Your Story Hour– From Radio Advent Papua

Our Story Producer – Pastor Steven Rumbiak

“Mom!  Dad!   Gather around its time for Your Story Hour.”    Perhaps, like me, you grew up hearing those words on cassette or radio and still enjoy those stories today.  Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue and latter Uncle Larry and Aunt Carol made a huge impact on me.

In Papua the people enjoy stories a lot but until now no stories have been created for Radio or MP3 players.   Last year my former employer, Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, donated a nice size financial gift that has allowed us to pay a script writer and get some nice recording equipment.   We finally have much of the old Testament written in story form for actors to begin practicing.   We have a few volunteers helping with recording and editing.

This past Tuesday the actors came. . . and we went through a couple of rehearsals for the first story (Adam and Eve and Creation).   The Actors laughed and cried as they realized that this was the way to make the Bible come to life for thousands of Papuans.   We’re still in Post Editing on the first stories but they will be back each Tuesday afternoon for more recording.

The eventual goal is to sell CD’s, hand crank MP3 players and put on radio stations Your Story Hour type Bible Stories.   Pray that as we produce these stories that God’s Spirit will speak through us with His incredible life changing power.  Pray that we will be able to distribute them widely and that children will grow up knowing God’s word as a result.  Pray that they and their parents will find a Saving relationship with Jesus Christ through this and many other Radio Advent Papua ministries.

Me demonstrating how to use the portable digital recorder on a monopod so we can go mobile to sites around Papua to produce stories and radio programs all over Papua in many of the 245 languages spoken here.

Listening to the recorded but un-edited version of the first story (The Creation Story).

Strip Sea Kayak

Ruth has written a few times about Aubrey and my project to build a sea Kayak.   Here is the earliest post that I could find with a mention of the Kayak in it. from the first days we starting planning it back in May, 2012.   Then there was the skeleton that everything is built on and finally one from 10 months ago

First, one has to get a picture of the odds of building a double sea kayak from scratch.   We started by reading a great book about the subject.   Then we modified a plan for a single kayak and made it a double kayak.   Ours is 20 feet 4 inches long and will have plenty of space for a dry hatch or two and some room for two passengers.   We will have a rudder in the rear and we will design our own paddles.   But that’s not all.   You can’t just run to Home Depot or Lowes and buy the pre-finished wood from off the shelf.   You have to go the the saw mill and pick through piles of wood to make sure that your pieces are somewhat the right grain and the right weight and the fewest knot holes and the straightest.   Then you have to take it home and let it dry because it’s usually freshly cut.   So after 4 to 6 weeks of drying its good enough to finally run through a thickness planner a few times to knock off the high points of the board that has been cut by a rough saw.   Then you cut the board into tiny strips about 1/2 thick to begin with.   Then you run those through the thickness planner again until they are about 3/8ths or less in thickness.   Then we chose to put a cove and bead edge on the small side of the 2 cm wide strips of wood.   All of that was proceeded by about 25 hours of drawing, cutting and shaping forms for putting those strips on.   Before we put the first strip on the Kayak we had nearly 45 hours into the project.  

Keep in mind that I travel about 100 days+ per year and I only work on Sunday’s and for an hour or two during the weeks that I’m not traveling and when Aubrey is not overwhelmed with homework at Hillcrest International school.   So I’m not feeling to bad when the 80 pieces of wood that have been glued and stapled or nailed onto the frame have taken us more than a year to get to the half way point.   But from others experience the first half takes more than the second half to strip because you’ve learned a lot by that point.   The average strip built single Kayak takes 300+ hours for a first timer like us and about 150+ hours for the second time around.   Is it a wonder that I’ve heard them being sold for as high as $11,000 for one in Europe? 

 

The first half completed.   After the second half is completed with the cockpits we will take the boat off the skeleton and sand and plan and fill any small holes then fiberglass it.

The Bottom side currently before a good sanding.

We’re expecting!

We are expecting!    Yikes!   I’m 41 and Ruth is too! Can we handle this?  Will we be able to tolerate those late night feedings and crying babies.   Yes you heard right – Babies!!!!!!   The cool thing is we know our babies will all be blonds.  And likely we will finally get our girl.  Is it possible to be missionaries and have this many babies around?   What if things go wrong in the delivery of these babies? and their mother? and what about my wife who will have to care so much for these babies?  How will I handle this as a father?   Will we be able to afford all the new mouths and their doctor visits and and and. . . . Have Mercy!!!!!

The good news is these babies are not human.   Our female Golden Retriever -  Princess – is having puppies soon.    And the proud father is our very own – Heir Buddy!   Buddy has not always been the most faithful of fathers and happens to have had a planned adulterous relationship with another good looking golden retriever who provided a “pay off” for his error of 1 of his offspring.   He had 7 puppies and 1 stillborn from this planned illicit relationship – aka.  studding service.

Buddy’s child, from this “relationship”, came for a paternal rights home visit.   Buddy was very proud of his son.  Clearly, Princess was not impressed and finally made it very clear that the new owners had to come quickly or else she was going to jealously take things into her own paws.   We don’t know the due date exactly but it should be this week or next so stand by for news.

Princess our expectant mother.

She loves digging nesting holes all over the yard.

Buddy’s offspring meets his step mother – Princess was not impressed and kept up a low growl for a while.

Buddy kept an ever watchful eye on his son while Princess looks on jealously.

Black Berry Cobbler Anyone?

We’ve been in the USA on furlough, thus the 2 month break from blogging.   While at my parents home my sister, Darla, posted on Facebook that she had put up some Black Berries.   I commented on her post that I’d like a Black-Berry Cobbler – since we don’t get those in Papua.   She obliged and made a wonderful black-berry cobber.   But as I type this I’m salivating for yet another but I’ll have to settle for a Mango smoothie since I’m back in Papua now.   As the story of the Black-berry cobbler was shared with me I became amazed.

 

My nephew, David has worked hard to make a difference for his missionary uncle – Me!   This spring I noticed that Facebook had a post for $5 blackberry plants.   Then I learned that he was inspiring his siblings and Sabbath School class and together they collected over $515 to help missions in a little village you’ve heard me mention before – Ndugu-Ndugu.   They heard me mention that there are very few School supplies in the jungle school there.   When the General Conference informed me that a donation had come for school supplies for Ndugu-Ndugu I had to smile and think of all the black-berry cobblers that some will enjoy in the future because they bought torn-less black-berry bushes from my nephew.   And I had to smile as I thought of all the children who will smile when I am able to deliver school supplies in their village this coming October when I’ll fly to see them all because of some black-berry bushes sold for missions.  The blessings are many when we give.   Thanks David for working so hard to bless the children in the jungle school of Ndugu-Ndugu.

Kaimana

Kaimana is a gorgeous small city lies on the south coast of the ”adams-apple” of the Bird’s Head peninsula.    I was there about two weeks ago with Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation Indonesia and Pastor Tony Mayai (West Papua Mission Ministerial director) and we had an amazing time with the church family there.    After dropping below the clouds we could see a large crowd gathered to welcome us beside the commercial airstrip – complete with a herd of cattle grazing just to either side of the airstrip.   We prayed the cattle wouldn’t stampede in front of us as we attempted to land.   Evidently the cows are accustomed to the large twin engine commercial flights that come to Kaimana every other day.   So as we landed Bob Roberts did a great job dodging the cow patties left from the cows night of chewing the cud on the warm surface of the asphalt air field.

We secured the airplane at the airport and then moved on to our first duty of the day.   Adventist Aviation has agreed to help the church purchase some land for a second church in Kaimana.   So we went to see this property as it’s just right across the street from the airport.

Pastor and an English teacher pose on the church property.

After our trip to see the land and settling on a price.   We turned our attention to finding me a charger for my phone.   I left it back at home – when will I remember everything?   At last we found a universal cell battery charger that will work non-universally in Indonesia.  

 

Then off to see the Adventist Church which rises high above the surrounding neighborhood.

Inside this facility is beautifully hand crafted furniture done by a local Adventist Craftsman.

Above: Chairs being built for a dining room table set.

Beautiful gardens dot the hill sides surrounding Kaimana

The furniture builder has made his own Radio Studio in Kaimana.

We are praying that the nearly 70,000 people that live in this region can soon hear Radio Advent Papua on this small studio.

Dreams for this region include building a new church plant near the airport.   Reaching the far regions with the Seventh-day and Adventist messages.    There is need for at least 2 or more Bible Workers or Global Pioneers in this region to work with our Pastor and his wife.

Pastor and his new bride of 3 months in the roughly built pastors home.   But they are not complaining that their house is the construction workers house.

Among Rapists, Murders and Thieves

Last week while I was in Fak-Fak.   They asked me to preach 5 sermons in prison.   Amazingly there were dozens of Rapists, Murders and Thieves, Abusers of every type who came day after day to hear Bible truth’s be preached.    My piano player and song leader was a Rapist and double murder.   As I interviewed him he stated, “If I could change 1 moment in life it would be the first drink of Alcohol I ever took.”   That one drink became an addiction that is only controlled by daily submitting to Christ.    He says he doesn’t even remember half the bad things he did in his former life before Christ.   Why?   Because he was so drunk or strung out on other drugs that all memory is gone of those events.

My Pianist:   A convicted double murder and rapist but now free in Jesus.

Praise God!   Through the wonderful work of Pastors in the various jails this Pianist/musician is a born again Christian.   He says,   “While I may be jailed, I’m now free in Jesus!”

He gave me a carving he made out of a fallen stick in the prison yard.   Yes, a murder who is now in Christ can have a knife in his section of the jail and be considered safe.   In my hand in the picture above is the small carved Papuan key chain he carved.

Even some of the most hardened criminals came and stood outside the small chapel to hear the word of God.

Some try to hide behind the pillar just outside while they smoke and listen to the sermons.

Dozen’s flock to the front to have special prayer for their lives, their problems, for freedom.

They call themselves the Ibrani’s meaning the “Hebrews”   To be a part of this male vocal group you have to be a born again Christian.   In this group are murderers, rapists, abusers, thieves.   Many of them weep as they listen to God’s amazing grace.   I feel so amazingly used of God when I preach in this place.

In this prison they have a rule against being baptized while in prison but despite that 17 made their decision that they want to become Sabbath keeping Adventist Christians ASAP.   Until then our good Pastor Karel Surentu and his wife and children are committed to following up with them as often as the Prison Warden will allow them to come.

Pastor Karel Surentu and his wife and two daughters

It must be nice to have the innocence of a child. . . to be able to sleep amongst the criminals while her daddy translated my sermon.

Lift up the Trumpet -- Radio Advent Papua

The Dream for a Radio Station in Nabire is to finish a small studio in this room attached to the Memorial Church in Nabire.

A dream has been hatching for a long time in the heart of the church members across Papua, Indonesia.    They long to have many small FM radio stations that will eventually grow into great web of Radio stations spanning from North to South and East to West. 

Nabire’s studio with windows looking into the church sanctuary.   Latter they hope to add bigger and more professional rooms to their current studio.

In my recent trip to Nabire, for example, they have a nice piece of property ready for a radio station.   They need about $5,000 to be fully operational,   If the money could be in place they people would be listening to the sounds of Papuan Kings Heralds as they sing – “Lift up the Trumpet and loud let it ring – Jesus is coming again.”

The Furniture builder who came from his shop to show me his community radio station in Kaimana.

At the time of this writing I’m in Kaimana – the gorgeous bay town on the south coast of Papua’s Bird’s head peninsula.   Earlier in the day I asked our leaders if they knew if there was a radio station in town.   At first they could only think of the local Muslim station and the Government station.   Latter in the afternoon they happened to mention my question to a local Adventist furniture maker and he said, “Yes, I’m building a radio station right now – Fresh 93.2 FM”   It will be a small community radio station.   I asked him if we provided some programing if he would air it.   He was thrilled to do so!

The church member’s Radio tower atop the roof of his studio.

Our biggest challenge right now is to get programs pre-recorded so that when the time comes we have lots of hours of programs already ready to go.  Right now we’re planning a small recording studio for radio programs.   We want programs about: health, doctrine, Dramatized Bible stories for children, Youth targeted talk shows, music targeted to the native ear, Sermon series, Family life and much more.

Let’s help make the dream of our Papuan brothers and sisters come to life.    Will you send up your prayers that God will make this dream come to reality.   Let’s let the trumpet sound – Jesus is coming again and this Gospel must be proclaimed in every possible way.  Radio is one of those ways.   Radio Advent Papua should give Adventists across Papua a starting point to the many conversations they should be having with their pre-Christian friends.

I like to challenge my readers to become monthly, or quarterly or yearly donors to Radio Advent Papua.    Contact me and I’ll tell my USA readers how they can send donations.   pastordarronboyd@gmail.com