NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

My trip to Indonesia was jam packed with excitement. So much so I have struggled to know how to write about it. So let me give you a run down on all that I got to enjoy, and some of the highlights along the way.

After leaving Toronto, I had to connect through Seoul on my way to Jakarta. I didn’t have alot of time, so before landing in Seoul, a stewardess allowed me to move to a seat closer to the plane’s exit so I would be one of the first ones off. Then as I was going through security, the airport staff came looking for me and wisked me off to the gate for my next flight. I felt like a VIP.

Once in Jakarta, I had a couple of days to get over jet lag before the rest of the team arrived. While waiting in Jakarta, I tagged along with a very outgoing and adventurous missionary who took me on the public bus system across the city to the National Monument.

The first two weeks of my time in Indonesia, I was the token white guy on a Korean missions team. There were 5 Koreans and yours truly. The aforementioned adventurous missionary was Jiseoung Lee. He and his family are part of the church planting team amongst the Sekadau people of West Kalimantan. Peter Yoon and his family are going to be starting the Missionary Training in Canada this coming August. Then there were three young men from Korea: Jay, Duane and Paul. Jay’s background is in the special forces in South Korea. Duane owns and manages a children’s clothing design business. Paul teaches computer-aided-design at a vocational school.

Once Peter and the guys from Korea arrived, we spent a couple days in the community where new missions to the field spend their first 1-2 years learning the Indonesian language and culture. We learned about NTM’s approach to tribal church planting and how large the need is. Maps were shown of where we have missionaries already, and now many more tribes are waiting for missionaries.

We also visited one of the seven wonders of the world, Borobudur.

Then we headed off to West Kalimantan to visit 3 different tribal groups: the Sekadau, Semandang, and Gerai.

Sekadau Tribe

To get into the Sekadau tribe, we took a Cessna 209 on a 50 minute flight into the jungle. This was super exciting. So much so that even though I had taken Gravol/Anti-Mo, my looking around with boyish excitement ended up getting me sick. Thankfully I didn’t heave, and was able to sleep it off once on the ground again.

During our 4 nights in the Sekadau tribe, we attended churches services in three villages where we shared our testimonies and did some special music. We sang “I have decided to follow Jesus” with verses in 3 different languages: English, Korean, and Sekadau.

Semandang Tribe

From the Sekadau tribe we flew to the Semandang tribe. But the airstrip we landed on was not in the same village as the church we were visiting, so we had to take motorbike taxis (ojeks) through the jungle. We got caught in a downpour! After carefully negotiating huge washouts in slippery red clay, we turned on to a newly paved road. We were going to so fast I thought my shirt was going to dry – except that it was raining so hard I had to use my ojek driver as a human shield to protect myself from the sheets of rain that felt like bullets.

The one night we spent in the Semandang tribe was the start of a large Bible conference. Hundreds of people from about 15 different tribes from across Indonesia had gathered for this conference and to dedicate a new church building.

As we were heading to bed, Jiseoung mentioned that the keynote speaker for the following day was not there, and that the conference conveners may ask Peter or myself to preach in the morning. Whether it was Jiseoung’s style or Indonesian style I am not sure, but we were getting used to being ready to teach in season and out of season. So we both went to bed planning to teach the next morning. It turned out that another missionary was cornered and asked to teach, so we though we were off the hook. Halfway through the morning Peter and I slipped out to pack up our clothes and prepare to move to the next tribe. Wrong move. Jiseoung came running with a message: they had just announced that we were going to be sharing. So we grabbed our Bibles and headed back to the church where we were both given an opportunity to share from the Word.

Gerai Tribe

After lunch we hired some ojeks to taxi us to the Gerai tribe where we shared in another church service and spent the night. While walking around the village with one of the church elders, we asked about the state of the church. The elder explained that when the missionaries phased out of their leadership responsibilities, giving the responsibility of shepherding the flock to capable men from the Gerai tribe, that attendance at the church was cut in half. When we asked about why so many people stopped coming to church, he responded with a very profound answer: the missionaries had become like gods to the people. With the missionaries no longer there, there was no reason to come to church anymore.

Lauje Bible Dedication

Having done all that we had planned on doing in West Kalimantan, we headed back to Jakarta. Jay, Duane and Paul headed back to Seoul, but Peter and I just transferred to another flight for Central Sulawesi. After one night at Alan and Rachal Whatley’s home, Peter and I, along with Shane and Karen Whatley, took the helicopter into the Lauje tribe. The rest of our group went by road.

As was customary, I took my gravel, maybe a bit too much. I remember taking off, and then someone woke me up when we were about to land 40 minutes later. At least I was awake for the exciting parts of the heli ride!

We spend two nights in Laujeland, and were there for Easter Sunday. Now it doesn’t take much to make Easter Sunday special. He is alive! But this Easter Sunday was extra special because over 600 Lauje had gathered to receive their own copies of the New Testament. And this Easter Sunday was extra extra special, because after the Bible dedication service, 25 people were baptized in the river!

While we were there, one of the Bible teachers from an outreach deep in the mountains shared a story with Barrie Williamson, the Bible translator. This Bible teacher explained how a man from a neighbouring tribe had come to him asking for a missionary to come and teach them the Word of God! New Tribes Mission has over 100 of these invitation to bring the Gospel to lost people – we just need more missionaries!

To get a well-rounded experience, Peter and I took the road home. So instead of a quick trip in the heli, we set out on foot. We walked for several hours before getting picked up by ojeks, which took us further down the trail towards the coast where we hired a taxi to drive us back to Alan and Rachel’s, a several hour drive!

Korea

Early the next morning Peter and myself started our trip back to Canada. On the way we spent 3 days in Korea with Peter’s family. Again I was treated like royalty, as Peter and Jay took me to the War Memorial of Korea, among other places.

Here are some pictures from inside Indonesia.

The Cessna

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