Otto Koning was ’n sendeling in Papoea-Nieu-Guinee. In Miracles in the Jungle, 8ste storie (17:40) vertel hy hoe hy probeer het om die Evangelie aan die mense daar te bring, maar hulle wou hom nie glo nie. In die Bybel lees ons egter dat die mense in Jesus se tyd aan Hom geglo het weens die wonderwerke wat hy gedoen het (Mat 14:13, Joh 2:11, Joh 2:13, Joh 7:31, Joh 11:45). Dus het hulle ’n wonderwerk of meer as een nodig gehad om die mense te oortuig. Jesus stuur toe die volgende wonderwerk (ek haal Otto Koning aan):
One morning, Bida, one of the most wicked men in the village came to my office, and he grabbed my hand strongly and shook it and said:
Bida: “Tuan (meneer), from now on I am going to take the hand of Jesus just like this, and I am going to walk with him. You will see.”
Otto: “You want to be a Christian?”
Bida: “Yes, Tuan. And save Daya (sy vrou) too.”
Bida! I couldn’t believe it. We had never prayed for Bida. He was so wicked. We did not want to waste our prayers on a guy like that and now he wants to be a Christian.
Otto: “Bida, but why do you want to be a Christian?”
Bida: “Have you ever seen someone die with a smile on their face?”
Otto: “That is the way Christians die.”
Bida: “Really? Then Sudaby had to be a Christian.”
Otto: “Did Sudaby die?”
Bida: “Yes, Tuan.”
Otto: “Oh no, Sudaby. Why did you not bring him to the clinic?”
Bida: “Aha Tuan, we were so far away we couldn’t get back to you. He died quick.”
Otto: “Oh no. Sudaby was a good guy. Then Sudaby had to be a Christian.”
Bida: “Is that the way christians die?”
Otto: “That is right.”
You keep that in mind when your time comes. Die with a smile on your face. That is a definite testimony, OK.
Then Bida describes the situation there:
Bida: “We were all sitting in a circle and mourning.”
Oh, these people wail and cry. They even start with that before a person dies. You know, you hear your own funeral, I mean, no wonder you give up the ghosts.
Bida: “We are wailing and he died and all of a sudden Sudaby he sits right up again. He is looking at us and says:”
Sudaby: “What are you all crying for?” Then he told his wife: “Get some water. Get some soap. Bath me. Wash me. It is so beautiful up there. It is so light. It is so bright up there. I don’t feel clean enough.” And so she is scrubbing him down with soap and cleaning him up and he says to her: “Get some more, cleaner water. Get some more soap. Do it again, because it is so beautiful up there. It is so bright. I want to be clean. I don’t feel clean enough to fit in there.”
That is what he said. In the meantime while she was scrubbing him down with the water, he was talking to the people sitting there. There was about 20 people sitting in that hut.
Sudaby: “You know, it is so beautiful up there. Go back to Aboy (waar Otto Koning gewoon het). All of you. Go back and you take Tuan’s hand. Take Tuan Koning’s hand and say to him: ‘I am going to walk with your God’. All of you, follow me. That is where I am going. Everything he ever told us is true. They are all up there: Khane is there!”
Khane died in child birth some time before. A crippled lady.
Sudaby: “Taga, the boy is there. He is so happy. He looks so good. Khane is not crippled anymore.”
That is what he said. And then he said:
Sudaby: “Moto is there. They are so happy now. That is where I am going.” He looks at his wife and said to her: “I want you to go. I want you to go back and follow me there and I want you to become a Christian.” And then he told his son and his daughters. And he said: “All of you, my family, I want you to go and take Tuan’s hand and tell him you start walking with him and with his God.”
And after he has finished telling all of them he lays down on his mat with a big smile and he died.
Bida: “We did not know whether to mourn or not. We just sat there. We all are now going to become a Christian. That is what we were thinking. We all have to become Christians, like Sudaby.”
And I didn’t even know Sudaby was a Christian. He was a quiet guy. He was always hiding behind the bigger guys, but somehow he had to hear what I preached many a time and had believed, but there was no doubt, he was a secret believer. Anyway, that is how this whole group came back to Aboy. Bida was the first one back and I led all these people to Christ.
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Aanvanklik was Otto Koning baie skepties oor hierdie gebeure, want hy was self nie seker of hy hierdie storie moes glo nie. Hy het immers geleer dat wonderwerke nie meer plaasvind nie (1 Korintiërs 13). Wat moes hy doen? Hy het hulle maar na die Here gelei. Eers toe hierdie mense oor tyd volhard het in hulle geloof, het hy besef dat alles waar was.
In “The weapons of prayer” (13de storie) vertel Otto ook asof dit algemene kennis is dat Christene in Papoea-Nieu-Guinee in vrede sterf terwyl ongelowiges met baie vrees sterf.