The air is full of moisture. It is very humid. Torrential rains beat down every evening. It is the rainy season. We must get our work done before the nightly rains start.
The food is scarce but travel down to the stores is very dangerous. Any time anyone goes outside of our territory, the other tribes hunt them down. The men, and sometimes even the women, carry guns any time they must travel. It is not safe for the women and children to travel without the men to protect them. If anyone of our tribe gets killed, then my tribe will not rest until one of their tribe gets killed in exchange. A life for a life.
I feel safest in our village. We live high up on the mountain. The way up here is hard to climb especially in the rainy season. During this time the 2-3-hour journey is especially dangerous. There is a lot of mud which makes it easy to slip and fall. A fall could be little stumble or it could be 100 feet down. Then there is the bridge. It is a series of short pieces of steel bars hooked together. There are ropes holding the bridge up and more ropes to hold onto when you cross. The bridge is high up over the river. With all of the rains, the river is flowing very fast. This makes it dangerous for the other tribes to come to our village. That makes our village safer.
Food is getting scarce. I hope the rice crop is bigger this year. The men will go hunting tomorrow. A nice pig, goat, some wild chickens or anything big would taste good! We will look for some frogs and worms in the woods until then. If we are lucky, we will get a rat or a snake for supper.
I hear the guns firing. Someone must be dying. My family gets some rice to bring. I wonder if they will slaughter the pig or the cow to offer to the gods? We follow the gun shots to the home to wait for the person to die. Arriving at the home we learned that the grandmother has died. We do the ritual dance and speaking to the dead grandmother before we cook the food. It is customary this way. When the food is done, we will eat. We will continue to bring her food for years to come.
Although it is dangerous, some men will go down the mountain tomorrow. We need firewood. My friend is building a home. He must go down the mountain, too, to get supplies to build with. Hopefully they can bring some food up.
We used to kill all outsiders that came to our territory. We have learned that some people come to help us, not kill us. They bring help for the sick so we let them come. We are still careful who we let into our territory.
Near the bridge there is running water. This is where we fetch water to drink from. We also wash our clothes and take a bath there. One day when I was by the running water, a group of about 25 people came over the bridge; men, women and there were children, too, and a tall white man. We smiled and welcomed them.
The rains came down hard and fast. The village flooded again. We let our visitors stay in two of the houses in our village. When the rains slowed down, the visitors gathered in a building to have a meeting. The people that where Christians went inside. We were curious. We gathered outside and listened to what was going on. The tall white man they called Pastor. He was from another country far away. He talked about Jesus and how he loves us so much that he died for us and is alive again. He asked for us to come forward for prayer. No one moved. He came out to where we were and told us to come inside. He said that this God sent him from many miles away and on the dangerous path up the mountain to our village so we could be saved. Everyone came in and asked Jesus to come into our hearts and forgive us for the wrongs we have done.
It felt good as I prayed this prayer. I never felt this before when I prayed to the other gods, the gods this man said where false gods. I felt like this Jesus, … he heard me. He touched me with a warmth inside.
Then this tall white Pastor prayed for people that were sick or hurt. Person after person after person … they all got healed! I have never seen such a power before. Everyone that was there got healed. It was amazing. I am so thankful that this God sent them to our village.
GEORGE TEACHMAN MINISTRY 