Bob Roberts last Sabbath

Bob Roberts, mission pilot for Adventist Aviation Indonesia, never did conquer the Bahasa Indonesia language.   Even after 22 years he struggled but on Bob’s last Sabbath before the twinkling of the eye nap. . . he thoroughly enjoyed himself.   He read a book on John Carter during Sabbath School while the rest of us tried to listen in on the discussion.   Then I saw him slip out and join the children’s Sabbath School at the Tanah Merah Church.

Tonah Merah Church:   One that Bob and Adventist Aviation contributed toward building.   Nears completion.   The church dreams of a pastors house and a school in this important Frontier to the Southern slope town.

Tanah Merah is a church that Bob and Adventist Aviation had contributed to for their building.   He was excited. . . in the 22 years that he’d been flying in Papua there had never been a planned tour of the interior places of southern Papua with Adventist Aviation and mission staff.   We planned 5 stops to see 5 new locations including Tanah Merah.    Tanah Merah had not existed less than a decade ago and now a city that’s rapidly developing has a small Adventist church.

Sabbath After potluck I opened with a  10 minute talk and then I invited Bob to come share ways that members can be involved in reaching others with the Gospel.    Bob was prepared.   He had a whole box of books and goodies.   He was really happy to learn the story of a native man who wanted one of our hand wind solar powered “God Pods”.

Bob Roberts giving Wellem a hand crank/solar powered “God Pod”

This man, Wellem,  has a wife who learned about the blessing of the Sabbath as kept by God’s people from creation and still will be kept in Heaven one day.   Its an amazing story how God used her to share the gospel with her husband but that’s for another blog.   The point is Bob was really excited to learn that there was a man from a tribe further up the river who was on fire for Jesus.

Bob pulled his books out and began to preach. . . he kept going and going.   Usually Bob never went longer than 10-20 minutes with any public speech.   He was just not a public speaker.   He spoke of getting material into every possible language.   He spoke of using God Pods and then he gave one to Wellem.   He spoke of every person reaching someone faithfully every day.   Bob shared more and more stories.   He seemed to have forgotten himself.   We all marveled because each of the Pastors from the mission and me had always been chastised for speaking “too long” by Bob.  

The most significant thing I remember Bob sharing  that Sabbath Afternoon was that “we must not just pray but we must act on prayer and go to where the spirit leads us.   Not because we’re saved by works but because Jesus has saved us therefore we must work.”

When Bob sat down the local pastor decided to lead us in a stretching song to make sure we didn’t go to sleep now that the “Best preacher” had finished – Bob Roberts.   As the Pastor lead in this “Stretcher” song (in English no doubt for Bob and me to enjoy) I happen to take a short video.   It’s another “never going to happen video.”   Bob just didn’t do any jigs in church.   But on this day Bob was happy.   Bob actually participated with this children’s song and the members loved it.   Here it is.  Hope you enjoy.

Bob Roberts last jig. He was happy that someone was already sharing their faith.

Bob the Builder

When Bob’s dog , Lucy, was sick Bob built an IV pole in true Bob the Builder fashion.

Perhaps your kids watched that show, “Bob the Builder”.   While I can’t say I ever just sat and watched the show all the way through I certainly remember the chorus because it seemed it was sung 20 times in each episode.

 

“Scoop, Muck and Dizzy and Roley too
Lofty and Wendy join the crew
Bob and the gang have so much fun
Working together, they get the job done”

When we moved to Papua, Indonesia we learned to appreciate Bob’s attention to building things right.   The house the General Conference commissioned to be built for us to live in is a testament to doing things right.  You can read my wife’s blog about this house. or here or this one and another.   You get the picture Bob’s building got a lot of attention from this family.

In 22 years of living in Papua it is rumored that 51 churches, schools or pastors houses were finished or assisted with under the direction of Bob Roberts the Builder.   I’ve heard of 14 teachers houses being remodeled or built by Bob and team.   In addition to that Adventist Aviation Campus has at least 11 new buildings and 2 remodeled buildings as the result of Bob the pilot, builder.   Adventist Aviations flying helped pay for many properties that those churches or schools were located on.   To say that he paid for it all would be unfair to the hundreds who personally sacrificed.   But it seemed Bob was always helping with a building somewhere – not just financially but often himself or a staff member went to help.   

While some funds were donated from donors from abroad most came from Bob’s constant flying.   18,000+ hours of flying in Papua alone.  Bob not only housed and gave work to dozens but he helped send students to schools by the dozens every year.   Bob was a real teacher when it came to building.    He expected things to be done right.   If it wasn’t you needed to tear it out and do it right.  

Tinibil:  The Church (right) and pastors house (Left) that together are about 60% finished.   Bob flew here on April 6 just 3 days before his crash on April 9 at about 9:15 a.m.   This Tinibil trip was Bob’s last missionary flight.   He flew the next flights and even the one he crashed in to support missions.

There was one church Bob won’t get to see finished.   It was getting close to finished.    It’s located an hour flight away from the base here in Doyo Baru high in a Mountain village by the name of Tinibil.   This is a village lies near the center of the Island along the border with PNG.  Bob had a passion for seeing this church built with a Pastors house and a nice church for at least 200 people.   We stopped in Tinibil on our way home from a 6 day trip of the Southern part of Papua.   Bob was a bit disappointed because this church and Pastors house had cost far more than he’d hoped and still it about 40% from being finished.

One of the pressing concerns we’ve had since Bob’s funeral on April 11 is how are we going to finish this project?     We don’t have a pilot to take us there.  One day in prayer I felt impressed to ask the Roberts family and the staff at Adventist Aviation what they thought of doing a mission trip to finish this church.    So at present we are trying to raise the additional $5,000 to finish this project.   The $5,000 will go to help charter the flight and get the remaining supplies to finish this project.    Adventist Aviation staff and myself will go on June 2-9 and try to finish as much as possible on this project.   I guess this project will have to be finished by us -- “Scoop, Muck and Dizzy and Rolly too. . . working together we’ll get the job done.”

If you’d like to donate to the $5,000 needed please donate to: Battlefield Community Church of SDA (Seventh-day Adventists)  PO Box 5306 Ft Oglethorpe, GA 30742.   Please mark checks for Papua Evangelism Fund (“Bob’s Churches”).

 

Bob Standing with the few members and interests of the Tinibil church on the almost finished side of the church.

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The stage and benches and windows and doors and the rest of the side walls need to be finished and the pastors house is only 20% finished. 

 

The Church in Tanah Merah that Bob was helping with.   This was the last church that Bob spoke in on Sabbath afternoon April 5.    One line from his message to the young people was, “I won’t be around here tomorrow (we left the next day) but you have to work hard and pray hard to finish this work.”   This tomorrow may have been prophetic.

A Church in Amk that Bob was hoping to help with in the near future.   This one will last another year and then the termites will cause it to collapse one day.

Land in Bade that as soon as the official documents could be had, “We need to get going on”, Bob had said as we passed over this land.

No Money, No Gas, No Fruit, No Phone

Bank BRI and Bank Papua both have ATM’s but both were “out of Money” both inside and at the ATM in Bade

Bank Papua in Bade actually closed its doors until money could be shipped in.

We made plans to go to Bade and simply use it as a base to visit Amk and Kepi.   We made provision to bring enough gas so that we could rent a boat and go up river to Amk to drop our Global Pioneer who will be working for the next 3-5 years in planting an Adventist Church and school in Amk/Sengge.    Turns out we seriously underestimated.   We needed 15 more liters than what we brought.   So we had to beg, borrow and promise to get enough fuel to return to Bade from Amk.

To make the trip more interesting when we stopped to get fuel the boat was clearly leaking more than a little.   So we took turned bailing water.

Who needs a bilge pump when you can bail?

Upon returning to Bade after dropping our worker in Sengge we made straight to the bank knowing we’d need more money since we had to pay a premium to buy gas from passing boats on the Digal river.   We’d siphon a liter here and pour 4 liters from there each time spending our available cash.   We actually had enough gas back in Sentani but in an effort to lighten the airplane load we put part of our gas to be brought for our pick-up flight.   Our thinking back then was that we’d just buy enough in Bade to fill in the gapes.

At the bank I tried every Debit card I had but no money would cough itself out of the machine.   No matter how sweet I tried to talk to the machine it just wouldn’t do it.    It was after hours so we just went around back and woke the banker up and asked why the ATM wasn’t working.   “Oh you can only get a small amount out at a time.”   But that failed too.   Finally Pastor Rellely got 50,000 RP (approximately $5 USD) out.   Evidently that was the last $5 to be had.   The next day the machine wouldn’t do anything.   We each were spending the last of our money just to eat.

Then the cell phone signal just quit for no apparent reason.   There was no bad weather. . . no loss of electricity. . . just No signal.

I went to the market and there was plenty of “Catch of the Day” fish and even deer meat but No Fruit!!!!!!!   Only a few cooking bananas and lots of various types of roots and sweet potatoes but where was the fruit?????   No Fruit.   How’s a Vegetarian suppose to eat without Fruit.    Finally we found some green oranges which in the tropics are usually quite delicious but when we opened them up we discovered they were large unripe lemons.   No edible Fruit.  

No Money, No Cell Phone, No Fruit, No Gas.

We prayed and finally after a good nights sleep the Gas ship came in but the rations were no more than 10 liters of gas per person per every other day.   We needed 60 liters and had to leave now if we were going to make it back in time for Friday’s pick up with Pilot Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation plus we needed money. . . On the same ship as the gas came the money.   The money was carried in a simple pull along suit case.  There was the person to pulled the money around followed by a soldier with a fully automatic machine gun and then a security officer to make sure that neither the “puller” or the “soldier” worked together to heist the money.   I noticed that each of the three were from different tribes to insure there were no inside jobs done with the money.

We waited a few minutes for them to load the ATM machines and then we went to give it a try.   But they informed us that the machine doesn’t work until the Cell Phone signal is working.   Ah!  Man!    For crying out loud!   We prayed and in another 30 minutes my phone beeped signaling I had a text message which meant the cell phone tower had been restored to its former glory.  

Off to the ATM machine and I punched in the codes and eureka I was able to pull out the daily maximum for this city which is 700,000 Rupiah ($70).   Now what?   Our Hotel was going to cost us more than that.   Don’t freak out just call my secretary and get her to send an envelope of money and we’ll pay our bills that way.   We finally managed to cobble enough money together to leave Bade with no personal debts.   But next time I think I’ll bring a Sat phone and a shipment of Mangoes and a barrel of gas together with a good size piggy Bank so we can survive.

Then again I did notice this Mango tree where every one stood to get out of the blistering heat just outside Hotel Auyu (in the background).   Maybe in just need to time my next visit with Mango season and come on the ship because with it comes Money and Gas.

Bade–The Frontier Town to the mighty Digal River

Bade started as a small trading post along the mighty Digal River.   The Digal’s drain basin starts from high in the mountains more than 500 river kilometers to the north of Merauke, Papua.    Each day some 5 meters (16 feet) of tide pushes up the river for several hours and more than 50 miles inland.    The water changes colors daily as the water flows out to sea on the low tide cycle its seriously red and silt filled.   If you dare to taste the water during the low tide phase it would be salt-less.   But as walls of water rush back in from the ocean some 30 miles away the Digal gradually changes from reddish to dark blackish as mangrove tar is mixed with salt water and red silt-filled river water.

Termites, barnacles and a rapidly changing tide and massive tropical downpours formed the “perfect storm” to end the life of this small wooden ship on the Digol river at Bade’s water front.

In the late 1990’s a soldier from the Indonesian army prayed he would note be assigned to Bade.   Why?  It had no phone and no bank and very little shopping but that was Not the reason he prayed he would not be assigned to Bade.   He prayed not to be assigned to Bade because he knew he would be 2 days by ship from the nearest Adventist Church.   But the day came when all the soldiers in the officer training class were given their assignments for managing the posts in remote locations along the south coast of Papua province Indonesia.   He found his name written under the post of Bade.   “Why me?   Why Bade?  I will be alone without my family and without my church family and with many temptations.   How can I make it?”

This soldier moved to Bade and began keeping Sabbath faithfully in his home but completely alone.   One Sabbath it occurred to him that if there were ever to be an Adventist Church in Bade he would need to buy the land and donate it to the Adventist church. . . He expected that the leaders in Jayapura would be thrilled to learn that free land was being given to them when he procured all the documents and paid the last payment for the land.   He expected that someone would come see him and make plans for a Global Pioneer missionary to be sent but because there was a change in leadership at the mission office and then this soldier was reassigned to the main post in Merauke this land document sat in a file cabinet until not long ago when one of our workers in the mission office commented/asked, “Why do we have land in Bade but no church?”

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We hope that on this hill can be built the Bade Seventh-day Adventist Church and school.

On April 1 Pastor David Rellely and myself together with Mr Masak Waramori landed in Bade thinking it would be a small village with a few hundred people, based on the report the soldier made  from when he was there.   But to my surprise I discovered there were 2 banks, a large port for ocean going ships to dock at, more than 100 stores and businesses, government district offices, a Hospital, a hotel and cell phone coverage.   The airstrip had recently been paved and they built a terminal and now have 2 flights weekly from Merauke scheduled with Susi air plus the normal charters that come in as needed.   Large ships (300-400 foot long) bring supplies either direct from Surabaya or Merauke.   These ships ultimately go to Tanah Merah several hundred river kilometers to the north.   From Tanah Merah (Red Land) planes take things to remote villages in the mountains.   Roads are being built into many of these mountainous areas and prices are falling as a result.

A large ship plows by on the Digal River

If we were just now buying land it would cost us nearly 10 times what it did back then.   At present there is only 1 Adventist Family that is native to Bade.   They have to travel nearly 100 Kilometers by boat to get to the nearest church. 

Even with all the above information somehow non of us thought of the need for a permanent church in Bade. . . But God had other plans.   First we ran out of fuel and couldn’t buy enough to go to the next location.   Second, we went to the bank and both banks were “Out of Money”.   We tried every ATM card that we could find and indeed they were out.   Third, because we had all this time on our hands we went walking around this out post town and discovered where the soldiers donated land was.   It was located on the highest small hill in the city which is very important when your located on a place that is subject to flooding.   From this hill you can see all the town and you can see the airport and river.   Though I didn’t make the trip to the top of the hill because it appeared to be tall grass which is perfect home to pythons and other snakes.  

Surrounding the “Adventist” hill are local people who are all relatives of the 1 Adventist, Mr Amos Ndiken.   He has tried to share his faith with them for years and they know it but they keep asking, “When are you going to get your church interested in coming here?”

Pastor David Rellely, with the tan baseball cap hat, gives counsel and prays with the man in the red shirt who appears to have diabetes.   One drink of herbal tea had this man going again.

As we prayed for various members of the family we found many who were sick.   Pastor Rellely remembered from a class on herbal medicines taken a number of years ago various tree leaves that needed to be boiled into an herbal tee and then drunk for cures to the ailments of the people.   One man was suffering from what appeared to be diabetes to me but after just one treatment with these herbal medicines he was up and around without even a complaint.    Another man appeared to have severe malaria and we got him to the hospital and on malaria medicine and he was claiming we were miracle workers. 

We left Bade with the feeling that we needed a base church and middle/high school to support our new work in the Auyu tribe.   This will be an expensive undertaking for the Papua Mission as it will cost higher than normal to build a church and school and pastors house in this remote post due to transportation costs for materials.   We’re still calculating the costs and seeking donors who can help partner  with this project.

Perhaps you would like to adopt this project as your sister church or partner with several churches to help reach the more than 5,000 citizens of Bade.

Sunset from the middle of the Digal River over looking Bade.

One TV Station. . . Could we one day have some services on this station?

Children come running to the airport terminal to see what plane is here on a non-flight day for the twice weekly flights.

Many of the old streets in Bade are like this because of the swampy conditions.  Open sewer ran under these board walks.

Amk–Sengge 2 whole villages want to become Adventists

Along the mighty Digol River in the Papua province of Indonesia on the Island of New Guinea are 2 villages called Amk and Sengge.    Born into Amk was a boy by the name of Amos Ndiken.   Amos, like all other boys in Amk,  was highly active and curious.    Amos father taught him to fish with his bow and arrow or a net by the time he was age 7.  He knew how to build a fishing net from vines and later from nylon before he was 11.    As a boy the Indonesian Government sent teachers to start a school in the 1970’s.  He eagerly studied and distinguished himself above the rest as a brilliant student.   The teachers soon suggested that Amos be sent to a city to learn more.   Amos went to Manokwari in what is now the West Papua province capitol city.    He soon entered the “Best” school he could find which was our Seventh-day Adventist Kindergarten through High School.   

Amos Ndiken is the one coming out of the front of our hired long boat.

He eagerly studied Math, Reading and Writing but he was best at learning languages of which he eventually mastered English, German, Dutch, Indonesian and Pigeon in addition to his native Auyu language.  He especially enjoyed the Bible classes because in them he chose to make Jesus his Lord and Savior.  In time he was baptized.   After graduation from High School he began working for a Korean Logging Company that specialized in making plywood.  He never forgot his Adventist roots.  Even though he was sometimes 300 Kilometers from the nearest Adventist Church he would worship each Sabbath in his home.   His job moved him to Bade about 25 miles by river away from his native village of Amk.   Eventually he took an early retirement and still lives in Bade.   Today, Amos goes regularly to share Bible studies and to teach how to practically live what the Bible teaches to Amk.

About a year ago I heard about a village somewhere in the far south that had heard about the Sabbath and wanted to become Seventh-day Adventists.   I even saw a proposal that the Adventists come and build them a school, a hospital, an airstrip, a church and more.   In my heart I couldn’t decide whether these were people who were truly converted or just wanted things for nothing.   For a variety of reasons I couldn’t accompany anyone to this location.

In early January 2014 the Papua Mission decided to send a Global Pioneer (Bible Worker) to Amk where Mr Amos has been seeking to get our attention for a long time.   Amk has been divided into 2 villages now.   Those believing in the Seventh-day Sabbath moved to the new village Sengge

On April 1 we flew from Sentani with chief pilot Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation and Pastor David Rellely Papua Adventist Mission Director of Global Evangelism and Ministerial and Mr Masok Waramori Director of Education for Papua Adventist Mission.   Accompanying us was Fernando Krey and his wife Marie and their son -  David.   They are our missionaries being placed in Sengge.

Marie (mother), David (son) and Fernando (Dad) Krey our Global Pioneer Missionaries going to Amk and Sengge in the Auyu Tribe along the Digol river.

Fernando and Marie Krey have been Global Pioneers before in another place.   They are faithful workers with a passion to reach souls for Christ.   Pastor Rellely has been to Amk before and held evangelism meetings in which 19 were baptized.   They built a small jungle church to worship in but even now the termites are taking this church home apart.   Mr Waramori was along to get information to make a proposal for a school.   I was along to help write proposals for the Krey’s and to seek donations from readers like you for funding for this important project.   Pastor David Rellely was along as the boss for the Krey’s.

On April 2 we found a boat that would take us the 26 river miles up the Digol River from our base town of Bade where Bob Roberts had dropped us off.    We loaded our fuel and off we went for a “two hour trip”.   Two hours came and went.   Three hours came and went.   Finally after four and a half hours we make it.   A small 40 HP engine pushing a 50 foot Long Boat is not the most efficient.   I checked our fuel.   We had used more than half.   Not good!    how were we going to get home?

We walked off toward the village and soon met a man and his wife and kids,   She was working in the garden between breastfeeding her baby and tending to the needs of more than 1 toddler.   Father had been digging out a new log for his dug out that will take probably 3 months of continuous digging to build.   The hard part about dug outs is that they have no preservatives and therefore only last 3-4 years in these brackish waters near the south coast of New Guinea near Manokwari.

We soon found the path leading all the way into Sengge.   We found some excited children and mostly women in the village as the men are either working at the nearby plywood factory or they are busy hunting deer meat or fishing or gardening their sweet potatoes.   Marie soon unpacked a pan or two and sent a new found helper to get some water for cooking lunch. 

The delegation of men and pastors from the mission and me went around to check about the future of this project.   We saw their simple church. . . We saw the future home of the Kreys. . . We saw the water source for the village.   We calculated the best place for a future school and church and the length they would need to clear if an airstrip were to be built.

The Current Seventh-day Adventist Church Structure that is being quickly eaten by the termites.   You could literally hear them eating if you were quiet inside the building.

I made lots of notes.   We need Money for: 1) a Church, 2) a school, 3) a small engine for a dug out boat to support the Krey’s. 4) a house for the Krey’s  5) a chainsaw for clearing the airstrip and making lumber for the church and school.    Of course we could continue to build new native material churches and schools from now until heaven comes for relatively cheap but soon ones heart grows weary in racing against the termites.    So for that reason we’ve decided that if we can help raise the funding we’d like to build a cement, metal and hard wood structure for all of the above listed buildings.   We’re still calculating all the costs so stand by for news.

About a year ago Pastor Rellely was able to come to Amk and hold an evangelism meeting that resulted in 19 Baptisms.   There are around 500+ living in Amk and Sengge and most of them are saying they belief the Sabbath is God’s special day and for that reason they want to join the Adventist believers each Sabbath in worshipping the Creator God who set Sabbath aside as a special day of Rest and a memorial to God’s Creative power.   They recognize that this same God rested in the grave on Sabbath and was resurrected as a sign that he can re-create us.    They discovered that the New Testament believers worshipped on Sabbath (Saturday) long after Jesus was resurrected back to heaven.   They discovered in the new testament that the sign of accepting the resurrection power was not worshipping on Sunday but rather baptism.   Today, the Krey’s are helping to prepare the whole villages of Amk and Sengge to accept this Seventh-day Adventist message.

Please, remember to pray for the people of Amk and Sengge and their whole tribe who are saying they want to follow God’s Bible Sabbath.   Don’t forget to uphold the Krey’s in your prayer.    They are 4 hours from the nearest cell phone service and in a Malaria infested swampy area.  Yet they willingly went.   We are planning to see them in October next but we hope to find donations for a small boat and motor and some money for fuel and oil soon so they can get out in case of emergency and can help spread this Adventist message to other villages.

GPS Coordinates of the Church in Sengge.   Amk is located more toward the lower right hand corner of this photo.

My Ruth

My Ruth!    The most wonderful gift that God ever gave me in this life – Sorry Mom, Sorry sons!    Yes, my mother is wonderful but there comes a time in life when there is an unexplainable push to leave and cleave with someone else.   And so God created my Ruth.

A couple years ago now but My Ruth looks even better today.

Recently, when Ruth was off to England to Celebrate the life of her beloved Nanny, Grandma Cox, I especially felt the amazingness of my wife.   The freezer was stocked to the hilt and I mean to the hilt – nearly took a strap tie to hold it shut.   There were nearly a dozen loaves of bread and at least a dozen entrees.   There was a breakfast idea’s list complete with all the exact instructions.    That’s especially meaningful to a man like me who is hopeless in the kitchen – Well not really, I just like being the Dame in Distress or the Lad in Limbo in the kitchen.   Or then again ask the boys about the time when dad confused the all purpose flour for gluten flour.   That made for some rubberized inch thick pancakes.   Now we know what they make bouncy balls out of.   Call it Home schooling Science with Dad.   Ok back to the subject!   My Ruth!!!! 

 

One of many lists of things we guys were suppose to remember while Ruth was in England for her Nanny’s memorial service.

My Ruth!   In her excitement to see her family, or was it her worry that dad/I would accidentally kill the family if I actually did pour the wrong ingredients together, Ruth had each of our favorites for breakfast ready on the day of her departure to England.   Hot cereal with peanut butter for me and a fruit smoothie --- Shh! don’t tell Ruth but even I can do that meal and not add gluten flour.   But I was impressed that Mrs “must leave everything in absolute order before a major trip” because “who wants to return to a messy house”, had the time to cook specialty breakfasts for her family of 5 men.   Come-on guys, eat your hearts out, I got the Prov 31 gal – Nah!  Nah! Nah! Nah! Nah!

 

Our fruit smoothie and my hot 8 Grain Cereal with peanut butter stirred in.   Now that’s a Breakfast.

At 5 a.m. I rolled over to let my Ruth know that it was time to start getting up only to find there was a void where she should have been. . . Wait she shouldn’t be gone yet!   I followed my nose to the kitchen.   “Honey why are you cooking more?  It’s 5 a.m.”

“’Cause I want to!” Ruth giggled.   “I can’t let my men starve.”   

“Don’t worry we won’t starve!    Do you realize how tall our freezer is?   Do you realize that we use to put a whole winters supply worth of foods in a freezer like that in America?   We aren’t going to starve.  Relax woman!   We’re going to be okay!”

But Ruth being determined as she is was worried about too much food in England.   So she went to her ‘boot camp’ work out at Hill Crest International school on the way to the Airport.   On the way to the airport, My Ruth,  ran up the “Hillcrest Mountain” several times and then did Sworkit (S-work-it) with her fellowess moms who are determined that “when you go on furlough Thou Shalt not return with the Furlough 15.”  15 pounds that is.    My philosophy is, enjoy it, cause when you travel like I do you’ll lose that furlough 15.   So bring on Grandma Joyce Draughns Banana Pudding or a few boxes of Little Debbies.   Extra sour cream, Please, on my Three 7 layer Taco Bell Bah-Reet-Toes.  But My Ruth is on a mid life exercise kick that has her lookin’ ummm!   Hmm! So fine!!!!!!

Relax woman!   We’re going to be ok. . . But I must admit, for a brief moment as I watched Ruth walk into the Sentani Airport at 9:00 a.m. that morning I thought,  “I sure hope you come back cause I don’t know what we’d do without you.   I sure love being the Dame in Distress in the kitchen.”   One blessing of being at the end of the food chain is that they don’t have Gluten Flour to screw me up in the kitchen.   Flour here is flour but my Flower keeps on blooming in my life – My Ruth.   Thank God she is back safe and sound!  My Ruth!

A brief moment of panic hit me as Ruth disappeared into the Sentani Airport hear our house.

Club Sehat–The Healthy Grocery Store Ministry

As I write I’m in Jakarta for several meetings.     I had some time yesterday and I decided to go look up a ministry I’ve heard a lot about – Club Sehat – or Club Health we’d say in English.    Club Sehat is the brainstorm of some Adventist businessmen who wanted to follow the counsel of our Adventist forefathers written over 100 years ago.   Here’s my paraphrase of that 100 year old counsel “In our Cities and in Resort areas let Health Restaurants with treatment rooms connected to it be started.   Let them be connected to our churches as centers of influence.    As customers come, the workers should be always be alert to the spiritual, physical, emotional and mental needs of those who enter the doors.   Offer classes on health, cooking and treatment, etc.”

I called my friend Pastor Kaleb Segala who graciously agreed to take me on a tour of Club Sehat.   The first of 2 stores we toured was the Club Sehat in Pluit (North Jakarta).   As we arrived I was impressed by a nice looking store front in a nice area of North Jakarta.   This is an old China town that has been majorly re-made into a modern area of mega malls and shopping centers, interspersed by high rise town homes and golf communities of Jakarta’s wealthy and mid-class people. 

As we entered the store the store manager met us and introduced us to the staff. 

4 or 5 full time employees work in this particular store.   In every store they always hire 1 or more pre-Adventists who’ve been touched by Club Sehats ministry and usually they will be a member within a year or two.   On first glance you think it’s just a health store.   But as you read nicely designed advertising you see up coming Seminars are “How to Prevent Cancer”, “Weight and Diet Management”, “The Best Diet” and “Heathy Exercise”.  

Then there is the large poster for the upcoming Club Sehat 2 week course in a Mountain retreat a couple of hours away from Jakarta.   “Oh, Cool, there’s a cool class coming this Saturday,” I think to myself, “Wish I could come.”

Second Floor

Then they take me to the second flour where they teach the classes.   It’s a simple room that seats 65-80.   “How full do you get here on Saturdays I ask?”

“Well when we do our teaching about Cancer we usually have over flow to the 3rd floor.  We have a closed circuit camera on the 2nd floor so we can project to the 3rd floor.”  

I quickly calculate in my mind.   “So you have 80 on the 2nd floor and how many on the 3rd floor?”

“Sometimes that many again.”  Ellen answers

One Section of tables on the 3rd floor where they have healthy food potlucks.

We go to the third flour where I see the cook school room and potluck room and the consultation room for when they do seminars.   The forth flour is still under construction but will house hydro-therapy and massage therapy rooms.   Man, Jakarta won’t seem so stressful when they get that built.

“So what does your Saturday services look like?”   I ask.

“We usually have Sabbath School first at 9:30 followed by a health teaser and then a sermon.   Then we invite the guests, which are usually double or more than our members, to eat a healthy potluck meal that we plan.   Then they can join us for the health lecture.   After the sun goes down on Sabbath night we open the store because often the guests want some ingredients that they’ve tasted in the healthy potluck.”  Ellen tells us.   “We sometimes stay afterwards and eat popcorn and fruit salad and play games.”

Me:   So have you had any that come back every week?   I mean that’s a long day!

Ellen:   Most. . . We collect their names and information all week as they come to the store and then we invite them on Fridays to come on the weekend for seminars or sometimes week night programs.   Club Sehat has grown so fast that we’ve started 5 in 5 years and 3 of our locations have become organized Seventh-day Adventist churches.  (Note: Pastor Segala tells us that no other ministry in the Seventh-day Adventist church in Jakarta has had this kind of success in growth).

Me:  So who comes?   Is this mostly Chinese Christians that we steal from other denominations or is this from Vegetarians in the city?  And how do they come to find out about your Club Sehat?

Ellen:  Let me answer your second question first.   We get on local radio stations, usually the government station, and have them interview us about health.   With millions of listeners its not hard to get people interested.   Now your first question:   We have a majority who are not going to any church when they first come to us.   There are Buddhists, Hindu’s, Muslims, Christians and some who are no particular religion or some other type of religion that maybe I forgot to mention.   If you want exact statistics we can tell you on our computer.    (We laugh) (Note: I’m not use to such scientists of souls here in Indonesia or anywhere for that matter.)

Success stories written on the wall.

Me:   Tell me a success story.

Ellen:  On the wall in the grocery store and on our web site www.clubsehat.com you can see testimonials.   There was one lady who came to us with Stage 4 cancer in her breasts, ovaries, back bone and neck. . . the Docs had given up.   But she heard us on Radio and looked us up.   We started working with her and within 4 months the cancer was seriously reversed – To God be the Glory.   She joined us and continues to live the healthy lifestyle that we advocate.   She has a tractotomy as her proof that the cancer was indeed so bad before.  She was one of our first customers back 5 years ago.   We worked together with a Doctor who prefers to practice prevention and we could watch her getting better.   This was an amazing miracle.    When the traditional Western Medicine had told her she only had a short time to live God did something to help us.

On the Forth floor will be a Hydrotherapy and Massage Clinic.  Its still being built out.

As I shopped the grocery store I couldn’t help but think. . . wouldn’t this be cool to have in Papua?   There were things like Flax seed and raw sunflower seeds and nuts of all sorts and whole wheat flour and then there were hundreds of little things that I have no idea what they were because I’m no cook. To you cooking sorts. . . next time you’re in Jakarta check out their amazing stores and ministry.   You can shop online and see what they have.   www.clubsehat.com  More Club Sehats are in the plans.

The Screenshot of where we were at the Pluit Store.