Lucia

None of the men moved. They all just sat there. Ameni, Espinho, Paulo, Manuel, and even her own son, Saide—they all just sat there.

Lucia watched as her friend, Nate, struck another match. The flame flared up for a second but then steadied itself. As Nate raised the match, the flame began to flicker. Lucia realized that if no one stopped him, their entire church would burn to the ground.

People often say that the church is not the building. And in this case, it could be said that the church was not even a building. The structure of their place of worship could scarcely be called a building. The walls consisted of long sticks that were held together by twine. They stood straight up, reaching from the ground to the height of where a doorknob would be. Longer, sturdier sticks were secured in the dirt around the walls to support a roof that covered the structure. The roof was simply a grid of bamboo sticks, covered by a plastic tarp, with dried grass overlaying it. It wasn’t much. And yet, it was the place that Lucia had come to worship her Savior for years.

Lucia had been saved sometime in 2011. Before her encounter with Jesus, Lucia was a worldly woman. She had multiple children with five different husbands; she often resonated with the woman at the well in John, chapter 4. And like the Samaritan woman, Lucia’s encounter with Jesus was both immediate and transformational.

Her husband, Paulo, had heard the Gospel in a nearby village, and had brought it back to Lumbiza to share with her. Upon hearing the Word of truth, she felt deep conviction and professed faith. For the next 6 months, Lucia learned what it meant to follow Christ. During that time, she went through a discipleship training course where she learned all about Jesus and His teachings. She learned so much from the Bible classes that she attended. And yet, it wasn’t through the discipleship courses that she learned what it meant to follow Jesus. It actually came through the form of suffering.

Lucia’s parents really opposed her conversion to Christianity. Everyone in their village was Muslim. They didn’t like that their daughter had become a Christian, and they tried to pressure her to convert back. They figured that she only changed her religion because her husband, Paulo, had changed his. Little did they know, Lucia’s love for Jesus surpassed everything on this earth.

It wasn’t long after Lucia had started to experience this opposition, when she was met with an even greater trial: Paulo wanted to take on another wife. Although he had professed to being a Christian, his life told a different story. He was hardened by his sin. And he actually blamed his sin on God. “God made me this way. He is satisfied with me, and I will have another wife.”

This attitude was not at all in line with a Christian. God has made it clear that marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman. Paulo knew this, but he still wanted another wife. He refused to listen to other believers. And so, he was disciplined from the church. Even though he professed to being a Christian, the church treated him as though he was an unbeliever.

Paulo divorced Lucia. He, then, took another wife from somewhere else and brought her back to Lumbiza. Because that lady didn’t know anybody in the village, Lucia actually went regularly to try and befriend her and share the Gospel with her. When Lucia had every right to be hurt and keep her distance, Lucia looked outside of herself in order to bless the lady that had caused her a lot of pain.

Sadly, after about 6 months, Paulo was fed up with that woman and sent her back to where she had come from. He, then, took on another wife. The woman that he had chosen to be his wife, he had actually known and had a relationship with during his marriage to Lucia. This caused her even more pain and suffering.

Throughout this time, Lucia’s family continued to pressure her to go back to Islam. It didn’t make sense to them why she would continue to call herself a Christian when her “Christian” husband had left her. They wanted her to return to the mosque since she wasn’t in a Christian relationship anymore. But despite the pressure from her parents, her former husbands, and the entire community, she never even considered it. Her response was always: “I’d rather have Jesus.”

“If you die, we won’t look after your body,” they said. For them, that was the trump card. Culturally, that was everyone’s biggest worry. Africans had a strong association with the physical body being in a physical grave. They really didn’t like the idea of cremation or anything but a proper burial. Her family figured that they could manipulate Lucia into returning to Islam by threatening to not look after her body if she died.

Much to their surprise, Lucia responded: “You can do whatever you want with my body. You can cut it up into little pieces and send it all around the country. I don’t care because I am going to be with Jesus.”

Whenever she faced suffering, Lucia always looked to her Savior. Her Lord had instructed her: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Lucia was not perfect. But her life certainly reflected that she feared God more than she feared man.

Lucia was sweet to everyone that she encountered; she said hello to everyone that she walked past. She was as friendly as can be. And yet, many of the people in her village, many of her old friends, completely stopped talking to her. And because she lived by herself, without a husband to protect her, she was a target for thieves to steal from her during the night.

The Lord had given Lucia a lot of suffering. But He also blessed her with a lot of refreshing gifts. During that time, the Lord had used her witness to minister to two of her adult children: Saide and Sausnetta. They were both baptized and brought into the church.

The Lord also blessed Lucia with a wonderful friendship. A year after her conversion, she met a missionary family that worked in a neighboring village. The husband was a tall American man named Nate. And the wife was an Australian lady named Jenni. Lucia met with Jenni each week to study the Bible. They would share encouragements in Scripture, and Jenni would teach her Bible stories so that she could teach the children in Lumbiza. Over the years, Lucia’s love for this family grew more and more. Amidst many of her trials, this family was a tremendous blessing to her.

In 2018, Paulo returned to the church. “I tried going to the Anglican church. It’s all about the law. There’s no Bible teaching there. I tried being on my own and I feel like I’m under the thumb of evil spirits,” he explained, “I need to be around the people of God.”

Lucia’s friend, Nate, and the other pastors in the church wanted to be wise. While they knew that the God of the Bible offered complete forgiveness to those who sin, they also wanted to be careful not to confuse worldly grief and sorrow with repentance. And so, they encouraged the church to get to know Paulo: hear his confession, know his sin, and look at his life.

After a couple of months, everyone in the church felt comfortable with restoring Paulo back into the church. From what they could see, there was nothing concerning.

As Paulo started coming around again, his Muslim wife would sometimes attend church with him. At first, this was really hard for Lucia. This woman had really hurt Lucia when Lucia had been married to Paulo. Lucia prayed for strength. And the Lord answered. He gave her the strength and will to love her enemy. The Lord helped Lucia get to a point where she felt no bitterness at all. She just wanted the woman to know and love Christ. Lucia would invite her over to cook with her, and she would even share the Gospel with her. It was such a beautiful thing to see.

 Paulo’s repentance, however, did not last. Over the next year and half, he began to go back to his old ways. When some of the believers in the church learned that he was engaging in such gross sin, he threatened them. “If you say anything to Nate, I will make up lies about you.” He also tried to downplay his sin by making it sound like his sin was normal: “Everyone commits adultery.”

All of the members in the church feared him. And so, nobody said anything about his sin. Even Lucia felt trapped. She was scared that people might actually believe his lies. And so, she kept quiet.

“A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Paulo’s sin influenced the entire Body. Believers were fearing man more than they feared God. In a way, they tolerated his sin. This led to more immorality in the church. Members began to distance themselves from the church. The hypocrisy in the church wasn’t any different from the hypocrisy in the mosque. The only difference was that they experienced persecution for being in church. And so, it didn’t make sense to continue going to the Christian church. Even Lucia’s daughter, Sausnetta, began to distance herself from the church. She also began to lie and act promiscuous. If it was okay for Paulo, why couldn’t she engage in the same types of sin?

This, obviously, grieved Lucia. Both her and Saide pleaded with Sausnetta to repent, but she refused. Sausnetta hardened her heart. She treasured her sin more than God. And so, the church made the decision to discipline Sausnetta. Although heartbroken, Lucia knew that it was the right thing to do: “We can’t allow the community to think that she’s a believer.”

Even after Sausnetta was removed, the church was still stained with sin. Each week, the Lumbiza church gathered to worship. But everyone was depressed. Lucia’s friend, Nate, could sense that something was going on. But when asked, nobody would speak up. Everyone was so fearful of what Paulo might do.

Nate led the church through a sermon series on what it meant to keep one another accountable. He talked about calling out sin, dealing with it in an open and honest way, and the fruit that this exposure would produce. Still, nobody spoke up. It was dead silent after each sermon.

 One Sunday, Lucia’s friend, Nate, brought a box of matches to church. As everyone sat down for worship, he addressed the spiritual oppression that he had noticed: “I know that there is sin here,” he paused to see if anyone would speak up. “Nobody wants to talk about it. Playing with sin, and not addressing sin will destroy a church. If we’re going to destroy a church with sin, then why not have a little fun with it?” He pulled out a matchstick from the box. “I really think that it’s fun to play with fire,” he said sarcastically.

Nate lit the match. He let it burn for a little while. He wanted to see if anyone would do anything. He wanted to see if anyone had the courage to stop him from burning down the church. Nate didn’t know about Paulo’s sin, but he knew that something was going on.

He threw the match at the ground, and it burned out. Nate pulled out another match. Nobody moved. He lit the match, hoping for a response. But still, nobody moved or said anything. He just wanted some type of reaction. He wanted them to stand up to him. But they just watched.

“Don’t you think this is fun?” Nate’s eyes widened as he waved the match near Saide’s beard. He really hoped that Saide would have had the courage to speak up. But Saide remained silent.

Nate threw the match at the ground again. He lit a few more matches. “Don’t you think that this is fun,” he kept repeating.

“No. This is weird. Stop,” they responded. They had never seen Nate act this way before. They thought that maybe he had an evil spirit.

“Don’t you think that this is fun,” Nate kept repeating. He flung the match onto the tarp. He hoped that it would catch fire. He didn’t intend to burn the entire church down, but he did want to see what they would do if something small caught on fire. He tried to get a spark out of the tarp a few times, but the matches just smoked out.

Still, nobody moved. They all just sat there. Ameni, Espinho, Paulo, Manuel, and even Saide—they all just sat there.

Nate struck another match. This time, he held it up to the grass roof. It was dry season, and it wouldn’t have been hard to catch fire. He didn’t intend to burn the church down, but even if he did, he knew that the damage to the church had already been done.

Before Nate could light up the roof, Lucia stopped him. “You can’t do this,” she took the matches from his hand, “It’s not safe.”

All of the men were just going to let him burn down the church. Lucia was the only woman there. She was the only one who showed any backbone. The rest of the men were all going to sit back and watch the church burn to the ground—just as they had done when they were silent about Paulo’s sin.

After Nate did his whole charade with the matches, Lucia’s son, Saide, pulled Nate aside to tell him about Paulo. Nate knew that they had to address Paulo’s sin. But he wanted to do it in such a way that would not bring down Paulo’s wrath on Saide. He and a few of the pastors from a neighboring village went around Lumbiza. They went to the chief’s house. They spoke to people in the market. Anyone they could find, they asked: “We just want to know the testimony of the Lumbiza church, and everyone there.”

The responses that they received were discouraging. The church’s reputation had been tarnished. People all over the village testified to Paulo’s sin. While it was certainly discouraging to hear, the charges were enough to remove Paulo from the church without him suspecting that Saide had been the informant. So once again, Paulo was disciplined from the Lumbiza church.

 Lucia and Saide knew that they should have spoken up about Paulo’s sin. They knew that it was wrong to keep silent. They recognized that the reason that they did not stand up to Paulo was because they feared him more than they feared God. Though she had stumbled, it was evident that Lucia feared the Lord. After Paulo had been removed, Lucia told Nate: “I won’t let that happen again. I won’t be so scared of a person that I help to hide the truth.”