Stepping onto the Welcome Plate

My role is Evangelism Coordinator for the Papua Mission of Seventh-day Adventists.   This year I am doing a major Island evangelism cycle for the Island of Biak.   Biak is a large island off the northwest shore of New Guinea.    There are about 120,000 people who live on this island and our church has had 9 churches and 3 start up churches.   The Adventist church had about 2,200 members but the key word is “had”.     The “had” happened when an off shoot group decided to put roots down in Biak.    They have stolen 3 churches by getting the members to vote against belonging to the sisterhood of churches and then falsifying ownership by illegal papers, etc.   They have threatened the life of one of our pastors and put their signs illegally in front of many of our church signs there.    The sad thing is this group feels they are reformers.   That was the background that colored the my recent trip to Biak.

self shot photo of me and the lei

Stepping into the “Welcome” plate on beautiful Biak island.
It was my purpose to help inspire the membership to stay focused on spreading the gospel on this beautiful Island.    When I arrived about 40 of the top leaders of the remaining churches came to meet me.   They came right out on the tarmac to greet me.   They placed a purple/violet and pink lei around my neck made of tissue paper.  They took pictures as if I were the president of some major country.   Then they presented me with a large serving plate and asked me to step into it.   Tradition on the Island of Biak has it that you are not welcomed until you have stepped into the plate and eaten a meal with the people.   So after a hearty meal I was officially a welcomed guest.   I will forever treasure this welcome every time my family and I use this plate to entertain guests at our house.
I preached that evening about how, even in the midst of problems, Evangelism is the best focus we can have.    When we leave the problems to Jesus He will take care of us.   I preached about when the church in Cartersville was in constant battle between factions in the church that God sent us a major positive distraction when we baptized “Big Joe” a former gold metal power lifter.    “Big Joe” had leg pressed more than 1 ton with his legs before.   All the members who had fought with each other suddenly became focused on reaching “Big Joe” and when they focused on “Big Joe” and his salvation they forgot themselves.   It’s an amazing miracle story for another blog at another time but through that story God impacted the church in Biak.
The next day I toured with the 3 pastors around the Island.   We prayed at each of the  9 churches (even the ones that have left the denomination – another 3).    We prayed that God would give them focus.   Amazingly even in the middle of the day there was always a crowd that was willing to drop what they were doing to come and listen to a few words that I had to share.    While I only preached twice during the two nights I was in Biak to set up an Evangelism cycle for this year, I probably spoke short 5 minute prayer/talks in nearly a dozen places in all.   We have amazing pastors in Biak who are continually faithful.
During the coarse of my Monday in Biak I learned that one of our Pastors has been threatened by the offshoot movement.   He is the father of two very cute little girls who traveled in our car all day long singing every English song they knew several times over as we traveled along.   They never seemed to complain even once about the long day (16 hours or more).    Their father was my interpreter all day long.
We are planning for every pastor to bring 5 lay people from their church for training on How to lead Bible Studies with non-Christians.   They these 5 will be mentored by their Pastor and encouraged to help mentor 5 others each from their church.   If even 1 in 5 of those is faithful at the plan the harvest will change the current focus of the Biak churches.
Please, pray for the safety of these pastors and churches that God will be able to shine through them into the darkness that is surrounding them in these difficult times.   Sometimes the church grows stronger when trials are stronger.

The off shoot movement is the one with a similar looking logo and they are illegally using the Advent name.   Their sign is the one without the roof over it.   It was in this church that some of their members threatened the life of our pastor and it is here that I saw him visibly shaken by entering in this church where these “reformer” are threatening his life.   It helped that our numbers were large and that everyone was obedient when the foreigner pastor was present.