Excerpt from draft of "Apostle to the Pygmies – The Doctor Jerry Galloway Story”
The five oldest members of the prayer group and I went on a fishing trip in the forest. We had plenty to be thankful for, as we had fresh fish to eat three times a day.
Before leaving the forest, the boys went to retrieve the seventy catfish they had caught in the river in a gunnysack, but they returned with very disappointed faces. All the fish were dead. They had put the sack in a small brook that apparently stopped running during the night, and there was not enough oxygen to keep them alive. The boys had planned to sell them to buy things that they needed. Three catfish sold for 5 Zaires ($.50 USD), which was a lot of money for the boys. They could not understand when I tried to explain to them about the lack of oxygen that killed the fish.
“The ndoki (evil spirit) killed them!” one boy said.
Another claimed, “I had a dream that a man died at the hospital and his spirit came and killed the fish.”
Bola suggested, “Maybe God doesn’t want us to have these fish.”
“I agree,” Luba stated. “We will give the fish to the poor patients at the hospital. The fish are not yet spoiled and can still be eaten today.”
The boys were still very sad and did not want to eat breakfast. I could not let the trip end on a sad note, so I offered to buy the fish to give to the patients. This brought shrieks of joy from the boys. They ate a huge breakfast and made the three-hour march back to the village singing joyful hymns of praise to the Lord.
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