Among Rapists, Murders and Thieves

Last week while I was in Fak-Fak.   They asked me to preach 5 sermons in prison.   Amazingly there were dozens of Rapists, Murders and Thieves, Abusers of every type who came day after day to hear Bible truth’s be preached.    My piano player and song leader was a Rapist and double murder.   As I interviewed him he stated, “If I could change 1 moment in life it would be the first drink of Alcohol I ever took.”   That one drink became an addiction that is only controlled by daily submitting to Christ.    He says he doesn’t even remember half the bad things he did in his former life before Christ.   Why?   Because he was so drunk or strung out on other drugs that all memory is gone of those events.

My Pianist:   A convicted double murder and rapist but now free in Jesus.

Praise God!   Through the wonderful work of Pastors in the various jails this Pianist/musician is a born again Christian.   He says,   “While I may be jailed, I’m now free in Jesus!”

He gave me a carving he made out of a fallen stick in the prison yard.   Yes, a murder who is now in Christ can have a knife in his section of the jail and be considered safe.   In my hand in the picture above is the small carved Papuan key chain he carved.

Even some of the most hardened criminals came and stood outside the small chapel to hear the word of God.

Some try to hide behind the pillar just outside while they smoke and listen to the sermons.

Dozen’s flock to the front to have special prayer for their lives, their problems, for freedom.

They call themselves the Ibrani’s meaning the “Hebrews”   To be a part of this male vocal group you have to be a born again Christian.   In this group are murderers, rapists, abusers, thieves.   Many of them weep as they listen to God’s amazing grace.   I feel so amazingly used of God when I preach in this place.

In this prison they have a rule against being baptized while in prison but despite that 17 made their decision that they want to become Sabbath keeping Adventist Christians ASAP.   Until then our good Pastor Karel Surentu and his wife and children are committed to following up with them as often as the Prison Warden will allow them to come.

Pastor Karel Surentu and his wife and two daughters

It must be nice to have the innocence of a child. . . to be able to sleep amongst the criminals while her daddy translated my sermon.

Lift up the Trumpet -- Radio Advent Papua

The Dream for a Radio Station in Nabire is to finish a small studio in this room attached to the Memorial Church in Nabire.

A dream has been hatching for a long time in the heart of the church members across Papua, Indonesia.    They long to have many small FM radio stations that will eventually grow into great web of Radio stations spanning from North to South and East to West. 

Nabire’s studio with windows looking into the church sanctuary.   Latter they hope to add bigger and more professional rooms to their current studio.

In my recent trip to Nabire, for example, they have a nice piece of property ready for a radio station.   They need about $5,000 to be fully operational,   If the money could be in place they people would be listening to the sounds of Papuan Kings Heralds as they sing – “Lift up the Trumpet and loud let it ring – Jesus is coming again.”

The Furniture builder who came from his shop to show me his community radio station in Kaimana.

At the time of this writing I’m in Kaimana – the gorgeous bay town on the south coast of Papua’s Bird’s head peninsula.   Earlier in the day I asked our leaders if they knew if there was a radio station in town.   At first they could only think of the local Muslim station and the Government station.   Latter in the afternoon they happened to mention my question to a local Adventist furniture maker and he said, “Yes, I’m building a radio station right now – Fresh 93.2 FM”   It will be a small community radio station.   I asked him if we provided some programing if he would air it.   He was thrilled to do so!

The church member’s Radio tower atop the roof of his studio.

Our biggest challenge right now is to get programs pre-recorded so that when the time comes we have lots of hours of programs already ready to go.  Right now we’re planning a small recording studio for radio programs.   We want programs about: health, doctrine, Dramatized Bible stories for children, Youth targeted talk shows, music targeted to the native ear, Sermon series, Family life and much more.

Let’s help make the dream of our Papuan brothers and sisters come to life.    Will you send up your prayers that God will make this dream come to reality.   Let’s let the trumpet sound – Jesus is coming again and this Gospel must be proclaimed in every possible way.  Radio is one of those ways.   Radio Advent Papua should give Adventists across Papua a starting point to the many conversations they should be having with their pre-Christian friends.

I like to challenge my readers to become monthly, or quarterly or yearly donors to Radio Advent Papua.    Contact me and I’ll tell my USA readers how they can send donations.   pastordarronboyd@gmail.com

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.

Extreme Location: Totoberi–a Place for new Work to be done.

 

Totoberi lies on the "shoulders of the bird” in the area called the birds head bay.   Near the boarder between the Waropen and Nabire district.  New Guinea is often said to look like a giant bird.   So you’ll often hear me referring to the birds head (west Papua Province of Indonesia) or other parts of the bird.

97 kilometers by boat across the Bird of Paradise Bay to the north-east of Nabire lies a small village called Totoberi (pronounced Toe-Toe-Berry).   Totoberi is located up a series of brackish tributaries to the Wapoga River.   It is a swampy region between Waropen and Nabire districts.   Totoberi is the last known settlement of Burate tribe known to exist on planet earth.      About 200 people live in 30 family groups in this 1 village.   The government built them homes to help preserve them as they were dying because of health problems.  They live primarily by the forest and fishing.   They eat primarily Sago flour and fish and jungle greens.   Poor health is their number 1 need and the biggest contributing cause for the dying out of their tribe.

I asked the district Pastor – Gad Windawani where he dreamed of starting new work and he told me of this village where one of our faithful Adventists lives.  So on a whim I asked,  “can we go there on Sunday?”   I could see a worried look on his face.   200+ kilometers round trip on the ocean and up flood swollen rivers can be dangerous.   But the details were planned.   Now Pastor Gad’s dream has become my dream – to start a work amongst the Burate people. 

Pastor Gad Windewani

They told me that our journey would take 2 hours from Nabire to their village but no one told me that we had to stop in other places beyond this tribe first.   So it turned out to be about 8 hours riding on a leaky boat.    We stopped at the village of Kamarsano which was probably 20 kilometers beyond Totoberi first.

The dock up the tidal creek in the Mangrove swamp at Kamarsano.  These are some of the ones who came with me and Pastor Gad on this journey to Totoberi.

Kamarsano is a village that has become entirely Seventh-day Adventists.   Nearly 280 residence call Kamarsano home.   I’ll write another blog about them latter but for now I’ll explain the purpose of visiting Kamarsano before we went to Totoberi.    Kamarsano needed to be asked to sponsor a new group into Totoberi.   Since the one Adventist family in Totoberi has roots in the Kamarsano village we decided to stop and ask them to become the mother church in Totoberi.   I especially enjoyed the people in Kamarsano because they have beautiful smiles and warm personalities.

At last,  at around noon we left Kamarsano and back tracked to the Wapoga River and went inland for a number of Kilometers.   The recent floods had cut a short cut through one of the rivers bends so we saved 10 minutes of time and saved fuel.    But this new short cut was very narrow and our boat was relatively long meaning we had to duck under the low branches and hope some poisonous snake would decide to jump from the trees into our boat.  Even above the deafening roar of our twin engines I could occasionally hear birds singing.   I’d love to come back in a kayak and do slowly through the mangrove and sago palm swamps and see what life birds I could add to my list.   Oh how I wish for one of those supper telephoto lenses on my Canon DSLR camera to shoot bird pictures with.   But on a Pastor/Missionary Salary that will have to wait until heaven or cheaper technology.

Entering the short cut recently added by floods on the bend of the river.  I was praying that no snake or crocodile would jump in while we were in such a narrow section of the river.   

At last we arrived at Totoberi.   My first impression was a fairly normal Papuan village.   The government built them a new village with a concrete path down the middle of the homes.   They are hoping to preserve the native culture and peoples by providing better housing.   They even built them a 3 bed clinic/hospital.   They added a nurses house and a district leaders office and a school.  They built a generator and put electric wires for lights into every persons homes.   The district office even has a solar panel for electricity for the hours when the generator is not working (6 p.m. until 9 p.m. daily.)

Totoberi at last.   The old part of the village still lies close to the river and is at the mercy of floods.

Babies ride on the backs of their mothers.

The District Government office for Totoberi

Empty government clinic awaiting an Indonesian Citizen Clinical Nurse

The cemented path down the center of approximately 30 government built homes

The only Adventist Family in the village

We were soon introduced to the village chief and our district Pastor was graciously given the seat of honor inside the board room.   Pastor Gadd Windewani explained that he was from their same family originally and that he had learned some wonderful things from the Bible and wanted to have the privilege of working with their village.   He explained that I was from the Union office and worked specifically with the two Papua missions of the Adventist church.   He then allowed me to ask them some questions.

So I asked them what their number 1 need was.   They said is was for better health.   They have an empty clinic but no clinical nurse to run the clinic.    Immediately I saw this as a wonderful opportunity.   The government is willing to pay for a clinical nurse to work here.

The government a-lots enough fuel for 3 hours of electricity per day.  6-9 p.m. each day.   This is the generator.

We did not promise them anything yet but I am praying that we can one day soon have a Global Pioneer to work with them.   Even better would be a husband wife team who one was a nurse and one could be a Global Pioneer (known locally as TSPM).

List of needs with estimated costs.

1) Global Pioneer worker ($80-$155 per worker per month)

2) Clinic Nurse (Government willing to pay)

3) Small boat with motor to reach Nabire or Waropen by in case of emergency ($2,000-$4000+)

4) Jungle Church ($3,000-$5,000)

5) Stipend for 1,000 missionary volunteers ($40-70 per volunteer per month)

6) Additional supplies for clinic not provided by government or fees received from patients.   Estimated at $100-150 per month.

“3 Hour Tour”

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
the skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour.
a three hour tour.

Perhaps you remember the 3 hour Tour from the show Gilligans Island.   Yesterday, I had one of those “three hour tour” experiences.   The “very strong” boat was one of those leaky boats.    But never mind!   Papuan “engineers” always have a plan.    Too bad they didn’t have a Papuan pilot/engineer on the “SS Minnow”  but then again we Americans would have never fallen in love with the acting of “Gilligan” – Bob Denver.

This boat had not just One but Two 40 horse power engines.   They were Evinrude engines but locally they are called “John-sin”.   Don’t bother to correct a Papuan who doesn’t know English because he will assure you that an Evinrude is a John-sin.   Perhaps the first outboard engine boat motor they ever saw was a Johnson and the name stuck.   Almost all outboard motors are called “John-sin”. 

We were headed for a “2 hour trip” to Toto-beri to explore an area possibly favorable for new work for the Adventist church.   We started our journey 1 hour late and then I learned after the 2 hour mark that we had to go to another village perhaps “10 minutes further”.   I assumed that we were 10 minutes away.   Cool!   We’ll be there soon, I thought.  10 minutes dragged on to 3:35 minutes just to the “other” village.   As my boredom peaked to an all time high I began to notice an increased amount of sloshing water around my feet.   It was then that I became no longer bored.   I noticed leaks absolutely everywhere along one side of the boat.   I pointed to the side and waved at the assistant pilot.   “No problem” he said as he climbed toward me.   He pointed down to the floor of the dug out log that made the lower half of the boat.   I noticed something that alarmed me even more.

In the floor was a roughly hewn “plug” of sorts.   A black plastic bag was wrapped around this rough plug acting as a “water tight” gasket – not!    Water bubbled up from this plug.   The assistant pilot spoke to the chief boat pilot in a local language that I don’t understand.   Soon a machete came out and a screw driver and a used red quart size oil container and handy pliers.    The assistant pilot held the red container in one hand and with one expert hack he sliced an edge off the long side of the oil container.   Then he motioned for the pilot to give the John-sin all he could and while Mr Assistant Pilot pulled the plug out of the floor of our already very leaky boat.  

“Lord, what’s with the theme of near drowning experiences lately” I prayed.   We were at least 10 miles from the nearest section of land and this time I didn’t have a boogie board to the rescue – nor my friend Brian Stubbs, nor George the miracle timed fisher man.   But never fear, a Papuan’s toe will do.   When all else fails plug your big tow into said hole in the bottom of this leaky SS Minnow.  I wondered how long he’d have to keep his toe over the hole.  Then I noticed a similar but more worn piece of red oil container wrapped on the inside of the hole.   The assistant pilot tried to pull the old piece out but it wouldn’t come up so he pushed it down and into the ocean.   Then deftly he trimmed the new piece to the right size and pushed it down the hole.   Evidently the purpose of this Papuan Patent 00678-A was to create a suction hole out the bottom of the boat.   Similar to the way a boat creates a divot in the water that leaves a void just behind the boat that is slightly below the level of the surrounding water – so this piece of red oil container was thrust through the hole and down a little bit into the water.   But the back side of the container piece was left open so it created a tremendous vacuum effect.    This promptly drained the the leaking boat problem right out the bottom of the boat.

Who needs an expensive bilge pump when you have Papuan Patent 00678-A.

An up close view of the hole in the bottom of our boat.

Papuan Patent 00678-B – other-wise-known-as a roughly hewn square peg, some-what rounded to fit the somewhat roundish hole at the bottom of the boat.

But one has to be ready with Papuan Patent 00678-B when the boat slows down or stops.   Papuan Patent 00678-B is the roughly hewn plug used in conjunction with Papuan Patent 00678-C Other-wise known as a black plastic bag wrapped tightly around the Papuan Patent 00678-B.

So for the rest of the day, once I comprehended the genius of Papuan Patents.   I became the chief plugger and un-plugger of Papuan Patent 00678-B.  To solve the problem (still in developmental stages with Papuan Engineering Inc.) old rags were stuffed into the crack on side of boat.

At one point the crack at the top of this board was flowing water directly into our boat but our assistant pilot stuffed old rags into the crack and slowed the leak to a slow trickle.   At that point I was still praying and forgot to take a picture of the leaking.

Now if this boat were in operation in my home country and piloted by American Engineers we’d be counting fish on the bottom of the sea or have swam a very long ways.   But I’m beginning to think Papuans are my guardian Angels when it comes to bad experiences on the water.

Never once did we slow down but our “two hour” one-way-to-Toto-beri trip was in actuality 3:35 minutes to the first village and another 1:18 to Toto-beri with a 2:08 stop between.   But then again time in Papua is known as PRT – Papuan Rubber Time.   Or “Jam Karat” to be precise.

Job Posting:?!?!?! Wanted! An Indonesian Jungle Nurse! Dozens of Nurses needed.

Are you licensed to practice as a clinic nurse in Indonesia?    This clinic is sitting empty and the government is willing to pay for someone to staff it.   The clinic pictured below and dozens more like it are sitting empty for lack of willing staff.    As a result people are dying because of otherwise easily treated diseases.   If you come and work for 2 years in remote clinics under the “supervision” of the doctor in the hospital 3-10 hours away by boat the government is willing to sign you up.   Sorry non Indonesian Citizens don’t qualify for this Job.  

Totoberi is a village that’s open to Adventist workers.  If we had an Adventist nurse who was willing to go it would be a great opportunity to not only treat medical needs but like Paul you could be a “tent maker”.   In the back of this clinic is a house waiting for you to occupy.   Special attention will be given to those who are native Papuans according to the government official I talked with.

Contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the proper authorities:  pastordarronboyd@gmail.com

3 bed “hospital” /clinic

Nurses house in the back of the clinic