A Rock In A Weary Land 99
A ROCK IN A WEARY LAND
years old—old enough to stand on my own feet—but I can never forget that awful sense of desolation. I had never known this world without mother to run to when in trouble, I did not know that God had a dear husband all planned for me. Well the Oak Flat church has never known
Christian life without Me-do-me-pa to run to when in trouble. They are shaking and trembling; that is, the carnal ones are—our spiritual Christians are not afraid. But I sympathize with Papa Peter. I have had experience of the Lord's love and power. I know He can raise up some one, something to make life livable again—in my case it was my husband, but always it is something. Those who live after the flesh have no such experience to bolster them and they are needlessly afraid. But we are not told to cast them out because their faith is not enough ... "him that is weak in the faith receive ye." Put your loving arms of prayer about these doubting ones, that they may see, later on, the glory of God.
Amy Carmichael says that the words, "No one is indispensable. God will give you another Me-do-me-pa" are not true. She says, "No it is not by giving us back what He has taken that our God teaches us His deepest lessons, but by patiently waiting beside us till we can say, 'I accept the will of my God as good and acceptable and perfect of loss or ain.
; When is the time to trust?
Is it some future day, When you have tried your way, And learned to trust and pray, By bitter woe?
Nay; but the time to trust Is in the moment's need, Poor, broken, bruised reed!
Poor troubled soul make speed To trust thy God.
And now the Wind of Death was blowing bitterly upon the dear Shepherd. It was his "'time to trust." At first when he realized recovery was hopeless, the "why" of it bothered him.
One afternoon as I was sitting with him, he turned to me almost weeping and said, ""Ma-Ma, I have searched and searched my heart and I cannot find any sin big enough to have brought this upon me!"' And then, as I went over the story of Job and showed him how suffering is not always caused by sin, is not always a punishment, he was comforted, and from then on he seemed to
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enter into peace of heart, although bodily pain was on the increase.
At this time Homay was still alive, so she and I took the guitar and climbed the hill to Me-do-me-pa's house to sing to him daily, and try to be a comfort. He loved it and would ask for his favourite hymns. The Great-Physician he wanted at first then nearer the end it was My hope is built on nothing less than Jesu's blood and righteousness, When I survey the wondrous Cross and Jesus keep me near the Cross. | felt myself near the borderland of Heaven those days. Once he asked for "that hymn which says, 'this is the victory that overcomes.' " After we sang it, I read to him the fifth chapter of I John, then said to him, "Isn't it good that it says the victory is our faith, not our power to endure?" How his face lit up with joy at that thought, for his sufferings were beyond human endurance. "'Ma-Ma," he answered, "I believe now what
I always have, that Christ died for my sins and rose again, and I know He is going to reward me."
June is the rainiest time of the whole year at Oak Flat. It is the beginning of the Rainy Season and often for several weeks we did not see the sun—just rain, day and night. That year it was especially bad. On June 8, about one o'clock in the morning
I was awakened by a knock at the door. I instinctively knew what it would be. "Yes, Ma-Ma," was the answer to my inquiry,
"Me-do-me-pa is going and he has sent Job to ask if you will come to him." Hastily I threw on a heavy coat over my pyjamas, got into rubber galoshes and started out into the night. Me-dome-pa's shanty is only about a hundred yards above ours, but the ground was so soft with the long wetting that my feet sank into it at each step and I had to have two Lisu, one on each side, pull me up the incline, for we had to climb through the mire ofa cornfield. Meanwhile, the rain was drizzling gently down on our heads.
I had brought with me some medicine to be given when his pains were most severe. On arrival we found the shanty filled with people, some sleeping on the floor, some standing, some sitting. Almost to the end, people had persisted in taking their problems to him. In vain ~ pleaded to be freed from their worries. He even appealed to me, ""Ma-Ma, can't you ask the
A ROCK IN A WEARY LAND
church to free me from these matters? I'd love to help the folk still, but I am so weak, and when they come with their long stories it wearies me so, can't you help me?"
I could have wept. He was so emaciated that his big bones stuck through the dry skin—just a living skeleton, and yet the people still sought his advice. He had been a rock in a weary land so long to them that it seemed as if they could not let him go—they.were afraid he would die before they got the benefit of his counsel. I issued stern orders, and I think from then on he was freed. But they still surrounded him. The crowd that night were, at last, not thinking of themselves, and a reverent awe was in the atmosphere as I picked my way through and over them, to the little inner room where the dying man ge
The death rattle was in his throat; he could not speak, but he knew I had come. I took his so-thin hand in mine, and it returned my pressure lovingly. So I knew he was conscious and I asked
Job to read John xiv. 1-6. I felt the Lisu voice might be understood better than mine. After Job finished, Me-do-me-pa gathered himself together for a final testimony. I saw he was trying, so I administered the medicine I had brought, with an eye-dropper (he was too far gone to drink). Then suddenly he began to talk. His speech was so thick that I lost the first part of it, but it went on like this, "I believe what Pastor Job read just now and by His Cross 1. .
. Ma-Ma, pray for me, that God's will, whatever it be, may be accomplished." That last was remarkably clear. And so I prayed, committing him unto the One who had died to redeem him. As I finished he said in his old natural voice, "Thank you," turned his head and seemed to have fallen into a light slumber. I knew the opiate might do that, and not sure when he would arouse, I left some of the medicine for him and went back home and to bed.
R.S.B.S. was in full swing, those days; there were just two of us to teach, and already I had a very bad cold. With so much depending on me I felt I must not go out into the wet without necessity, and I had left word that they should call me if he roused. It was eight the next morning when we heard a soft sound of weeping, up the hill. Before I could get galoshes on to go, the voices of Job, Luke and others started to sing the Lisu
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funeral hymn, Sleep On, Beloved, and I knew the dear suffering one was with his Lord.
They said the end came too quickly to call me. He slept on until about eight, when he awoke and asked the women to leave the room, "Now your uncle is going to leave you,'' he said to the men, "Don't make a wailing, but look for me" .
. and while he was speaking he was lifted over the ford.
Deep is the stream and the night is late, And grief blinds my soul that I cannot see.
Speak to me out of the silence, Lord, That my spirit may know As I forward go That Thy pierced hands are lifting me over the ford.
The funeral was hastened on. All guests who choose to come before the burial must be feasted, and he was so widely known that they feared too great expense for the widow, so he was laid in the grave that very afternoon. His married daughter,
Me-do-me, was then nineteen years of age. Thaddeus was ten, and little Philip five.
The Rainy Season Bible School students dug his grave. They wrapped the body in native sheets, tied it to carrying poles, then friends carried it to the graveside, where the heavy coffin was waiting. He was enclosed and lowered, the grave being dug as I had never seen a grave dug before. Above the cell for the coffin which was twice its height, ledges on each side were dug; after the coffin was lowered, the space above was kept empty, but huge slabs of rock, heavier than two men could carry, were placed on these ledges, thus covering completely the coffin cell.
Above the rock slabs earth was heaped, and rocks on top of that.
Later I planted flowers. On an upright slab of smooth stone is carved a cross and "Me-do-me-pa, Forty-one years, Oak Flat
Village, Deacon of the Church." Then on the horizontal part of the cross it reads, "He being dead yet speaketh."' The site is in the curve where Sunset Ridge joins Oak Flat Mountain, and is right beside the path out to the main road, over which we all pass so often, so that his memory will yet be testifying to his fellow villagers.
A ROCK IN A WEARY LAND
Altogether Me-do-me-pa had been a Christian only about nine years. Asa heathen he was little known beyond the precincts of his own village. But after yielding to Christ, he became loved and revered and a power for God, for many days' journey up and down the canyon. How account for that, except for the declaration of scripture, "He that wrought effectually in Peter... the same was mighty in me." "But the manifestation of the Spirit is giyen to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom."
Friend, if God could do so much for an earth person, in nine years' time, what might He not do with you—if you yielded yourself fully to His power?
The Prey of the Terrible ea scene changes. No longer the deep canyon of the Salween river, but the mountain land of Upper Burma, about seven days' journey straight west from Me-do-me-pa's home. We have been thinking so much of the Nests that found refuge in the Rock, that I wonder if we have forgotten the Abyss? This chapter is to remind us of the evil power which has always claimed the Munition of Rocks as his own. And he still does.
A small village on a hill, under a big tree. Before we get close, the loud clatter of loose floor boards and rough foot-tapping ring out far down the trail. A spirit séance is going on! Two women and a man are calling down the evil spirits. Beating a copper gong the while, they begin a backward and forward foot dance, much like our Sailor's Hornpipe, and all the time they are calling out, "Come down! Come down! Come down!"
Suddenly the clattering stops, the dancers are "'possessed,"' their eyes become glazed as they go unconscious,' and a voice absolutely different from their own comes through their lips. This day the message is extraordinary.
'Worship God," they shriek, "He has a Son named Jesus and two daughters. They live in the stratosphere above the clouds. Cast out your demon altars. God will give you eternal life. He will raise the dead and the old shall be made young!"'
No such message had ever been heard before in those parts.
The onlookers drop their jaws in open-mouthed amazement.
Then the man's demon turns on the two women and scolds them for not completely healing the sick one, in whose cause this séance is being held. Whereupon the two women, still
1 Just one in the village retained consciousness while possessed.
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I29 possessed, turn upon the man, and scold his devil, using this new name, Jesus. (This was in 1923; fifteen years later I personally visited these people and investigated this story. I thought that perhaps they might have heard that Name in a market and their subconscious mind retained it, but all declared emphatically that it was not so. Never had they heard that Name until the demon séance related above.) After haggling back and forth, the onlookers beat the gong.
The demon-possessed ones stagger, come to, and the séance is over. An animal is then slain and offered to the demons.
The demon-possessed ones did not know what had been spoken through them, so when they asked the onlookers, there was a great babble of talk as to what this strange message could mean. One thing had stood out in everyone's mind; all three demons had said from now on they were not to worship ordinary demons but to worship one, Jesus. Knowing nothing more, they thought that Jesus must be a demon who wished to be their special protector. Very much interested, they decided to hold another séance the very next day, and this time definitely and exclusively invite Jesus to come down.
So the two women and the one man again went through the séance just like the day before, except that it was Jesus whom they invited. And the same thing happened. Again the strange voice proclaimed, "Worship God and Jesus. The old will become young and the dead will become alive." Then there followed new instructions, "When you pray to Jesus, take off your turban, close your eyes and bow your head."
The man's devil again said, "Don't worship demons. Repent of your sins!' Whereupon the two women's devils cursed him and for three years he could not get possessed—his familiar spirit seemed to have left him. But others in the village tried, and got possessed. They could tell it was the Jesus-demon by his catch word, "Worship Jesus and the old will become young... ."
And new revelations flowed in.
"One day in seven you must rest—don't work your farms."
"Don't drink wine, smoke opium or commit adultery. Be good people."
"Don't thieve."
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"Don't give false witness."
"Honour your parents" (a thought utterly strange to all Lisu; Christians of our parts have to be taught this from the Scripture).
As far as I could find out, all the Ten Commandments and some of the old Levitical law was given them, from time to time, by demons. The proof that it could not have come from any subconscious mind is that, although Christianity reached Upper
Burma, the natives were evidently taught Christian separation from the world, and to this day the tribal Christians in surrounding parts drink, smoke, and do not observe the Lord's Day.
This village of the demon revelations was named Goo-moo, and they were the only Christians who tried to live a separated life, as a church. So the thought of such separation from old pastimes was absolutely, utterly, "out of the blue" to them.
Now, I have deliberately picked out, from all the revelations given, those which affect our thinking; but these were not the only revelations. Oh, no. Satan uses the Word of God, but never without mixing some folly and falseness up with it. So there was talk of one, "God's daughter," very: vague it was; but most interesting to Goo-moo were the gifts of this demon.
He would say, ""Go to such and such a place in the mountains, and you will find a bear.'' They'd go, and lo! a bear was there and the village had meat to eat. In this way they were enticed into bondage to the demon. All his promises did not come true.
For instance, he said, "Build Aevdakes and pig-pens and God will give you cows and pigs." (Lisu usually keep their animals coatlennisicl their houses, among the stilts on which the house rests.) But of course it took years to find out that there was no increase in cattle when the demon's order had been obeyed.
So it came about that the whole village threw out their demon altars, rested one day in seven, and started to worship Jesus.
Two or three months later, a visiting official of the government noticed that they no longer had demon altars in their homes and asked the reason. On hearing their story he reported it to his superior with the result that Goo-moo villagers received an order to report to the government official at Tow-gow, two days' journey away. There they were told that there was a schoolteacher at Fort Pien-Ma, who had books about this Jesus, and
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I3I that on December 25, a grest festival was held at Fort Pien-Ma in honour of Jesus. To that festival they went and made themselves known, I suppose, because later on (which year I do not know) the school-teacher visited them and the third day of his stay the Jesus-demon came upon the two women, mentioned above, and through them said, "Don't study his books. They are dog books, monkey books." So no one was interested in the catechisms-he had brought along. However, one thing impressed them—he had taken the gong out of the hand of one of the possessed women and said, "You must not do this!" whereupon she came out of her spell—the demon left her. The villagers were too intrigued with this new way of living, however, for it was in the early days of their bondage, when to be promised meat by revelation was thrilling to them, so the Christian school-teacher left them, baffled.
I have been asked why did Satan introduce the name of Jesus to these people? I feel it was because he saw that the gospel was inevitably going to reach them, and so he tried to make the name of Jesus and the outward forms of Christianity (the Ten
Commandments, etc.) familiar to them under a system which was really worship of himself. We see that he had succeeded in his subtlety up to this point in the story.
But it did not continue so happily. Once thoroughly ensnared, the inevitable trickery began. One day the two women's devils gave forth a message. "The earth is going to be burned!'' they said. "Jesus is coming to earth! And all unbelievers will be burned. You, believers, go to a certain place in the mountains and wait for Him! When He comes He will give you animals and money."
The whole village packed up. Left their farm work unattended, and retired to the directed place in the mountains, where they fasted, eating only once a day, and waited a week without anything happening, of course. Fooled, chagrined, and anxious now for the unwatched crops left behind, they returned to their homes. This happened four times in nine years and once the whole village almost starved because of it. The prey of the terrible. Some began to wish to get free from this demon.
One day a Karin teacher came for a night or so. As he left
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the next morning, a demon came upon one of the villagers and said, "He won't reach his home—he is going to get sick!" And that night the teacher truly, nearly died—a strange fever seemed to be burning him up. "The demons were very intelligent and knowing," the Goo-moo folk told us, and so obedience gradually became that of fear and terror. Then when the fourth revelation of Jesus' coming was given, it was accompanied by the order,
"Don't plant your fields this year.' Should they obey? Dared they not obey? There was one young boy in the village who had never become possessed—he had tried, but the demons would not come upon him, the only one in the whole place on whom they would not come—and it was through him, in the end, that deliverance came.
"Dad," said this boy, as the family conference whether to plant or not to plant was waging, "I don't believe that Jesus is coming. Has he not told us that three times already and each time fooled us? We will starve if we do not plant our fields. What
I'm thinking is—I'd like to find out the truth about this Jesus.
That Karin teacher worshipped Jesus, but he did not go through séances like we do. And he does not get fooled either. And years ago that Pien-Ma school-teacher had books about Jesus, don't you remember? I'd like to take a trip out to where that Karin teacher lives and ask him to come back and teach us!"'
"T think so too," said his father. '"Take a friend and the two of you go." So the two boys set out. But at the sight of them the Karin teacher became terrified. "Go to your village? Never!' he cried. "Your village is full of demons. I would not dare go to the other side of Schoolhouse Mountain!'
""We were wrong," pleaded the boys, "'when you came that time. We did not listen then, but now we are tired of these demons and want to learn the truth. Please come!"'
But the Karin teacher would not hear of it, so the two laddies had to return home, sad and troubled. No one to deliver them!
However, Mark's father (later the boy was named Mark) had decided. He was going to have food, demon's wrath or not; he was going to plant! A few other families in the village followed them; the rest left their fields unplanted, constantly expecting that Jesus was coming and would miraculously feed them, as