Under His Wings

Every once in a while, something happens that reminds vividly how much I must depend on God's upholding power to make it from day to day--especially while flying different national airlines.

This morning, I borded my flight in Singpore and picked up the newspaper only to be greeted with this picture of a Lion Air plane that had missed it's landing and crashed into the shallow waters off the Bali International Airport.

What made the story doubly impactful for me is that I was flying the exact same kind of aircraft on Lion Air the very day this incident happened. Departing my daughter's home in Papua, we made several stops on the way to Jakarta, one being very close to where this incident happened. The story is even more tragic when you read that the plane was a brand new 737-800 New Generation delievered to Indonesia just last month--again, just like the one I was on that day.

The good part of the story, however, is that because of crashing in such a shallow area, all of the passengers were evacuated safely, although a few had some minor injuries.

Last month, in Congo, Al Hawthorne and I were forced to fly on the local CAA airline which also had sustained a cargo plane crash the week before.

All these experineces are valuable simply for the one reason of never taking for granted our need to trust in God's sustaining grace every step of the way--especially in international travel.

Papua Perspective

I’ve just completed four days of very special time with my daughter’s family in Meruake, Indonesia, located on the far south coast of the island of Papua. When you’re grandkids live 7500 miles away from you and it takes four days and six airline flights to get there, you can understand why every minute together is so special. From building rocket darts and having toy tea parties to watching Winnie the Pooh and reading bedtime stories, I did my best to cram as much grandpa experience as possible into this short time with Juile, Tom and their three kids, Christopher, Elizabeth and Brennan.

As I now wing my way homeward from these two weeks in Indonesia, I can’t help but wonder, however, about the current state of the church in Papua reported to me during my visit. Without question, the “hot button” of the mission world these days is CPM—Church Planting Movements. These rapidly multiplying  communities of churches are indeed exciting trends to witness in various areas of the least-Christian world.  But what happens to these CPM areas 20, 30 or even 60 years later?  Is Papua a possible example of one answer to that question?

Before 1960, Papua (then known as Irian Jaya) was a wild, untouched land with hardly a single Christian among its indigenous tribal populations. But within a few short years, missionary endeavor produced one of the most dramatic church planting movements in recorded history.  By the end of the 1980s, churches of multiple denominations could be found everywhere and the last remaining untouched of the island were being systematically reached by the first generation of indigenous missionaries. So successful was this evangelistic effort that by 2000 most Western missionaries felt their job was done and were leaving Papua to be guided by new national leadership.

(Curtesy of Google Maps)

However, what I’ve learned now is how much of a reversal  this positive trend has taken in the past few years. Sadly, the Papuan church today is known more for its materialism, infighting, lack of strong leadership and inability to positively reach out to non-Christian neighbors. Thanks in part to a large gold mine that has flooded the economy with wealth and a huge number of Islamic-background transmigrants moving in from Java, Papua today seems once again more defined as a mission field than a mission force.

One example of this was hearing about several Bible schools and seminaries with student bodies that included many who had never made a profession of faith before let alone understood what it meant to lead others to Christ. An even sadder story was learning about the rampant pornography now flooding the local culture. A friend who has lived in Papua for years said she was shocked to discover how much porn is normal TV content in most homes, even for housewives and young girls. Most people now want to buy their cell phone already pre-loaded with “the stuff” as porn is called in the local shops.

My perception is that many mission groups have been somewhat blindsided by this turn of events in Papua and are now scrambling to find meaningful ways to help their national church partners regain the solid ground they had twenty-some years ago.

 Does every CPM need to have this sort of future? Of course not. But what is today being experienced in Papua should be a sober reminder that Christ’s Great Commission to disciple the nations must be a life-long commitment and not just a flash-in-the-pan missional strategy.

No Missed Turns

This little proverb has been at the center of our discussions here at the Indonesia manager’s conference for Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Depicting the need to make course corrections when the environment changes, this theme has helped us discuss how MAF can adapt to the new state of global missions. From new technology, like glass cockpits and diesel fuel aircraft engines to alarming negative trends in the state of the national church, MAF-Indonesia has plenty of reasons why it needs to think carefully how to apply its service ministry in the years ahead.

Thanks to a generous Christian Indonesian businessman who owns this hotel and offered free rooms and meals to MAF, we’re enjoying a lovely venue in an upscale suburb of the capital city of Jakarta. But a heavy schedule with long hours of discussion and dialog have precluded much opportunity to try out the swimming pool in the tropical gardens or the world-class golf course next door.

My particular role has been to facilitate several sessions on program effectiveness and relevancy. To do that, I’ve proposed to MAF leadership a “strategic framework” that involves the three contexts of Kingdom Effectiveness, Cultural Relevancy, and Organizational Fit. By asking key questions from each context, field programs can quite easily evaluate their various ministry thrusts, such as air transport, IT support or radio communications. So far, I’m encouraged by the positive response I’ve received from everyone participating in my sessions, even the MAF wives. The next challenge will be to turn these discussions into practical evaluation tools and processes.

For sure, our dynamic world environment is forcing all sorts of new bends in the road for world missions. But if MAF leaders keep a sharp eye on their course, as they are doing at this conference, they can be assured no bend will be the end of their ministry service any time soon.

Reflections from a Flat Seat

 After an intense trip like this one to Central Africa, I find the flight home is always the best. This time, United has made it doubly special by giving me a complementary upgrade to Business Class—one that has those cool seats that actually recline all the way into a flat bed! What better place to jot down some final reflections on this trip?

Discussing organizational development

• Traveling with Al Hawthorne on behalf of Wycliffe Associates has given me even greater respect for the incredibly important role Scripture translation must play in the healthy development of a national church. Unfortunately, Congolese leaders have admitted that recent focus by many missions on primarily planting new churches has significantly sidelined the priority of Bible translation. I leave this trip more convinced than ever that the two ministry thrusts must work hand-in-hand if long-term sustainability of a strong national church can ever be expected.

• After presenting my seminar on Board Governance to one of the national Bible translation organizations, I’m impressed by how much emerging African leaders truly want to learn for themselves better methods of managing their ministries.  The response I got was not just a polite nod of thanks, but a genuine hunger for truly wanting to learn how to organize and function more effectively. This was confirmed when I shared the seminar outline with other national Bible translation groups and immediately received invitations to return and present it to their organizations.

• More than ever, African ministry leaders are facing the stark reality that funding from the West is no longer something they can depend upon as they did in the past. And, more than ever, I see the need for them to grasp a completely new perspective on Biblical stewardship that could empower them to successfully manage their own fund-raising efforts. Despite perceptions of local churches being too poor to help, I’m convinced there is much more hidden potential in the “widows’ mite” from African churches than expected. This has birthed in me a desire to prepare a new training seminar on Biblical stewardship and local fund raising specifically to offer African ministry leaders. I hope to have something ready to offer in both French and English in the next three to four months.

With veteran WEC missionary, Dr. Phil Wood

• It was amazing to bump into so many friends from the past on this trip. What surprised me was how many of them were folks I met and even flew around DRC back in the early 1980s.  Some of them were veteran missionaries with WEC like Dr. Phil Wood and Maud Kells. Others were Wycliffe Bible translators like Tim Raymond and Bettina Gottschlich. Walking through the big SIL center in Addis Ababa, I was introduced to a key visiting Wycliffe instructor doing seminars on leadership development, only to find out that Carol McGee was also a former missionary from Zaire days who I knew and used to fly to and from her remote mission station. Without doubt, the emerging national ministries I’ve visited are being built up on the shoulders of these faithful, veteran missionary servants.

Well, the flight attendants have just come around with tablecloths, so I guess it’s time to raise my flat-bed seat up a bit and enjoy the shrimp-salmon appetizer they’re offering to begin the four-course meal that comes with this Business Class upgrade. 

I know, I know… it’s all part of suffering for the Lord!

Unlikely Missionaries

One of the very obvious things I’ve seen here in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the huge presence of UN military forces. Every single airport we’ve landed at, from Kinshasa to Gemena to Isiro to Bunia has its UN compound complete with an impressive array of aircraft, helicopters, and armored personnel vehicles.  Thanks to all the rebel activity during the past several years and a totally ineffective national army, UN forces have had plenty to keep busy with in helping maintain national stability.

But what was not so obvious to me is how these UN forces are also functioning as de facto Muslim missionaries. Because the primary country supplying UN troops to the DRC is Pakistan, it has been natural for themto seek ways to promote their personal faith. In locations where they have been stationed for the past couple of years, new mosques are sprouting up along with other Islamic-backed institutions like schools and hospitals funded significantly by these Pakistani UN soldiers. MAF pilot, Dave Jacobsson says that before the UN came to the city of Bunia, a predominantly Christian city in the northeast, public calls to worship from mosque minarets was nonexistent. Now, starting at 4:30 AM and throughout the day, you can hear them loudly broadcast from multiple locations around town.

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On an much darker note, local Congolese are discovering that many of UN troops are engaged in illegal smuggling. Gold and precious metals such as cobalt needed in cell phone manufacture, is regularly being transported over to Uganda or Rwanda in official vehicles normally exempt from the border inspections. Just last week two UN trucks were caught doing just that near the town of Goma causing a minor riot and further infuriating the local population.

I guess just because the official color of the UN military is white doesn’t always mean they’re the “good guys!”

Global Tracker

 My fellow traveler, Al Hawthorne, the Africa Area Director for Wycliffe Associates, has been testing a very cool device on this journey we’re taking together across Africa.  It’s a unit called inReach made by the Delorme company and designed to track and communicate with folks anywhere in the world in case of an emergency.

Using both GPS and satellite communication technology, once you turn it on, it will send a signal every few minutes to a central location giving the precise coordinates of your position.  Then, if necessary, it also allows you to make simple two-way text messaging so you can indicate if you’re OK or in need of some kind of urgent assistance.  All this can happen remotely without the need of any cell phone network or Internet connection.

Just for fun, Al turned the unit on as we were taking our MAF flights across the northern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Later, he was able to retrieve the location information that had been stored on a website to see exactly where we had been. Here’s an image from that website showing our flights over the past few days. (Isn't it great to see that MAF pilots can still fly in a straight line?!)

For more information about InReach, check out the following website: http://www.inreachdelorme.com

Impressive Initiatives

ACOTBA-SUBO, CITBA, ECG—all impressive acronyms that I’m learning about on this trip across the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each are related to efforts to complete translations of the Bible for the many tribal languages of the country that do not have one.

What has been interesting to me is that all of the new effort on translation projects have come not from the traditional Western-oriented organizations like Wycliffe Bible Translators or SIL but from relatively new national agencies. ACOTBA-SUBO is one of those focused on the northwestern part of the country. Undaunted by grueling logistic and economic difficulties common to this part of DRC, they pressed ahead to start four new projects funded totally by the tithes of their own staff! Interviewing director Bolobo Obed, I was able to gather this graphic representation on my iPad about just where these projects are located. The blue markers on this map indicate existing language projects started by Wycliffe missionaries years ago. The red markers are the brand new projects and the green ones are future projects they hope to start as soon as more funds can be procured.

Some 470 miles (and a four hour MAF flight in a Cessna 206) to the east is the jungle city of Isiro, the region historically called by C. T. Studd, the “heart of Africa.” It is also the home of CITBA, another new national Bible translation organization. This effort is a collaboration of three Protestant church groups and three Catholic diocese, all committed to seeing the Bible completed in the tribal languages of the region. Some of the member church groups have donated buildings and property for CITBA to begin work, which now consists of five separate teams focused on translation into such languages as Mayogo and Mangbetu.

Finally, the East Congo Group (ECG) of SIL located in the border town of Bunia is transforming itself more and more from a traditional Wycliffe translation team into a support and training service for other national translation initiatives. Working in conjunction with the Univeristy Shalom Bunia (USB) they are providing technical training to a significant number of Congolese learning the ins and outs of becoming a “mother tongue translators.”

It’s been fun making this trip on behalf of Wycliffe Associates and learning how our logistics and organizational training support can enable these national translation efforts to make new Bibles a reality for those tribes that have never had one before.