Old Spice and the Olfactory Yuck!

An interesting occurrence happened last week.    I was third from the last to board Garuda Flight GA607 from Jayapura to Makasar.  Garuda is typically the best and most expensive flight in Indonesia.   They operate the best of planes in Indonesia, therefore the higher prices.  But for a change they had a sale and I was able to get on their flight for the same price as all the dirt cheap airlines.   Wow, what an experience to sit on a seat where my knees actually fit. Two seats in the entire section were still available and they were next to me.   But just then two Papuan guys came through the divider between my cheap section and the high rent district up front.   I could tell they were headed my way.  I was actually quite excited to have them sit next to me because at least my broken Indonesian would be respected by them when they knew I was from Papua also.   Pastors in Papua are respected a lot.
I was on the aisle which meant I’d have to unbuckle and let them get past me.   As they arrived closer and closer I kept smelling the distinct lack of Deodorant smell.  Did I forget something this morning?   I did the old turn your head to one side and slightly lift the arm trick just to see.  Two thumbs up. . .  Deodorant still working!
As the men started down the rows coming closer and closer toward me I could see hands going over woman’s faces in an attempt to block the odors now wafting my way.   To be clear many Papuans are more clean than Americans when it comes to bathing but these guys were coming toward me.  “Lord, Please help my nose to temporarily stop functioning,” I mumbled under my breathe.   But God sometimes doesn’t answer according to our will.
Ok, what can I do to distract myself from this situation?   This time God impressed me to just strike up a conversation.   So after they got situated I launched into a question to the guy next to me but I got “the deer in the headlight” look.    Did I not put the Indonesian sentence together right?    Then the younger of the two answered in equally broken Indonesian, “I’m sorry, my father doesn’t speak Indonesian and I am still learning.”
“Oh!   Do you speak English?”
Both men beamed at that question.   My mind did a quick double take. . . Two Papuan men who know English better than Indonesian.   “Are you from near the boarder with PNG?”
“Yes, our tribe is from the boarder area.”  
That explains it, I thought to myself.   I know the area because we have a Global Pioneer working in that area who speaks English better than Indonesian, also.   So  I asked a number of questions.   Turns out that one of the Dads other sons lives in Makasar.   Dad is the Chief of the tribe and has never flown on an airplane before today.    As the chief of the tribe lots of politicians had come into his village during the recent campaign for Governor.   In fact 10 of the 12 parties sent representatives to this leader of a large tribe near the boarder between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.   This is an important tribe because significant numbers of them live on both sides of the boarder.   On election day some slip across the boarder from PNG and find ways to vote illegally.   So Politicians to ensure that their party has all the votes possible try to sway the Chief to in turn sway his tribe in hopes of picking up a few of these illegal voters.   The shortened story is that suddenly this chief had wads of cash which he received from hopeful politicians who hoped to sway this mans mind to their side.    Whole boxes of money were dropped off for this old man.   What does one do with all this cash?   There are no roads into this region so no need to buy a car, no banks, his house is made of what God naturally gave him to build it with.   He has 8 wives to forage for food for him.    Normally, any self respecting man from his tribe would purchase another wife to gain her lands, help him with his work and bear his children but, shucks, he already had to many of those, too.   So his son said, “Dad take an airplane trip to see your son who's in college in Makasar.”  Dad was convinced.   So he chartered a plane from the bush and booked a ticket with he and this son.  
Knowing a little about this tribe from our worker up there he tells me that the older ones receive two baths per life at birth and a death.   At death one is bathed by the remaining wives and then placed in a bed of, deodorant like, spices to help the family tolerate the decaying smells.  Should I give him my deodorant?   No, he might think I was telling him he was ready for death.   Somehow I managed to tolerate this Olfactory yuck and in the process I learned a lot about this Old spice (pun intended).   He knew about Adventists and was proud that one of his wives was going to the Adventist Church just over the boarder in PNG.  
I contemplated telling him about the American tradition of putting old spice on even before we’re dead and maybe to keep others from dying!    But I kept my mouth shut.
As I exited the plane the stewardess said in broken English to me, “Thanks for sitting there next to the smell.”   I had to laugh because they were right behind me and they clearly understood English which she wasn’t counting on.   And right on cue this “old spice” Papuan Chief lift his arm pit in the direction of the Indonesian stewardesses as he passed – smirking the whole time as I and his son and he had to laugh at her obvious revolt.

Boat Ministry Part 2

Before I even arrived in Sorong on the far western point of Papua on my way home from Pontianak, Kalimantan (formerly Borneo)  where I’d been studying the boat ministry – I knew that my reason to come to Sorong had canceled on me.   I kept thinking, “If only I’d re-confirmed everything before I bought the tickets.  Now I’m stuck.”   What was I going to do for 2 days in this place while I waited?   I called a variety of friends in that place hoping someone would come but not even one of them would answer my phone call.   Where were they all?    I landed and the Adventist airport porter who always greets me was shocked that I was here.   That let me know that even those who had canceled had forgotten to pass the word along.   “Perhaps my newness has worn off,” I thought to myself.   I thought back to my previous arrivals to this city when 20 or more came to greet me and some had even danced in traditional welcome.   But today I was just another person, “Taxi, Sir?”   What was I suppose to answer, If I said ”Yes” or “I don’t know” they’d harass me until I took a taxi just to get rid of them!   So quickly I asked, “Where’s the toilet?”   I didn’t need the toilet but I was hoping that the toilet would be clean enough to provide some privacy while I made phone calls.

So off to the toilet I went.   Praise God!  It was relatively clean and spacious and western which allowed me to lug my luggage in and lock the door.   Then I made a “Divine Appointment list”.    What’s that suppose to mean?   Well, since I no longer had a “reason” to be here since the persons I had come to see had stood me up and they were in another city 300 miles to the east. . . I now was looking for Divine Appointments.   Maybe that’s what I should have been looking for in the first place.    Didn’t someone say something about a Boat Manufacturer in Rajah Empat?   I’d heard that our pastor had moved to the city there to help build up the church.   Besides it would be a fabulous place to go rest for 2 days while I waited on my next flight to take me on to Fak Fak.   So I dialed up the pastor – first ring he answered.   “Hallelujah!  Someone’s alive.”   He was happy to invite me there but the boat had already left for this day and the return boat on Tuesday would be too late.    Ok, that plan won’t work.   Plan B:   Call all the people I’ve called before to see if anyone is near their phone now.    9 numbers latter and still no answer.   Plan C: Get our of this bathroom and find a motel.    After negotiating between two drivers I found one that was reasonable.

I dumped my stuff in the back of the taxi and off we went.    Soon his wife called him on his phone and immediately they began to shout bad names at each other over the phone.   He was Papuan so I assumed he was Christian but a few follow questions I learned he was Muslim from one of the few Papuan Muslim tribes.    He slammed the phone down and began to rattle all about his marriage woes.   I listened and he cried.   Soon he asked if we could back track a bit to go pick up his wife because she needed a Spiritual guide such as me to straighten her out.   Ok, now I know I’m here on Divine business.   I meet her soon and listen to her side of the story.   She was probably 15 years younger than him and his very “disobedient” wife.   “All she wants to do is spend my money.”   She countered his accusation, “All he wants to do is shout at me and command me around.”   We were at my motel but we continued to talk for another 10 minutes in the taxi.   I finally gave them my opinion.   “You need Allah’s help (God’s Help).   Can I pray for your marriage?”    I don’t know what effect this had on them but I did notice that she slipped into the front seat after I got out of the taxi.   Can you join me in praying for this young marriage in trouble.

I checked into the motel and soon all those 9 numbers of people begin to call me back.   One of the leading Adventist business men in Sorong was at my motel in less than 10 minutes.   I told him all about the boat ministry I’d just gone to see in Pontianak.   He was cautious at first.   But slowly he warmed up.    Soon he was enthusiastic.   His wife was also happy.   Come to find out they personally knew a boat manufacturer who “builds the best boats in Sorong”.   It was just around the corner.   “Let’s go see it.”   So off we went.   I was expecting wooden boats that would soon fall apart but to my surprise they had about 10 boats in varying stages of build.    Each were ocean going vessels of 25-60 feet in length made of fiberglass and metal.    The owner wasn’t around but some of this workers were.   They enthusiastically let me tour the most completed boat a 14 meter long boat for the VIPs of the Indonesian Fishing Ministry.    “Nice boat!” priced at about $125,000.   I thought to myself, “Ok, I’m out of my league.   There is no way we could ever raise that kind of money and we really need something bigger.”

After touring this boat the Adventist business man and his family took me to the nicest restaurant in town.   Soon the Boat manufacturer whom I wanted to go see in Rajah Empat called.    “Sorry I couldn’t answer your call earlier.   I was out at sea and just received your message.   I’m coming into Sorong right now.   I’m just 10 minutes away from the dock.”   I discovered that we were right next to the dock.   He soon joined us for supper with his wife and one of his employees.   When he heard about my study of an active Boat ministry in Bornea he said, “I’ll be happy to build the boat for just the cost of materials.”   Praise God.   I couldn’t have arranged my schedule so well as to meet the boat manufacturer without having to even go to his boat building shop in Rajah Empat.   But the story gets better.

inside one of the new ships pilots room.

A luxury boat with very comfortable passenger chairs.

The next morning the owner of the boat factory I’d toured the day before called my business friend in Sorong and said,  “I heard there was a white pastor who toured our place yesterday.   Can I meet with him?”    At 11:00 a.m. I was ushered into his cooperate office.    He began to tell me that he’d personally prayed for a boat ministry.   For several years he’d paid for a doctor to come to Sorong and do cataract surgeries for needy islanders around.   He’d paid for 500+ surgeries and given more than 2,300 people Guideon Bibles from whose organization he was the local chapter leader.   He envisioned a ship being built with two living cabins for 2-4 passengers each and an operation room and a clinic plus a large hold for all the goods that we’d need to haul.  

I described my meeting in Bintuni a few months ago with the Muslim leaders there who said the top need was that their farmers could find a way to sell their vegetables in Sorong but they had no ship to do so.   Tears flowed from this mans eyes and he said, “That’s the way we can win the hearts of our Muslim friends.”  

Let me ask my boat designer to draw up a ministry boat design for you.   “I can do it for just the cost of materials and I may be able to get my partners to agree to donate most of the materials.”    About this time his pastor came by for a visit and he introduced us.    The pastor said, “Why doesn’t our church help the Adventists with this project?”

Could it be that God is opening Divine appointments and doors for a Boat Ministry to start based in Sorong?    My dream is that this ministry will pay for itself in time by transporting produce to the market and by transporting passengers to their remote island villages but that we could have a doctor or nurse and a pastor and captain on board to minister.   I’m praying for 1 leader who can be the full time business manager of this project.    God just may have that person in place but that may have to be told latter because the story is still unfolding.

From Left to Right: Business Man’s pastor, Boat Manufacturer and multiple business owner Mr John,  Me,   Mr and Mrs Fonatoba Adventist business owners in Sorong who have connected me we both boat builder potentials.

Boat Ministry -- Kapuas River–Borneo

It all started with an innocent discussion in Timika with some workers from Papua Freeport Mine.    During the course of our meal and subsequent conversation they shared about how a group of them had rented a boat on several occasions and gone up river into Asmat tribe territory to do a Charity Clinic.    They asked me to ask the mission to support a full time ministry like this.    So I mentioned it to the Global Evangelism coordinator as he helped manage the work of this type.   He told me that if I wanted boat ministry, “go for it.” That wasn’t the answer I was looking for.   It wasn’t my idea and I was only the channel to bring him the connection between them and him.   I wasn’t the one looking for more work but he felt I should do it.   I mentioned it to the mission president.   He said, “you should do it.”   Again, I wasn’t looking for more to do.   I felt misunderstood.    So I mentioned it to the Union Global Evangelism Coordinator about this group.    He said, “That’s not your responsibility.”  again I felt misunderstood.   The group from Timika continued to ask my help to Advocate for them . . .eventually their group has disbanded and they aren’t doing anything anymore.

Fast forward 8 months and now I’m the Global Evangelism associate from the Union.    The Division Coordinator, Pastor Doug Venn, skyped with me.   I told Pastor Doug about this group and at that time they still seemed active.   He  told me that there was another group that was already doing ministry on a boat along the Kapaus River in Kalimantan (formerly Borneo) Indonesia.   “Would I like to come and see their ministry?”   

The First boat that sank because the quality was less than solid.
So on January 27 off I went with two Seminary Students to Pontianak, West Kalimantan to study their Boat Ministry.   Lukas was 1 of the two students who went with me.   Before he answered the call to study in our seminary he spent 7 years as a mechanic for a major shipping company in Indonesia.   He grew up on the water.   The other Seminary student is John who is a practical type who can build just about anything.   He too grew up on the rivers and water of Papua. Neither of these two men (age 37 and 35 respectively) had never flown commercially before.   They were so excited.    They kept leaning over to get a better view through the small airplane windows.    They had neither one been into Jakarta’s city center.     John had never been west of Surabaya and Lukas had been only to the shipping docks of Jakarta.
We passed through the Jakarta Airport where I bought us a meal.   Then flew onto the Pontianak airport.    When we arrived I expected someone to pick us up but no one was there.   No one even answered their phones – I was worried that we’d come all this way for nothing.   Finally, I got one of the 8 other participants to pick up the phone and tell us where to go.    But the phone quality was poor and I couldn’t tell where we were suppose to go.   At last we found a taxi driver who made sense out of where we wanted to go.   Off we went to the address he thought we should be at.   Praise God it was the right place.    The division put us up in a big hotel.   That was the next first for my Seminary Students from Papua – neither had stayed in a hotel like we were in.   For you American readers it was sort of like a Hampton Inn – “luxurious” with free WiFi and free breakfast.
That night we met at the local mission office in their chapel as each of us helped make a list of questions that we’d like to have answered over the next several days.    Tuesday morning we stayed at the hotel and had various leaders of the Kalimantan Boat ministry team help us by answering what they could of our 27 questions.   
Their boat ministry started as a dream to reach the people along this mighty 710 mile long Island river – Kapaus River.    It’s the longest river on an Island in the world.    It is approximately 1 KM wide or wider in many locations.    There are huge barges and little native boats and trash and sewer all flowing toward the South China Sea to the west.  90% of the communities along this river are Muslims, followed by Buddism, and Hindu’s, and then Christians.   By doing free charity clinics and health education they are hoping to lower prejudice so that the way can be opened in the future to improve the community and help foster peace.
Now enter an Australian group who heard of the dream and they donated a large amount of money to buy a good quality boat.   Now enter some creative minds who decided that the “good quality” was to buy the cheapest boat they could buy that looked good.    So when the wind blew and the River rose 20 feet one storm tossed night --  the boat sank.    So they built boat number 2 of the same not so “good quality”.   And when the next years annual flooding came the same problem happened.    So the lessons learned : 1) spend more to get the good quality, 2) get insurance and use flotation devices. 3) do maintenance     Fortunately only the boat was lost.
The other things we learned on our trip was that we will need to find ways to make the boat ministry pay for itself eventually.    Some of our ideas were to be a shipping deliverer of supplies to store owners in far flung places,  And help farmers get their goods to more marketable locations.    We could take passengers on for a fee to some locations that ferry companies don’t go.   That might help cover the cost of fuel and maintenance but what about staff and medical teams and ministry teams, insurance and more?    We still need a team of business men who have experience in this type of business who can make this type of ministry work. 
Next day they rented a boat for the day and witnessed first hand what they did along the river.    Soon after we started down the river I could easily see the vast needs.    We past hundreds of women washing clothes and taking baths behind the veil of their Sarongs in water where sewer, suds and animals all swam with children, dead cows and half submerged logs.    No wonder sickness thrives along these rivers.   But Indonesia is a Nation made of 17,000 plus islands so rivers are not the only avenue for boat ministries.   In fact, most boats of any medium size and bigger are used both in the ocean and on the rivers.   
We stopped at the first significant village 2 hours down river and discovered our late start meant many had already gone to the fields or were out fishing.   Nevertheless, we had an enthusiastic group of 25-30 children who sang songs and learned about health.  The Geriatric and the mothers stayed close by for our clinic – greatly reduced in cost if not free for most.    I could see that the team had indeed begun to build a relationship with the people.   Many of all faiths came for the prayer by our local pastor.   I could also see that there is a need for student missionaries to come and live in villages like these to build relationships.    We could use pastors to train members how to better reach the community here.   Bottom line is until you stay to build relationships there is no way to expand the community of God significantly.   Until you meet their needs in order to win their confidence, on a consistent, daily basis it does very little good.
The need is cheaper medical services but also health education and helping the villagers get better sanitation facilities.    This is a huge entering tool.   Many never finish school because of the huge needs that overwhelm the need for education.    Also, lack of money and grades good enough to continue education often stop youth from continuing on.   Again a Student missionary who could teach the youth basic study skills and challenged them to succeed and change the direction of their family tree could greatly help.    Teaching marketable skills could help also.    Livelihood seminars where you could teach people to use the land they have to feed the family could be greatly beneficial.  We need to dream creatively how to enter communities like this in Papua too.
The following day we were able to drive to a different community that they are doing health education at.    In this community the village leaders want us to come staff a clinic they have.   They are willing to help they just need Indonesian nurses willing to come live there.    The dominant religion in this community was Buddhism.  
Thank you to the Southern Asia Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists whose leadership allowed Brothers Lukas, John and myself to come and learn from the success and failures of their boat ministry program.
Could it be that God could use a whole fleet of boats to reach both the rivers and the islands surrounding our big Island of New Guinea?    Could the two Papuan provinces of Indonesia be significantly impacted by boats operating similarly to the way Adventist Aviation Indonesia operates?   They basically pay for the ministry that they do by the charter flights they sell.   Could it be possible for something like this to happen in the near future for water transportation in Papua?   Or would is it still better to just higher others to do boat piloting when we want to do ministry?   Is it cheaper to let boats be rented for times when we want to help others?   We don’t know yet!   That’s the kind of information that we’re still trying to calculate and put into a Ministry/Business plan. 
If you have the ability to help us in making practical business/Ministry plans that may have initial donations but eventually are run self supporting I’d love to hear from you.    We are Praying that if God is opening this door that it will be abundantly clear to all who are involved with making those decisions.

Divine Appointments– in Jakarta.

I came to Sorong, Papua on my way home from studying a boat ministry and sharing about our work in Papua to the Tumau Tou Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jakarta.   This is a Church plant that was organized as a full fledged church in 2006 and if you know me a church plant makes me happy.   Today they meet on the 16th floor of the Menara Imperium building in Kuningan on the south side of Jakarta.    This is a fabulously wealthy area and the church has attracted a lot of young to mid age professionals.   From out of this church they’ve started 4 more churches, built countless ministries up all over Indonesia.    They are like the Ephesus Church of Revelation 2:1-7.    When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find our former house helper from Bandung leading the Sabbath School – I was blessed by Hesley Pelealu's Sabbath School remarks.   I spent the 10 minutes of personal ministries time wetting peoples appetites with pictures from the Ndugu.   Incase you’ve never read those blogs try clicking on these blogs First Blog, Second Blog, Third Blog, and Fourth Blog.    This will help you get a more complete picture of the project in Senepa otherwise known as Ndugu-Ndugu if you read them all.   

In the afternoon they invited me to share more.    So I shared with people about Radio Ministry, Boat Ministry, Crocodiles, Dengue Fever, Malaria and supper eddies.   Because there were so many young professionals like DR’s, Nurses, business men and women I challenged them to come on over to Papua for short or long term missions.   We need their expertise.   

Luke and John and Mr Iden Pelealu (Hesley’s Dad).   Luke and John are two Theology students whom I brought to try to get them to catch the vision about boat Ministry.   They were equally awed by the huge buildings and wealth they saw in Jakarta.   Both of them had never flown commercially before and were constantly craning their necks to see the ground through the 737 Jet window.   Luke worked for 7 years as a boat mechanic and John also worked as a carpenter for a number of years.   We need their expertise for boat ministry.

This generous Church I feel was a Divine Appointment.   Their previous Pastor has answered the call and will be moving to Ndugu-Ndugu with his Wife and 4 year old daughter and 6 month old baby boy.   Pastor Frans Bihoy has a lot of expertise but one concern I have is that he will be living in a very isolated area with a young baby.    Pray for his wife. . . We are also concerned that the pastors house has been used as dorm for Student missionaries, house helpers, etc.   Each previous pastor has found the living situation a challenge because there is very little Pastor and Family time.   I’d like to see several people send us donations for building a pastors house where they can have their own space.    I’ve been dreaming of doing it with Clay or Cement Blocks so that the housing won’t be eaten by termites like all the buildings we built in the past are being done.  Pray as we seek to do a better job supporting our pastors in the field.   Pray that the funds or supplies can be donated so a new pastors house can be built.  Pray that we will figure out better forms of communication with these pastors in remote places.    Pastor Frans Bihoy and the previous pastors (Richeel Sumlang, Alfian Sodondang, Toni Mayai)    Thanks for going to these difficult places 100 miles from anywhere.   May you have have strength and balance to help spread the gospel to the Moni tribe.   May God give vision so that our clinic and school and church can prosper in this place.   May God bless you with a quick tongue to learn the Moni language.   May He give you peace that passes all human understanding.