Recently in our community there was an accidental death at the “drinking spot”. Some claimed it was a murder, others weren’t sure, but as a result, the fear of “peibek”—revenge—was on everyone’s mind. The man who had died was living in Barunga, but was born in another community several hours away from Barunga. The death happened on a Friday night. In the middle of the night Saturday, seemingly the entire community of Barunga (about 650 people) just left. Sunday morning, Barunga was so quiet it was strange. Kind of like everyone decided to take a vacation all at the same time, and we didn’t get the memo.
We later discovered that some people had stayed behind, though about 90% of the town left.
Why did they leave so quickly, in the middle of the night? Fear of Peibek. I found out exactly what happened in the week following the incident, as I was taking some people to a neighboring community so they could be OUT of Barunga, just in case.
“Why are you guys leaving?”
“They might be here any minute! They could be coming in a 10 person van from M(on one side of Barunga) and another group coming from K(the other side of Barunga). We’ve got to get out!”
“But you guys didn’t do anything, did you?”
“No, but they don’t care. Just any black person who lives in Barunga isn’t safe! A man came to our house in the middle of the night and banged on the door. He was yelling, ‘They’re coming! They’re coming! GET OUT NOW! QUICK!’ So that’s why everyone left in the middle of the night. We couldn’t leave because we didn’t have a car. We didn’t sleep at all! So, now we’re leaving. …”
The fear of revenge is very real and everyone seems to understand the seriousness of the matter. For about a week and a half, there was only a small handful of children at the Barunga school, where there is usually over 100. Classes were not run for lack of students, and some teachers left Barunga to sleep in Katherine to be safe. Our family was completely safe. We had no fear, because, "what can mere man do to us?" But there was a bit of curiosity on my(Jared) part.
Please pray with us for people to come to know the Lord on both ends of this "peibek" situation, and to learn that God is the one who will avenge, it's not for us.
Also, please pray for the church leaders from the communities to be a light to others and to point them to Christ. Without Christ, there will be no lasting eternal change, or forgiveness.
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