By Dale Goodson, Mar 1, 2010
arly in 2009, John Kent and I met to discuss the work in Papua New Guinea—in particular, the work in the upper Sepik. He told me of his burden to send a missionary to work in Tipas where Jack Sample worked back in 1994 and 1995. I told John of my burden for Ama. The Adventist Church started mission work in Ama back in the 1960s but soon had to pull out. AFM sent the Wilkinson family to work there in the early 90s, but sickness soon cut their ministry short.
Which project should come first? John was convinced it should be Tipas. Then the evening after our discussion, he got a call from Sam Kewa, the worker at May River, saying he had just gone to Ama for a visit. When villagers there learned he was an Adventist, they crowded around and insisted on a camp meeting right then and there. He agreed and immediately launched a week of meetings. About 200 people attended. When Sam left, they begged him to send a permanent missionary.
When John told me about this phone call, we concluded that, while Tipas would be our first target, God definitely wanted Ama on the agenda, too. We each continued praying for the areas that burdened our hearts. Soon we found skilled national workers, Unia and Julie Api, willing to work at Tipas, and fundraising for their support began.
I recently went to PNG and met with Pastor Leslie of the Sepik Adventist Mission. Together we traveled up the mighty Sepik River to visit Tipas and Ama. Tipas was our first stop. We hoped to find landowners and negotiate for land where the Api family could build a home. I also wanted to see if their ministry would be welcome. God had a special surprise in store for me.
Almost the first person we met in Tipas was a man named David. When he found out why we were there, he got very excited. Fifteen years ago, when Jack Sample was working in Tipas, David was living hundreds of miles downstream with a crocodile-hide trader. The trader was an Adventist and encouraged David to study with him. Eventually, David was baptized. David wanted to share his new faith with his family, but they were hundreds of miles upstream in Tipas—a long way to paddle a canoe.
One day, David met a foreigner loading a big boat on the Sepik River. They chatted a bit, and David found out the man was heading upstream. Curious, David asked where he was going. “Tipas,” the man answered.
“Really?” David responded, very interested now. “So, what kind of work do you do?”
“I am a missionary.”
“From what church?”
“Seventh-day Adventist.”
David could hardly believe his ears. The man on the boat, AFM missionary Jack Sample, eventually invited David to go with him to Tipas and help him. David eagerly agreed. Jack gave David some books to read, and they studied and worshiped together. David was happy, but soon Jack decided to leave Tipas. Before he left, he encouraged David to stay and continue working for the salvation of his people.
David tried his best, but things weren’t easy. Nobody wanted to listen to him or take his ministry seriously. The Tipas youth were especially difficult. Discouraged, David finally decided that, in order to preserve his own spiritual life, he needed to go back and live with his friend, the crocodile-hide trader. He packed his books into a box for storage and then headed downstream, away from his beloved people.
Praise God, the story doesn’t end here. Remember, during this time, John Kent and others began feeling a burden for Tipas. While they prayed, a Tipas youth broke into David’s abandoned room and discovered his box of books. Curious, he pulled one out. He had learned to read a little in school, but books were in short supply. Slowly, painstakingly, he started to read. The book was a series of Bible studies. As he read, it began to dawn on him that everything David had been trying to tell them was true. Salvation was available in Christ. The Sabbath was indeed God’s holy day. Too excited to keep this to himself, the young man began sharing with his friends. Soon, they formed a little Bible study group.
It wasn’t long before the young men who had made life hard for David were wishing he would come back. Together, they wrote him a letter apologizing for how they had treated him and asking him to come back and study with them. They gave the letter to someone heading downstream and then waited. And waited. No reply. Why? Because when David received their letter, he was convinced the troublemakers were trying to toy with him, so he threw it away.
Again, the young men wrote another letter and sent it downriver. Again, David received it and dismissed it
as a hoax.
John Kent and others kept praying for the people of Tipas, and the Holy Spirit kept up the pressure on the young men’s hearts. The little group set off in search of David, and eventually they found him. David could hardly believe his eyes. What a difference God had made in their lives! When they appealed for him to return to Tipas and teach them, he agreed.
David didn’t feel very confident as he headed back to Tipas. He wasn’t trained for evangelism, and he didn’t know much more than what his books taught. The books had been written in another country and didn’t deal with the cultural issues of his people. He was happy to worship with the young men, but they desperately needed a real missionary who could answer their questions and clear away all their cultural confusion. David prayed for help and then told the young men they needed to build a church. When it was done, they would begin studying.
The Tipas community couldn’t help but notice the difference in the village youth after they began reading David’s books, and they quickly granted the request for land to build a church. When I arrived, the church was half done. When I told David that Unia and Julie Api—real missionaries—were coming to study with him and his group, he could hardly contain himself. Neither could I. As I write, just remembering the story brings tears to my eyes and gives me goose bumps.
Our last visit in the May River area was to Ama. It was a difficult journey that took all day. The river was low, and we had to cut our way through several log jams along the way. When we landed near Ama, village women met us and helped carry our bags over the muddy trail.
The first man to greet us in Ama was an elder named Michael. He immediately walked us over to a brand new Seventh-day Adventist church. It was cobbled together with scrap iron, leaves, and an assortment of other bush materials, but it was more or less water-resistant, had pews to sit on and sported a raised podium and pulpit. Michael assured me there was a healthy, faithful group meeting there regularly.
I hadn’t been expecting this at all. If there was already an established church in Ama, did they really need a missionary to come?
Michael explained that back in the 1960s, the Adventist Church went to Ama and built an airstrip so they could provide support for a missionary. The missionary didn’t stay long, but the people learned enough that they came to consider themselves Adventist Christians. They wanted to be ready when Christ returned. They waited for another missionary to come. Decades passed. Eventually, a group of Bible translators from another denomination arrived and translated the Bible into the local language. Michael was a young boy at the time and helped with the translation.
Michael’s father was getting old. He had waited his entire life for the Adventist missionaries to return, and they never had. What would become of his boy? Solemnly, he told Michael he had a major choice to make. “I am an Adventist,” said the old man, “and I will die an Adventist. What are you going to be? You will have to make that decision. Will you be an Adventist as I am, or will you be something different? You need to make a choice.” Not too long after this, Michael’s father died.
Michael was still wondering what to do as the Bible translators prepared to leave. One of them took Michael aside. “We won’t be needing the old roofing iron on our building anymore,” he said. “Why don’t you take it and build an Adventist Church? Build the church and then begin preaching.”
“But I am not an Adventist!” Michael countered. “I don’t even know what they believe. How can I preach in an Adventist Church?”
The wise translator replied, “Just read the Bible and teach people what it says. Then send a message to the Adventist Church and ask for a pastor. When he comes, he will teach you the rest.”
When Sam Kewa showed up and held the impromptu camp meeting last year, Michael was inspired to move forward. “So that is what I did,” he told me. “I built the church. I requested a pastor. I am reading the Bible and teaching people what it says until he gets here. I hope he comes soon.”
So when will the real missionary come to Ama—the missionary they have been waiting for almost 50 years? A few days after I returned from PNG, John Lello and his wife stepped forward. “We will go,” they said.
If you feel the Holy Spirit impressing you to support the work in Tipas or Ama, please send your donations to AFM marked “May River—Tipas,” or “John Lello—Ama.” The Lord is working mightily!
