Church Planter ExecutedI used to teach Sunday school at an international church. One of the members, Jeff Humphries, was already teaching a class of expat teens. His accent was thick, and they had trouble understanding him. The elder in charge of Sunday school wanted to have me just take over the class instead of swapping weeks with Jeff, and he wanted to encourage Jeff to reach out to some of the Africans that had started attending and to start an African Bible study. But Jeff stopped coming to church. A year later, the elder in our church, a businessman who owns a real estate company, saw Jeff's name in the newspaper, claiming he had been arrested for drugs.What happened was this, Jeff was in Nigeria, having finished his pharmacy degree when he met up with someone from his home town who offered to business with him in Indonesia. There, he was supposed to share in the profits in an African restaurant (in a house), and get free room and board. He went to Indonesia, got free room and board, but no share in the profits. So he started a little clothing sales business, the kind of stuff a lot of Africa businessmen do in Jakarta. The restaurant owner moved to Africa, and his land lady offered the place to Jeff. He rented it table, chairs and all.Jeff was strict about drugs at his Nigerian restaurant. He inspected bags and kicked out one guy they called Kelly, the brother of the former restaurant owner, for trying to bring drugs in. Later, Kelly threatened him, claiming Jeff had stolen his brother's restaurant. Jeff reported this to the police.Some time later, Jeff was at a prayer meeting. His land lady called him and said he might not want to come home. The police were there. Jeff said to tell them not to search till he got there. When he got there, the police asked if he lived in the bedroom in the house where the restaurant was. He said he and the cook both slept there. He didn't want them to search his apartment, so he didn't tell them he usually slept there. The police told Jeff it was his place, and he was responsible, and let the cook go free. Then the police produced drugs they said they found in his apartment. Jeff was arrested and convicted of a death-penalty drug crime. While in jail, someone beat Jeff up and then claimed it was because Jeff did not pay him over a drug deal.In jail, Jeff noticed the poor nutrition. African prisoners could eat nuitritious Padang food if they paid for it, and some had girlfriends bring in money. But some were starving. There wasn't even enough salt in the food. Some prisoners were in poor health. During a meeting with the guards, Jeff pointed out this problem and said he was thinking of writing a letter to the UN. He also noted that the Muslims prayed on Friday, but there was no place for Christians to gather. He ended up planting a church in prison, maybe two or three Africans.Jeff was very quiet and meek. You'd think he's timid. But when he got up there to preach, he was a Pentecostal screamer. It was funny to me when I saw that.So Jeff was on death row. About a year into his ordeal, the elder at our church found out from reading the newspaper and started visiting him and bringing in food.Kelly eventually got arrested. He was sick, and Jeff took care of him on his deathbed. Kelly's girlfriend had to take his blood out of the hospital to get it tested. He had HIV, Hepatitus, and TB. She got tested and she had HIV.While sick, Kelly asked to be taken to a prayer meeting. In front of witnesses, he said that Jeff was a good man. He said he had worked with the police to set Jeff up, even have him beaten and lied out by the guy who claimed Jeff cheated him in a drug deal. Jeff was the one who took care of Kelly and gave him his meds. The elder from our church and I went to visit Kelly before he died, to see if he'd confess to us what he did to Jeff before he died. He wouldn't. He was kind of out of it. He died a few days later. We also tried to minister to his girlfriend. The government moved Jeff around a bit over the years. He planted three churches in prison. I spoke with another African, who claimed he was not guilty and Kelly set him up. He said he was a bad man before he got saved through Jeff's ministry. His name was Kingsley. I haven't followed up with him.I was able to visit Jeff two or three times in prison when I lived in Indonesia. I heard that the government of Indonesia executed him Friday.I believe Jeff was persecuted for righteousness sake, for conducting his business in a righteous manner and refusing drug dealers to do business in his establishment. He also refused bribes to get out of jail early on. I don't know if he had any way of paying or not. He took up song writing in prison. A music video has been made of one of his songs.www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxTvhx9CGaQSome dated information about Jeff.adpandotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/adpan-appeal-case-indonesia-humphrey-eleweke-final.pdf
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