Good waves and no boat-eating sharks
Missionary Brooks Buser and four Yembiyembi Bible teachers recently embarked on a ministry adventure.
The missionaries on a neighboring island had begun to teach chronological Bible lessons to the Biem people two weeks earlier. Brooks and his Yembiyembi friends planned a trip of support and encouragement.
The two people groups actually have almost nothing in common. “The Yembiyembi people are swamp and river people,” Brooks writes. “The Biem people have no wild pigs and they grow oranges and do fishing for sharks. The Yembiyembi tribe, on the other hand, can’t imagine a world without wild pigs--and those who have tasted oranges think they are from Heaven. And almost every one of the Yembiyembi people has an uncontrollable fear of sharks.”
So when Brooks and the four Bible teachers boarded the mission plane to make the five-hour boat trip to the island, some of the Yembiyembi wives came to bid them good-bye and wept solemnly, “God Papa knows that we all sit in His Hand (His Sovereignty). If He thinks for you to die in big waves and sharks, then we are good to say our last talk to you now.”
“But the waves were good and the sharks decided not to eat the boat. We made it to the island,” Brooks shares. It was a great opportunity to provide encouragement and help with Bible teaching. Once there, the Bible teachers often stayed up until 2 a.m. answering questions, recapping the Bible lesson and “just being happy to hang out with people that were hearing Great One’s talk for the first time.”
Brooks says this visit was a rich encounter for the both the Yembiyembi teachers and the Biem people, as well as for the missionaries.
“It was a great experience for all of us,” Brooks shares.
The return trip was a little more complicated. During their absence, the Yembiyembi airstrip had been badly damaged by rain and resulting flooding. The initial plan to land there was now out of the question. This meant an alternate journey of five hours in an ocean boat, a van ride to an airfield, a flight in the mission plane to another airstrip, and three more hours in a river boat.
It was a long day. But very much worth the journey, Brooks says.
Pray for God’s ongoing blessing on this missionary journey made by the Yembiyembi believers to reach out to the Biem people. Pray that God’s Word will continue to be taught with power to the Biem people and that many hearts will be reached and transformed by the Gospel.