They are like us – Monis & Aussies

They love to argue, they are not easily persuaded, they are sarcastic, they are egalitarian with little respect for leadership, and they love to have a dig at each-other. These are some of the characteristics of the Moni tribe. Being with them recently in Pogapa,West Papua, reminded me of my own kind, Aussies.

‘Unlike other tribes in Papua, there has never been a mass people movement to Christianity. They too individualistic to follow the commands of a chief,’ John Cutts, a long time missionary to the Monis, told me.

John’s relaxed style certainly fits well among these egalitarian people. He’s not pretentious, hikes from village to village, lives simply…

One afternoon John got them to help him translate the teaching outlines I had brought with me. There was lots of discussion, at times there seemed to be ‘more Indians and cheifs’. The women were especially forthright in their opinions. (Well done to John’s mum, Grace, who ministered in the area for several decades from 1950. – see blog)

Another area they are like Aussies is their approach to clothing. Everything from kotekas, gourds, to batiks to shirt and tie is acceptable in the church service. No legalistic conformity with the Monis. They are like us: Aussies!

One woman gives dignity to Moni tribe

The building in Pogapa, in Papua’s highlands, was filled with over 500 people with a number of feeding mothers also listening through the windows.

When it was time for me to speak I asked some-one to read the Bible in the Moni language. Confidently, a middle aged woman came forward and read with a strong voice. I asked my translator, John Cutts, whether this was normal to be so confident.

‘My mum was the key to transformation,’ John said.

John’s mum, Grace, ministered in the area for several decades from 1950 with her husband, Bill.

Before the coming of the gospel the main reason for paying a high bride price to buy a wife (they are still expensive) to have someone to care for the gardens and pigs, today they have dignity. John said they were treated like pigs – an item to trade.

Women often suffered domestic violence. Also, when a loved one died a woman’s finger was chopped off. Sometimes the favourite wife of a husband who had died was put to death. Among Christian villages they has changed.

Grace Cutts, one woman with love and courage, who brought confidence and dignity the Moni women.

Hand up – hand out: John Cutts ministry to Moni

‘Look at the cuts on my hands. They have been cut while I’ve been walking hard in my garden; however, two of my four children are dying from hunger.’

Two months earlier this Moni chief had come to John Cutts – long time missionary to the Moni – for help. John had given him seeds that he hoped could grow in the extremely moist soils.

For the last eight months there has been a famine among the Moni villages in the highlands ofWest Papua. The famine has been caused by too much rain which has prevented their staple, sweat potatoes, from growing.

John’s a part of the GKII church – the only church among the 58,000 Moni – and virtually singlehandedly they’ve been feeding the pockets of hungry people. The government has not helped, however the Freeport mining company has. Also, John has been on a speaking tour to raise funds. And thankfully, many churches and individuals have helped.

‘I don’t want to fly one more bag of rice than I need to,’ John said. He is determined for them not to become co-dependent.

While providing emergency food when necessary, John prefers to give out seeds, especially those of fast growing crops. In his house he has a plethora of seeds, including cabbage, beans, carrots.

John is committed to give the Moni a ‘hand up’. He wants them to resist the passive and welfare spirit and be successfully self sufficient for generations to come.

Not a rocking chair life – John Cutts

The airstrip was lined with hundreds of Monis. No sooner had the plane landed people began to flock to the plane. No, it wasn’t to see me, but it was get access to the food John had collected. Due to an excess of rain many of the Monis were suffering from malnutrition.

I had flown through the night from Bali to Timika where I met up with John Cutts and then we flew on a MAF plane to Pogapa.

As I conducted leadership seminars for the local Moni pastors who walked to the meetings – there is no motorised transport – I was constantly reminded that the evangelism of the Monis was started by a man, Bill Cutts, in 1950 who should have died at birth, had a crippled body and one eye.

John moved to Pogapa in 1984 when the previous place he was living was destroyed in a landslide (his parents original home). Previously a couple had attempted to start a mission in Pagopa but had given up. Even John’s parents ‘shook off the dust’. Along with building a house, John needed to construct a landing strip.

‘Only three people joined me levelling a small hill and filling in a valley to build a suitable runway. They believed the area of the runway was where the spirit departed from and if they worked on the site they would die.’

‘Soon we had 500 working on the site developing a runway with in suitable incline to help slow the incoming flight and have a downhill slant to help takeoff.’

John worked for a month milling the pine timber for his house. (John chose well as the timber is still in great shape – and he’s only treated it once). John commuted between places using an ultra- light given to him in miraculous circumstances while in the US.

By the 1989 the Indonesian government had degreed it was time for the Cutts’s to leave Papua. Freeport mining heard and asked John to work for them as a community relations advisor.

‘It was such a blessing from God. Not only were we able to stay in Papua but rather than sending our girls off to boarding school, they went to the school in Tembagapura,Freeport’s mountain town. I would head out to the villages during the day and be back by the end of the day. It was almost like a “normal” family,’ John told me.

‘Freeport took me out of my “small world” as I got to meet and talk with business and political leaders, including board member Henry Kissenger.’

‘I grew in confidence that when I knew my time with Freeport was up in 1999 I knew I was positioned to set up our Village Heartbeat foundation.’

Even in his 60s  John’s hyperactive. From early in the morning when he’s boiling water and filling thermos for the day until a late night fire chat with an enchanted audience he never stops. It was enough for me to do two or three seminars in a day but translating for me was only a small part of John’s day.

Over a three day period I saw him deal with these emergencies: a mother with a baby she had no milk for, a father with three starving children, a lady with malaria, and a leadership moral issue. He was giving out milk, medicine, and even seeds to help struggling farmers. A couple of times after meetings he had groups of pastors out the back of his house trying reading glasses he had brought.

John’s always seeking to help the Moni have a better life. He’s committed to fighting the welfare spirit, but rather seeks to develop connections to the outside work where they can sell their produce.

They are catching up – but is it all good?

As I travel about Indonesia I am a source of interest and people are keen to chat. To be honest, I am more interested in them than talking about me. I can clearly see Western influence. Some in my opinion is not good, while other influences maybe not. Here’s some of my experiences in Palembang, Sumatra.

On my first night before I spoke I went for a walk. Much to my surprise I came across a small store selling thrash metal music. I was interested to find out more as I thought it was bizarre in such a Muslim stronghold. The young guy watching the store, a drummer, was keen to talk. A number of young people – all in black and some with tatts – turned up and one gave me a CD of his band, Rongsokan. Later when talking to a group of teenage girls – some head covered – they said in unision the liked it.

When walking around a lake for my daily exercise encountered pockets of young people ‘hanging out’.

Sadly, many of them were smoking – evidently the adverts the ‘macho men’ smoking is working – and even some of them now have tattoos and studs. On an evening walk I saw a couple of bottles of Bintang beer.

The huge nearby mosque evidently has had limitted impact on alcohol comsumption.A police officer told me that there was a major drug problem in Palembangwith regular busts.

While chatting to a group of girls leaving the Muslim school attached to a mosque – all head covered – they were keen to chat. They can all speak some English and Arabic – and after completing school they expressed an interest in a variety of occupations, including becoming a doctor and an artist. They want to advance themselves.

Clearly, Western ‘fashions’ and ‘way’s are pernicious – some good and others no so.

The working poor – I celebrate them

Buckets of concrete were passed through a series of five young man into the formwork for the swimming poor at a villa project I visited inBali. The whole process started with some carrying buckets of sand, others buckets of small stones and others cement to the mixer. All up 25 Javanese labourers were employed on the site. I asked a few of the young man who work seven days a week for eight hours about the work and they replied with words like ‘bagus’ (good), ‘hebat’ (great). Even though the pay is not great, 1.2 million rupiah a month ($130), they get to work with their friends – they are all from the same village – and they live on site.

One night as I walked from the nearby mall to where I was staying in Jakarta I chatted at length to a couple of friendly chats who operated streetside eating places, kaki limas. As I chatted to the middle aged slightly tubby seller of fried bananas,tempe… he told me he has five children in the village in central Java. In Indonesian he said, ‘I work from 8am to 10pm and I sleep over there on a piece of carpet and I wash at the nearby mosque.’ Clearly he was happy with his lot, and what to many would be a terrible way to live is a live he is satisfied with.

As I journey across Indonesia I saw the masses ‘at work’. Some on building projects, others as drivers or maids, others operating small eating spots or shops. They really are the working poor – and by-and-large they seem satisfied with their lot in life and most have families.

Then I think of the disgruntled young people inAustralia I see hanging around the malls and train stations. Many are angry, addicted… many are unemployed – and their dysfunction if paid for by the government. And they will likely pass on their dysfunction to the generation. Again, the taxpayers of Australia will sponsor it. I think the quality of life, from what I’ve seen, is better for the working poor here than the welfare poor.

Romans 8:28 is true: just ask SETIA

I was covered in sweat within a few minutes of starting to speak to around 300 students at SETIA bible college in West Jakarta. While it was oppressively hot in the huge shed where the teaching sessions are held, it was a privilege knowing the tribulations that the college has been through over the last few years.

 SETIA is a training centre primarily for young people from the poorer Christian village areas of Indonesia. It all looked rather peaceful at the college but their recent history has been turbulent. I had spoken at the college about five years ago when it was based in a residential area. In July 2008 local radicals attacked SETIA and they were evicted from their own property – there were no serious negotiations - and they had done nothing wrong (except being part of a minority faith). After a difficult time where they were moving from place they now have their own premises – and it’s a large site with a number of huge warehouses. (And, because their neighbours are factories not residences they are less likely to have problems.)

One of the sheds is currently being converted into a dormitory for the students. How did this come to pass? Local Christian businessmen had provided support along with overseas groups from various countries including the US and Britain (the government only reimbursed them for the value of the land, not the buildings). The English teacher told me that the Voice of the Martyrs have stepped in support them. Out of something that looked terrible has come good.

Truly Romans 8:28 is true.

Atheist arrested, Atheists proud

In my travels into South east Asia I am continually reminded of the difference between ‘East’ and ‘West’, especially in issues of faith and morality – and clothing (picture taken with a Saudi family we got to know in KL)!

While in Australia certain elites are pushing homosexual ‘marriage, in Malaysia the government is shutting ‘gay bars’ and Anwar, a former deputy PM, is suing someone who said he wanted homosexuality legalised.

In Indonesian, Alexander a civil servant in West Sumatra has been arrested for blasphemy after creating a Facebook fan page titled ‘Ateis Minang’ (Minang Atheist). He was arrested because his statements saying that he did not believe in God had triggered unrest among local residents. He is facing a maximum sentence of five years in jail if proven guilty. Soon after reading this a friend in Bali who organises top-end weddings shared about an Australian couple who he is organising a wedding for. On the paperwork where they are required to state their religion (all weddings in Indonesia include both spiritual – priest, imam,  or pastor blessing - and government facets) they wrote in bold letters : ‘Atheist’.

I guess most Indonesians consider that marriage without divine approval is a recipe for failure, whereas in Australia many have removed faith from their lives, and also desire to abandon the traditional definition of marriage.

Family and our Identity in Christ (Jan East)

We have learned that God loves us, wants to bless us and that there is nothing we can do to earn his favour. 

We have been taught many things about God but unless the information we are taught  becomes revelation it remains information we have learned rather than a deep inner truth that guides our life.

So why do so many people struggle to have this information become revelation?  Why do they struggle with their identity in Christ? Much has been said about the relationship with our parents formulating our view of God.
When we are born again, the way we have viewed our parents will be the way we view God.  If we have had a loving relationship with our parents then we will not find it difficult to accept that
God loves us and wants to bless us, that He accepts us as we are.  If the relationship with our parents was not loving and  accepting but harsh and conditional, that is the view of God we will have in our relationship with him, we will not be able to relate to a loving Father God,

For this reason it is important for your children to know you love and accept them just as they are. With our busy lives it’s easy to fall into the trap of managing family life rather than building  loving relationships and reflecting God’s unconditional grace to our spouse and our children.

In Malachi the ministry of John the Baptist was described in terms of putting families right with God and each other in preparation for the coming Messiah.   “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and hearts of the children to their fathers.” Malachi 4:6

Our children’s ability to receive God’s love is  directly linked to making family authority, love and faithfulness a priority.

Jan East, Children and Families Pastor, Churchlands Christian Fellowship, Perth.

Control but don’t over-control (by Jan East)

Recently we were shocked to watch the senseless riots that took place in London and a number of other English cities. Shockingly, many of those involved were as young as 11 and 12 years old.

Everyone seemed to have an opinion on who was to blame: ‘the capitalist system’, ‘the budget cuts’, ‘the welfare system’. After all we do have to have someone to blame! After the dust settled there did seem to be a general consensus where the responsibility lay.

Alexander Downer, former Australian foreign minister, in the Adelaide Advertiser, said, ‘The parents: they’re the people to think about’.

Tony Blair, former UK PM, in the Guardian said, ‘These people had a family problem’.

Liz Pilgrim whose shop was ransacked said, ‘the parents must be to blame’.

I’m sure an event such as this has a more complex causes than one factor, however, in my opinion, the families of these young offenders do have something to account for. One thing that was evidently missing on theses nights of riot was self control.

In the family children learn about control. They learn to be controlled as behavior expectations are placed on them. It’s a big mistake where children’s lives are managed to such a degree that no self control is required. We create such a safe environment for our children that they rarely have to choose between a good choice – bad choice, strong choice – weak choice. We manage their lives so carefully that their environment is mistake proof all the time.

One day our children leave home. Freedom. How will they cope with it? Hopefully we have equipped them with a set of skills by which they can master their freedom. If we don’t over-protect our children, and we lovingly draw them to us when they do make mistakes along the way, we will be teaching them to manage their freedom. We want our kids to live by self control and not be governed by the unpredictable circumstances of life.

(Written by Pastor Jan East, Churchlands Christian Fellowship, Perth)