Pacific

Vanuatu

From Mission Director Rod Matthews:

Invercargill, New Zealand, member and master builder, Les Evans, a member and masterbuilder from Invercargill, New Zealand, led a group from New Zealand to Vanuatu from May 30 to June 12 with the goal of completing the community room for our Rory Congregation. You will enjoy his report of working in a developing area of the Pacific. He wrote:

The short-term mission to Vanuatu was to construct a workshop and finish the [church] community room in the village of Navili, Rory, Malekula. The team of Les and Kaye Evans and Liz Bradshaw set off with the help of the New Zealand churches to establish the workshop for the making of furniture by the local people to sell to the public.

Many of the tools were to be purchased and sent to the island, ready for our arrival. Plans were laid months in advance to allow for the inevitable delays that can be experienced in the islands. However, several new problems arose. The first was the money transfer taking longer than usual and William Davies (our church elder in Santo) also had an urgent medical situation that required him and his family to travel to Fiji at the most crucial time of the planning phase.

As I’ve said several times now, we have never had the same problem twice, and there are still enough to go around for several more trips. Distance and communication are the most frustrating challenges that we encounter and no amount of preparation from far away will ever overcome this completely.

The concrete mixer was sent early but never arrived. This was one of the two machines (the chainsaw being the other) that we needed to make the foundations and the block work to start the construction of the workshop. During the last day of work on the island, after many calls during the final week, we finally found that the ship that had the concrete mixer on board had been “arrested” by the Maritime Authority for safety breaches! It would only arrive in the village after our departure!

All the concrete work and block making had to be done by hand, and the chainsaws were not ready for shipping, so a local one was sought. This one, however, was not in a good mechanical condition and needed repairs. As the parts were not available, we were not able to saw the timber necessary for the roof or to make scaffolding to lay the uppermost block rows.

Two major obstacles on the island are communication and transport. We have an interpreter who can speak both English and the local Bislama (William Davies). This doesn’t remove the problems, but at least we know about them sooner! In the past, with much repetition of “yes,” “no” and “no savvy,” and everyone talking more slowly for understanding, problems were no fewer and it took longer for them to be realized.

Transporting the sand from the beach to the work area was our next mission. The sand arrived slowly but steadily, and most of the sand for making blocks to complete the job arrived just before we left. The last blocks we were laying were extremely green and required careful handling. On a good day the concrete blocks were being made at a rate of about 60 per day with the last day making 120. Liz was able, when a good supply of sand and blocks were available, to lay up to 120 blocks in a day. The workshop needed about 450 blocks, and the community room took another 130.

The village has waited years for a piped water supply and this has been promised [by government authorities] every time we visited. The church built a concrete tank, mainly for drinking and cooking water, but this year the water supply arrived in the village the day we did! Running water is now potentially available to every house in the district of Rory. The water tank will still be used for drinking and reserve supply. The pipeline has been funded by the New Zealand Government.

One night when it was time to go home to our accommodation, the taxi didn’t arrive, and when we rang him we found that the police had “arrested” his utility truck because he had failed to pay his road tax!

The toilets didn’t work properly where we stayed and would not fill unless the center pipe [inside the cistern] was held down. We spent quite some time every day with our hands in the toilet just to get it to work! And that of course only worked when we actually had running water.

Having got the work to a certain stage we expect that the locals will be able to continue with the community room and make the remaining bricks for the workshop. When the new chainsaw arrives they will be able to cut the timber for both the community room walls and the roof of the workshop. Some members from adjoining villages also pitched in to help while we were there and the children stayed home from school for a few days so they could be of help – which they were.

As we leave the village the community is facing an added problem. The water supply that has been so long coming is in danger of becoming the center of a dispute [between other villages]. We pray that any dispute will be dealt with properly and the supply will remain running for all to use.

The village people thanked the New Zealand churches very much for the contribution made toward the construction of the new building. The building team would like to also express our thanks and appreciation for the assistance and prayer support. We also expressed our thanks to the people of the village for their hospitality and love during our time with them.

Much was done but more is needed yet and another visit to complete the task is now in the planning so we can continue to assist the local people in becoming more and more self-supporting.

Asia

Pakistan

From Rod Matthews:
Near the end of May, there was a natural disaster of immense proportions in north-eastern Pakistan near the border with Kashmir. After heavy rain, a massive landslide in a gorge blocked the fast-flowing Hunza River and created a growing lake. As the waters built up behind the rock slide (see picture), they flooded the valley upstream, entering low-lying areas and inundating many villages. Tens of thousands of people left their homes as entire towns disappeared under the water, and crops were submerged. According to initial disaster assessment reports, around 30,000 affected people have been displaced.
On May 25, our ministry partner in Pakistan, Dr. Muqaddam Zia, reported that the Pakistan Army had established 30 relief camps since the people had lost everything and food was in short supply. But the numbers needing help outstripped what the authorities and humanitarian organizations could provide.
Dr. Zia said at the time, “We are making plans to launch a relief project with items including food, milk, tents and generators for the affected/displaced people of Hunza. There are hundreds of children in open air without any shelter and food, etc. and have been at a high risk. Pakistan’s government is already under fire for its handling of crippling power cuts, its struggle to contain a Taliban insurgency and efforts to strengthen a sluggish economy. It can ill-afford a catastrophe like widespread flooding. These areas are one of the most unreached and least evangelized areas of the world. This relief project will also open doors for the gospel. Please join us in prayer and if possible, please sow a seed in this initiative. Any seed, small or large, will certainly help us launch this initiative.”
In response, we sent him A$1,000 from our CarePac emergency fund to help provide materials and supplies for his relief expedition, which left Faisalabad for the Hunza area on May 30.

India

Rod Matthews wrote:
Dr. Piria Suntharam, a church member, and his wife Banu Priya, run a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children in the rural village of Kalthanipadi in the state of Tamil Nadu.
In early May this year, they were riding a motorcycle in a remote village when another cycle hit them, injuring them severely. They both suffered head and leg injuries, but had to look after themselves because there was no transport or hospital nearby. Dr. Suntharam took action to stop the bleeding until help arrived. Both spent time in hospital and have recovered from their head injuries, but Mrs. Suntharam’s severe leg and foot injury is still giving her problems. It took a three-hour operation to reconstruct her ligaments and dislocated toes. The healing is slow, and she still suffers pain and walks with difficulty. She may yet need skin grafts. Unfortunately, the healing is complicated by diabetes. Mrs. Suntharam would be encouraged to know that others are praying for her complete healing.
The home and orphanage cares for 40 boys and girls who cannot be supported by their parents for various reasons. Not only do the Suntharams have the responsibility of nurturing the children, but there are onerous laws to comply with because unscrupulous people have tried to take advantage of orphans.
The government requires all orphanages to be licensed annually after an incident in the same state in which an orphanage was found to be selling orphans. After a lot of paperwork, official recognition of this facility should be complete within weeks.
There is another government requirement that an orphanage must have a six-foot high compound wall around the property to protect the people inside. To construct such a wall around this rural property is estimated to cost 1.5 million rupees (about US$32,000 or A$36,500). Dr. Suntharam and the orphanage are highly regarded in the local community, and with the help of a very supportive local Member of the Legislative Assembly, he has gained some government assistance for infrastructure development to cover over half the costs. Something that seemed to be outside the realm of possibility now seems feasible as long the authorities permit a reasonable time frame for construction.
The church in Australia funded the construction of a septic tank, but work has been delayed due to unseasonal rain. Just below the soil level, there is rock from which a pit had to be chipped out to allow for the tank. But groundwater seeps from the bottom and sides of the pit when it rains. So when it is completed, the tank has to keep some water in and other water out. The toilets are completed but cannot be used until the septic tank is completed.
Our congregation in Bangalore, pastored by Joe D’Costa, and some of the teachers at the school where Joanna D’Costa teaches have donated money, books, stationery, clothes, stainless steel plates, toys, mosquito nets and other materials to the orphanage. Joe also gave Dr. Suntharam an old but functioning computer which his son, Mark, set up. Dr. Suntharam and the children were thrilled because it offers them new educational opportunities beyond what is available at the nearby school that the young people attend.

 PakistanFrom Rod Matthews:
Near the end of May, there was a natural disaster of immense proportions in north-eastern Pakistan near the border with Kashmir. After heavy rain, a massive landslide in a gorge blocked the fast-flowing Hunza River and created a growing lake. As the waters built up behind the rock slide (see picture), they flooded the valley upstream, entering low-lying areas and inundating many villages. Tens of thousands of people left their homes as entire towns disappeared under the water, and crops were submerged. According to initial disaster assessment reports, around 30,000 affected people have been displaced.
On May 25, our ministry partner in Pakistan, Dr. Muqaddam Zia, reported that the Pakistan Army had established 30 relief camps since the people had lost everything and food was in short supply. But the numbers needing help outstripped what the authorities and humanitarian organizations could provide.
Dr. Zia said at the time, “We are making plans to launch a relief project with items including food, milk, tents and generators for the affected/displaced people of Hunza. There are hundreds of children in open air without any shelter and food, etc. and have been at a high risk. Pakistan’s government is already under fire for its handling of crippling power cuts, its struggle to contain a Taliban insurgency and efforts to strengthen a sluggish economy. It can ill-afford a catastrophe like widespread flooding. These areas are one of the most unreached and least evangelized areas of the world. This relief project will also open doors for the gospel. Please join us in prayer and if possible, please sow a seed in this initiative. Any seed, small or large, will certainly help us launch this initiative.”
In response, we sent him A$1,000 from our CarePac emergency fund to help provide materials and supplies for his relief expedition, which left Faisalabad for the Hunza area on May 30.

India

Rod Matthews wrote:
Dr. Piria Suntharam, a church member, and his wife Banu Priya, run a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children in the rural village of Kalthanipadi in the state of Tamil Nadu.
In early May this year, they were riding a motorcycle in a remote village when another cycle hit them, injuring them severely. They both suffered head and leg injuries, but had to look after themselves because there was no transport or hospital nearby. Dr. Suntharam took action to stop the bleeding until help arrived. Both spent time in hospital and have recovered from their head injuries, but Mrs. Suntharam’s severe leg and foot injury is still giving her problems. It took a three-hour operation to reconstruct her ligaments and dislocated toes. The healing is slow, and she still suffers pain and walks with difficulty. She may yet need skin grafts. Unfortunately, the healing is complicated by diabetes. Mrs. Suntharam would be encouraged to know that others are praying for her complete healing.
The home and orphanage cares for 40 boys and girls who cannot be supported by their parents for various reasons. Not only do the Suntharams have the responsibility of nurturing the children, but there are onerous laws to comply with because unscrupulous people have tried to take advantage of orphans.
The government requires all orphanages to be licensed annually after an incident in the same state in which an orphanage was found to be selling orphans. After a lot of paperwork, official recognition of this facility should be complete within weeks.
There is another government requirement that an orphanage must have a six-foot high compound wall around the property to protect the people inside. To construct such a wall around this rural property is estimated to cost 1.5 million rupees (about US$32,000 or A$36,500). Dr. Suntharam and the orphanage are highly regarded in the local community, and with the help of a very supportive local Member of the Legislative Assembly, he has gained some government assistance for infrastructure development to cover over half the costs. Something that seemed to be outside the realm of possibility now seems feasible as long the authorities permit a reasonable time frame for construction.
The church in Australia funded the construction of a septic tank, but work has been delayed due to unseasonal rain. Just below the soil level, there is rock from which a pit had to be chipped out to allow for the tank. But groundwater seeps from the bottom and sides of the pit when it rains. So when it is completed, the tank has to keep some water in and other water out. The toilets are completed but cannot be used until the septic tank is completed.
Our congregation in Bangalore, pastored by Joe D’Costa, and some of the teachers at the school where Joanna D’Costa teaches have donated money, books, stationery, clothes, stainless steel plates, toys, mosquito nets and other materials to the orphanage. Joe also gave Dr. Suntharam an old but functioning computer which his son, Mark, set up. Dr. Suntharam and the children were thrilled because it offers them new educational opportunities beyond what is available at the nearby school that the young people attend.

Update on Sri Lanka from Mohan Jayasekera

There is another exciting development with the Sinhala translation of the Discipleship 101 course in Sri Lanka. My cousin, Rev. Lokendra Abhayaratne, helped us coordinate the translating and printing. The book was published with the help of the Colombo Theological Seminary. The Principal, Ivor Poobalan, a long-time friend of mine, was very supportive and helpful in the project. The book is now a required text for students in the Christian doctrines class at CTS. They have sold over 500 copies through the Seminary bookshop.

. .

We are currently engaged in translating the material and publishing it in the other local language in Sri Lanka – Tamil. It should be done by November.Last year, CTS asked me to do a two-day workshop on Trinitarian Theology for their students and invited pastors. It was a sobering and humbling experience to be invited for something like this. It was well received. We are building a wonderful working relationship with them that we had never dreamed of. This is much like our experience in Nepal and Pakistan as well. Often Rod Matthews and I shake our heads and wonder what is going on. We are thankful and excited that we have the privilege to participate in what Jesus is doing in ways we would have never dreamed of by ourselves.

 The bishop of the Anglican church in Sri Lanka has requested permission to print our Trinitarian booklet for all his pastors. We have developed a good working relationship with him through my cousin. We helped them in many Tsunami relief and rebuilding projects.

 On another note, SriLankan Airlines has just signed another contract with our church owned and operated school in Sri Lanka, Worldwide Educational Institute, to teach English to 60 of their new recruits in the next several months. This is the fourth time that they have asked for the services of our school in this regard.

 Working as a Christian church in the third world has many challenges and obstacles. But often we are shown that Jesus invites us to participate in what he is doing for humanity in opportunities such as these. It is a blessing and privilege.

 Thailand

From Rod Matthews:

After visiting Myanmar [see last week’s Update], Malaysian pastor Wong Mein Kong and I flew to Thailand to visit our pastor and congregation of Karen people in a refugee camp near the Myanmar border. This camp is one of seven along the border holding approximately 140,000 refugees. Many are political refugees, fleeing the conflict between the Burmese army and the Karen across the border in Myanmar.

In recent years, the United Nations has worked at resettling many refugee families in new homes overseas, but those leaving the camps have been replaced by others arriving, many of whom are economic refugees. You can’t blame people for wishing for a better life for their families and children, but it does complicate the process for the UN in determining priorities.

Pastor Lah Shi met us and we drove for 40 minutes along the border road to the camp (if you can call a settlement of about 40,000 people a camp). Although it was a weekday, we were able to meet with many members of our congregation and have a worship service. Mein Kong and I gave shorter messages, this time translated into the Karen language by Lah Shi. There were a large number of children present who sang for us, accompanied by a young man on the guitar who helps out with our children’s program. I discovered that a number of the children attending are not those of member families but come from the homes packed in around our church building, and who want to be involved in the children’s program especially for the music.

Several Karen member families have been resettled in Australia and the United States, and several others who were refused visas for Australia are re-applying to other countries. The children know of no other world than that of the camp, so education is important to prepare them for a world beyond the camp whenever they might be permitted to access it.

The Australian members provide monthly financial support to the Karen congregation to enable the camp-bound members to have access to supplemental food supplies, cover urgent house repairs after storms, meet medical expenses for conditions beyond what can be handled by the camp’s first-aid station, pay for higher education for the children, and provide pastoral support, including maintaining the church building (right).

When visiting the camp with Wong Mein Kong, I can think of no other more vivid reminder that Christ came to “set the prisoners free.” I can leave the camp any time, but they can’t. I can choose where to live, where and when to travel, and have access to all types of social benefits. They are essentially stateless, the victims of a war decided on by men in distant cities, who are themselves protected by armies and largely isolated from the poverty, disruption and squalor of the innocent people caught in the middle. We leave these brothers and sisters and children in Christ with such encouragement as we can, pointing them to their only Savior, Jesus Christ, and his words of acceptance, comfort and love in the full knowledge that he knows what they are enduring, and will rescue them.

Myanmar

Rod Matthews sent this update of his April visit to Myanmar:

Malaysian pastor Wong Mein Kong and I made a trip to visit members and strengthen our connections with some other ministry groups in Myanmar (Burma). On arrival in Yangon (Rangoon), we met up with the leader of our congregation in the southern Irrawaddy delta area, who had travelled to Yangon so as to accompany us back to his village, where the church meets in his home. Also travelling with us was Tluang Kung, a young man that one of the Australian congregations sponsored through a Master of Theology course in a seminary in India several years ago to equip him for pastoral ministry and theological teaching. He is currently teaching at a seminary in Yangon; and since he is fluent in Burmese and English as well as other local languages, he accompanied us as a translator.

The trip from Yangon to the regional town of Myaungmya was arduous – six hours by an old 20-seater minibus with no air-conditioning. The distance was probably over 200 km, but the state of the road made it seem so much longer. At first the tarmac road had large potholes that needed dodging. As the journey progressed, the potholes grew wider to become large unsealed patches of stones and holes, and before long the tarmac had shrunk to a few resilient little patches on a rocky, potholed, unsealed, narrow “highway.”

On one occasion we all had to get off the bus so it (we!) could safely cross an old battered wooden bridge over a small river. Because it was the hot and dry season, the whole road was layered in a fine powdery dust that crept through every crack and hole in the floor of the bus – and in waves through the open windows when a vehicle passed the other way. I guessed that the temperature was around 36°C. (97ºF).

Soon the dust permeated every pore – and you could even taste it. I felt like a scrambled egg when we finally bounced our way into in the regional town of Myaungmya. Now I knew personally what the local members have to experience to travel to Yangon to meet Wong Mein Kong on his annual visits.

The following day we arose early to travel to the rural area where our congregation meets. We rented a river taxi and after 45 minutes of pleasantly puttering up a branch of the busy Irrawaddy River (the main “highway” for commercial traffic and trade), we pulled into a small jetty at a village. At last we had arrived, I thought. But no, we now had to walk about three kilometers across harvested and parched rice fields, keeping to the banks that divide the square paddies, to a house standing in a patch of trees in the middle of the fields.

. .

This was where the church meets every weekend in the home of our congregational leader and companion since arriving in Yangon. About 30 excited people were waiting for us. They have had very few international visitors over the decades of the existence of this congregation because this part of Myanmar (in fact, much of the country) has been out-of-bounds for foreign visitors for much of that time. Of course, a lovely meal was waiting for us – surely a banquet compared with their normal morning meal.

After eating, we conducted a Bible study. Wong Mein Kong and I both gave a message, translated into Burmese very competently by Tluang Kung. It concluded with a time for questions and answers – theology, biblical practice and its applications, and inquiries about people in our fellowship they had heard about.

Naturally, this was followed by another meal. It was very hot – and outside a little petrol generator ran, off and on, powering a single oscillating fan, which waved a little air at us in each sweep. There is no community electricity supply here. It was a house of two floors. The lower, unwalled section was for animals and for storage of equipment and grain. The family lived on the upper floor, which had walls of woven thatch and curtains on wires dividing the open plan floor into sleeping sections at night. They had a DVD and CD player and a few electric lights when the generator was running.

I marveled at how far this was from the hustle and bustle of life in the big cities where the “important things” happen. How remote! How undeveloped! How beautifully connected with our Creator and the world that sustains us with food regardless of where we live! I’m sure the stars at night were simply stunning – no ambient lighting to smother their glory. God’s presence seemed more obvious and natural here.

Of course he’s always been there. He was there before we ever got there. This little congregation has existed for more than 40 years. They are people whose hearts God had touched and who follow and worship him. People who live in the middle of a largely Buddhist country, and who endure an intrusive and suspicious government who follows their every move. Our visit was tracked by local security authorities requiring hotels and transport providers to record our arrival, departures and movements. We even had a lady from the regional security authorities come all the way to the village, perhaps to ensure we weren’t in any danger. She sat in on the Bible study, which I hope she found interesting. She joined us for that lovely lunch too. So we offered her a lift back in our waiting river taxi.

About 2 p.m., it was time to leave – back across the rice fields (it was now much hotter than when we had come) to the landing jetty, into the river taxi and back along the river to Myaungmya. None of us were willing to face the bus trip again, so we opted for the night ferry back to Yangon. Foreigners are required to take one of the 10 or so cabins on the upper deck. Local people jostle for positions on the lower deck. No seats – just deck space. So they spread a mat and defend their claim. But more and more people pour onto the boat, and ultimately there is no space to walk between families sitting and lying on the deck with their food containers, rugs, cushions and bags.

.

In one section, it seems you could rent a deck chair, but almost all the deck chairs I saw were just frames with broken canvas. It took 14 hours with a 9 p.m. and a 4 a.m. stop at regional centers en route. Hundreds getting off, cargo being unloaded by teams of sweating porters, hundreds getting on, more cargo being loaded, hawkers on the wharf desperately yelling for business, holding trays of flat bread and dried fish and other unidentifiable edibles (at least to me). This is life in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta. And God has given us a congregation there.

Back in Yangon, we met with our pastor from the north of the country, Naing Key Har, who had spent several days traveling down to meet with us. He pastors our second congregation in Myanmar, which has grown with his leadership and dedication. It will be another year before he sees someone from outside Myanmar again, so we leave him with packages of used clothing, some books and funds to support his pastoral work and help with his family’s medical expenses.

The weekend started when Mein Kong, Naing Key Har and I were guests in the small house church pastored by Tluang Kung’s father, who had moved to Yangon from the north of the country. It’s a little group of about 30, squashed into the lower floor of their very basic two-room home (one room downstairs, one upstairs) on the outskirts of Yangon.

Downstairs has a dirt floor with woven mats for the children to sit on. In fact, a majority are children. They worshipped God with beautiful songs, Tluang Kung accompanying them on the guitar. We both gave messages again with Tluang Kung translating. The children sang and Tluang Kung’s little sister performed some special music. It was simple. “Where two or three are gathered together…”

I should add here that Tluang Kung has completed translating our Discipleship course (Discipleship 101 on the HQ website) into Burmese, has had the translation checked, and with our funding is now negotiating for its printing. Within a few months we will have our first publication in the Burmese language.

The next day, we visited another young pastor who has a similar house church in his rented home. After learning of us through the internet, Daniel Ling and his wife Rebecca had contacted us by email many months ago desiring a connection so as to give them a stronger link with the broader Body of Christ. Unlike many small ministries that contact us by email, they were not asking for financial support (not that they didn’t need it), and we fellowshipped and worshipped together with a unity of mind and heart.

With Tluang Kung translating again, both Wong Mein Kong and I gave another short message bringing God’s word into the lives of these poor, salt-of-the-earth people as they struggle to survive in a land that makes life difficult in every way. I left Myanmar excited about the prospects of future contacts, developments and opportunities in one of the most challenging areas in Asia.