Simon the Persecuted

Simon – Once Persecuted and left as dead stands at my side after a recent baptism of 20 people.   The other guy is Billy our student missionary working in this same region.

Imagine living for 5 years in Malaria infested jungles eating only what the jungle can provide you, being beaten and left for dead.   Imagine during those 5 years you lose all contact with your extended family.   Only your wife and your 4 children, age 13 months to 5 year old, go with you as you run for your life.   Why are you running?  You can barely read but you read a book about God’s almost forgotten day—The Sabbath of creation.   This seventh-day Sabbath you learned from Isaiah will be kept in heaven and was kept by Jesus and all his disciples.   This Sabbath is the commandment that God says to “remember to keep it Holy”.   You become convicted that you must keep the Sabbath.   When you decide to keep this Sabbath your extended family runs you out of the village burning your house to the ground.   You become a Seventh-day Adventist but your family persecutes you, beats you and leaves you.  They leave you,  thinking you’re dead.

This is the story of Simon.   A tall, thin Papuan man.   For 5 years after he became an Adventist his family and tribe persecuted him.   So he just vanished with his wife and children into the jungle.   Each time he attempted to share this truth of the Sabbath to his extended family they tried to kill him.   His wife remained faithful to him, always beside his side.   Simon prayed for his tribe and slowly the tribe came under conviction.   One day when God convicted him to return to his tribe he stepped out of the jungle.   After 5 years living off the jungle only, he was just scarcely more than bones.  In all that time he was never sick not even once.   He, nor his wife nor children got sick.  His wife even delivered 2 more babies all with no medical assistance.   Simon cut the umbilical cord for his babies born in the jungle with his own teethe.   After 5 years of being in the jungle his clothes had completely disintegrated.   He and his wife wore only jungle clothes – a penis gourd for him and a grass skirt for her.  

After 5 years living by the plants, fruit and meat of the jungle they felt convicted to attempt to give the Adventist message to their village.   The strange thing was that after 5 years the extended family had become convicted that if Simon and his wife were that sure of this new faith then it must be true.   Simon was immediately allowed to preach and teach.   Today, Simon has 9 children.  One of his brothers who once persecuted him is now a deacon in his church.   Everyone is clothed and he has been instrumental in bringing 74 active people into the church.

I met him because he had traveled for 24 hours down the river by boat to be trained hoping that he can become a paid Global Pioneer to help spread this Adventist Message to the rest of his tribe.   He brought 5 baptismal candidates with him. His village has agreed to let him build a church on the very ground they once left him to die at.   Here is a man who has been saved by nothing but the blood of Jesus and today he keeps Sabbath not to be saved but because his “Papa di Sorga” – Papa in Heaven said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy, Six days you shall labor . . . but the Seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Papa di Sorga.”   In the words of Simon, “Why would any son want to disobey a loving Papa in Heaven who sustained me for 5 long years.   My roots and water were sure and I never even got sick.   Look at me know. . . I have 3 sets of clothes for me and all of my children and my wife now has 4 dresses.   My children want to get education so they can help our tribe.”

What makes Simons story even more compelling was the day he accepted the Sabbath was the day he was suppose to start working for a large national church as a Pastor.   He would have started with a good salary and benefits but instead he left it all.   I asked him why?  He answered, “If my Papa di Soroga was willing to leave it all for 33 years then die for me so that I could have gold streets, who am I to disobey the Sabbath that He never changed nor his disciples never changed?”

To make sure he wasn’t trying to keep the Sabbath to in some way save himself I asked Simon a leading question. . . “So don’t you think your amazing faith will help God judge you more worthy of Heaven?”  Simon clearly understood and said, “No, Pastor nothing I did got me any closer to heaven.  Only Jesus blood can get me into heaven.  Even my best works are like the dirty rags I once wore.” 

Perhaps you can help share some money each month for the next two years to help fund Simon and other Global Pioneers who will share the Gospel in the heart of Papuan jungles.   I’m praying for you to help us!  

Send donations to my old church in America:  Battlefield Community Church of Seventh-day Adventists PO Box 5306 Ft. Oglethorpe, GA 30742.   Be sure to mark your check “Papua Evangelism Fund.”

Super Eddies -- The River that Flushes like a Toilet bowel

Posing with some of the Government officials and ones who’ve come for training in hopes that someday they can be Global Pioneers to reach the unreached villages further up river with the Adventist Message
The Mamberamo River is Indonesia’s largest river in terms of volume of discharge and width at the point of discharge.   While not the longest river in Indonesia its certainly one of the more wild long rivers in the world.    It is the second longest river in the world to not have a dam on it.   Only the Fly river on the Papua New Guinea side of this same island is longer and has no dams on it and is longer.
When I first heard the reports of “the river that flushes like a toilet bowel”  I thought it was an exaggeration or metaphor.   The person telling me said he watched a 15 meter long boat get sucked down the funnel that suddenly appeared in front of the boat and the passengers and all were never to be seen again.    Let me explain a bit.    About half way up the Mamberamo river near Kasonoweja are a series of rapids and large rocks.   Vast amounts of sands and rocks are being washed along the bottom of this mighty river.   Big rocks the size of several story tall bank buildings stand upright in the middle of the river.   Perhaps they are fastened to the bed rock below the river because they seem to not move.   When the moving rocks and sand hit these large rocks.  Then add giant logs 100 foot long or more and 3-5 feet across floating down the river.   Suddenly a bolder or sand or log strike these mammoth bank-building-size rock formations and the water upstream has to go somewhere.   So a giant swirling eddy is formed.   When two or more of those are formed side by side and they work together like the gears on a transmission – “somethins’ fixin’ to get altered.” (said with your best Tennessee drawl).   If that something happens to be a boat or, God forbid, humans, there’s not much chance of survival.
Last Wednesday, I flew to train 11 men who want to work as Global Pioneers if money becomes available.   Global Pioneers go to unreached areas with the Adventist message.  The location of my training was near this section of the Mamberamo river.   They took me by boat to the section of the river where this phenomenon of super eddies happen on this mighty and untamed river.   I witnessed first hand a log 3 feet across and 40 feet long suddenly got sucked into an eddy that seemed to come out of nowhere.   The log resurfaced perhaps 1/2 mile down river with a 5 foot gauge on one side.  The locals report that the worst time is during the dry season.   Right now is rainy season and so there is enough water to quickly over run the forming eddy.   One man reported hearing a suctioning eddy from his house 2 kilometers down river during dry season.
This section of the river is the major barrier to large transportation barges and ships coming from the Pacific ocean to the north   More than 1 missionary have lost their mission launch in this section of river but fortunately were able to save their life.
The government has plans for building a mass dam and lock to allow transportation to the interior, to provide electricity to the Mamberamo region of Papua and to provide irrigation for rice production.   Already government offices are being built on higher ground and whole villages are being bought and helped to move.   I was saddened to see poor planning to preserve the virgin jungle.   One very educated government official is trying his best to help local politicians make wise decisions to minimize the environmental impact of this proposed project.   He admitted to me that he felt like one of those logs on the Mamberamo River being sucked along against a mighty flow of different opinion.   Yet this official knows that change is inevitable.
Teaching 11 men who want to be Global Pioneers about the 5 Key’s for successful Evangelism

Two small ships stopped at the last village before the transportation stopping eddies.

Me and Pastor David Relelly (orange hat).   I’ve thrown a sheet over my arms to prevent sun burn.   We’re on the watch for logs, crocodiles and super eddies.

This little church close to the “super eddies” is our Adventist church in a village where nearly all the 241 villagers have become Adventists in the past 10 years.   This church needs serious addition and rebuilding because it can’t handle everyone who comes to church there anymore.   Funny to see a village without pigs and bettle-nut trees in it.

In Papua Mission un-ordained pastors are not allowed to baptize except by special occasion.   So Pastor Relelly and myself baptized 20 people that Pastor Edson Repasi had prepared for our coming.    7 couples also got married as a part of getting their life in alignment with their new found values as Christians.   Here we’re waiting on the deacons in the church to get everyone organized.

The other Shangri La!

Today, Wamena is a mix of native Papuans and trans-migrant Indonesians.   This a group of children after church.

In 1937 a wealthy son of a business tycoon flew his specially designed plane to an unknown lake deep into the heart of the mountains into the Papuan highlands.   He landed this float plane on a lake several ridges over from “Shangri La” and proceeded to collect flora, fauna, animals and birds for the New York Museum of Natural Science.   Only one short line was jotted in his journal, “Flew over a valley full of a 100,000 naked Cannibals today, in route to the lake,”  This marks the first know discovery from the outside world of that is known as Baliem Valley.   In the heart of Baliem Valley is a city called Wamena.   

If you do a google search for images of Papua Indonesia you’ll likely see lots of posts of pictures of the colorful Wamena people from the Doni tribe.   Traditionally men only wore head bands filled with the feathers of Birds of Paradise and a penis gourds.   Women wore only a grass skirt.    Today, in the remote places men may still proudly wear their gourds but women typically only wear the grass skirts for tourism and special celebrations.   The exception to the rule would be the airport where a few naked men run around begging or selling small hand made trinkets.

In 1943-44 the allied forces “discovered this valley” and came many times to do fly-overs as a special treat for the vast numbers of soldiers stationed at the bases in Jayapura.   These “special treat” site seeing flights changed the world for these mountain cannibals when one flight crashed in the Baliem Valley and only 3 of the 21 total survived.   The result was, for the first time ever, white man met Wamena man.    Fearless Wamena men did not know what to think of these “white Alian spirits.”   Were they there to harm them?   But the media reports soon began to latch on mainly because one survivor was gorgeous brunette woman was amongst the 3 survivors of the crash.   If you ever want an fascinating read try the book, “Shangri la.”

This year I’ll be doing evangelism meetings in Wamena so at last I reached this Mountain valley whose only outside approach is via foot or Airplane.   My general impression when I first caught a glimpse of this famous valley was – wow agriculture everywhere.   On the ground, flowers and fruits common to the USA and colder climates, flourish.  Massive peaks tower themselves up from the mile high valley floor to some 2 mile high summits.   The first noticeable difference is the perfect day time temperatures but down-right-chilly night time temps.   Little stone and vertical split rail fences line gardens nearly everywhere, the tops of which are loaded with tropical plants.   The plants sprouting from the tops of stone fences grow in the composting weeds dug from the gardens.   Their roots grasp the rocks and cement the rocks or split rails together with the root wads – Gorgeous.   Except for different people and the buildings, one could for a moment imagine themselves in the Lake District in England if only sheep were grazing on mountainsides around.

But that’s a lot of background for the fact that I’m here for motivating the people to get busy for God and start looking for people whom God has been tilling the soil of their hearts.    Teaching them simple principles of conversational evangelism.   Challenging them to find three whom they can bring to the evangelism meetings.    Challenging them to truly serve peoples needs in order to win their confidence for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Here are some of the existing ministries they have in this valley.   15 churches (some are start up churches).   1 very busy clinic.   1 K-12 high school in a very picturesk location.  11 Bible workers working in very remote locations where the 2 pastors for this area cannot get.

Here are a few of their dreams.  1) front and foremost would be the desire of the members and pastors to see their clinic become a full fledged hospital.  But that’s a big dream as it could take several million dollars in a place where everything has to be brought in by air plane.  2) build or finish many of the 15 churches.   3) Training and adding more Bible workers to the staff in the area.  4) upgrading the education of those who are already working to better educate them.

Please, pray for Wamena and the surrounding villages.

Lordess of The Cigarette Smokers

For those who’ve never lived in the third world or who have been raised in the last 20 years of smoke free public places in much of the Western world – Here’s a perspective for you.   Step into most public places in Indonesia and cigarette smoke is a factor you have to deal with.    From the crowded public ferries and transport ships, to the waiting area’s in airports, to restaurants, the the open air markets – Many people smoke.    Often when I have to wait for an airplane I feel as if I’ve smoked a pack or two.   This past Sunday morning I had to wait on a flight to go home from Wamena to Jayapura.    At one point I could not find a man who wasn’t smoking who wasn’t an Adventist.  Nearly naked native men wearing only a gourd came begging cigarettes and were offended when I told them I had none.   ( After all I’m white and I’m suppose to carry all things in my pockets – Mary Poppins style.)   When I told them, “Papa, Saya tidak rokok.”   (“Sir, I don’t smoke.”)   They just kept begging.   Finally, I added, “I don’t smoke,   I’m an Adventist Pastor”    That was the ticket that they understood.   They must have some Adventist friends who also don’t smoke because they respected that.  

A few weeks ago I saw a creative employee at one of the airports I was at.    The smoke was especially thick with many men smoking in an area that clearly said,  “No Smoking”.   So this Papuan woman walked from behind the counter to the nearest AC unit with a large can of roach spray.   She proceeded to empty half the can letting the AC blow the contents over all those smoking men.   Soon they began to move to the far end of the room because the spray was causing them to have watery eyes and constricted throats.   When one of the offenders complained to her about her action she said, “I was just doing to to you as you have been doing to me.”   She then pointed out that there was a designated smoking area.  If he wanted to smoke in the non smoking section “Go right ahead” but she’d fumigated him again until he was sitting in his correct place.   The last time I went through this same airport I smelled the same roach spray smell.   I looked around and sure enough the same  “Lordess of the smokers”  stood smugly behind her counter keeping over her smoking offenders.   All smokers were in there proper designated smoking area.   Three cheers to the “Lordess of the Smokers” in the Sorong airport – Way to Go!

Flooding In Papua

So I’m really impressed with the power of flooding but never have I been so impressed as today with human's ability to improvise in the face of disaster.   This picture is from this morning at about 9:30 am about a mile from our house.    About 7-10 inches of rain fell last night in about a 3 hour period with a drizzle the rest of the night.   At 9:30 they were running motorcycles and medical workers up and down a plank.

By 3:30 in the afternoon the same bridge was “fixed” when some local construction workers dumped large rocks and gravel on this ruined bridge.

We thought we’d be cut off from Sentani for days but the locals say this flood was “nothing compared to the past flooding.”   The opposite direction from our home we had to stop at this bridge that was washed out.

But if you look carefully to the left hand side you’ll discover that once again human ingenuity has triumphed.   They have made a ford through the now tiny creek that last night washed homes and unfortunately lives into their end.  Take a look at this photo just 90 degrees to the left of the one above.  Literally this was only a 10 foot wide creek before last night but it washed to more than 50 feet wide taking at least 3 houses with it on the right bank of the river.

Adventist Aviation lost about 10 feet of the end of its runway and the flood wall that goes around the end.   This is normally a small creek but the banks on both side were eroded back by 20 or more feet or more and over flowing the banks making this a 100 foot wide river.

We are trying to find out who lost homes and what lives were lost but its hard to find the real true stories from the rumors. 

As we surveyed the damage this afternoon I kept saying to my family.   If this was America they’d have called the national Guard and cut all traffic while they called an expensive engineering firm to check to see what the options were for the bridges.  Not here, no sir, just let some men who normally sit on their front porches chewing bettle-nut have a 30 second meeting with their brother-in-law and soon they are calling their friend, who knows a friend, who calls his boss, who calls the owner and they have a few loads of rocks and a big track hoe on site in 2 hours and by 5 hours latter all is well.   Who said the third world can’t move fast when necessity forces them.

The amazing thing was I slept through all the rain and thunder and lightening.   Please join us in prayer for those who lost things and family in this flood.   I’ll post more if we learn of any specific ways we can help those who are suffering right now.   Probably lack of pure water is the biggest problem right now.