Cunan was stabbed to death. Why? Over a cigarette. A cigarette. Cunan’s life was worth less than the cost of one cigarette to someone. That someone was likely…
Saved from Mob Justice
There is a popular song in East Africa that teaches the community that a witchdoctor and a liar deserve to be set on fire. This happened to Mr. Buyongwe (Buy-yong-wee) John, an 80-year-old man who was a well-known witchdoctor, who lived in the Cankozo District in the Republic of Burundi. The people of Cankozo were fed up with the witchcraft practices of Mr. Buyongwe. This led to poverty because many people paid all their money to him to solve their problems. One day the community decided to (punish) his witchcraft lies by setting him on fire.
More Powerful Than Dark Spirits
When ITMI’s Muhindo Kawede was a boy, his mother told him to behave or else the ghosts of his ancestors would get him. Instead of using “monster spray” to calm children’s fears of imaginary goblins hiding under the bed, as in America, Kawede’s mother told him and his siblings their ancestors would eat them. And she meant every word.
How a Miraculous Deathbed Prayer Led to Something Unexpected
“I don’t think he knows who we are,” Pastor Mlungisi Zuma told ITMI’s Kelly Smith. They were in a well-lit, non-private hospital room near Zulu Natal, South Africa. The two men were visiting a man they knew as Mr. Cele. “He is mumbling and saying a lot of things, but he is making no sense at all,” the pastor observed. Kelly and the new South African pastor of his church continued chatting with the delirious patient.
5 Humble Heroes
Not many will know him by his official name or by his given name. But Frederick III, Elector of Saxony was a hero.Born in Torgau, Saxony (Germany) during the Renaissance period in 1463 to a powerful family that was very well connected to the Holy Roman Empire. Eventually he became second in authority to Emperor Maximilian.
Home Alone in a Refugee Camp
Jahim just wasn’t Jahim. Last month ITMI’s Steve Evers sat out under a Ugandan shade tree, seeking some refuge from the intense equatorial sun, while at a small guest house in Kampala, Uganda. Jahim was really glad to see Steve, and he was wanting to discuss what opportunities there were in South Sudan, but Jahim wasn’t Jahim. With what Jahim was exposed to in December in his homeland of South Sudan…
Hope for South Sudan
“I’m hiding on the floor with my family.”
“We didn’t sleep much last night with all the bullets and artillery….”
“Two hours ago [Monday, December 16th] a military truck with soldiers came to my neighbor’s house, pulled him out and shot him dead. He is still laying out there and no one can go out to get the body [because all were afraid to show their faces in public].”
What to Do When Facing the Red Sea (or Tribal Conflict in South Sudan)
In Moments of Peace in the Wisdom of God, we read the following, “Some things are small, but powerful. An ant, for example, can lift fifty times its own weight. With that kind of power, you cold toss an automobile around like it was a toy!” (Baker Publishing House)
“In the same way, your words may seem unimportant, but they carry tremendous power.”
Slaying the Monsters
Spring had finally arrived to the southern hemisphere and more specifically to the Northern Cape of South Africa. There were signs of growth and new life everywhere. God’s yearly quilt of unlimited color blankets the otherwise barren sheep-land which borders the 185+ kilometer dirt road “shortcut” that leads to the Orange River and the outpost called, Onseepkans, South Africa. This is where ITMI’s Gerhard and Elmane le Roux and family are fighting the monsters that come from an almost forgotten and godless society.
How I Meet the Challenges of Missionary Travel
After six of the last eight plus weeks being either in southern Africa or in Eastern Europe, my body’s internal clock has pretty much gone haywire. For the whole week that I have been home my body has insisted on transitioning from deep sleep to wide awake at anywhere from 2:15 am to 3:35 am. Driving to the ITMI office at our normal starting time mentally feels like I’m arriving in the mid-afternoon, due to my work day starting 5-6 hours before.
