In our villages, knives are common tools used for gardening, construction and food preparation. Even toddlers and children regularly carry knives, but playing with them is frowned upon.

One day recently, a group of boys left the protection of the village to play with their knives on a remote mountain path. They were carelessly throwing their knives at each other and dodging out of the way when an eight-year-old boy was hit in the leg, severing an artery and causing serious bleeding.

The boys carried their playmate back to his home and then fled for their lives as the boy’s father came after them in a fit of vengeful rage. If, rather than chasing the boys through the jungle for two hours, the father had immediately attended to his son’s bleeding and taken him to the hospital, he could probably have saved his life. But instead the boy bled to death on his bed.

May River was thrown into an uproar as frantic mourning spilled over to the surrounding villages. The entire family of the boy who had thrown the knife had to hide for safety. As it turned out, the boys were cousins. Calls were made to kill the boy who had thrown the knife, but the village court ruled the death an accident. The boy’s life was spared, but his family still had to make a restitution payment. However, they were unable to pay the high price the village court set. What would the family do to bring peace back to the villages?

With much wailing and mourning, the knife thrower’s family gave his nine-year-old sister to the mother of the boy who died. She was now a daughter of the other family. She would live with them and never return to her original family. This “peace child” would restore peace between the two families.

Friends, please pray for these families that they will learn to allow Jesus, the ultimate Peace Child, into their lives to bring them reconciliation with God and eternal life.

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