The Consequences of Truth

Isaac Wiegand is the DS of the Liberian churches. I met him at our General Conference this year. He really blessed my life.

He tells about the civil war in Liberia. The war lasted from 1996 until 2003. He was a college student during some of that time. He said that the college was often without electric power. They had little or no food or water. There were times when he and a friend named James Smith would go out into the jungle to search for food so they could live.

When going to search for food they had to go through rebel checkpoints. They would be questioned and their ID's examined. They had gone out into the jungle one day and were returning through the checkpoint that they had gone through earlier, when one of the rebels saw James ID and asked, "Smith, are you related to general Smith?" General Smith was the leader of the group the rebels were fighting.

"No," James replied. "I don't know him and never met him. We are not related."

"The rebel leader said, "I don't believe you. You are related to him. I'm going to kill you."

Isaac said that whenever a rebel soldier told you that he was going to kill you there was nothing you could do to stop him. So right there in front of him he saw them put six bullets into his friend's head. He said that if he reacted in any way at all, they would shoot him. So he had to act like it didn't matter.

In the midst of all their hard times our brothers and sisters in Liberia learned some truths about their walk with God. Isaac said they learned in all their struggles that God is really alive.

Isaac said, "When you are surrounded by rebels you have no guarantee for tomorrow.” He told me that they really learned what it meant to live day-by-day being totally dependent on God. He said they also came to realize that we are nothing by ourselves. “We are very poor. Daily we see the senselessness of trying to be dependent on yourself. We have nowhere else to look except to God."