“How can you sit there and tell me that you know for sure these things will happen in the future!” Magabeotoma shouted at his younger Dao brother, Daapoi.

“How can you sit here and speak so confidently about what will happen to our spirits! I am sick of hearing about it! All you do is talk about the things you have been reading about in your books and I don’t want to hear these things anymore!”

“These are not my words older brother,” Daapoi said. “They are the Creator’s words. That is how I know these things will happen. And I will never stop talking about the Creator and His message.”

Magabeotoma hit his bursting point. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing! He grabbed the closest good-sized piece of wood that he could find and started towards his younger brother Daapoi with his arm raised ready to strike a blow that he expected would settle the issue for good.

“Go ahead and hit me! It would be no worse than what happened to Stephen in the book of Acts when he was stoned for preaching the Word of God,” Daapoi yelled as Magabeotoma angrily walked toward him, club in hand and threats flowing from his mouth. “It would be no worse than what happened to Paul and the other ones that spoke God’s Word and were beaten for it.”

Upon hearing these words, Magabeotoma decided there could only be one solution to this problem. He dropped the club and went for his bow and arrows. Within seconds he had an arrow pulled back in his bow, pointed directly at Daapoi.

“I will not just strike you younger brother! I will kill you!” Magabeotoma yelled.

With a sharp bamboo tipped arrow pointed directly at his chest from only a few feet away, Daapoi gave one final reply. “I cannot and will not stop preaching God’s word. I do not fear death and what you are doing right now to me is no different from what happened between Abel and his older brother Cain.

“You are my older brother and you, like Cain, have chosen not to follow God. I am like Abel and I have chosen to follow and believe the Creator’s words and so you want to kill me. So go ahead and shoot! In the future when you and I are both dead and gone and are standing before the Creator, you will see then that His words are true!”

Daapoi thought those moments were his last.

“I would have been shot in the chest right then and there if it wasn’t for a man that ran in from the side and grabbed the arms of my older brother so that he couldn’t release the arrow,” Daapoi told missionaries Scott and Jennie Phillips.

Daapoi, keeping true to his word, is not backing down. He and his pregnant wife, Otopina, along with their little daughter will leave Friday to continue an outreach in a distant Dao village, taking the place of Wikipai and Moipi who had to return to their home village for health reasons.

Please pray that Daapoi and his family will stay encouraged and strong in their faith as they face these hard and trying situations. Pray that God will protect them from the various tropical diseases they will be encountering in this outreach area.

Continue to pray also for Wikipai. He has still not recovered from his sickness and his two children are also sick.

Pray too for Magabeotoma, that God will change his heart and that he will be transformed into a lover of God and His Word.