Participants:
Series Code: AFM
Program Code: AFM000008
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00:01 Hi, I'm Clyde Morgan.
00:03 Adventist Frontier Missions seeks to establish 00:05 church-planting movements among people groups 00:07 with no Adventist presence. 00:08 We've been working on mission frontiers for more than 00:10 20 years. 00:11 We've learned that sometimes planting churches is just 00:15 the beginning of the story. 00:17 In 1989, John and Belinda Kent, together with their three sons, 00:21 left New York city to take the gospel to 00:23 the Iwam people. 00:24 The Seventh-day Adventist Church asked AFM to try to reach this 00:27 remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. 00:29 As you'll see, the Iwam's extreme isolation continues 00:33 to present challenges, even today. 00:49 I have no idea what God saw in Belinda and I. 00:52 There we were, working in New York City, with absolutely 00:56 no real intent of becoming missionaries. 01:00 We'd thought about it from time to time. 01:03 The farther we came, the more primitive it got. 01:07 The less clothes people seemed to be wearing. 01:10 The farther and farther apart the villages were. 01:13 The three boys and I got on the mission plane and 01:16 as we left Wewak that morning I just saw the miles of 01:20 nothingness underneath me. 01:22 It just really hit me where we were coming to. 01:24 You know, I just began to question, "Lord, are you really 01:27 calling me and my wife to come out here?" 01:30 What if something happened to us? 01:31 What if something happened to the kids? 01:33 How would we get out? 01:34 I just was so afraid of so many things, 01:36 but most of all, I was just afraid of 01:37 what was ahead of me. 01:46 When John and Belinda Kent arrived in Papua New Guinea, 01:49 they moved into the Adventist Missions headquarters in Wewak. 01:53 About three weeks after arriving, John decided to 01:56 attempt to make arrangements to make contact with the Iwam. 01:59 John flew to Imbunti, 02:01 a tiny government center on the Sepic River. 02:04 I knew very little of Tok Pisin, I didn't know anybody at all 02:07 in Imbunti. 02:08 And I just remember getting out of that plane and spending 02:12 two days walking around that place. 02:15 It was just so hot and stifling. 02:18 Just trying to find, you know, somebody that could help. 02:23 By the end of the second day, I was both one scared boy 02:26 as well as one that just really was longing for the Lord 02:32 to make His will known. 02:33 The evening of the second day that I was in Imbunti 02:37 I went out to walk along the riverbank and I was just 02:41 pouring my heart out to the Lord 02:42 just saying, "Lord I really believe that You called 02:46 us to come here. But I have to have evidence. I really need to 02:50 know that You're here right now, because I just really don't know 02:55 what to do. And I don't even begin to know how to figure out 02:59 how to get another 180 miles up the river to make contact 03:04 with this people. " 03:05 And as I was walking along the riverbank, there on the 03:09 side of the river, was a little house and a bench and 03:12 a couple of men were sitting on it. 03:14 And I began to talk with them and one of them just asked me 03:18 what my name was, and what I was doing in the country, 03:22 and I, you know, asked him what his name was, and I told him 03:27 I was working with the SDA Mission, that we were going 03:31 to be living out here. We hoped to be living out here 03:34 on the May River. 03:35 When I told him that, his eyes just grew really large. 03:39 And he said, "That's exactly where I'm from! 03:42 And I'm an Adventist. " 03:45 John was surprised because no one, including the mission, knew 03:49 there were any Adventist Iwam. 03:50 He talked to Ben and listened as Ben shared his story. 03:54 A couple of years before the Kents arrived, God began 03:58 working on Ben's heart. 03:59 A travel nurse had invited him to a Bible school that he could 04:02 attend so he could learn more about the Christian God. 04:05 He wasn't even a Christian yet, but he went downriver to another 04:08 village and attended a three- week Bible school. 04:10 The following year, he left his village again and attended the 04:13 same Bible school. During the second time through, 04:16 he gave his heart to Jesus and was baptized. 04:21 After meeting Ben, John traveled upriver to make arrangements 04:24 for his family to move to May River. 04:27 The very first time I came up the river, 04:31 I'd met Ben at Imbunti and he'd come ahead here to May River 04:35 to prepare the way. 04:36 And I returned after I made the arrangements, he had a boat 04:40 and a motor and everything waiting for me. 04:43 On that trip up from Imbunti, I was just so green. 04:47 I had no idea what it meant to live and work 04:50 here in the jungle. 04:52 I'll never forget climbing into the boat that morning. 04:55 I had on a pair of shorts, a tee shirt, and my lily white 04:59 New York City skin. 05:02 I had no sunscreen, and we began that long journey up here, 05:07 hour after hour. 05:08 By the time I got here to May River, eight or nine hours 05:12 later, my skin was just absolutely burned to a crisp. 05:16 The farther we came, the more primitive it got, 05:19 the less clothes people seemed to be wearing, 05:22 the farther and farther apart the villages were. 05:25 And I just remember as we came I just began to question 05:29 "Lord, are You really calling me and my wife to come out here?" 05:35 When he arrived in May River, John not only found a people 05:38 eager and waiting for missionaries, 05:40 he discovered there was already a small house 05:42 they could live in. 05:47 On the way back down the river to get Belinda and the boys, 05:50 John had his first real encounter with 05:52 tropical mosquitoes. 05:54 Within moments I was just enveloped with mosquitoes. 05:57 Those mosquitoes just ate me up all night long. 06:01 I was just covered with them. 06:02 And they were eating and biting my sunburn. 06:05 I just remember by 4 o'clock in the morning, 06:08 I just started praying, "Lord, I thought You called 06:12 me here, I thought I was enough to do this. Lord I'm just 06:17 asking You to do one thing: Please get me back to Wewak. " 06:21 I'm on the first jet out of here. 06:23 I just cannot take this. 06:26 But, as I prayed, the Lord brought me to a state of just 06:31 repentance, you know, repenting for my American pride and 06:38 just my ignorance of not, you know, taking the time to ask 06:42 what I really needed to come. 06:44 I just remember when I finally get back to Wewak 06:48 after that trip, the very first thing I did was go to the 06:51 to the first trade store I could find and I bought the biggest 06:54 mosquito net I could possibly find. 06:56 The first trip up, John was already up here with our cargo 06:59 and the three boys and I got on the mission plane. 07:02 As we left Wewak that morning, I just saw the miles 07:06 of nothingness underneath me. 07:08 It just really hit me where we were coming to. 07:10 And as we got closer, at that time, no one realized that 07:14 in the morning, May River was always clouded over 07:17 and we'd left a little early. 07:19 So as we got closer to May River there was a bunch of clouds 07:21 and the pilot was trying to find a hole through the clouds. 07:26 We circled around and around and around. 07:28 It was my first time on a little plane and I just grabbed Matthew 07:31 my little baby, closer to me, as we finally found a hole and 07:35 came through and settled on the airstrip. The pilot had a lot of 07:39 flying to do, so he just kind of unloaded our stuff and our dog 07:42 and three boys and I and just said goodbye. I remember shaking 07:46 his hand and said, "Please don't forget us here. " 07:50 He said, "Oh, we won't. " 07:51 and I said, "Did John hear us?" 07:52 And he said, "Yeah John heard you. He'll be here in a boat. " 08:06 John came to the airstrip and picked us up that day after the 08:10 mission plane had left us. 08:11 We came down here and the canoes he'd hired from Imbunti 08:14 to bring our stuff up, they unloaded everything from the 08:18 airplane and then they took off downriver. I remember standing 08:22 here on this river with the three boys and John and just 08:24 watching them disappear around the bend, just waving at them. 08:27 It was like the last shred of civilization was disappearing. 08:31 It was the most lonely feeling in the world. 08:33 Both John and I just turned to each other and said, 08:35 "Well, this is it. " 08:36 I just felt a lot of fear. What if something happened to us? 08:41 What if something happened to the kids? How would we get out? 08:45 The tiny little 400-square-foot house we had, the whole front 08:49 was open; it was screened in, but open. It was right on the 08:52 path to the health center, and every day people walked by 08:56 and they would just stand there and just put their faces on 09:00 the screen like this and just watch every move I made. 09:04 And sometimes, there was this tiny little bathroom, 09:06 like a 2' by 2' cubicle that had our tiny little shower and 09:10 toilet and sometimes I would go in and sit on the toilet just 09:14 to get away from the stares. 09:16 When the Kents moved to May River, they found Ben sharing 09:19 what little he knew about God with a group of about 10 people. 09:24 He didn't know English very well. 09:26 All he had was a King James Bible, an old King James Bible 09:29 that he could barely read or understand. 09:32 He was doing his best, but he knew that he didn't really 09:36 adequately grasp the message or how to share it. 09:41 So when we arrived here, Ben just, he really was 09:45 a brother to us. 09:46 Even though in so many ways we were separated by a chasm of 09:49 culture and language. 09:50 He bound himself to us because he just wanted us to learn 09:54 Iwam culture, Iwam ways so that we could share 09:58 the gospel effectively. 10:02 Three months after their arrival, Ben got very sick. 10:05 They treated him for Malaria, but he didn't improve. 10:09 When the time came for John to go get supplies for the family, 10:12 he took Ben downriver with him to see a doctor. 10:15 When we finally got to Wewak, two days later, I took him to 10:19 the hospital and they looked at him, and conditions in 10:24 third world hospitals simply are not the same as other countries. 10:29 They checked him and said, "Yeah we think it's malaria, too. 10:33 Just keep treating him. " 10:34 And so we returned here to May River and two or three weeks 10:39 went by and Ben continued to deteriorate. 10:42 Some way, I think on our radio, we discovered a government 10:46 plane was going to be flying out here to the airstrip, 10:50 four or five miles upriver. 10:52 And so I went to Ben and I said, "Ben, I would really like to 10:57 send you out to the hospital. I'm very concerned for 11:00 your well being. " So Ben agreed and we took him upriver in our 11:05 log canoe, put him on the airplane and sent him 11:08 out to the hospital. 11:10 "May River, May River, calling May River. " 11:13 We were home one afternoon and the radio came to life. 11:18 We went to it and the mission president was on to say that 11:21 Ben had died in the hospital. 11:23 We only later found out that he probably died of leukemia. 11:29 There was nothing that could have ever been done in this 11:33 country to save him, but it was a horrible shock to us. 11:37 My wife and I, we just stood right beside that radio and just 11:41 tried to comprehend that he was dead. 11:44 My first thought was, "I have to go tell Kiku. " 11:47 As I walked down the hill, I didn't know how in the world 11:50 I would tell Kiku that her husband had died and left her 11:52 alone with three little girls. 11:54 But the news had already gotten out. As we were walking down the 11:57 hill, you could hear the talk place back and forth, 12:01 up and down the river people were already yelling at her. 12:04 We got down here to this little house, she'd already heard 12:06 the news before I had a chance to say anything to her. 12:09 She immediately just ran down, the river was lower 12:13 but the banks were real muddy. She just threw herself into 12:16 the river bank. Their sign of mourning is to plaster 12:18 themselves with mud. 12:19 Within just a short time, we were surrounded by scores of 12:24 screaming, wailing, grieving, Iwam tribal people. 12:29 It was in so many ways, like being transported back 12:32 a thousand years in time. The men of the village converged on 12:37 Ben's house and began to tear it apart. His half brother 12:42 crawled up into the house with an axe and began to whack at his 12:45 head with an axe to show the spirits how sorry he was that 12:49 Ben had died. 12:50 I just looked into heaven and said, "Lord, what in the world 12:53 is going on? 12:55 What in the world are You doing? 12:57 How in the world could You possibly allow the one and only 13:01 Christian among these people to die?" 13:05 After a time, the whole village basically moved 13:10 across the river. 13:12 Day after day, we went over into that hut and sat there as the 13:15 Iwam grieved and mourned and wailed and chanted. 13:18 It was just a really dark and desolate time for us. 13:23 A time of just questioning God, wondering what He was doing. 13:27 The truth is, the reality is, that God, He was at work, 13:31 even though it felt so dark and dismal during that period. 13:37 We've actually come to see that as a result of Ben's death, 13:41 we became bound to the people in a way that I think could have 13:46 never happened otherwise. 13:48 One day, I'd gone home - I'd paddled back across the 13:53 river later in the afternoon. I was climbing up 13:58 the log ladder into that mourning hut. 14:00 When I overheard the village leaders talking, 14:04 they were gathered around the fire, 14:07 and they were saying something like this. 14:10 They were saying "That John and Belinda, 14:12 they're not missionaries. " 14:19 And then they went on to say, 14:20 "No, they are our brother and our sister. " 14:24 The Iwam's complete acceptance of John and Belinda was a 14:28 powerful confirmation that God was at work. 14:31 Out of the crucible of pain, turmoil and darkness surrounding 14:34 Ben's death, the Iwam church was born. 14:37 Our first baptisms here were actually the fruit of Ben's 14:42 initial labors. 14:43 Those ten people that were baptized the first time 14:47 were the people he initially began to work with here. 14:50 With a core of new believers baptized, John and Belinda began 14:54 the long process of sharing the gospel with the Iwam 14:57 and then discipling some of the new believers into leaders, 15:00 training them to carry the work forward. 15:04 During the evangelism process, John and Belinda realized that 15:08 in addition to learning the language, they also had to 15:10 understand the Iwam culture. 15:12 There's a system here, taboo kandre, they call it, that makes 15:18 it very difficult for some relationships for an elder, say 15:24 I had an elder, it would be difficult for him to go speak 15:27 in a certain way, to admonish another church member who was 15:32 his taboo kandre. 15:33 So we had to learn that after a while, it was important for us 15:37 to have a variety of elders from different clan groups 15:41 so that they could adequately cover the spiritual 15:43 needs of the people. 15:45 We found out that they were just very gentle, open, 15:50 a little shy of us. 15:52 But anything they could do to help us, and pretty soon they 15:57 grew on our hearts and I just had a burden to help the ladies. 16:01 So many of them had not been to school, never had a chance 16:05 for school, but yet they were bright and intelligent. 16:07 So I just decided, I hadn't even begun to teach my own kids how 16:12 to read and I didn't really know what I was doing. 16:14 But we decided to try. We had this little old book the mission 16:18 had put out on literacy and I just took that and I just 16:21 gathered a group of ladies and we met two afternoons a week 16:24 in the little school house we were using for a church. 16:27 I just started to try and teach them to read in pidgin. 16:30 We got Bibles for them, my goal was to teach them to 16:35 read the Bible for themselves. 16:36 There was just a wonderful thing to see them begin to learn, to 16:39 see their craving for knowledge. 16:41 And then to see that develop into leadership as they began to 16:45 lead out in church services. 16:47 Often in the beginning, with nothing more than a prayer, 16:50 and when they prayed they would be so quiet and their heads 16:53 would be down and their eyes would be looking at the ground 16:55 because they were ashamed and embarrassed about 16:57 being up front. 16:59 As time went on, weeks went on months went on, years went on, 17:02 their confidence in the Lord grew. Soon we had men and women 17:07 that were able to lead out in various aspects of the church 17:11 services and it was just, it was an incredible day, I remember 17:14 that when Anie, who at that time was my right-hand man, 17:19 when he gave his first sermon in the church, that was just a real 17:24 blessing. It made me so proud and happy. 17:27 In 1991, the Kents were joined by another missionary family. 17:31 David and Holly Lackey came to May River to help meet the 17:34 Iwam health needs. 17:35 May River had been a government center with a clinic, but 17:39 because of a lack of funding, the clinic was not 17:41 fully operating. 17:47 David and Holly, both nurses, used their skills to build up a 17:51 health ministry that served the health needs of thousands. 17:53 Their outreach, both at the clinic and in surrounding 17:57 villages up and down the river, were key to opening hearts 18:00 to receive the gospel. 18:03 When I look back, even considering all the hardships 18:08 of living in a place like May River, I would never change 18:11 those years. It was some of the best years of our lives, seeing 18:16 the Lord work and seeing so many miracles. 18:20 It was a real blessing. 18:22 In 1995, Adventist Frontier Missions began handing the Iwam 18:26 churches over to the Sepic Adventist Mission. 18:29 The Kents moved from May River, and the Lackeys followed 18:32 a year later. 18:33 At that time, there were 150 baptized members and about 18:37 300 people meeting every Sabbath in four churches. 18:42 Not only did the May River Project impact the Iwam people, 18:45 other tribes began asking for missionaries to come 18:48 and live with them and teach them about God. 18:50 One example is the Drupas tribe. 18:54 We got a message from a tribal group that live in the bush. 19:00 They said, "John we really want a missionary to come be with us 19:05 like you are living among the Iwam. 19:07 We really want to know God's word. " 19:10 And we were so busy here, of course we didn't really have 19:13 anybody to send, we didn't have any indigenous workers here that 19:16 we could send at that point. 19:18 So I just really wasn't able to do much with that request. 19:21 After a period of time, another request came from them again 19:26 and they said, "John, you know, we really want someone to come. 19:30 We've built a house to worship your God in. " 19:33 It was just amazing. Here's a group I've never even met a 19:36 single person from that group. 19:40 And so, you know, still I wasn't able to get back there 19:45 didn't really have the time to go visit them, 19:48 and I finally got a third message from them saying, 19:50 "Please, won't you come and see us?" 19:55 When we arrived, I just, well really, I began to cry. 19:58 Because, here was this primitive people group that had, they'd 20:03 never had a chance to learn about the Christian God, and yet 20:09 not only had they built a church to worship that God that they 20:14 didn't know in, they'd also built a house for a missionary 20:19 from that God that they didn't know. 20:23 It was just an amazing thing, so that night before we went 20:28 to bed, I gave a message to the villagers to gather their people 20:33 the next morning so that we could talk together. 20:36 The next morning I got up about 6 A.M. and 20:40 I went to wash in the river. 20:43 And again, I could just hardly keep from crying as these people 20:48 began to just flood out of the jungle, from up the river and 20:53 down the river and across the river, and from up the mountain. 20:57 They just came walking out. 20:59 Ladies in nothing more than grass skirts, living as they 21:03 have for hundreds and hundreds of years. 21:07 Yet there the came to worship the Lord for the very first time 21:10 to hear about the Lord and to gather. 21:17 In late 2005, Adventist Frontier Missions sent John and Belinda 21:20 back to Papua New Guinea to see how the May River 21:23 believers were doing. 21:24 What the Kents discovered was challenging. 21:27 In the intervening years, 21:29 the work has admittedly struggled here. 21:33 The Iwam are located nearly 300 miles by road and by log canoe 21:40 from the Sepic Mission headquarters, from 21:44 the nearest support. 21:45 And conditions here simply have not been conducive 21:52 to the Sepic church being able to provide the support 21:59 nurturing that the Iwam church really that has been essential 22:04 for them to have. 22:07 The cost of visiting the May River project is extremely 22:10 prohibitive. For example, one visit alone to May River 22:14 requires the same amount of money as the district director 22:17 uses in three months, visiting other churches that are just as 22:20 needy, but are closer to the mission. 22:22 Second, because it is so remote and primitive, it is difficult 22:26 to find trained workers who are willing to live at May River. 22:31 A lot has been lost in those intervening years. Again and 22:34 again and again during our visit here, we've heard our 22:39 people say they feel they've been left like animals without 22:44 a shepherd. 22:45 It's been heart wrenching in many ways. 22:52 Before they left the project in 1995, the Kents had obtained 22:56 Bibles and published a songbook for the Iwam people. 22:59 On their return visit, the Kents found the Iwam believers sharing 23:02 only a few tattered Bibles and songbooks. 23:04 The rest of the materials they had provided for the Iwam had 23:07 succumb to insect and mildew damage. 23:10 The Iwam have no access to new materials like songbooks or 23:14 Sabbath School quarterlies in their own language. 23:16 Furthermore, without adequate support from the mission, 23:19 new leaders are not being trained to lead when the 23:22 current generation of leaders is gone. 23:26 There's been a lot of loss. We've lost among the Iwam, we've 23:29 lost two quite strong churches that have been lost given to 23:37 leadership apostasy, many of the members here are not 23:41 literate, and so when a leader apostatizes, it leaves the 23:45 people with no way to be nurtured in the Word. 23:49 And that's happened in at least two of the villages we've had 23:51 leadership that has apostatized. 23:54 And then we had some fledgling work that's been lost also. 23:59 On the other side of the picture however, our hearts really are 24:03 encouraged. Out here at the main church, the initial church that 24:09 was established, what's often referred to as the mother church 24:11 there's a core of men and women who are just clinging to their 24:17 faith, in spite of the fact that they have almost no external 24:22 support, they continue to cling to their faith in the Lord. 24:26 They come and they gather out here in this little church, 24:29 week by week to nurture each other, to encourage each other 24:34 to be strong in the Word 24:36 and in the Lord. 24:39 That's just a real blessing, to see maturation of their faith 24:42 the way they've continued to hang on, in spite of having no 24:50 support whatsoever from the outside. 24:55 Adventist Frontier Missions is working to support and nurture 24:57 the Iwam so that the remaining churches stay strong. 25:00 One of the things AFM has done is to bring in 25:03 Sam and Joanne Kiwah, a devoted Adventist couple from another 25:06 part of Papua New Guinea. 25:08 The Kiwah's moved to May River in 2006 and are currently 25:11 investing their lives in encouraging and strengthening 25:14 the Iwam believers. 25:15 It's clear that though many who once worshipped no longer are, 25:21 primarily because, in many places, because they have 25:25 no leader, there's a hunger here. Just a hunger here 25:29 for the Lord. 25:32 There's a hunger here to know Him. There's a hunger here to 25:35 receive instruction again in the Word. 25:41 A bright spot in the Kents' visit occurred when they visited 25:44 the Drupas tribe to see how the believers there were doing. 25:47 When we arrived here there was a young man with the name of 25:50 Jacob Marleo that we took under our wings. When he was a little 25:54 older, we sent him off to our mission school. 25:56 Jacob, he's just really, he loves the Lord. 26:02 And he's made it his commitment to not waste the education that 26:11 the Lord blessed him with. 26:13 He returned here to May River and spent some time here, 26:17 and is now gone back among one of the primitive groups, 26:22 even more primitive than the Iwam, to establish the church. 26:26 That's just a tremendous encouragement to us to know 26:30 that there's an Iwam missionary that's serving the Lord and 26:34 taking the truth about Jesus Christ to a people group that 26:38 absolutely would never hear about Him, would never know 26:42 about Him if Jacob wasn't there. 26:45 Jacob and his wife Josephine have been living among the 26:48 Drupas people for nearly 10 years. 26:50 The Kents travelled an additional 70 miles into the 26:53 rugged interior of the Sepic Basin to visit Jacob 26:56 and his family. 26:57 The trip took hours of slow boat travel and several miles 27:00 of hiking through the jungle. 27:02 When the Kents arrived at the village where Jacob is living, 27:05 Jacob came out to greet them. 27:13 He was overwhelmed that his spiritual parents and mentors 27:16 would make such a difficult journey to visit him. 27:22 During his time working among the Drupas people, Jacob has 27:25 prepared more than 70 people for baptism. 27:28 Each Sabbath, over 160 people come to worship in this 27:32 primitive jungle church. 27:33 The Kents' visit here was the first visit from anyone, 27:37 including the district pastor, in more than 5 years. 27:40 This only emphasizes the need for continued support and 27:43 nurture of these isolated church members. 27:46 May River's remote location proved difficult during the 27:49 initial evangelism phase and continues to remain 27:52 a challenge today. 27:54 Please remember Jacob and these dear people in your prayers 27:58 and support. 28:03 Adventist Frontier Missions is committed to taking the gospel 28:06 to people groups like the Iwam. 28:07 People groups with no Adventist presence. 28:10 Today, there are more than 6,000 such groups waiting to 28:14 hear the good news of Christ's love and soon return. 28:17 I invite you to join me in praying that 28:20 God will send out more laborers. |
Revised 2014-12-17