Churches close but God’s light still shines

Isaac’s incredible story of protection, grace and Transforming Communities

Tearfund staff member, Isaac Danung, shares his amazing testimony of how God’s goodness and Tearfund’s Community Transformation work (also known as CCT) saved his life, and has continued to transform the lives of people around him in spite of the horrific and terrifying experience he went through.

Isaac was working as a pastor and also as a facilitator for Tearfund’s Transforming Communities programme in a community which he describes as ‘very complex’. Christians and Muslims lived side by side with simmering tensions between groups.

Then, one day, Isaac says, ‘Suddenly, a crisis broke out.

‘We were trying to run away and my family was captured. Waiting for the mercy of God, we had our last prayer. I could hear my daughter crying profusely and it wasn’t an easy day for us and isn’t something I can just hurriedly forget.

‘Out of the crowd that captured me, I heard some people saying, “We remember this man. This is the man that brought us together for community engagement. This is the man who was treating us when we were sick. This is the man who was telling us about how we should live as Christians and Muslims in a very good relationship. Therefore, we should release him to go!” At that point, surprisingly, we were taken to a very safe place and we ran to a community.’

After such an awful experience, it may have been understandable for Isaac to walk away from the work, but the story doesn’t end there.

‘A few weeks after that,’ he says, ‘I began [Transforming Communities work] in that same community where I ran to as a displaced person. We began it, and we continued with the programme for seven years.’

The Transforming Communities work that Issac facilitated resulted in, amongst other things, a clinic being established in the community. ‘We delivered babies,’ he tells us. ‘It’s a very big community of more than ten thousand people. In every household, you could find a baby delivered from the clinic established by the community through CCT.’

The community has seen good relationships being built between denominations and the lives of people who were stuck in a cycle of drug abuse and addiction because of desperate circumstances being transformed. From Isaac and his family’s near escape from death, it’s work that has brought new life into the community – in some cases, quite literally.

And there’s more.

‘Not only that,’ says Isaac, ‘I made the decision again to go back to the same community where I was almost killed and begin [Transforming Communities] work.’

Isaac tells us about young people’s lives and futures being changed, crime being reduced as the lives of people caught in drug addiction and those who were committing violence are being transformed, and people from different ethnic backgrounds restoring relationships with each other. ‘It’s lovely to go and see what is happening there,’ he says.

‘I wouldn't have been alive to tell this story if not because of the gift of CCT. I want to appreciate God for that. Thank you.’

We thank God for the life of Isaac and his family. We praise God that they were spared on that day and we bless Isaac for the faithful work he continues to do to help bring lasting change in the lives of so many people around him.

Please join us in prayer, and if you’d like to give to help make more of this type of work possible, you can do so here.

*What is an IDP?

An IDP, or internally displaced person, is someone who has been forced to flee their home and find safety in other places within their own country. (Refugees are those who seek safety across country borders.)

What is an IDP camp?

An IDP camp is a space set up to provide shelter for internally displaced people who have been forced to flee their homes in other parts of the same country because of violence or disaster.