Papua Missions x 2

Description of Picture: The front row in this picture is the SSD and EIUC officers plus Mr Johnny Ibu (Center front row)   Mr Ibu is the speaker of the house for the Papuan Provinces Autonomous Parliament.   The back row is the Papua Mission Officers, directors and staff at my office.   I’m the white guy on the back row.

Since I’ve arrived as a missionary in Papua.    I’ve learned that Papua Mission is dreaming of becoming a mission.   They made formal application to become 2 missions and actually want to become more than that.   On August 27 there was a large delegation from the East Indonesian Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Churches (EIUC) and the Southern Asia Pacific Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (SSD) to evaluate to see if there was financial as well as leadership ability to divide even more.   The territory of Papua Adventist Mission Indonesia (PAM) is roughly the size of the state of California.   There are about 21,000+ Seventh-day Adventists in this territory but our challenge is great.  

Travel: There are no roads that connect the various cities in Papua or if they do its not usually the best of condition or the tribes that one has to drive through to get from point A to Z want financial “contribution” for using their lands. With 280 some minorities melting into the Papua and West Papua provinces there is vast reasons for making travel challenging.The only practical way to travel with any kind of speed is commercial or charter flights.  Fortunately there are many 737’s traveling to each of the following cities:  Jayapura, Nabire, Biak, Manokwari, Sorong, Fakfak, Kaimana, Tamika, Agats, Merouke, Wamina and perhaps some others I’m not aware of yet.   Many of those cities are located within easy range of the ocean so you can travel by ferry or ship to all but Wamina.   But when it comes to the interior there is simply no easy solution.

Papua x 2: It has been determined that subject to vote at the SSD year end meetings and some relatively minor changes there will be two Papuan Missions come early 2013 and a vote by the constituents of PAM.   The picture at the top was the evaluation team formed to study this option.   There are still a lot of details to work out.   But in 2013 there will likely be constituency meetings called of PAM to basically disband and reform ourselves into two.

My Job:  My job will likely remain the same except I will be assigned to the EIUC to oversee evangelism between the two new missions.  

My Dreams:  It is my hope that we can use Radio and TV to help share the gospel.  Even now plans are being made for this.   Our communication department at the EIUC and at the SSD are excited about this area too.   It is my prayer that leadership all across the board can support getting audio and visual materials in place to help speed along the already small but mighty army of  Pastors and church members who are praying for their neighbors.   We pray that there will be businessmen, churches, the missions, Unions and division of Seventh-day Adventists that can support this both financially and otherwise.

Closely connected is a team of Pastors and church members who have committed to pray for and develop written  and audio material in the heart languages of the people for sharing basic fundamental believes from the Bible.   Many times the full depth of Bible doctrine is not understood because the trade language (Bahasa Indonesian) is written far more formally than the market language.    We need materials that are inherently Papuan.  Papuan pictures, video, graphics, language style and things they can relate to.

Yet another area is leadership development.   There is vast needs to train and hold one another accountable to being better and more effective leaders.   Many of my challenges lie is learning not one but many cultures in this area and then finding the most effective means of helping to shape that culture into God’s culture.   I’m still learning God’s culture myself.   So each day as I worship Him I pray for new and penetrating insights into this culture that is our home away from our heavenly home.   Teach me Lord to know the most effective way to motivate and move people by Your Spirits plan.   Pour out on me Your Spirit, Oh God.

And still further is a vast group of Muslims who are my friends.   We’d like to deepen that friendship to help each of them see this Adventist movement as something they want too.   Isa (Jesus) is coming and this Gospel changes hearts and whole Muslim communities by the Authority invested into Isa.  Adventists share distinctive beliefs with millions of Muslims and yet we often fail to capitalize upon the common points of interest.  Many Christians fear Muslims but they forget the last words of this Commission are: “Low I am with you always even to the very end of the earth.  Amen!”   Jesus promises His presence even in groups that are not naturally going to easily change.   It has been said that more than 50% of the Papuan provinces are Muslim now.  This minority is now the majority but non of them are from Papua most are moved to Papua on a government program to work in government lands, jobs, etc.   Coming from crowded urban territories they find this a land of opportunity.   There is never an easier time than when people are in transition to arrest their attention by the power of the Holy Spirit.   The vast majority of these Muslims are young and curious.   The vast majority are away from their original roots and while they may be somewhat involved with their Mosque they are more open than ever.   Now is the opportune time to be friends at minimum.   Strategy must be built to reach these precious souls for Jesus. 

Finally, there are vast unreached territories for this Message that burns within our hearts.   Each time I fly over the wilderness of Papua I fly across hundreds of villages most of which are unseen from above due to the dense jungle over head.   But puffs of smoke here and sudden clearings there remind me there is an Interior to Papua that’s far from fully reached.   The transforming power of the Gospel still has not penetrated tribal wars that rage back and forth for years.   But then again have the sophisticated verbal battles between politicians really been penetrated by the gospel too?

The master prayer dream is for resources for financial, leadership, Audio-Visual and Spiritual development to come into place so that  as Papua Mission becomes 2 missions  they can be set to grow.   Pray for me as I try to work behind the scenes to develop in others a hunger for this Gospel of the Kingdom going to all the world.  

Another Reason for Adventist Aviation Indonesia

Have you ever wished you had your camera at the right moment?   This afternoon was one of those moments.  As many of my regular readers know my office and home are located on the campus of Adventist Aviation Indonesia.   While I am a missionary on assignment to the Papua Mission of Seventh-day Adventists and don’t work for AAI per se they are an Adventist institution too. 

Today was one of those days I wished my camera was working. . .  While in my office the familiar sound of a just landed plan with propeller in full reverse came to my ears.   Wait, I thought, there shouldn’t be any planes landing.  AAI pilots are either not in operation or on vacation in the States.   So I stood up to see out the window and a plane comes rapidly toward the hangar.   I left my office to get a better view and find out the reason.  

“Commercial plane missed his turn at the taxi ramp and managed to get stuck in the mud on the side of the run way in at the main airport,” one of AAI workers said to my quizzical look.  This plane was in danger because he couldn’t land at the commercial airport.

“Oh, that explains it.”   In my excitement to see how many planes would land in the next few minutes I forgot to pull out my camera.   Turns out no others did as the Commercial airport was quickly able to fix the problem.

Adventist Aviation Indonesia, who not only flies for our mission, also regularly allows planes who need to bring patients in to the government hospital just behind our property.   They, also, have been able to allow a number of airplanes to do mandatory maintenance in our old hangar and new hangar.   This creates a lot of good will that is opening doors or opportunity.   One pilot whose son attends school where my oldest two have just begun said to me recently.   “I’m glad I’ve come to actually know some Adventists.   I use to think you guys were weird folks but now I know you’re real Christians who would give the shirts off your back to help us.   You are the true missionaries around here.”   What a nice complement!

Hill Crest International School

Aubrey and Andrew have started school.   For the first time it is outside of the home.   Ruth gets an A+ for sticking with homeschooling our boys since kindergarten until 8th and 7th grade respectively.   The younger two are still homeschooling at home with Ruth.   Every morning Aubrey and Andrew have to scramble out of bed a lot earlier than they use to.   Each morning they have to make sure they have yesterdays left overs in their bag along with last nights homework and anything else their teacher may have required.    It takes a lot to get everyone moved out the door and into our vehicle to make the 20 minute drive to school.   I’ve only been 2 times to pick them up but Ruth does it most days twice a day.   When you arrive on campus of the Hill Crest International School you have a spectacular view of the Sentani town and Lake beyond.  

I love the outdoor hall ways that the tropics allow.   And the large open air gymnasium and tennis courts.

Aubrey and Andrew both are enjoying their friends and school work.   They are up early each day.   I think Aubrey especially enjoys it.

I was especially impressed to hear that Aubrey and another friend who attends the school were instrumental in asking their teacher to change a text book that in their minds wasn’t morally correct.  Way to be a Daniel!

Hillside International School has about 6-10 Adventist kids in it.   Most of the other 150+ kids that go to school here at Missionary kids from a variety of Christian backgrounds.  There are probably 18-20 countries where they hail from.   A small minority are from wealthier Papuan or Indonesian families that send their children to a top quality school.   Fortunately, a number of Adventists through the years have paved the road for us and Hillside all ready knows that our boys are Vegetarian and don’t participate with sports and other functions during the Sabbath hours.

Each day we pray that our boys can be a shining example and that they will put people up to the cross.

Unexpected Blessings in Japan

We are on the way to Papua from Annual Leave (AL), a.k.a. Vacation,  in the states.   For anyone who has never experienced this kind of travel to  the other side of the world it’s grueling to say the least.   First leg, Nashville-Minneapolis went off without a hitch.   We scarfed down our last subway sandwiches in the Minneapolis airport  before running to our gate thinking we’d have 10-15 minutes before boarding our the Minneapolis- Tokyo ironman-of-jet-setting leg of the trip.   We plugged the families gadgetry into all the 110 outlets we could find.  That’s an awesome experience to witness the lights dimming from the pull down of power caused when you plug in  all the gadgetry of the Boyd family into the wall (of course that’s an exaggeration but not by far) 

Soon the loud speaker stated something about an emergency Medical stop for the incoming flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis thus an expected delay for our outgoing flight.   The story slowly unfolded over the course of the next few hours.   A passenger from Toykyo had severe hemorrhaging out all orifices on the head and bowels.   Fortunately, there was a doctor on board who was able to administrate IV fluid to the passenger.   Delta and the Doc said they must land ASAP which happened to be Anchorage, Alaska.  By the time Tokyo-MN came to pick up this family all gadgetry was completely topped off with battery life and then some.  Then came the cleansing process of our plane.  Sure hope the passenger was either right with God or is still living and praising God for sparing his/her life.   Pray for this unknown person.

Ruth with an added blessing of phone calls to family

Jacob and Andrew with the added blessing of getting their batteries topped off before the long flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo

As we passed through Business Elite class secton of our Boeing 777 plane, 4 hours after our scheduled departure, it became apparent that the cleaning chemicals for bio-hazard clean up are not manufactured by Pinesol.   Normally I’m green with jealousy of the cool space capsule-like recliners turned at modern angle’s where no person has to climb awkwardly over their seat mates sleeping body on the way to the laboratory, a.k.a. toilet with some serious suction.   This time my state of green is not generated from jealousy but from bio-hazard stain removers.   The dude who patentwd that stuff must not have had a nose – that was some powerful odor.  It made sitting in the unwashed masses section seem like olfactory delight.

Laura Story writes the moving song, Blessings.   And we learned this un-wanted delay was our blessing in disguise.  Narita-International Airport in Tokyo has a curfew at 11:00 p.m. which meant that our next flight scheduled to ferry us to Singapore from Tokyo would not happen.   So here is the blessing. . . Delta gave us vouchers for future use and put us up in 3 Hotels units with free WiFi.  They paid for dinner which we declined due to exhaustion.  They paid for Breakfast which we gladly ate and transportation to and from the Airport to the Hotel.   Wow these Medical Emergencies cost Delta a pretty penny.  Breakfast was absolutely wonderful.   Wish the airlines could put in an omelet bar with granola, pastries, fruit, hot cereal, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, rice, stir-fry.   These Japanese know how to seriously cater to International taste buds.

The next blessing was our baggage was able to be routed all the way to Papua because Delta and Garuda Indonesia Air lines are soon to become Skyteam partners.   Yeah, I’ll get miles for all the local stuff I fly with Garuda come next year.  Until then I’m appreciating their closer diplomatic ties.

The third blessing was 14 hours in a big Hotel verses the 5 hours we’d have gotten in a Stay-tel inside of Singapore's airport.   Don’t get me wrong the Stay-tels in Singapore are seriously nice but 6 of us in a much smaller space is not easy.

We were somewhere up there on the 14th floor of this high rise hotel.

We could watch close up’s of the incoming air traffic

Forth Blessing. . . at 3:30 a.m. Tokyo time I awakened to the side-effects of Jet lag but that’s not the blessing really.   Had a wonderful devotion time after I finally got tired of fighting no sleepiness between 4:30 and 5:30.  Then decided to chance calling Ruth who was staying with our youngest next door since there had to be someone 12 or older in each room.  I asked if she wanted to meet me in the hallway and talk since my charge (Jacob) and her charge (Nathaniel) were both still sleeping.   She said, “No, I rather get things situated for the rest of our journey.”   So then came my forth blessing, a spontaneous 30 minutes bird watching blitz outside the hotel in Tokyo.   Those of you who know me well know I love Bird watching.   I was able to positively ID 4 birds in Japan, 3 of which were Lifers.   So was that blessing four (a good devotion) and five  (more birds on my world list)?

Blessing of adding a Large-billed or Japanese Crow along with 3 others birds to my list.  See him on the light pole for the hotels outdoor Foots-all complex.

We did miss our planned shopping expedition in Jakarta due to the re-routing of our trip but that’s no big loss as we’ve just restocked for the year.

Aubrey and Nathaniel trying to find a way to make a too short  and narrow row of chairs work for a nap in Jakarta’s Airport.  The blank spot above Nathaniels head was where I was sitting when I decided to snap this photo.

Andrew with a serious case of “red eye” or “tooth picks in the eye”, tries to hold his eyes open in Jakarta.

Nathaniel in serious thought about the Your Story Hour story he’s listening to on his MP3 player

 

We made it home and the first bags and boxes off the plane were ours.   What a blessing to be home.  All bags and gear made it and now to shake Jet-lag.   It’s 3:30 a.m. and the roosters crow.

Extreme Mission, Extreme Airstrip, Extreme Moni Tribe Part 2

So after the Chief of the Moni Tribe gave a 30 minute dissertation threatening to close their market if they didn’t start helping build the airstrip  (The airstrip is his personal land) They came in force.   First the children came.  Then, At one time, there were close to 100 people.

The most memorable parts of the this experience was the chants that the kids did and then the inspired Adults who could not be out done.  When I get back to faster email in the states I’ll down load a few video’s that will really inspire you.   I’ve never worked in time with everyone.   They are truly a people who work together.

When the wheel barrows ran out they stuck poles through rice sacks and made their own way to carry rocks.   They actually did better with the rice sacks because the wheel barrows wanted to roll down the hill faster than one could walk and kept tipping over.

The original level of dirt was about 2 meters taller than the heads of the people on top in the picture.   The whole hill from where the pig is in the foreground will still have to go down 2 or 3 meters below it’s current level.  

The kids pause long enough for me to take a photo.  But quickly go back to work.

Opin the son of Yacobous who served as the Indonesian to Moni Translator.   He is staying on to work on the project this summer until school starts again.   In the evening he is also working on translating Bible Studies into the Moni Language.   To my knowledge there are no written Bible Studies.   Once we get them written then we will record them into the Moni language since more than half the polulation don’t read.   Speaking of reading. . . Pastor Alphian – the previous pastor started a school Grades K-6.   This year was the first graduate.

Here is her baptism picture.   She is also working on the airstrip digging project as one of the project cooks. 

We now have 8 working wheel barrows and 7 that need work (bought before our time).  We have 20 picks.  20 working crow bars.   17 shovels,   30 rice bag haulers.   And an assortment of other tools.   Probably enough tools for a while.

The need now is for food to help subsidize the villagers who give up hunting and gathering in order to help build their airstrip.   Also, axe heads, kettles, sharp kitchen knives, etc are a form of currency here.   If they can get those items they will work hard.  We have a few young people that we are paying to work on the strip in the form of paying large portions of their tuition when school starts.

So far $2,225 and change has come in to the project but it will probably take another $3,000+.

Thank you to each person who has contributed to the project via Battlefield Community Church of Seventh-day Adventists PO Box 5306 Ft Oglethorpe, GA 30742 or www.battlefieldadventist.org click on “online giving”

Part 3 is still yet to come.   Think Clinic, School and Baptisms for the next blog.

Extreme Mission, Extreme Airstrip, Extreme Moni Tribe Part 1

Come with me on a picture tour of an Extreme Mission trip, to an extreme airstrip in the making, to an extreme and quite colorful people – enter the Moni tribe.   Enter Ndugu-Ndugu.   If you can say that fast three times in a row correctly you get an A.  The Moni people are in the mountains of near the neck of the Birds head peninsula.   In times past they wore precious little and still do at times.   Located at approximately 7,500 feet elevation the night time temps are quite cool – probably 50 degrees F.  

Bob Roberts, Adventist Aviation Indonesia Pilot, dropped us off with 650 Kgs. of tools, food and personal items on this Airstrip about 3-5 hours hike away from our destination in Pogapo.   This airstrip was built in the same fashion the one we were headed to help with.   Every rock and piece of dirt that is in the wrong location has to be moved by hand.   He then filled up the plane with 8 people headed to the Papua Mission Women’s event.

 

The area has mountain peaks going as hi as 12,500 feet and not far away from Papua’s highest peak of 15,000+ feet.   The streams and rivers are icy cold.   Likely snow melt in some of the streams.   Yes you heard me right.   It’s kind of wild to see alpine trees in a place 2 degrees below the equator.  Zach Roberts who joined me for this trip said, “If I didn’t know better I’d think I was in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.” (Zach is the Grandson of Bob Roberts).

Colorful people are everywhere.   Here is the tail of a Lorakete that this guy had for dinner but how could he resist the decoration.  Most wear clothes these days but it’s not uncommon to see men in nothing but a gourd and women in nothing but a grass skirt.   Their sense of modesty is not defined in the same way.   When they see westerner women dressed in swimming suits they say, “How can she expose so much leg?   She is a naughty woman.”   For the sake of your children I’m not including the shots that happen to include a passing man or woman who wore traditional style “clothes.”

Here we are passing a school just off the runway where we were let off to hike in with 6 wheel barrows, 12 shovels, 10 picks, 12 large breaker chisels, 180 Kg of rice, 4 cases of oil for cooking, salt, sugar, spices, our personal things, and lots more.   Opin (not in this picture), Zack and me and lots of gear were coming to these extreme places to help encourage our Pastor (wearing yellow) in this extremely remote tribe.   I’m carrying 2 wheel barrow backs stacked together.

We pass native homes along the trail.

Here is a luxurious kitchen compared to most.

We were in clouds along the way.   Here is a village on the opposite side of the valley.

 

A crashed plane on a runway half a mile below us is a sobering reminder of the challenge that mission pilots put themselves in every day they fly to make it possible for pastors like me to spread the gospel.   The rumor was this pilot made it but in the last year 4 pilots have not.   Papua has claimed the lives hundreds who were caught in some of the most difficult flying conditions in the world.

We are here because of this man, Yacobous (middle), who in 2003 had a dream in the night that God was going to send more truth through a visiting pastor.   The next day the very Pastor who he saw in his dream came walking up the trail.   Today, there have been several pastors assigned to this extreme mountain district and slowly the Moni people are hearing the Adventist message that Jesus is coming really soon.   Mr Yocobous here helps teach a bible study with the current pastor to several eager listeners.   Ironically its Mr Yocobous’ son Opin who is with us as translator and helper.  Opin attends our Adventist school near by where Ruth and I live.   Mr Yocobous helped influence the tribe chief and several other key people to let the original Adventist pastor come.   He told them that they should not persecute him but listen to his words.   The documentary of that experience is on shareHim.org. About half way down their web page click on “Irian Jaya” video.

Today the work is slow yet steady.   The challenge nearly everything has to be brought in by plane or grown or hunted locally.   So any pastor spends hours learning language and just surviving before he can be effective.  There are 3 small groups meeting in 3 separate villages.   Yet Pastor Richeel is making goals to see 1,000 Moni come to accept Jesus and the message of His soon return.

Even the pig stops to hear Pastor and Mr Yacobous share the gospel.

The pastor and his wife go visiting on many days to encourage and pray for Moni peoples.

The original Adventist Church in the Moni tribe.   The small shed in the front is the offering shed.   The natives bring 10th of their vegetables and goods they make as their tithe.   Then the pastor and student missionaries and kids in our school live off this food.   Today, there are about 40 baptized members in this church who attend every Sabbath.

This is the Adventist school (left is grade K-2 and behind the church is 3-6),  Church (center), and parsonage (right).

The reason we came was to baptize some newly coming members and to work on the air strip which consists of some 100 meter long piles of rock and dirt that need to me moved over the hill to make a place for the plane to fly in.   This picture is from about 1 year before we arrived.   The natives work on this pile for about 2-3 hours 2 times per week (market days).  To give you a perspective imagine digging 20-35 feet of dirt, rock and clay off a football field one shovel at a time in high elevation with mal-nurished bodies.

We started early before the natives came.

Then they begin to arrive.   Slowly warming up to the idea that some white guys were standing on the top of the mounds that are slowly being taken down with “weaponry”.  

Young mom’s and babies stand watching spell bound.   Ladies with traditional mesh bags that carry hundreds of sweet potatoes each day sell to the gawkers their wares.   It’s market day.

The chief, who is an Adventist, saw an opportunity for lots of help.   And he standing here preaching in Moni Style for the people to come help so they can improve their lives when the airplane is able to land.  i'’ll try to post a video of this in a few weeks when I have state side internet speed.

Part 2 will follow soon

Evangelism By Weed Wacker

In early January I received a text message from Ruth that said, “Don’t come home because there is a Demonstration on our air strip.”   With a text like that it demands more than a text message.  I immediately called Ruth back.   She said there were about 50 men shouting on the Run way at Adventist Aviation.   While I work for Adventist Mission we live on the campus at Adventist Aviation Indonesia.   The 50 men were mostly drunk and had hired two very large dump trucks to bring rocks and dirt and dump it in a few key locations on the airstrip.   They basically caused a lot of frustration for the next few days and then they started preventing anyone from mowing the airstrip.  Their demand was, “Our forefathers sold you (the Adventist Church) the land but it was the wrong forefather who received the money and now we need more money.   Send us $9,000,000 US dollars and we’ll stop making problems.”  Adventist Aviation and the nearby Adventist School have all the legal papers and have actually paid for the property twice because of a past problem,  similar to this one.

Bob Roberts restarting the grass choked mower for the 10,000th time

To complicate matters the family that is making the problems have many Adventist relatives.   It has come to light that some of the Adventists are looking to gain from Aviation paying the problem family for the land.   The problem is the Lawyer tells us to absolutely not pay them anything. . . so the family just keeps making problems hoping we’ll bend.

In America we would just call the police and the family would be rounded up and arrested and we’d have a day in court to settle the fact that they are indeed doing criminal activity.   However, we don’t live in America and because of the politically unstable condition here its not that easy.   Many police will not act until you give them more than the criminals are willing to give.   So until you do that little will be done.   On top of this there is even more complicated issues that I cannot share at this point because of it’s implications for certain peoples confidentiality.    But let’s just say there are about 4 or 5 very complicated issues going on all at once.

Ruth and I are prayer walking each morning on the air strip for this and many other prayer concerns.   We also have been trying to “Kill this situation with Kindness.”   For Several weeks Ruth has baked a large amount of Banana Bread and I and a Boys boy or two go and deliver it and try to make friends with the problem makers.   We have seen limited, positive results but because of some of the other complications we find ourselves taking one step forward and 2 steps back.

Here are the implications to us living here at Adventist Aviation:

First, Aviation has had to temporarily move where they fly from.   However, the larger aviation community is greatly hurt by this, too.   Adventist Aviation is the only emergency back up landing strip for the 4 other mission aviation groups.   If the Sentani commercial airport is closed, which happens fairly frequently, our fellow aviation ministries are all shut down.  This in turn slowly starves the 2-3 million people who live in the center of the Papuan highlands who depend on the food and services that mission aviation groups as a whole provide to the interior. 

Second, If someone mows at Adventist Aviation then they send a person to harass any of the Adventist Aviation Workers.   Basically they come and try to hit our workers with sticks or stones or sometimes they just come and shout things like, “Aren’t you afraid to die?”  “I’m going to kill you if you continue to mow the air strip.”  “If you don’t pay me immediately I’ll build my store on the air strip.”   Eventually we learned that they are less likely to harass we Americans because someone amongst them believes that NATO will come and bomb them if they make problems for us.   We had to laugh at that one.  A thought finally clicked in our minds as to a new game plan based on this laughable information.

Third, nearly all small craft aviation companies use Adventist Aviation’s Airstrip to land when they have critically ill patients that need fast medical attention.   Why?  Because we are immediately joining the road to the Government Hospital just behind out property.    Literally this air strip has been the life difference for more than a few critically ill patients.   So now without this strip an additional 20-50 minutes have been added to critically ill patients journey to medical help.

Forth, there is a fair amount of fear that comes with living in a place where people just come at will and make problems and no matter how much you call the police they rarely if ever arrive in time to do anything.   

Fifth, Fortunately we have a Savior who gives us strength each day.   It has increased Ruth’s and my prayer walking time.   We look forward to our exercise and prayer times each morning I’m here and not traveling some place else.

Andrew and Jacob raking up the piles of grass clippings

For the past 2 Sundays . . .which happened to be a day off for me. . .  I’ve spent a portion of those days helping Bob Roberts (the chief pilot) mow the now knee to neck high grass.   The family that is making problems came 1 time and told us to wait til the next day because they had a funeral service at their home.   But this Sunday they didn’t come all morning long and we had unlimited time to mow.

Bob was mowing with the Weed Wacker first but found it difficult to operate as he wasn’t use to it.   So I took over the Weed Wacker mid morning and he used the 20 inch push mower.   A 20 inch mower is about the best Papua has to buy and even then it’s very expensive.  (I’d love for someone to send Bob a real ride on tractor of a commercial lawn mower nature.)  We cleared a major portion of the taxi area and then started working on the very west end of the air strip so that we could take the Kodiak out if need be.

The recruits are helping to mow.   Zach Roberts (dark blue shirt), Jason – his brother in red shirt, Bob Roberts and Aubrey Boyd (in Blue Shirt)

After lunch I returned and was making good progress and even recruited my boys and Zach Roberts (Bob’s Grandson) to help.   We were making great progress when someone told me, “Darron why don’t you go just outside of the gate and clear a little so we can safely pull out of the campus onto the public street in front of the campus?”   So off I went.

When I arrived at the gate with the Weed Wacker’s metal blade humming at a high pitch scream I noticed a young man about 20-25 years old coming rapidly toward me.   Then he gave me a hand sign that is equivalent to the middle finger in the States.   This hand sign is a slashing motion with ones pointer finger across the throat and means roughly “I’m coming to kill you if you don’t immediately stop what you’re doing.”   I started to turn around but a quick second glance helped me realize he had a stone ready to launch in my back side the moment I turned around.

Early on Sunday morning I had met an American man who is an Anthropologist and has lived amongst the Sentani Tribe for more than 40 years.   He explained that if you are ever shouted at or threatened as a Sentani Tribe member it is expected that you will yell back and threaten even more so.   I fully realize that I’m not of the Sentani Tribe but that thought entered my mind at that precise moment.   The impression that came to my mind at that moment was, Yell!  No, scream, infinitely louder and with more authority than this young buck with the rock in his hand.   Then I worried, What if he throws the rock at me?   Then I knew I had only 2 human weapons besides the Divine option of prayer that I was already using.   1) I am a fast runner, 2) I had a metal blade Weed Wacker fully gassed up and already running at top speed.    I tried once more to turn away as I prayed but then I saw that not only was he yelling at me but now he had a bigger stone.   So I charged at him full steam ahead with metal blade raised at my head level like a bayonet in the arms of horse mounted cavalry.    I let our a blood Curdling Scream that only a Tennessee Boy from the hills knows how the imitate.   I put my legs into after burner gear and began yelling every word of authority I knew in Bahasa Indonesian.   Suddenly his eyes changed from, “I’m the young buck in charge around here, “ to one of , “Oh no the American is going to kill me with that screaming machine.”   I was now running at full steam with a back-pack-mounted, metal-bladed, weed wacker.   By this time every shop owner and most of the shoppers were all standing out side of their shops standing with mouths wide open.   The Barber shop emptied out with guys in capes and half a hair cut standing with mouths wide open.

The young guy no longer looked proud and arrogant.  He now stood at the cross roads of his life.  I had forced him into decision making time.   The alter call was being made by this Weed Wakin’ Preacher from American.   The appeal was plain and simple.  1)  “Do I launch the stone and face NATO?  2) or do I drop the rock and hope I can out run this crazed American?”   Fortunately for me he chose the second option.   And Run He did!   Though eventually I would have caught him. . . I chose to stop my charge because I really didn’t want to harm him.   I just needed him to know that I needed to be respected.

As the Anthropologist said, “Sometimes they need to know there is a new Warrior in town.  But don’t always use this method. Once you win, then they will make you their friend because, after all, they want to be on the side of the next up and coming David.”   I’m not at all comfortable with this role but I was amazed that I was invited to do the Thanksgiving service for a funeral for the family.   I was worried that now I was the new number one enemy but they all laughed at how I had sent their arrogant young man packing.   They told me, “Don’t think another thing about it!   We like you because you are kind.”   Still scratching my head at this one.  But I made it back and alive from Preaching at the Thanksgiving Service for family member who died.

I have to say what a strange way to win friends and influence people!   Maybe it’s my next book, “Evangelism By Weed Wacker Weaponry.”   I prefer prayer walking and doling out bread.

Me trying to smile just moments after the young buck was sent packing by my weed wacker.  I was still shaking at this moment.