Along the mighty Digol River in the Papua province of Indonesia on the Island of New Guinea are 2 villages called Amk and Sengge. Born into Amk was a boy by the name of Amos Ndiken. Amos, like all other boys in Amk, was highly active and curious. Amos father taught him to fish with his bow and arrow or a net by the time he was age 7. He knew how to build a fishing net from vines and later from nylon before he was 11. As a boy the Indonesian Government sent teachers to start a school in the 1970’s. He eagerly studied and distinguished himself above the rest as a brilliant student. The teachers soon suggested that Amos be sent to a city to learn more. Amos went to Manokwari in what is now the West Papua province capitol city. He soon entered the “Best” school he could find which was our Seventh-day Adventist Kindergarten through High School.
Amos Ndiken is the one coming out of the front of our hired long boat.
He eagerly studied Math, Reading and Writing but he was best at learning languages of which he eventually mastered English, German, Dutch, Indonesian and Pigeon in addition to his native Auyu language. He especially enjoyed the Bible classes because in them he chose to make Jesus his Lord and Savior. In time he was baptized. After graduation from High School he began working for a Korean Logging Company that specialized in making plywood. He never forgot his Adventist roots. Even though he was sometimes 300 Kilometers from the nearest Adventist Church he would worship each Sabbath in his home. His job moved him to Bade about 25 miles by river away from his native village of Amk. Eventually he took an early retirement and still lives in Bade. Today, Amos goes regularly to share Bible studies and to teach how to practically live what the Bible teaches to Amk.
About a year ago I heard about a village somewhere in the far south that had heard about the Sabbath and wanted to become Seventh-day Adventists. I even saw a proposal that the Adventists come and build them a school, a hospital, an airstrip, a church and more. In my heart I couldn’t decide whether these were people who were truly converted or just wanted things for nothing. For a variety of reasons I couldn’t accompany anyone to this location.
In early January 2014 the Papua Mission decided to send a Global Pioneer (Bible Worker) to Amk where Mr Amos has been seeking to get our attention for a long time. Amk has been divided into 2 villages now. Those believing in the Seventh-day Sabbath moved to the new village Sengge
On April 1 we flew from Sentani with chief pilot Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation and Pastor David Rellely Papua Adventist Mission Director of Global Evangelism and Ministerial and Mr Masok Waramori Director of Education for Papua Adventist Mission. Accompanying us was Fernando Krey and his wife Marie and their son - David. They are our missionaries being placed in Sengge.
Marie (mother), David (son) and Fernando (Dad) Krey our Global Pioneer Missionaries going to Amk and Sengge in the Auyu Tribe along the Digol river.
Fernando and Marie Krey have been Global Pioneers before in another place. They are faithful workers with a passion to reach souls for Christ. Pastor Rellely has been to Amk before and held evangelism meetings in which 19 were baptized. They built a small jungle church to worship in but even now the termites are taking this church home apart. Mr Waramori was along to get information to make a proposal for a school. I was along to help write proposals for the Krey’s and to seek donations from readers like you for funding for this important project. Pastor David Rellely was along as the boss for the Krey’s.
On April 2 we found a boat that would take us the 26 river miles up the Digol River from our base town of Bade where Bob Roberts had dropped us off. We loaded our fuel and off we went for a “two hour trip”. Two hours came and went. Three hours came and went. Finally after four and a half hours we make it. A small 40 HP engine pushing a 50 foot Long Boat is not the most efficient. I checked our fuel. We had used more than half. Not good! how were we going to get home?
We walked off toward the village and soon met a man and his wife and kids, She was working in the garden between breastfeeding her baby and tending to the needs of more than 1 toddler. Father had been digging out a new log for his dug out that will take probably 3 months of continuous digging to build. The hard part about dug outs is that they have no preservatives and therefore only last 3-4 years in these brackish waters near the south coast of New Guinea near Manokwari.
We soon found the path leading all the way into Sengge. We found some excited children and mostly women in the village as the men are either working at the nearby plywood factory or they are busy hunting deer meat or fishing or gardening their sweet potatoes. Marie soon unpacked a pan or two and sent a new found helper to get some water for cooking lunch.
The delegation of men and pastors from the mission and me went around to check about the future of this project. We saw their simple church. . . We saw the future home of the Kreys. . . We saw the water source for the village. We calculated the best place for a future school and church and the length they would need to clear if an airstrip were to be built.
The Current Seventh-day Adventist Church Structure that is being quickly eaten by the termites. You could literally hear them eating if you were quiet inside the building.
I made lots of notes. We need Money for: 1) a Church, 2) a school, 3) a small engine for a dug out boat to support the Krey’s. 4) a house for the Krey’s 5) a chainsaw for clearing the airstrip and making lumber for the church and school. Of course we could continue to build new native material churches and schools from now until heaven comes for relatively cheap but soon ones heart grows weary in racing against the termites. So for that reason we’ve decided that if we can help raise the funding we’d like to build a cement, metal and hard wood structure for all of the above listed buildings. We’re still calculating all the costs so stand by for news.
About a year ago Pastor Rellely was able to come to Amk and hold an evangelism meeting that resulted in 19 Baptisms. There are around 500+ living in Amk and Sengge and most of them are saying they belief the Sabbath is God’s special day and for that reason they want to join the Adventist believers each Sabbath in worshipping the Creator God who set Sabbath aside as a special day of Rest and a memorial to God’s Creative power. They recognize that this same God rested in the grave on Sabbath and was resurrected as a sign that he can re-create us. They discovered that the New Testament believers worshipped on Sabbath (Saturday) long after Jesus was resurrected back to heaven. They discovered in the new testament that the sign of accepting the resurrection power was not worshipping on Sunday but rather baptism. Today, the Krey’s are helping to prepare the whole villages of Amk and Sengge to accept this Seventh-day Adventist message.
Please, remember to pray for the people of Amk and Sengge and their whole tribe who are saying they want to follow God’s Bible Sabbath. Don’t forget to uphold the Krey’s in your prayer. They are 4 hours from the nearest cell phone service and in a Malaria infested swampy area. Yet they willingly went. We are planning to see them in October next but we hope to find donations for a small boat and motor and some money for fuel and oil soon so they can get out in case of emergency and can help spread this Adventist message to other villages.
GPS Coordinates of the Church in Sengge. Amk is located more toward the lower right hand corner of this photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment