Seventh-day Catholics

Male Superb Bird of Paradise.
There’s a lot of unusual things found in Papua.    Try the male Superb Bird of Paradise who have their own independent lighting system to attract  attention.   Literally, their chests puff up with alternating neon green and neon blue lights like a disco ball over a dance floor.   Finally they flatten themselves in an amazing look that appears like a flattened road kill bird.  They say it makes you shake your head in disbelief when you see it in real life.   I’ve only seen it on BBC’s Planet Earth documentaries.   But what do disco-ball-like Birds-of-Paradise have to do with Seventh-day Catholics.   Nothing really, except that they both attract a lot of my attention.   
The first time Pastor Wagimin told me about a Seventh-day Catholic group near Fak-Fak I was hooked on knowing more.   Then Pastor Wagimin moved to a new district but thank God for the new pastor.   Pastor Karel (Carl) Surinto,  has been very instrumental in providing regular updates on the spiritual quest of this “Seventh-day Catholic” group.   Kramongmongga is a village of approximately 280 people located about an hour north of Fak-Fak, Papua (near the western tip of Western New Guinea.)   About 4 years ago a Seventh-day Adventist lady, Yosepita, heard about a Sabbath keeping group in her ex-husbands village of Kramangmongga.   She and her ex-husband share a daughter, Siska.   Yosepita was interested in Siska’s spiritual condition and in turn learned of her ex husbands spiritual condition.
  
Siska in Fak-Fak
In the mid 1980’s , Pastor Marpaung, an Adventist Pastor the eastern part of Java island, held evangelism meetings in a local Prison.   Java Island is the world’s most populous island (100,000,000+), therefore, the prisons are the most crowded in the world.  In this prison were a young married inmate couple by the name of David and Yosepita Heremba and their five month old baby Siska  They were in prison for their role with the “Free West Papua Movement.”   Being involved with this movement is considered an act of treason in Indonesia.  Therefore, a seriously long jail time is always expected.  When they were arrested they felt as if their human right to free speech were being removed.    Little did they know  that their real freedom was not in Political agitation but is found only as their lives are in Jesus.  In the words of David, “freedom comes when you accept Christ and can be had today.   Freedom will be governed only when King Jesus comes to take us to heaven.” 
When Pastor Marpaung held evangelism meetings in their prison on Java island Mr and Mrs David Heremba came faithfully to these meetings.   Yosepita and David longed to talk over their new faith but prison limited their time with each other to the moments they sat by each other in church in this prison.

Mr David (far right) stands with his village to say we will keep Sabbath 48 stood in all
Mr David was tortured in an effort to get him to speak about his political involvement.   One of those torture treatments was to dunk him in a vault of water and then electrically charge the water while he was under.   To David this was his most significant spiritual moment as God gave him strength when he was sure he was going to die.  Mrs Yosepita was eventually released from prison with their daughter and in time left David because it appeared that he would not be released from prison in this life time.  That seed, planted in the mind of David and Yosepita, was what eventually led them to seek more Biblical understanding.
David, was raised a staunch Catholic.  When he was eventually released from prison in August 17, 1989 he moved to Jakarta in search for money enough to get the boat ticket back to Papua province some 2500 miles to the east.     In 1992, he finally had the money enough to get a round trip ticket back to Papua in hopes on finding Yosepita and Siska and perhaps getting them to go with him to Jakarta where he now had a job.  Since Yoespita and he had only been married within their tribe their marriage was not legally recorded.  So he found, upon returning to his village, that  Yosepita was already married to another man.   David was utterly broken.  Angry and hurt he went back to Jakarta to work and hide from his problems.  Within a couple of years he permanently move back to Kramongmongga village where he worshipped with his Catholic family each Sunday.  However, since that evangelism meeting in the 1980’s he’d always been bothered by worshipping on Sunday.
In 1998, he determined to learn more about the Sabbath and the result was he began going to many Catholic villages telling people that they’d better reform back to the Sabbath of the early Catholic Church.   He had no thought of becoming anything other than Catholic.   In that year he also became the Chief of his tribe as his father was no longer around and he was from the oldest sons line which made him the logical successor.
For the past 14 years, since becoming Chief of his village, David has gone from village to village trying in vain to get people to change to Sabbath.   It was in vain because many of his fellow Catholic villages persecuted him before he had time to be heard.   Many, still associated him with the “Free West Papua movement” and feared the government would find them guilty by association with David.   David started keeping Sabbath in his own home but being a born leader he couldn’t confine himself to just his own home.  At last, in June of 2009, he decided to approach his nephew who had nice house near the new road next to their village. This nephew accepted the truth and was more than ready to offer the use of his home for their Sabbath worship.   This resulted in about 45 people worshipping on Sabbath in nephew Isaias Kramamwama’s house.   Each Sabbath they held a lay man’s version of mass and studied scripture.
In 2010 Pastor Herry Saidui came to see this group at the urging of Yosepita – David’s ex wife who was now a strong Adventist in Jayapura.     The group was at first very cold to the idea of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor worshipping with them but when Pastor Wagimin was assigned to the district he slowly worked his way into their hearts.   Now Pastor Karel (Carl) Surentu is the district Adventist pastor and the group is asking lots of questions.   We sent the Indonesian version of the book Almost Forgotten Day to them and they have devoured it.

Pastor Surentu and me preaching the word in Fak-Fak
Pastor Surentu invited me to preach a reaping meeting for them.   Wisely, Pastor Surentu asked me to simultaneously preach in the local prison where several of their family are inmates because of their past involvement with the “Free West Papua” movement.   One of those inmates is Mr David’s daughter, Siska, Yes, the same Siska who was in prison with her parents for treason back in the early 1980’s.   Each day, Siska enthusiastically took notes. sang and smiled as she delighted in truth.
Back in Kramongmongga and interesting side note is that as they accepted Sabbath, several village elders received dreams and visions.  In these dreams these dreams they discovered that their hope does not lie in becoming an independent nation from Indonesia but rather in helping to hasten the coming of Jesus Christ.   Now their hope is in a heavenly home brought at Jesus Second coming.   With delight they are turning the same energy they once had for breaking free from Indonesia to sharing with their friends and family that Jesus is coming again.
On Sabbath, May 18, 2013, 48 men, women and children packed up in the local style taxis and in open trucks to come worship with the Seventh-day Adventists in Fak-Fak.  10 of their village, together with 2 from the Fak-Fak church were baptized in a beautiful service.  The rest are still studying about Seventh-day Adventists but plan to be baptized soon. The Baptism service was followed by a double wedding ceremony.   Two couples had been in a common-law marriage but now that they were baptized Seventh-day Adventists they wanted a proper wedding.

Please, pray for Mr David as he has yet to make his decision to be baptized.  He is a cautious man as he’s been “burned” many times in the past with people bringing new idea’s to him.  I’m very hopeful as he told Pastor Surentu that he’d give him an answer in 1 week.   He told Pastor Surentu that,  “I think I will say ‘yes’ to becoming a Seventh-day Adventist but I want to pray and fast about it for 1 more week then I’ll +
As for me, if I could, I’d light up the feathers on my chest and tell the whole world that God is still on the move.  His truth is changing lives.