Participants:
Series Code: AFM
Program Code: AFM000006
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01:31 For thousands of years our people have walked
01:34 these jungle trails and paddled our dugout canoes up and down 01:38 these great twisting rivers. 01:40 For thousands of years our world remained the same. 01:44 But this could not always be. Today we know things that our 01:48 forefathers never dreamed of. Strange people have come and 01:53 built great cities among us. In their schools we have learned 01:57 many new things about the changing world. 01:59 We have heard of a new Papa God unlike any other. 02:03 Suspended between the old ways and the new, between life as 02:09 we have known it and the new world of possibilities, 02:12 we are the people between. 02:27 In all the world there is no place like Papua New Guinea. 02:31 Little more than 100 miles north of Australia, across the 02:35 Torres Strait, Papua New Guinea shares the great island of New 02:39 Guinea with Indonesia's Irian Jaya to the west. 02:44 Unless you have seen it with your own eyes, and walked the 02:47 land with you own feet; you will find it difficult to 02:50 imagine what life is like in Papua New Guinea. 02:56 Try to imagine life from within such a land of contrasts and 03:00 diversity. Try to imagine growing up in a family of the 03:04 Dowa People of the central highlands, trekking many miles 03:07 and hunting by your wits amidst mountains wrapped in thick 03:11 living green jungle. 03:14 Or, if your father and mother were Gogodala of the western 03:18 flood plains, try to imagine spending your life on the 03:22 water, paddling your sleek dugout canoe along the greater 03:26 and lesser rivers with the skill and poise of your 03:28 seafaring ancestors. 03:37 Though the great mountains and rivers are the bones and 03:40 lifeblood of the land, they have also proven to be very 03:43 capable fences, dividing the island up and allowing hundreds 03:47 of diverse people groups to develop in isolation 03:50 from one another. 03:51 Over the centuries, the myriad mountain valleys and 03:55 impenetrable swamps of Papua New Guinea have preserved time 03:59 capsules of language and culture. 04:02 It is staggering to consider the number of languages spoken 04:05 in this island nation. 04:06 New Guinea is slightly larger than California, and its 04:11 population numbers roughly 4.6 million people, or slightly 04:15 less than the population of Minnesota. 04:17 But what is most remarkable is that these people speak a total 04:21 of 817 separate languages and over 1,600 dialects! 04:29 What must it be like to grow up sharing a language with less 04:32 than 100 people? 04:33 This situation is not uncommon in Papua New Guinea. 04:43 Since many native languages are spoken by only a handful of 04:47 people in small, localized areas, most people also speak 04:51 Tok Pidgin, a Creole language that borrows from German 04:55 and English. 05:04 The Tok Pidgin language is a good illustration of how the 05:07 peoples of Papua New Guinea approach spiritual matters 05:10 as well. 05:12 They have proven just as eager to mix old and new 05:14 religions as they have to blend old ancestral tongues with new 05:19 western words. 05:24 The traditional worldview of Papua New Guinea is based on 05:28 Animism. As secluded and diverse as the many tribes 05:32 were, for centuries they have been unanimous in this respect. 05:36 For an animist, every moment of life is colored by the belief 05:40 that spirits of animals, rocks, and trees, spirits of wind, 05:45 water, and fire, are flitting everywhere. Greater and lesser 05:49 spirits inhabit all things and require endless watchfulness 05:53 and appeasement. 05:54 Most are malevolent or, at best, indifferent. 05:58 If one is brave he or she might try to manipulate 06:02 the spirits for healing, personal gain, or revenge. 06:05 But the safest course is to just do as the spirits 06:09 require and avoid them as much as possible. 06:21 Many people in Papua New Guinea today relate to their recent 06:25 technological revolution with similar wariness. 06:29 Owned as a colony of Australia till 1975, Papua New Guinea 06:33 leapt from the Stone Age straight into the 20th century. 06:39 As one might expect, such drastic modernization has left 06:43 many people behind. 06:45 Even today people living just a few miles from a large city may 06:49 see an automobile for the first time. 06:53 Bombarded from all sides by new ideas and ways of living, 06:56 many people are overwhelmed by fast-paced modern life. 07:02 Though many will periodically travel to the city to sell cash 07:06 crops and purchase certain things, they almost always 07:10 return to their villages and their old familiar ways. 07:13 Born and raised in a land where basic survival is the greatest 07:17 test, the rural peoples of Papua New Guinea take only what 07:21 they want from modern technology, society, 07:24 and religion. The rest they abandon in favor of 07:27 more familiar things. 07:36 While this pragmatism helps the people of Papua New Guinea 07:39 survive in a world of dizzying change, it has 07:42 certain drawbacks. 07:45 Dale and Lety Goodson and Jeff and Bobbi Bishop labor with 07:48 this and other issues every day. 07:50 The Goodsons and the Bishops, with their families, 07:53 are missionaries with Adventist Frontier Missions. 08:04 Jeff and Bobbi Bishop work with their daughter Rachel in 08:07 Papua New Guinea's western province among the 08:10 Gogodala people. 08:11 During the filming of this video, Bobbi Bishop was in 08:14 Australia receiving treatment for a back injury. 08:18 She has since rejoined her husband and daughter. 08:26 The Gogodala people have a very rich and unique history. 08:29 The name Gogodala can be translated "wind men. " 08:34 Ancient stories preserve memories of how the original 08:37 Gogodala, a seafaring people, paddled up the Aramia River in 08:42 great ocean-going canoes and began settling along the 08:46 waterways. 08:53 The first British explorers encountered the Gogodala early 08:57 in the 19th century. 09:00 The explorers reported that they found the Gogodala to be 09:02 friendly, hospitable people. 09:05 Soon thereafter, British missionaries established 09:07 schools in the area. 09:09 Because of these early encounters, the Gogodala are 09:12 unique in that they speak English instead of Tok Pidgin 09:15 in addition to their ancestral language. 09:22 The Gogodala are a water people by necessity. 09:25 Vast silty fresh-water lagoons and sago swamps cover 09:29 the land they inhabit. 09:33 The men craft long, slender canoes from the trunks of 09:36 great trees. 09:41 Some canoes can be more than 50 feet long. 09:49 Displaying a fine sense of balance, the men usually 09:52 paddle their canoes from a standing position. 09:55 Most larger canoes now sport an outboard motor and ply the 09:59 rivers at much greater speed than in years past. 10:06 The water level in these inland lagoons can change by ten feet 10:09 or more between rainy season and dry. 10:12 When the water is high the Gogodala canoes travel easily. 10:16 But when the water is low, travel becomes more difficult. 10:20 At low water, streams and channels are often choked with 10:23 dense mats of floating grass that grow on top of the water. 10:27 In many places it is thick enough to walk on. 10:38 At all times of the year, life centers on the lagoons. 10:42 They are the bathtubs, wells, highways, and pantries of the 10:46 Gogodala people. Fishing is a popular job that 10:49 often brings the whole village together in splashing, 10:52 giggling delight. 10:53 They form up lines of beaters that sweep the shallows in an 10:57 effort to herd the fish toward lines of people holding nets. 11:04 Those with nets work together to slowly surround schools of 11:07 small fish and then raise their nets together. 11:11 It is unclear which is the biggest motivator; 11:13 the thought of fish for supper or the fun to be had in trying 11:17 to catch them. 11:26 Though fishing may be an enjoyable way to get a meal, 11:28 making sak sak, the traditional staple food, is plain 11:31 hard work. 11:33 The first step in making sak sak is to select a suitable 11:36 sago palm and fell it. 11:39 After stripping off the outer bark, the women begin to pound 11:43 the starchy heart into piles of fibrous meal. 11:46 Next, they place the pounded sago into bags made of woven 11:50 grass. By pouring water through the bags and squeezing them 11:54 with their feet, the women wash the starch out of the pulp and 11:59 into the pool beneath. 12:00 Modern plastic tarps work especially well to hold the 12:04 water and starch. 12:05 After a few minutes, the starch settles out of the water and 12:09 collects on the bottom. 12:10 When the sak sak has dried, it can be stored at room 12:13 temperature without going bad. 12:18 Sak sak making can keep several women and girls busy all day if 12:22 the sago palm is of any size. 12:26 The outing is a great time to 12:27 chat and pass along skills to the young girls. 12:33 Sak sak is usually roasted over coals in palm leaves. 12:37 It has very little taste, but it fills the belly. 12:46 Jeff Bishop is no stranger to sak sak. He and his family have 12:50 lived and worked among the Gogodala people in the 12:52 village of Kotale since the middle of 1997. 12:55 They have been laboring to nourish the interest of 12:59 truth-seekers in the villages of Balimo and Kotale while also 13:03 providing medical relief. 13:07 Balimo is more than an hour distant from Kotale, the 13:10 Bishops' home village, but Jeff tries to travel there at least 13:14 once a week. 13:18 During low water season, the dense floating grass in the 13:21 lagoon waterways adds time and effort to the trip. 13:25 With the help of some friends, Jeff manages to make it through 13:28 to the Aramia River where the going is much easier. 13:34 When the Bishops first arrived in Kotale village, they 13:37 discovered that the people had a very strong interest in 13:40 learning more about the loving creator God. 13:43 The village welcomed the Bishop family with open arms. 13:46 Giving generously of their time, the Kotale villagers 13:49 helped construct a house for the Bishops and a church in 13:53 which to begin meeting. 13:58 Cutting the grass in front of the church is a 14:00 community affair. 14:07 Next to the church, the members are also building 14:10 a new school. 14:17 In 1999 Kotale village was set ablaze by the smiles of 49 14:22 newly baptized church members. 14:28 Though the Bishops have 14:29 witnessed the Holy Spirit changing the hearts and lives 14:32 of these people, they can still hardly believe it. 14:34 Many of their new church members were infamous thieves 14:37 and drug dealers before accepting Christ. 14:40 Jeff's neighbor recently told Jeff that he should lock up his 14:43 fuel drums to keep the people from stealing fuel at night. 14:47 Then he sighed and added, "Well, actually, no one is 14:51 going to steal your fuel. 14:52 All the thieves in the village are now attending your church!" 15:02 Raymond is one such member. Before his new walk with 15:05 Christ, Raymond was a hardened murderer who trafficked guns 15:09 and drugs between the mainland and the Torres Strait islands. 15:15 Today, he and Foxi, also a former criminal, tell anyone 15:19 who will listen about their soon-coming Savior. 15:21 They regularly travel to other villages where they are raising 15:25 up small groups of truth-seekers. 15:33 The challenge of reaching the rest of the Gogodala people 15:36 with the good news of salvation is a great one. 15:39 To travel the waterways the Gogodala inhabit requires a 15:43 canoe with an outboard motor and fuel. Fuel costs roughly 15:48 four dollars per gallon, and outboard motors cost $1,500. 15:53 Traveling just two villages up the river from Kotale requires 15:57 about $20 worth of fuel. 16:00 Because of the low incomes of 16:02 Gogodala church members, weekly offerings usually amount to the 16:05 equivalent of only a couple dollars. Because of these 16:09 realities, the only way the gospel message can be spread is 16:12 by dedicated laymen who are willing to donate their time 16:16 and energies to this task. Though the challenge was great, 16:20 the pieces of God's plan came together. 16:22 A contributor in Australia sent enough money to take care of 16:26 the basic needs of three eager evangelists from the Kotale 16:29 church for one year. 16:31 Then the Kotale church rallied together and 16:33 constructed a dugout canoe in record time, 16:36 which they dedicated to spread the good news. 16:39 These three young evangelists are now hard at 16:42 work in five work in five Gogodala villages and 16:45 conducting Bible studies with 40 people. 16:55 There is no doubt that God is doing great things among the 16:58 Gogodala people. 17:00 But the Bishops still face many difficulties. Old ideas and 17:04 ways of thinking die hard. 17:06 Ancient superstitions still influence church members. 17:12 One Christian woman warned Jeff never to kill a yellow 17:16 crocodile because bad things would happen as a result. 17:24 The Bishops have come to grips with the fact that, although 17:27 they have a church full of eager interests, they still 17:30 face an uphill battle to undo generations of animist 17:34 thinking. 17:35 But the Bishops stay vigilant and continue to guide their new 17:39 church toward a closer walk with Christ each day. 17:48 Less than 200 miles to the east of the wet lowlands of the 17:52 Gogodala, across the Gulf of Papua, the rugged Owen Stanley 17:56 mountain range juts up from the coast. 18:00 These mountains are home to an equally rugged and enduring 18:03 people, the Dowa. 18:06 Unlike the Gogodala people, not very much is known about 18:09 Dowa history. 18:10 What we do know is that the Dowa migrated south from 18:14 further in the mountains. 18:16 The Dowa are known for their long treks on foot all over 18:20 these mountains. 18:21 Filled with deadly vipers, biting insects, and stinging 18:25 plants, the jungles they hike are very inhospitable places. 18:29 But the Dowa are as proud as they are tough. They never 18:32 admit to weariness or pain. A Dowa woman may regularly walk 18:36 several miles with 90 pounds or more slung from her forehead in 18:40 a woven bag called a bilum. 18:42 To live in such an unforgiving 18:45 land, the Dowa have become very wise in the ways of survival. 18:49 They can start a fire with a strip of cane, some dry wood, 18:53 and grass almost as quickly as you or I might strike a match. 18:56 They beat the bark of a certain type of tree to make a garment 19:00 which functions simultaneously as raincoat, sun shade, bed 19:04 sheet, and mosquito net. 19:07 By rolling fibers together between the hand and the thigh, 19:10 they also make string for weaving bilums. 19:13 That the Dowa are able to eke out such self-sufficient living 19:17 testifies to their resourcefulness and grit. 19:19 But their simple way of life is under mounting pressure from 19:23 the outside world. 19:26 Lumber mills are moving into 19:29 the area. A massive construction effort is pushing 19:32 a new highway through all the way from the capital city of 19:35 Port Moresby. 19:36 The Dowa are struggling with new issues they are hardly 19:39 prepared to face. 19:41 With their old stability crumbling around them, they are 19:43 reaching for something they can hold onto. 19:53 In 1996, Adventist Frontier missionaries Dale and Lety 19:57 Goodson, with their children Bonnie, Dale Jr., and Paul 20:01 answered a call to live among the Dowa and teach them about 20:05 the peace and stability they could find in a life of 20:08 friendship with their creator. 20:17 The Dowa are a nomadic people and rarely stay 20:20 anywhere for very long. 20:23 But they liked what they had heard about this new 20:25 "Papa God" who had sent His Son to die for their misdeeds. 20:29 A God of love made no sense when compared to the angry, 20:33 demanding spirits they had always served, but they were 20:37 intrigued by the idea. So they agreed to come together 20:40 and live with the Goodsons in a little village called Kukia. 20:51 With prayer and lots of hard work, the Goodsons threw 20:55 themselves into meeting the spiritual and physical needs 20:58 of the Dowa. Their needs were many. 21:00 Malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, and snakebite frequently 21:05 claimed Dowa lives. 21:07 Children suffered an extremely high rate of mortality. 21:22 By implementing a water supply and passing out mosquito nets 21:25 treated with pesticide, the Goodsons were able to 21:28 substantially reduce the incidence of malaria and 21:30 typhoid. 21:32 What diseases they could not prevent they treated with 21:35 modern medicines and home remedies. They are also 21:39 assisting the village in other ways. Lety teaches a Tok 21:42 Pidgin literacy glass on weekdays. Dale is constructing 21:46 a village workshop where the Dowa can manufacture crafts for 21:49 sale in the city, instead of selling beetlenut. 22:00 While the Goodsons can address the health needs in a 22:02 straightforward manner, the spiritual needs of the Dowa are 22:05 much more complex. 22:07 There is one primary difficulty 22:09 in introducing the loving creator God to the Dowa mind. 22:12 It is a difficult problem for lifelong Christians to grasp. 22:16 To begin to understand, you must try to imagine that you 22:20 are a Dowa. 22:22 Imagine that your whole life and culture, 22:24 like that of your parents before you, revolves around 22:27 avoiding conflict with thousands of dangerous, 22:30 moody, malicious spirits. 22:33 To survive you must appease them. If you wish to 22:36 tap into their power, you can attempt to manipulate them into 22:39 doing your will. 22:41 But for the most part, your relationship to them is one of 22:43 dread and aversion. 22:48 What, then, would you think when some missionary began 22:51 telling you about a new Spirit with supremacy over the 22:54 spirits - a Spirit who loves you and personally died to save you 22:59 from your own wrongdoing? You would be excited to hear of 23:02 this Spirit's power, but you might be doubtful about its 23:06 true intentions. 23:08 How can this Spirit possibly love you when all other spirits 23:12 deceive you and sometimes harm you? 23:16 For generations, your 23:18 ancestors have lived by firmly established rules of how to 23:22 coexist peacefully with the spirits. 23:27 These rules affect everything from shaving yourself to 23:30 burying the dead. 23:32 Can you possibly abandon these rules? 23:38 This is the nature of 23:39 the struggle that takes place in the mind of an animist when 23:42 faced with the bewildering possibility that the greatest 23:45 Spirit of all loves him. 23:53 Many such people are eager to please their missionary and 23:56 anxious to get on the good side of this new powerful god, 23:59 if only to avoid trouble from Him. 24:02 They may eagerly adopt whatever doctrine and lifestyle the 24:06 missionary teaches, but their motives remain unchanged: 24:10 they simply want to survive and avoid trouble. 24:20 Many missionaries who didn't understand this have been 24:23 crushed by disappointment when they realized that their 24:26 animist converts are not actually enjoying a 24:28 relationship with Christ at all. 24:30 Their faithful attendance and offerings are only means to an 24:34 end. They are trying to satisfy this newest and strongest 24:38 Spirit who has pushed its way into their already crowded 24:42 spiritual world. 24:43 Only a miracle can cause a person with this mindset to 24:47 truly begin to relate to God in a loving and trusting way. 25:06 The Goodsons understood this danger from the beginning. 25:10 To plant the seed of gospel truth as deep as possible, 25:14 they began the slow process of developing deep and 25:17 abiding friendships with the Dowa people. 25:20 As they overcame the people's suspicions and prejudices and 25:24 let the love of God pour out through them, they began to see 25:28 some promising results. 25:33 One major breakthrough happened when Dale decided to try 25:37 something brand new. 25:38 When he was in the States on furlough, Dale had taken a 25:41 class on the concept of worldview - the way a person 25:45 thinks and relates to the world. 25:47 One of the exercises in this class had been to examine your 25:51 own worldview, looking for the underlying reasons and 25:54 principles that cause you to believe and react as you do. 25:58 Dale had found it very useful in helping him mentally catalog 26:02 his own core beliefs and motives. 26:05 "What if, instead of trying to shape their worldviews, I could 26:10 get them to analyze and reshape their own?" he wondered. 26:16 With a prayer in his heart, Dale took a select group of 26:19 interested men up into the mountains for some deep study 26:23 and soul searching. 26:24 What happened up in those mountains is something Dale 26:28 will never forget. 26:29 These tough mountain dwellers, slaves so long to the demands 26:33 of the spirits, began to really open their hearts to this new 26:37 loving God. 26:38 Many began to see themselves and their fickle commitment to 26:42 God for the first time. 26:45 Men who had considered themselves good Christians wept 26:48 as they realized that they had been treating God like one of 26:51 the spirits, merely to be appeased, manipulated, or 26:55 simply avoided. 26:57 Bit by bit, the Holy Spirit watered the seeds of gospel 27:01 truth in their hearts and set their feet on a new path. 27:10 Theirs will not be an easy journey. The dangers they face 27:13 are the same ones we face today in our comfortable western 27:17 churches. It is just as easy for us to forget the amazing 27:20 love God wants to share with us, and revert to serving Him 27:24 just because we think we should. 27:32 Nevertheless, the Goodsons and the Bishops both rest in the 27:35 knowledge that God will surely finish the good work he has 27:38 begun in the hearts and minds of His beloved people 27:42 in Papua New Guinea. 27:52 The People Between was produced by Adventist 27:55 Frontier Missions, reaching the unreached by establishing 27:59 vibrant Adventist churches trained to raise up new 28:02 believers and churches among their own people groups. 28:04 For the latest information on 28:07 the Gogodala and Dowa 28:08 mission projects, Adventist 28:10 Frontier Missions, or to 28:11 order a copy of 28:13 The People Between, visit... 28:24 When you call, please 28:26 mention where you saw 28:27 this program. |
Revised 2014-12-17