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.

The Yukies

So what do you do when you have a full schedule and you have the yukies.    If you’re a Boyd you hate to miss appointments so you go anyway.    For the last 2 plus weeks I’ve had a cold.   I came home 3 weeks ago kind of run down from a full weekend.    My life consists of lots of training of lay people in simple Friendship Evangelism techniques and how to do small groups and personal Bible studies.   I typically preach Sabbath morning 1-3 times plus then I train lay people on Friday night and all Sabbath Afternoon and usually all Sunday morning until my flight is ready to return me to my home.    So 3 weeks ago I did my typical whirl wind tour of Nabire.   I was healthy however, there were some other stressful events on top of everything that left me sort of extra drained.    I came home to a house of coughing boys.   By Tuesday of that week I was in the throw’s of an upset stomach which they say is the first sign of this particular cold.   By Sabbath of that week I was getting a runny nose and then all week I struggled this last week.

The challenge is I had a sermon to preach at the Abepura church which I didn’t want to cancel because after all “I only have a little cold.”   Then the next day I had the first of 3 day long lay training classes for the area I live in.   I didn’t want to cancel that one either because “I only have a little cold.”   But my nose wouldn’t stop pouring.   So off I went on my bicycle to the Doyo Baru school where 100+ lay people were coming.   Water bottle strapped on and lots of tissue to blow my nose on.   So while the translator was interpreting what I said I would blow and take a swig of water.   But getting enough water must be harder than I think because by Monday afternoon I had a serious fever and all the signs of a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).

Off to the nearby Hospital I went with my nurse wife.   I felt like she was walking way too fast (which by the way never happens, except now).    I felt like every bump in the road, which are many in Papua, was a canyon.    Their lab was closed that day but they did give me a little vile to put a urine sample in.   So I produced the sample and Ruth took the results to the clinic in Sentani – 20 minutes away.   

Soon she returned and I had a Kidney infection and lot’s of other junk going on.   After 3 days of serious anti-biotics I’m beginning to feel a slight bit better.   Still had a fever yesterday afternoon.  

I saw the American Nurse Practicioner at the Hill Side International School and she said, “Boy you’d better drink lots of water when you do whirl wind teaching like that.”   She has prescribed that I drink 4.5 liters (more than a gallon) of water daily.    I’ve always thought I was a pretty good water drinker as I’ve been drinking 3/4 gallon a day for years.   But as she said, “Welcome to sweating in Papua.”   She wants me to drink 2-3 glasses of hybiscuss juice per day for the next week.   This juice in the tropical equivalent of cranberry juice.

With the problems and the pain that this UTI and other problems created I’m a very motivated patient.   It’s very easy to accept every invitation I can possibly accept when I travel because “after all I sure hate sitting in some motel with nothing to do.”   But I think I’ve got to start thinking of those times as refueling for the next appointment.

Okay!   I’ve got to be honest.   I hate writing about health issues because usually people give me all sorts of weird solutions that I should try and a few people even try to force these solutions on me.    Because I was raised in a house full of Medical people I tend to lean toward the side of “has this been scientifically proven?”    So ya’ll be easy on me with your solutions and make sure I have the scientific test results to go along with your solutions.

Part of my training seminars is to send lay people into the community to practice what I’ve been teaching.   Here a man is sharing his testimony of what God did and my translator is telling me what he said.   While I can understand 60-80% of what is said I still need a translator to completely put it all together.   I always wear a short sleeve shirt and drink lots of water due to the hot conditions I teach in.   Here you can see the sweat on my hair.   Usually I’m soaking wet from sweat after most seminars.   Lesson learned – Drink LOTS OF WATER and take regular bathroom breaks.

After most sermons or seminars people want photos of me.   It’s an honor.   I ask them in return to pray for me and pray for revival in Papua and around the world.   If they put a print of me and them on their refrig they have to promise to pray for these things each time they see me and them.   Also, many of the children want my autograph.  So I use the opportunity while signing their paper to practice my Bahasa Indonesian.   I love kids and youth and find that they are the most teachable of all of us.   The rest of us have “already tried that and it didn’t work!”  But kids go try it and make it work.

Amazing Dream

I have been training 5 lay people from each Church and Branch Sabbath School (start up churches) in 6 major cities.    We are challenging these 5 to practice what they are learning and then take at least 5 more members from their church with them to try the things they are learning.   In Manokwari I sent 55 people out into the streets to try making friendships for God.    This man came back with an incredible testimony.    He and a friend from his church prayed and asked God to show them where they should go to make new friendships for God.   They felt powerfully impressed to turn right when they came out of the church onto the street.    Then they again felt impressed they had to turn left onto the next street.    They prayed that God would show them the first person to share with by making the person avert their eyes to the left when they got close.     Soon they found their first person and they were able to have a wonderful conversation with a Muslim young man who actually asked them for prayer even though he knew they were Christians.   Then their conversation was finished and they went on down the street.   The man in the picture above stopped to visit one of his family members while his partner went to the next street over to find the next person to befriend for God.   Soon a man came running out and said,  “I saw you in my dream last night but where is the man in the brown and white shirt from the Adventist church.”   

“Oh, how did you know I was from the Adventist church and that my friend will soon be caught up to us and that he has a brown shirt with white plaid?”   Said the partner.

“I already told you that I saw you and him in a dream last night.    And the angel told me that you would be able to tell me all about why the Bible teaches Sabbath.”

Sure enough soon this man in the picture caught up with them and he and his visitation partner had a wonderful Bible Study about the Sabbath from the Bible.   The man who had the dream has been studying the Bible on his own and wanted to know more about the Sabbath so for weeks he has been praying that God would help him to understand the Sabbath more.   Then just the night before he saw the two men from our training seminar coming to visit him.   Praise God!   He is using us.   Praise God!

The Demon Named Hana -- Update

I was back in Manokwari for training 55 lay people how to give Bible Studies in preparation for our Evangelism Meetings this May.   At the end of the Sabbath we went and prayed for Balinda.   If you read my blog from a few weeks ago called A Demon Named Hana you will remember she was the girl I had been called to pray for because she was possessed by a demon.   But this Sabbath evening I was headed now to see Balinda.  She is the real girl who had been healed of the possession.  No longer was Hana yelling obscene things through Balinda’s body but now it’s Jesus.

Dogs barked, bristling their hair along their spines at the sight of my white skin.  We were riding on the back of Pastor Arthurs motor bike this time.  Pastor Arthur is more scared of dogs than I and he stayed in my shadow.   I “bravely” told them to “Chuuuu!” as I tossed a stone near them in the Asian style that dogs respect with tremendous reverence.  Most Asians don’t treat barking dogs with bared teeth any nicer than we Americans would.   You’d have thought I actually mortally wounded the dog even though I didn’t even touch it with the stone.   Three dogs yowled and Pastor Arthur gave me the approving look.   Even the owner of the dogs said in effect, “Wow, the American has become native.   He knows how to handle my dogs as good as anyone.”   It is not considered rude to send dogs packing if they are being a nuisance here in Papua.

After the dog fiasco we made it to the door and they asked us to go around back to the “nicer” entrance.  As we neared the front door I heard the song “You raised Me” up playing softly from a sound system worth more than the value of the entire house.  At last we caught sight of the family through the windows.   We came to the door and were greeted by a shy Papuan girl.   I couldn’t believe my eyes.   A beautiful 15 year old girl met Pastor Arthur and myself at the door her bible in hand.   I knew this had to be Balinda but she was not the wild eyed girl with even more wild hair from a few weeks ago.   I asked to make sure this wasn’t someone else.   “Siapa nama Anda?”  She assured me it was really her.   

I learned that Balinda was now sharing her faith wherever she goes.    She tells young people. . .  “Cut out the bad music.   Don’t mess with magic.   Let every moment be filled with Jesus.”   There are times when she says she still senses Satan trying to enter her mind again but she asks people to pray for her when ever that comes and she finds reading the Bible works powerfully.   What about her now ex-boy friend who was the one who cursed Balinda?  He has left her now that she is Christian.   Praise God!!!!!

And the jumping boy who seemed possessed himself it was latter discovered that he too was into magic.  He’s moved to another city – thank the Lord!

I asked Balinda what she is going to do when she graduates from High School.   She said, “Go to the government Agriculture school so that I can tell people about Jesus’ power when I’m in the field teaching them about plants.”

Balinda has shared her faith at her school Christian School in front of 1,500+ Students.   Her parents said many of students confessed after her testimony that they too had struggled with playing with the Devil.   Please, pray that Balinda and her family will come to our evangelism meeting in May when I go back to Manokwari.

I showed Balinda how to use my Ipod Camera but didn’t realize I had the camera direction turned around and we ended up taking a picture of us.   But it shows her beaming face.

Air Strip Building by Hand–Update!

The hill above must be leveled by about 40 feet from off the top and 200 yards long to make an airstrip the Senepa district.

 

The village has an exotic sound -- Ndugu-ndugu but when you see the video at www.sharehim.org  you’ll know this is from another time and another place.     Make sure you look at the video “Irian Jaya”.   In actuality the video was from 2005 but today nothing significant has changed.    There are still enthusiastic people but their hearts grow weary at the incredible task of building an airstrip into their village.   We have heard reports that money is being contributed from far and wide around the world and we will let you know when that money makes it here to Papua Indonesia – formerly Irian Jaya, Indonesia.    With an airstrip in the heart of the Senepa district we will be able to reach 12 new villages with the gospel.   With an airstrip in the Senepa district we will be able to get medical emergency patients out in hours instead of days.   The nearest airstrip to Ndugu-ndugu is now more than 5 hours hike away.

 

What do these people need to finish their airstrip.   Tools and a little money to substitute their food supply that they would have been able to grow and hunt had they not been building an airstrip.   Bob Roberts, Chief Pilot for Adventist Aviation, says that the average airstrip in the mountains takes about 12 years simply because people can’t build more than a few days out of every quarter in a year because they have to eat.   If they neglect their gardens and hunting they will die yet many die without outside transportation for emergency medical needs.  

I want to share about 1 little boy in America who heard about this airstrip project and decided to challenge his Sabbath School class to do something about it.   He is only 12.   I wish I had a picture of him to post here but for now you’ll just have to imagine a boy of Navaho Indian heritage living in Farmington, NM.   His Sabbath School class held a dinner at his church to benefit our airstrip in Papua Indonesia and raised $600 dollars.    His Grandma brought a brochure to church that my sister in Tennessee had made for helping to raise funds and on that Sabbath a man from California happened to be present who is originally from Tamika, Papua, Indonesia.   He is an engineer for the Freeport Mine and was so excited to learn that this project was for his home area just less than an hours flight from Tamika if the airstrip were complete.    If he reads this story on this blog I want him to know that just 2 weeks ago I believe I met his mother who is a nurse in Tamika.   What a small world indeed.   Freeport mine is the largest Gold mine in the world and the third largest Copper mine.    Who knows perhaps through a 12 year old boy in Farmington and his grandmother putting an updated brochure for the church in Farmington, NM there can be amazing things happen in the Senepa district.  

 

For roughly $30 dollars 1 person can be sponsored with the tools and food necessary to help build this airstrip.

To contribute you can send your tax deductible donations to:  Battlefield Community Seventh-day Adventist Church  PO Box 5306 Ft. Oglethorpe, GA 30742 or you can go to www.battlefieldadventist.org and click “online giving”.   After you have registered you can donate to “Papua Mission Evangelism.”  

 

Another angle of the hill to be leveled by hand.

Stepping onto the Welcome Plate

My role is Evangelism Coordinator for the Papua Mission of Seventh-day Adventists.   This year I am doing a major Island evangelism cycle for the Island of Biak.   Biak is a large island off the northwest shore of New Guinea.    There are about 120,000 people who live on this island and our church has had 9 churches and 3 start up churches.   The Adventist church had about 2,200 members but the key word is “had”.     The “had” happened when an off shoot group decided to put roots down in Biak.    They have stolen 3 churches by getting the members to vote against belonging to the sisterhood of churches and then falsifying ownership by illegal papers, etc.   They have threatened the life of one of our pastors and put their signs illegally in front of many of our church signs there.    The sad thing is this group feels they are reformers.   That was the background that colored the my recent trip to Biak.

self shot photo of me and the lei

Stepping into the “Welcome” plate on beautiful Biak island.
It was my purpose to help inspire the membership to stay focused on spreading the gospel on this beautiful Island.    When I arrived about 40 of the top leaders of the remaining churches came to meet me.   They came right out on the tarmac to greet me.   They placed a purple/violet and pink lei around my neck made of tissue paper.  They took pictures as if I were the president of some major country.   Then they presented me with a large serving plate and asked me to step into it.   Tradition on the Island of Biak has it that you are not welcomed until you have stepped into the plate and eaten a meal with the people.   So after a hearty meal I was officially a welcomed guest.   I will forever treasure this welcome every time my family and I use this plate to entertain guests at our house.
I preached that evening about how, even in the midst of problems, Evangelism is the best focus we can have.    When we leave the problems to Jesus He will take care of us.   I preached about when the church in Cartersville was in constant battle between factions in the church that God sent us a major positive distraction when we baptized “Big Joe” a former gold metal power lifter.    “Big Joe” had leg pressed more than 1 ton with his legs before.   All the members who had fought with each other suddenly became focused on reaching “Big Joe” and when they focused on “Big Joe” and his salvation they forgot themselves.   It’s an amazing miracle story for another blog at another time but through that story God impacted the church in Biak.
The next day I toured with the 3 pastors around the Island.   We prayed at each of the  9 churches (even the ones that have left the denomination – another 3).    We prayed that God would give them focus.   Amazingly even in the middle of the day there was always a crowd that was willing to drop what they were doing to come and listen to a few words that I had to share.    While I only preached twice during the two nights I was in Biak to set up an Evangelism cycle for this year, I probably spoke short 5 minute prayer/talks in nearly a dozen places in all.   We have amazing pastors in Biak who are continually faithful.
During the coarse of my Monday in Biak I learned that one of our Pastors has been threatened by the offshoot movement.   He is the father of two very cute little girls who traveled in our car all day long singing every English song they knew several times over as we traveled along.   They never seemed to complain even once about the long day (16 hours or more).    Their father was my interpreter all day long.
We are planning for every pastor to bring 5 lay people from their church for training on How to lead Bible Studies with non-Christians.   They these 5 will be mentored by their Pastor and encouraged to help mentor 5 others each from their church.   If even 1 in 5 of those is faithful at the plan the harvest will change the current focus of the Biak churches.
Please, pray for the safety of these pastors and churches that God will be able to shine through them into the darkness that is surrounding them in these difficult times.   Sometimes the church grows stronger when trials are stronger.

The off shoot movement is the one with a similar looking logo and they are illegally using the Advent name.   Their sign is the one without the roof over it.   It was in this church that some of their members threatened the life of our pastor and it is here that I saw him visibly shaken by entering in this church where these “reformer” are threatening his life.   It helped that our numbers were large and that everyone was obedient when the foreigner pastor was present.