The Main Hyway Through Gunung Sitoli, Nias

I love Nias. It is a beautiful island. One of the 17,000 islands that make up this fantastic country of over 300 million souls. When I first went there in 1974, there were few roads and none to the specific village we wanted to visit. We road a bus to the end of the line, crossing several bridges on the way -- each one a little less well maintained than the last one until the last bridge had only planks across a skeleton framework. Everyone got off the buss and walked across except the driver and myself. A spotter on the other side gave directions to the driver to keep all wheels on the planks and we made it safely across. Everyone got back on board only to get off at the next river which had no bridge at all. We forded that river and began our long walk up the river crossing it 13 times before reaching a village where we could spend the night. We continued our walk through the jungle and spent the next night in another village. Finally, on the 3rd day we reached our intended destination about 10:00 in the morning and immediately began answering Bible questions. The question/answer sessions went on all day and half way through the night. My friend T Laiya would answer questions for about 2 hours while I rested, then I would take over while he rested. At the end of about 2 weeks we established two congregations -- one in this village and one in the neighboring village. There's more to the story, but I'll save it for another time. This most recent trip was necessitated by the premature death of the director of the children's home in Gunung Sitoli, the capital city. The Pasir Pangang church in Singapore sent Beng Chuan Tan to deliver an offering to encourage and help the widow so I was invited to go along to help with language problems. I'm afraid I wasn't much help as the people on Nias prefer to speak Bahasa Nias which is a totally different language which I do not speak. Nevertheless, we were successful. Hopefully the widow and her family were encouraged; plus, we were afforded an opportunity to visit with some of the church leaders and future church leaders. There is no way I can tell you how much I enjoyed the trip and the opportunity to be back on the island. I was there several times in the early part of 2005 helping make preparations for medical missionaries who were on their way in response to the Tsunami of Christmas day 2004. I also helped with the medical mission effort of 2005 then went to Batam to teach a class at the Sekola Theologia Tinggi on that island but suffered severe angina the day before classes were to start and ended up having by-pass surgery in Singapore. Anyway, being back on the island is something I once thought I would never be able to do again. God is great and merciful. I love the island and I love the people. Here is a great BIG thank you to the brethren at the Pasir Pangang church, first of all, for their compassion and desire to help comfort and encourage the widow and her family; and, secondly, to invite me to go along. Thank you, Beng Chuan Tan for your leadership and all that you and the Pasir Pangang church are doing in Singapore. Your congregation is an inspiration to all of us in this part of the world and beyond. I'm not through. I'll send more photos and write more in future posts.