Francis & the Axeman
Shortly after the axe incident with Ticket & Dixon, I decided I needed to preach on “Love Your Neighbor.” I thought I had covered the subject, but now I got specific. I said, “Jesus said we must love our neighbor. That means you aren’t going to hit him in the head with an axe. He said if someone strikes you on one cheek, you should turn the other cheek. I made it as clear as I knew how. Even then I wondered if they really got it. Going through a translator you can never be sure. Later in the week I was to find out at least one man got it.
There was a knock on my study door. I went to find Francis and his wife standing there, panting like they had been running for dear life…and they had!
“What’s the matter, Francis?” I asked.
“Oh, (pant, pant) a man has been chasing us with an axe,” he gasped.
“Why was he chasing you,” I inquired.
“No reason,” insisted Francis. “He just grabbed his axe (gasp) and started after us. We ran and got away from him.”
“I’m glad you got away,” I assured him.
“Yes, I am, too. We ran away from him and came to you so you could come and talk to him.”
“What? Me? I don’t have anything to talk to him about,” I exclaimed.
“Yes, you must come. You are the missionary. You must tell him what you said last Sunday, that he must not hit his neighbor in the head with an axe.”
I argued with him a bit but he was very insistent, so
finally I agreed. Francis was one of the first 6 to be baptized in the
You might say I didn’t have faith but when David went out to meet Goliath, he took his sling and loaded 5 smooth stones in his pouch. So I was sort of taking my “sling” and I loaded it with 6 smooth “stones.” If I was going to talk to a guy who chases people with an axe, I wanted to have something to talk about.
With Francis leading the way, then Misael my interpreter,
then me and finally, bringing up the rear,
After we had walked a while, Misael stopped so suddenly I nearly ran into him. He pointed down to the trail and said, “A big snake just passed this way. It looked like a motorcycle track crossing the trail to me, but that was not possible so I took his word for it and we hurried on.
After we had walked about 2 miles, we heard voices ahead. We stepped out into a small clearing to find about a dozen men laughing and talking and passing around a gourd of beer. The talking and laughter stopped suddenly when we appeared and they all looked mean and annoyed.
Francis walked right up to the meanest looking one there, pointed his finger right in the man’s face and said, “This is the one.” Then he stepped back as though he expected me to shoot him. I had never seen any of them before.
Feeling very uncomfortable and nervous, I breathed a quick prayer and said, “I am a spokesman for Leza (God Almighty) and have come from America to tell you that He loves you and sent his son, Mwana Leza, Jesu Christu (Son of God, Jesus Christ) to die for your sins” Then I went ahead and preached a short sermon.
They listened politely as is their custom. When I felt like they had calmed down, I said, “I came to this place just now because Francis came to get me. He says there is a problem but I don’t really know what it is. Would you like to tell me?”
Yes, they wanted to tell me, each one adding his bit to the story. It was my turn to listen politely.
It seems that Francis had been down to Chief Sabi’s kraal that morning. The chief saw him and asked a favor. He wanted a hut built and asked Francis to come back and tell the people in that area that he needed them to come and build the hut. Normally the chief sends his own paid messenger on such errands but for some reason Chief Sabi asked Francis.
Francis felt honored so he set right out. He started telling everybody in his blunt way that they must stop whatever they were doing and immediately go to help Chief Sabi. So they went…all except the axe man. Now the axe man didn’t like Francis because Francis had married the girl he wanted to marry, so he said, “I’m busy and I don’t feel like going now.”
Francis pointed out, “You are required to go when the Chief sends for you.”
“But how do I know he really sent for me?” asked the axe man.
“I just told you,” Francis replied in frustration.
“Why didn’t he send his special messenger?”
“I don’t know but he sent me instead,” answered Francis.
“That’s what you say,” said the axe man.
“Yes, that’s what I said,” asserted Francis. “Do you think I’m lying?”
“Well, yes. You are a liar, Francis.”
This infuriated Francis. Everybody knew him to be honest.
The axe man saw that Francis was angry, so he said daringly, “If you’re mad, why don’t you hit me?”
That seemed like a good idea to Francis, so he hit him. Then the axe man reached back for his axe and Francis reached for his. Then, Francis remembered the sermon on “Love Your Neighbor.”
He remembered that I had said we’re to love our neighbor and that means you don’t hit him in the head with an axe. “Well, what are you to do, then?” he wondered. “Oh yes, turn the other cheek.” He looked at the axe in the hands of the axe man and decided to turn the other cheek, so he turned it all around and took out running. The axe man thought he was afraid, so he took after him. Francis wasn’t afraid, he was just trying to put into practice this new bit of Christianity. It was almost too late, but he was going to try.
They ran by a field where his wife was bent over hoeing corn. This was the girl who had jilted the axe man for Francis, so he decided he’s chase her, too. She looked up and saw him waving the axe menacingly at her so she took off after Francis. The axe man got tired of the chase and went back while Francis and his wife came running to the mission station to find me.
That was the story, they all agreed. Then they looked at me. What to do? I breathed an urgent prayer for guidance, cleared my throat and said in a reprimanding tone, “This is terrible! I’m ashamed of you both. You are acting like children!”
Now it happened that the axe man’s old father was sitting right beside him. He nodded his grey head and muttered, “That’s right. What’s this younger generation coming to?” Then he looked at me expectantly.
“First of all,” I expounded, “Francis was wrong because he struck the first blow.”
Francis looked at me like I’d hit him in the face with a wet fish, but he realized I was right.
I continued, “But the axe man was wrong, too, because he was chasing him with an axe to kill him…even chasing a woman.”
Seeing I had their complete attention, I concluded, “Here is what you should do. You need to apologize, shake hands and promise you’ll never do it again.”
The old father’s eyes widened as though this was a completely new revelation. What a great idea! Yes! I wouldn’t have to shoot either one of them. He nodded his head vigorously and patted his hands together to indicate approval. We’ve all probably been told that as children but here it was a new teaching. The good sense of it appealed to their sense of fairness.
The old father nudged his son. “Go on, boy. Do it,” he urged.
But the axe man wanted none of it. “No,” he said. “He started the fight. Let him be the first to make up.” And he nodded at Francis.
Francis looked imploringly at me and I nodded my head. He sighed and took one big step toward the axe man and stopped. He said, “All right, I came half way. Now you must take the other step.”
The axe man, urged by his father, reluctantly got up and stepped up to face Francis. Francis took his hand, shook it vigorously and said, “I’m sorry, and I promise I’ll never do it again. But if I do, remember you’re not supposed to hit me with an axe.”
Everybody laughed and I smiled approval as I breathed a prayer of thanks. It wasn’t complete Christianity but it was a good start. The two men sat down and everyone was smiling as Misael and I turned and made our way back the trail to the mission. We were caught in a sudden thunderstorm that quickly soaked us to the skin. I had to clean my gun even thought I didn’t get to shoot anybody, and Bev and I thanked God that we could show these people a better way.