“We think that Satan is doing this because there are so many new groups of people who are asking to be taught the truth these days that he want’s to get rid of all the teachers and leaders so that there will be no one to tell them”.
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Two Visitors
But then, anything below 70 degrees (f) is cold to us! We stopped off in Hawaii to visit good friends and it was even unseasonably cool there! All joking aside, we praise God for a safe trip and for exit row seats all the way! For those of you who may not realize, that means extra leg room and a more comfortable trip.
How are you doing in the Lord? How is your faith in Christ? If you are wondering how we are doing here in our village, we are doing well thanks to the Lord’s love and watch care over us. He shows that same love to each one of you as well.
