Boy's death a tragedy and opportunity
Soon after receiving a note last week, missionary Lourens Laureti in Papua New Guinea heard wailing in the Mengen village and knew something was wrong.
The note asked the Lauretis to pray for a boy who had been stabbed in the leg with a bamboo arrow.
Lourens went to investigate and was told that Steven and Sagilo’s son speared DC’s son. The 9-year-old boy was speared in a main artery and bled to death in a matter of minutes.
The Mengens were shocked and some from DC’s family wanted to immediately take revenge by killing a child from Sagilo’s clan.
“Praise the Lord that nothing like that happened at that moment,” Lourens wrote. “I spent most of the day there just listening to all the stories and heard that it might have been an accident.”
Sagilo’s son denied any involvement and upon further investigation of the fatal wound it appeared to be from a knife and not from a spear. A knife was found in the dead boy’s bag with blood on it.
“It seems he ran with the knife in the bag and maybe fell and the knife then stabbed him in the leg,” Lourens wrote. “The mother did not want to hear any of this and just wanted revenge and eventually demanded many pigs, money and food.”
But after the funeral the two families came to an agreement. Though coming to a conclusion that death was caused by the knife, they exchanged gifts, shook hands and made peace.
Others in the village suspected the cause of death to be a curse due to unresolved issues from previous generations. They sacrificed pigs to show the spirits their grief and to satisfy them so they will look after the village.
Though a tragedy, the situation presented an opportunity to encourage the believers and share the Gospel again with the unbelievers in the village.
“It was wonderful to see the young believers making a stand for what they believe in and starting to break away from their old ways even at this early stage,” Lourens wrote.
The note asked the Lauretis to pray for a boy who had been stabbed in the leg with a bamboo arrow.
Lourens went to investigate and was told that Steven and Sagilo’s son speared DC’s son. The 9-year-old boy was speared in a main artery and bled to death in a matter of minutes.
The Mengens were shocked and some from DC’s family wanted to immediately take revenge by killing a child from Sagilo’s clan.
“Praise the Lord that nothing like that happened at that moment,” Lourens wrote. “I spent most of the day there just listening to all the stories and heard that it might have been an accident.”
Sagilo’s son denied any involvement and upon further investigation of the fatal wound it appeared to be from a knife and not from a spear. A knife was found in the dead boy’s bag with blood on it.
“It seems he ran with the knife in the bag and maybe fell and the knife then stabbed him in the leg,” Lourens wrote. “The mother did not want to hear any of this and just wanted revenge and eventually demanded many pigs, money and food.”
But after the funeral the two families came to an agreement. Though coming to a conclusion that death was caused by the knife, they exchanged gifts, shook hands and made peace.
Others in the village suspected the cause of death to be a curse due to unresolved issues from previous generations. They sacrificed pigs to show the spirits their grief and to satisfy them so they will look after the village.
Though a tragedy, the situation presented an opportunity to encourage the believers and share the Gospel again with the unbelievers in the village.
“It was wonderful to see the young believers making a stand for what they believe in and starting to break away from their old ways even at this early stage,” Lourens wrote.