Amazing Dream

I have been training 5 lay people from each Church and Branch Sabbath School (start up churches) in 6 major cities.    We are challenging these 5 to practice what they are learning and then take at least 5 more members from their church with them to try the things they are learning.   In Manokwari I sent 55 people out into the streets to try making friendships for God.    This man came back with an incredible testimony.    He and a friend from his church prayed and asked God to show them where they should go to make new friendships for God.   They felt powerfully impressed to turn right when they came out of the church onto the street.    Then they again felt impressed they had to turn left onto the next street.    They prayed that God would show them the first person to share with by making the person avert their eyes to the left when they got close.     Soon they found their first person and they were able to have a wonderful conversation with a Muslim young man who actually asked them for prayer even though he knew they were Christians.   Then their conversation was finished and they went on down the street.   The man in the picture above stopped to visit one of his family members while his partner went to the next street over to find the next person to befriend for God.   Soon a man came running out and said,  “I saw you in my dream last night but where is the man in the brown and white shirt from the Adventist church.”   

“Oh, how did you know I was from the Adventist church and that my friend will soon be caught up to us and that he has a brown shirt with white plaid?”   Said the partner.

“I already told you that I saw you and him in a dream last night.    And the angel told me that you would be able to tell me all about why the Bible teaches Sabbath.”

Sure enough soon this man in the picture caught up with them and he and his visitation partner had a wonderful Bible Study about the Sabbath from the Bible.   The man who had the dream has been studying the Bible on his own and wanted to know more about the Sabbath so for weeks he has been praying that God would help him to understand the Sabbath more.   Then just the night before he saw the two men from our training seminar coming to visit him.   Praise God!   He is using us.   Praise God!

The Demon Named Hana -- Update

I was back in Manokwari for training 55 lay people how to give Bible Studies in preparation for our Evangelism Meetings this May.   At the end of the Sabbath we went and prayed for Balinda.   If you read my blog from a few weeks ago called A Demon Named Hana you will remember she was the girl I had been called to pray for because she was possessed by a demon.   But this Sabbath evening I was headed now to see Balinda.  She is the real girl who had been healed of the possession.  No longer was Hana yelling obscene things through Balinda’s body but now it’s Jesus.

Dogs barked, bristling their hair along their spines at the sight of my white skin.  We were riding on the back of Pastor Arthurs motor bike this time.  Pastor Arthur is more scared of dogs than I and he stayed in my shadow.   I “bravely” told them to “Chuuuu!” as I tossed a stone near them in the Asian style that dogs respect with tremendous reverence.  Most Asians don’t treat barking dogs with bared teeth any nicer than we Americans would.   You’d have thought I actually mortally wounded the dog even though I didn’t even touch it with the stone.   Three dogs yowled and Pastor Arthur gave me the approving look.   Even the owner of the dogs said in effect, “Wow, the American has become native.   He knows how to handle my dogs as good as anyone.”   It is not considered rude to send dogs packing if they are being a nuisance here in Papua.

After the dog fiasco we made it to the door and they asked us to go around back to the “nicer” entrance.  As we neared the front door I heard the song “You raised Me” up playing softly from a sound system worth more than the value of the entire house.  At last we caught sight of the family through the windows.   We came to the door and were greeted by a shy Papuan girl.   I couldn’t believe my eyes.   A beautiful 15 year old girl met Pastor Arthur and myself at the door her bible in hand.   I knew this had to be Balinda but she was not the wild eyed girl with even more wild hair from a few weeks ago.   I asked to make sure this wasn’t someone else.   “Siapa nama Anda?”  She assured me it was really her.   

I learned that Balinda was now sharing her faith wherever she goes.    She tells young people. . .  “Cut out the bad music.   Don’t mess with magic.   Let every moment be filled with Jesus.”   There are times when she says she still senses Satan trying to enter her mind again but she asks people to pray for her when ever that comes and she finds reading the Bible works powerfully.   What about her now ex-boy friend who was the one who cursed Balinda?  He has left her now that she is Christian.   Praise God!!!!!

And the jumping boy who seemed possessed himself it was latter discovered that he too was into magic.  He’s moved to another city – thank the Lord!

I asked Balinda what she is going to do when she graduates from High School.   She said, “Go to the government Agriculture school so that I can tell people about Jesus’ power when I’m in the field teaching them about plants.”

Balinda has shared her faith at her school Christian School in front of 1,500+ Students.   Her parents said many of students confessed after her testimony that they too had struggled with playing with the Devil.   Please, pray that Balinda and her family will come to our evangelism meeting in May when I go back to Manokwari.

I showed Balinda how to use my Ipod Camera but didn’t realize I had the camera direction turned around and we ended up taking a picture of us.   But it shows her beaming face.

Air Strip Building by Hand–Update!

The hill above must be leveled by about 40 feet from off the top and 200 yards long to make an airstrip the Senepa district.

 

The village has an exotic sound -- Ndugu-ndugu but when you see the video at www.sharehim.org  you’ll know this is from another time and another place.     Make sure you look at the video “Irian Jaya”.   In actuality the video was from 2005 but today nothing significant has changed.    There are still enthusiastic people but their hearts grow weary at the incredible task of building an airstrip into their village.   We have heard reports that money is being contributed from far and wide around the world and we will let you know when that money makes it here to Papua Indonesia – formerly Irian Jaya, Indonesia.    With an airstrip in the heart of the Senepa district we will be able to reach 12 new villages with the gospel.   With an airstrip in the Senepa district we will be able to get medical emergency patients out in hours instead of days.   The nearest airstrip to Ndugu-ndugu is now more than 5 hours hike away.

 

What do these people need to finish their airstrip.   Tools and a little money to substitute their food supply that they would have been able to grow and hunt had they not been building an airstrip.   Bob Roberts, Chief Pilot for Adventist Aviation, says that the average airstrip in the mountains takes about 12 years simply because people can’t build more than a few days out of every quarter in a year because they have to eat.   If they neglect their gardens and hunting they will die yet many die without outside transportation for emergency medical needs.  

I want to share about 1 little boy in America who heard about this airstrip project and decided to challenge his Sabbath School class to do something about it.   He is only 12.   I wish I had a picture of him to post here but for now you’ll just have to imagine a boy of Navaho Indian heritage living in Farmington, NM.   His Sabbath School class held a dinner at his church to benefit our airstrip in Papua Indonesia and raised $600 dollars.    His Grandma brought a brochure to church that my sister in Tennessee had made for helping to raise funds and on that Sabbath a man from California happened to be present who is originally from Tamika, Papua, Indonesia.   He is an engineer for the Freeport Mine and was so excited to learn that this project was for his home area just less than an hours flight from Tamika if the airstrip were complete.    If he reads this story on this blog I want him to know that just 2 weeks ago I believe I met his mother who is a nurse in Tamika.   What a small world indeed.   Freeport mine is the largest Gold mine in the world and the third largest Copper mine.    Who knows perhaps through a 12 year old boy in Farmington and his grandmother putting an updated brochure for the church in Farmington, NM there can be amazing things happen in the Senepa district.  

 

For roughly $30 dollars 1 person can be sponsored with the tools and food necessary to help build this airstrip.

To contribute you can send your tax deductible donations to:  Battlefield Community Seventh-day Adventist Church  PO Box 5306 Ft. Oglethorpe, GA 30742 or you can go to www.battlefieldadventist.org and click “online giving”.   After you have registered you can donate to “Papua Mission Evangelism.”  

 

Another angle of the hill to be leveled by hand.

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.