Drugs for Jesus

 

           A day I will remember for the rest of my life, Saturday December 31, 2011. The missionaries Uncle Mike and Aunt Diane Chapmen came to our door at around 10:30, inviting us to go with them to visit a revival that has been taking place in the churches of the village up behind the mission station. By the time we reached the village, I knew this was no ordinary revival.

This was the day the drugbois* had chosen. It was today when they would publicly renounce their drugs. As we approached the village, men were constantly coming up to us saying that they had tried every way to stop the drug use that was so prevalent. They had tried heavy police involvement, to no avail. “Christ really is the only answer, there is no other explanation for what you are seeing today,” one elder in the village said.

Piling two trucks high with marijuana, and an additional eighty men each carrying a large bundle of marijuana plants, they commenced a three to four kilometer march from the village, through the rot bung* to a designated field where a platform had been constructed. During the march, one man started singing in the local language of Jiwaka. This soon caught on, and every person was yelling at the top of his lungs. “Jisas Chrais na wirosimba!” “Jesus Christ has called me!”

In talking with one of the men in the truck I was in, I found out this was the first time anything like this has ever taken place, this was completely unprecedented, for as far back as any histories went. The local market place was full, with hundreds of people witnessing the work of the Holy Spirit, moving among these men.

Coming to the final field, the men circled around and laid, in front of the platform, and a crowd of witnesses, the very thing they had been holding on to so fervently. There wasn’t a look of hesitation on anyone’s countenance. This was what they had said they were going to do, this is what God had told them to do, and there was no turning back now. God didn’t miss this opportunity to teach this missionary kid a lesson in the midst of all the happenings around him. What am I holding on to, what is God putting His finger on in my life, and saying, “This needs to go. Lay it down. It’s going to be ok, turn to me, and find all the comfort you will ever need.”

*drugbois: Tok Pisin = drug addict

*Rot bung: Tok Pisin = where the major roads of the area converge, usually containing some small shops and roadside stands. 

Article by Quinton Schmelzenbach
Photos by Dr. Andy & Judy Bennett