One day I'm going to buy the stuff you reference and read it,... all.

Eric Karua enlisted as a soldier with the Bougainville Resistance Army when they were fighting for independence from Papua New Guinea.  But at a certain point, the Resistance Army divided and the two factions began to fight each other.  A war for independence had become a civil war.  Eric joined the newly-formed Bougainville Resistance Force.  Sadly, this civil war, as do all such conflicts, pitted village against village, family against family.  In fact, Eric told me, he once put a gun to his wife’s head when he thought she was betraying him to her family. 

            One night he decided that he would go to his wife’s village to visit her.  He asked two of his friends to go with him, but they were too afraid, so he went alone.  Eric was carrying an M-16, three extra clips in his cargo pockets and two grenades hung from his belt.  He greeted a man he encountered on the road—but suddenly he realized the man had grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around him.  “I’ve got him!” he shouted.  Eric quickly brought up his M-16, which was set on automatic, and began spraying the areas in front and beside him.  When he’d exhausted the clip, he tried to reach into his pocket to retrieve a full one.  By this time, however, another man had begun to stab him—repeatedly, in his chest, neck and head.  Finally Eric was stabbed in the back, down by his kidneys, and he fell unconscious.  When he regained consciousness, he heard the commander of the group say, “Finish him off.”  The attacker aimed his weapon at Eric, who now was certain his life would end.  For the first time in his life, he prayed: “God, save me.  Don’t let me die.”  The assailant fired, but the round misfired.  He ejected it and tried another.  It was a dud, too.  As was the third one.  Finally the commander said, “Leave him to die.”

            Eric regained and lost consciousness three times.  Each time, he felt himself falling, falling, into a dark and bottomless pit.  Finally, he gathered his strength and crawled to the house of friend.  When he arrived at the front door, he called, “Steven.”  Then, again.  The third time, he opened his mouth, but nothing came out.  He began to crawl to another house.  On the way, however, he saw the Coleman lantern that was hanging inside a church.  As he drew nearer, the light became smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a firefly.  The people were praying and had their eyes closed.  Eric crawled to the pulpit and grabbed it.  When the pastor felt the pulpit move, he looked down, but Eric was so bloody that he didn’t recognize him.  The pastor took off his shirt and wiped the blood from Eric’s face.  The people quickly realized the extent of Eric’s wounds, and it wasn’t long before Eric was on his way to a hospital.  He had almost bled to death.  He had to undergo surgery to stop the internal bleeding and spend a month in bed, but he eventually recovered.

            It was during this time and afterward that Eric fully gave his heart to Jesus Christ.  Eventually Eric had recovered enough to preach the Gospel.  Everyone, including his wife, Sarah, was amazed at how this hard-hearted, violent man had changed.  Although Eric was doing a lot of ministering, his heart was still full of bitterness and hatred toward the man who had attacked him so brutally.  When he decided to go to this man and tell him that he’d forgiven him, none of his village friends or family would go with him.  They gave him a new M-16 and urged him to take it with him—he refused.  By the time Eric had arrived, word had spread that he was coming.  He went into the man’s house, which by now was surrounded by soldiers who were ready to kill Eric at the first misstep.  Eric found his enemy sleeping.  When he nudged him awake, he went for his weapon—the M-16 he had taken from Eric the night of the attack.  Eric said, no, he hadn’t come to fight and that enough people had died.  He told the man that forgave him for what he had done.  Eric immediately felt released from his bitterness.  Then his brutal enemy broke down and cried.  He then told Eric that he had free access to come and preach to the people in the area and that he wouldn’t be harmed.

            But this isn’t the end of the story.  Eric’s family had sent his younger, fourteen-year-old brother to school in an area in the north where it was safe.  But Eric had made so many enemies that they, in retribution, sought out his young brother and murdered him.  Eric found himself at a crossroad.  His friends and family wanted revenge.  However, even though he was tempted, Eric wouldn’t do it.  By God’s grace, he was able to forgive, again, in the realization that all the bloodshed and payback hadn’t brought anything but more pain and death.  When the time came for the first steps toward peace—the laying down of arms—Eric’s village was the first to do so.