A Wonderful Story of God's Grace

[Zach]

Desiring God shared this a few weeks back and it was very edifying. It documents a missionary family's return to the tribe to which they ministered 50 years ago to see how much fruit the gospel has borne.

[video]http://vimeo.com/pioneersusa/neverthesame[/video]

 

[AThornquist]

Yes, watch this! And don't forget to pray for Pergamum and family, who currently minister to another unreached tribe in the same region.

 

[Pergamum]

Some comments about the film:

-It is good to see Don so fit and energetic after a life-time of hard service. An amazing guy who still seems healthy after enduring a hard environment. That gives me hope that my health might also last (we are all sick this week....again...argh).

-It is good to hear of the fond memories from the kids as well. This also encourages me for my own children.

-It is good to see the core of believers that have persisted for these decades.

-It is cool to see the excellent MAF pilot, Tom, and the float-plane in action. Those guys serve us as well and land on some of the most remote rivers in the world.


Other comments:

-The GIDI church (evangelical church in Indonesia) had checked and saved up 50 candidates for baptism for Don's visit so that a large number from that broader region could all be baptized at once during the festivities. These 50 seemed to be prepared and checked before-hand. I guess it is okay to save up baptisms to do en masse, but sometimes I am uneasy at this common practice. First, the shepherds on the ground who best know the sheep ought to do the baptisms, but often pastors from the cities are flown in to baptize strangers whom they did not check (in my area 108 have been baptized in the broader region, most of them just parroting the "right" answers when asked by a city pastor who landed by heli for 2 hours and did not even know the names of the baptized people). Second, there is an unhealthy habit of thinking that being baptized by or prayed for by a popular pastor is better. I suspect this is old Melanesian thinking still hanging on in a superficially Christian culture. I have had folks trek for hours to be prayed for by me when there are local evangelists who can pray just as well as I, and in at least one case when I followed up on a patient and asked whether they had also traveled to get medicine as well, they replied that they did not need to take medicine, after all, I had already prayed for them.

-Also, on the spur of the moment, many more people decided to get baptized (many of them for the second time) in addition to these 50 who had previously been checked as appropriate candidates, in order to take part in the joy of this event. This is not a positive thing, though it may express their love towards this missionary.

-Also, by and large, the evangelical churches along the south coast are very weak. A combo of the Gospel and gov't pressure has stopped the warfare and there is a natural religiosity among Melanesians, but usally not very deep. There is an external identity of being Christian and an acknowledgement that some tribal warfare and some of the overt superstitious practices have waned, but I believe the vast majority of Melanesian "Christians" in the southern coastlands of Papua have still never been born again. The roots of the faith are very, very shallow. To be Papuan is to be Christian ("Of course I am a Christian - I am Papuan" I have had drunk people on the street tell me). Let us remember that Rwanda was a missionary success story until 1994 and 96% of that population claimed an external identity of evangelical before the massacres.

-The comment about the progress of the youth is overly optimistic. By and large, Papua is sinking into greater degrees of drunkenness, families continue to be broken and HIV in the province is the highest of any place throughout Indonesia. The church is struggling to efffectively reach the youth and many of the youth are being lost and the faith not truly passed on (in many areas the older folks who remember their dark pasts are the most faithful while the younger ones are less serious and often ungodly, even while possessing a religious pride that their own parents were among the first waves of believers in their areas).

Melanesia reminds me of Europe in the Middle Ages. Mostly the population consists of baptized pagans who think they are true Christians because they have taken on an external identity and lessened the warfare with their neighbors. And yet, for centuries in Europe, most of the masses remained woefully ignorant of the true Gospel. It wasn't until some of the monastic reforms and, finally, a Reformation, happened that many European "Christians" became Christians, indeed.

Pray that the same happens in Papua. And, consider coming out and deepening the shallow roots of the church. Papua is still unreached.

Praise God for the true core of believers that were raised up and are actively passing along the faith in the Sawi lands and throughout Papua. Praise God for the faithful ministry of Don and his family and for the many true believers raised up in that area. Praise God for the youth who seem to be holding fast to the faith of their parents.

Sorry for having mixed feelings about the state of the faith along the south coast of Papua.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Melanesia reminds me of Europe in the Middle Ages. Mostly the population consists of baptized pagans who think they are true Christians because they have taken on an external identity and lessened the warfare with their neighbors. And yet, for centuries in Europe, most of the masses remained woefully ignorant of the true Gospel. It wasn't until some of the monastic reforms and, finally, a Reformation, happened that many European "Christians" became Christians, indeed.

and

often pastors from the cities are flown in to baptize strangers whom they did not check (in my area 108 have been baptized in the broader region, most of them just parroting the "right" answers when asked by a city pastor who landed by heli for 2 hours and did not even know the names of the baptized people). Second, there is an unhealthy habit of thinking that being baptized by or prayed for by a popular pastor is better.

are both very intriguing. Can you elaborate on these two a little more?

 

[Zach]

Thanks for sharing, Pergamum. It's good to get a more accurate picture of what is going on.

 

[Pergamum]

Melanesia reminds me of Europe in the Middle Ages. Mostly the population consists of baptized pagans who think they are true Christians because they have taken on an external identity and lessened the warfare with their neighbors. And yet, for centuries in Europe, most of the masses remained woefully ignorant of the true Gospel. It wasn't until some of the monastic reforms and, finally, a Reformation, happened that many European "Christians" became Christians, indeed.

and

often pastors from the cities are flown in to baptize strangers whom they did not check (in my area 108 have been baptized in the broader region, most of them just parroting the "right" answers when asked by a city pastor who landed by heli for 2 hours and did not even know the names of the baptized people). Second, there is an unhealthy habit of thinking that being baptized by or prayed for by a popular pastor is better.

are both very intriguing. Can you elaborate on these two a little more?

Yes,

When the post-WWII missionaries entered the highlands of Papua they were met with much enthusiasm at both their message and also the goods from the outside world that were brought in. The missionaries did an extraordinary job and carefully prepared those initial candidates for baptism and did not prematurely baptize, though they did baptize en masse due to the great numbers of Dani coming to faith all at once.

I think the indigenous church members now probably remember the mass baptisms as a form of communal celebration and they forget the extensive preparation of the candidates which occurred before-hand. They forget the care in which the first missionaries took in instructing the people. Now, they long for those successes of the past and are trying to replicate them by lowering the standards of baptism (note that I am credobaptist).

Also,
In Melanesia there is much "Cargoism" - that is, people follow whichever religion that will most likely get them stuff. They will initiate special magical rites or else follow those who already seem to have the stuff (such as following the beliefs and lifestyles of the whites that appeared after WWII). Melanesia is known for its cargo-cults and even in the absence of blatant cargo cults, there is often an underlying influence of cargoistic thought-processes in the minds of the Melanesians. Thus, they are very outwardly religious, because they believe that following certain rites and practices is the path to advancement. Break the Sabbath and God will send a snake to bite you as you work in your garden. Sin and you get sick. Believe and God will bless you (the word "blessing" often meaning material blessing mainly).


So apologetics against atheism is not a big struggle here, and if you called for decisions you could have hundreds "make decisions" or "come to Christ" here - but will they become true disciples of Christ and not mere outward members of weak Melanesian churches and will their lives become more holy? Holy living and discipling one's own children and family is a rarity here. Even within the Melanesian indigenous church denominations I believe that a large percentage of the pastors are unsaved.

Animistic belief and a tendency towards cargoistic thinking still prevails among most.

So, while there was a true mass movement to Christ in these past decades, there was also a wave of followers who went along with the crowd and entered into an external identity of Christianity though lacking the new birth. An older pastor I know just told me this week, "These younger people don't remember how bad of sinners we were...they grew up in the church whereas we grew up killing each other....we are serious about our faith because we know the results of sin, but they are just following the crowds and are not truly thankful to God because they don't realize how bad sin is."

Now, those first believers' children are grown and they are having children and so the external aspects of Christianity are still strong and church membership is common among Melanesians, but so is blatant sin. Now, money from the government is pouring in for ill-conceived development schemes and so many Papuan pastors are jumping ship to go work for the government and the churches are often becoming more politically focused. Drunkenness and HIV are on the rise and sexual promiscuity is common.

But God has his Sheep here, too. And I am very privileged to work with some of the finest servants of God I have ever met - several who have nearly died taking the Gospel to hard areas.

Also, the church in Melanesia is still a young church. The church in Europe was planted and then limped along for over a thousand years with most church members in ignorance and the state of church leadership often in open scandal. In many parts of Melanesia the church is less than 3 generations old and is only now, in this generation, entering into some neglected regions (I just medivac'd a lady last week...she had never before seen an automobile).. Some evangelical orgs act as if the work is finished in some highland Papuan areas and a decline in missionary personnel has resulted - but the work is only now beginning as the initial shallow roots of the Gospel must be deepened. That is why I am always trying to recruit missionaries to come here, especially theology teachers. We need to deepen the roots lest the tree fall over as the winds of globalization hit the region powerfully.