Sore Tail! Big Waves! Miracle Needed!

Sometimes when it seems impossible God does the Impossible just to show us that He’s in control.    On Sunday, February 15, it seemed as if my trip to southern Papua near Merauke was tangled in impossibilities.   First, we have no plane to get to the particular remote places that we needed to go to.   Gary Roberts and Hartley Sakul our mission pilots are not quite checked out for the type of places I need to go to.    Miss Bob Roberts in that he was one of the Senior Pilots in Papua and knew nearly every strip and weather pattern and lots of tricks to get into places others have to pass by.

Pastor Jerry Samokari (left) is our new pastor for Kepi in the Mapi Regency of southern Papaua.   There are 14 members in this town of close to 20,000 people.

I needed a Miracle.   I called Eric Roberts and briefly explained my situation as Gary is gone to Europe to purchase a new plane and Hartley was away for a seminar.   Eric flies for another organization and often knows of solutions I hadn’t known of.   Quickly he connected me with an Adventist Pilot who flies for a commercial company who is based in Merauke.   Within a couple of hours I was connected to this pilot.   He was able to get all the information that I needed and get me 3 seats on the right plane to the right location.    Miracle Number 1.      Really it is an amazing miracle because when I called the company said, “You have to get here first to Merauke and then we’ll see if we have a seat or 2 but not likely that you’ll have 3 seats on the same day.

I was needing to fly to Kepi and then Bade and get up the river and be home by Friday.    Big order unless you just have a plane at your disposal for your every whim and then that plane needs to be a float plane.   So off I went.   With me was a new Pastor Jerry Samokari who was going to be placed at our new Adventist Mission project in Kepi in the Mapi Regency of southern Papua.    Second, reason I went was to meet up with Pastor Melky Sakul who will be heading up the work in the Bade Adventist Mission project as well as helping to provide a base for our already established project in Sengge.

We landed in Merauke and I was surprised to meet not only Pastor Melky Sakul but a pastor that I had been told had already moved to his new district had been delayed and was still there.    So after going to check that the plane that the pilot from yesterday had arranged was still going to happen the next day and paying for it I went to the Adventist Church and set up my Hammock and mosquito net and then talked with Pastor Melky and Jerry for quite some time.  That afternoon the wind blew at a terrific rate and news soon came that our flight would be cancelled if the wind didn’t let up by tomorrow.   So we prayed and the wind slowly died down.    Late in the afternoon the Adventist Pilot from the commercial company came and talked with me – Sam B from Italy.

 

Turns out Sam mentioned several bits of information that got us into a long conversation and a lot of prayer.    In this case I felt used of God to be a listening ear.   Sam was flying home to Italy in a few days for vacation and was facing probably one of the toughest trips of his life.    It was a miracle that I got to meet him at such a time as this and have the privilege of adding Sam to my regular prayer list.

Pastor Melky Sakul, Myself and Pastor Jerry Samokari sitting in front of the small gathering temporary structure that will be replaced when we can help gather funding for a jungle chapel on property donated by the members in Kepi.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early. . . I hadn’t slept much because the pastor and his wife had to pack their house up that night because they learned the boat was coming for their things at 7:00 in the morning.   So all night they packed and I heard packing tape until late into the night.

 

Off we flew to Kepi.   There we were met by a delegation of the handful of Adventists.   An Adventist Dr moved into this area about 8 years ago and has been trying to raise up some work in this area.  I wrote a proposal after my initial visit to this area last April just before Bob’s Crash.   We are finally able to bring a young newly graduated pastor to work as a Global Pioneer.   Dr Welem has found land and built a very small temporary structure for church but we need to help them raise money for a jungle chapel and a jungle pastors home.    After several hours in Kepi and a wonderful meal we were able to find a speed boat driver that was willing to brave taking us to Bade.

The First Hour we skimmed down the river in the speed boat on relatively calm Kepi River.   But when we met the mighty Digul and turned North upstream things got really wavy and dangerous.

The First hour on the Kepi River was quite calm but then we met the mighty Digul River and turned North upstream.   I took a look at the waves and grasp the bars that surrounded the edge of the boat.   Everywhere I looked I saw white-caps.   Yikes!   Lord we need a miracle.   The “Speed boat” that had been going along at 35 knots per hour suddenly had to time every 1 meter wave.    The Digul River at this point is mixed with salt water from the ocean and the Oceans Energy.   The waves kept building.   I kept thinking “if the next wave swamps this boat which shore looks closer and less inviting for the Crocodiles and Pythons that troll the Digul River.  Lord we need Your guidance.”   Then it began to really pick up in waves and the clouds grew black and heavy with threatening rain.   “Lord we need a Miracle.”    My back side began to get really sore after crashing up and down up and down for 3 solid hours and then 4.   “Lord will we ever make it”    Finally after 4:15 minutes and a heavy down pour we at last rounded a bend in the river to see Bade.

 

We had been trying to find someone to stay with when we arrived in Bade and when we arrived there a teacher friend of Dr Welem met us and graciously gave us a mat on the flour of his house.   But still the biggest question that I had been trying to think of a solution to for at least 2 months was, How do we connect with Fernando Krey our Adventist Global Pioneer that we dropped in Sengge/ Amk last April 3rd, 2014.   His village is another 4 hours north up the river from Bade and has no form of communication with the outside world.   I texted Ruth and said, “We need a miracle to get to Sengge because we have no way of reaching our worker there.”   In April 2014 I had forgotten my GPS and so I only had approximate GPS coordinates so it would be somewhat guess work if we just set out on the river.   And if we went to the wrong place it could be detrimental.   So the same God that had provided a Miracle in getting us Safely thus far would have to do the rest.

Fernando Krey, our Global Pioneer Bible Worker, after 10 months has a beard.

After resting my “sore tail” I said to Pastor Melky, “Let’s go find something to eat!”   So we borrowed a motor cycle and off we went.   I was on the back and praying the whole time that God would direct us to the right person who would know the way to Sengge so we could see Fernando Krey and his wife and child.   Suddenly, I noticed a heavily bearded man running almost even with the pace of our motorcycle and shouting  “Pastor, Pastor”   Who was this guy?   I didn’t recognize him at first.   There was only 2 Adventist in Bade other than Melky and myself.   Then all at once I realized who it was.   When I left Bade On April 4 Fernando had no beard. . . After living in the jungle for 10 months he looked different.    Then all fGo to Bade’.   Finally at around noon the voice became insistent so I got in the motorized dug out of one of our church members and we fought the waves for 5 hours.   When I arrived here I didn’t know why I was here so I just called the District Pastor in Merauke and he told me that you guys were suppose to come.   But Bade is about 5,000 people and many many houses.   How would I find you?   So I bowed my head and prayed and when I said Amen you guys passed in front of my on the motorcycle and I said, ‘Lord slow them down so I can catch up with them.’  And just then Pastor Darron turned toward me with the most confused look on his face and then Pastor Melky too.”

The “pastors” house or Global Pioneers house made possible because someone donated enough fuel to cut some boards with a chainsaw.   Thank you.

 

We rejoiced together at how God had brought us together.   The next morning we chartered another speed boat and made it to Sengge through more incredible waves.   I was literally bruised on my bottom from all the jarring up and down.    But when we landed in Sengge it was well worth the trip.   Fernando Krey has led almost 40 people to Christ and Baptism since we last saw him 10 months ago.   He has taught  together with his wife Grades 1-3 and his third Graders passed the regional exams at the top of the class.   He has built a simple Pastors house.   When the medicines that the Government gave him ran out he started a Prayer ministry that has seen miracle after miracle.   So many miracles that the local villages now go to his house before they make the trip to the district clinic because “His Prayers are way more effective than the Drs.”   Every home has a beautiful Garden that Fernando has taught the people how to make the land flourish by composting.     

Garden full of compost and pumpkins, root crops, tomatoes, greens and much healthier families than what I saw 10 months ago.

He told of the time he went hunting because he couldn’t get to town because the river was too dangerous to come.   He and his wife needed food.   He set a trap to catch a deer but the deer managed to step around the trap so he randomly threw his machete and it hit directly into the jugular veins of the neck of the deer killing it instantly.   They had enough meat until the river went down from the floods enough to be safe to make it to collect his Salary and get groceries. 

Antlers from the Deer that provided food just when they needed it most.

But I’ll have to share the best story for another blog.   

 

Miracles were needed and Miracles were gotten but not without a sore tail and a lot of scary big waves. 

 

Inside the Church with a few of the Members who were not out fishing or in their gardens when we came.

The Temporary Church and School in Sengge/Amk in the Bade District of the Mapi Regency.   Waiting for Funding and materials for a more permanent structure.