Chapter 14 - Gospel Breakthrough

Every 3-month summer break, and over our 1-month Christmas break, Ro and I are home in the Ilaga Valley. Mom and Dad are so busy! The emphasis on evangelism has now turned into a concentration on discipleship and starting a Bible school to train new pastors. And that is on top of the ongoing work of Bible translation which Dad is always working on. Mom developed a primer to train Dani's how to read, and then led reading classes for leaders, who in turn coach others in their communities to learn to read and write.

The gospel breakthrough with the Dani tribe begins soon after furlough. Obalalok and his clan decide to burn fetishes and turn to follow the Great Creator like the nearby Damal tribe.

They set a date for the ceremony, and on that Sunday men, women, and children burn their sacred objects on long wooden pyres. These objects symbolize the appeasement made to evil spirits by killing pigs. Some of them are pigtails sewn onto string carrying bags, others are long bands of cowrie shells, sacred arrows, as well as stones that were rubbed onto young boys during initiation ceremonies. People take the charms off from their neck or arms that they wore to protect them from evil spirits and lay them on the pyre as well.

As the wood is lit the Danis watch, then begin joyfully dancing in a big circle, singing chants of worship to God. This symbolic-yet concrete—break with their animistic past is a huge step of faith! The Damal across the valley have burned their fetishes, and now Obalalok and his clan are following. Will they be safe? Other Dani clans observe, consider, and there are long discussions in the field below our house after Sunday meetings.

When I'm home, Sunday is my favorite day of the week. The services are amazing. You can hear clans approaching from across the valley as they chant their way down the trails. Each clan announces their arrival with a long string of warriors spiraling onto the hard-baked field below our house, singing and dancing until the circle is huge. The worship refrains are repeated over and over. As more Danis arrive, the melded group might change the pattern and run east and west. And sometimes they do a two-step that has a stronger beat. The men hit their bows and arrows on their legs in rhythm for emphasis.

I love the action, the singing, and join in, along with my siblings. David rides on the shoulders of a Dani, the front of his shirt stained brown with head grease. At around noon or one o’clock the masses of people sit on the ground, men and women move into separate groups.

In the beginning the truths of the gospel are taught in story form, and until Dad has learned enough Dani he uses a Moni bilingual interpreter. But as the crowds grow to over a thousand their voices are not loud enough, so men are set at the outer edges to relay the message. All this takes time, but the people are patient. Crying children are shushed or carried further out of the crowds. If rain comes people scatter, but at other times the men stay after the service and clan leaders discuss whether they might turn to the Jesus Way. Or they bring up tribal issues like who stole some pigs, who has rights to certain hillside garden plots, etc. As more clans burn fetishes to follow the gospel, the discussions turn to practical theology and how Biblical truths should be applied to everyday life.

I am fascinated with how chiefs, the clan leaders, orate and make their points. Most leaders are decorated with the usual bird feathers and flowers in their head nets, have pig tusks through their noses. Their faces are painted red, black or striped, and their armbands may have flowers.

But their strong demeanor gives them away. With a voice resonant and eloquent, their forceful reasoning is amplified with expressive arm flourishes. Strong point made, the chief will sit down, and another leader stand to agree or refute him. The discussions might go on for one or two hours, the women with children waiting, or leaving early to wend their way home across valley.

These large gatherings are unwieldy, so in time as more clans follow Jesus, my parents form a Bible school where each area can send a couple to be their pastor. These couples learn the Bible principles and stories, then teach them each Sunday to their clan. In this way new churches are started across the valley, and villagers receive personal attention.

Since the New Testament pattern is for a pastor to have only one wife, sadly no chief could be a pastor! Chiefs, tribal leaders, typically have two to four wives, having amassed enough wealth to buy more than one. Each wife, working hard, produces more sweet potatoes, feeds more pigs, and has more children…thus multiplying wealth. Chiefs can gave feasts out of their wealth—but they cannot pastor. Accepting this, the clan leaders send their brightest young couples—often the chief’s son and his wife—who can be trained as community pastors.

In time there are about 20 young Dani couples in the Bible Witness School who attend classes taught by Mom and Dad on weekday mornings. The men then preach the Bibles stories and lessons to their scattered churches throughout the Ilaga Valley…and our family takes turns visiting each one.

I love the trekking, the picnicking, sitting in the hot sun among crowds of Danis worshipping, listening to Bibles stories made relevant to the tribe. I often wear a head net slung down my back, sometimes paint my forehead with a stripe of black!

Ro and I help Mom and Dad during these vacations. We hang wet laundry on clotheslines on wash day, snatch them off quickly as afternoon rains arrive. I press clothes with the heavy kerosene powered iron, and learn to make bread, cinnamon rolls, even pies. And before a nurse arrives in the valley I occasionally clean and wrap wounds on the back porch with iodine and sulfa salve, or apply eye ointment. I am learning to be a nurse already…and the Danis are so grateful.

As more of the tribe learns to read, one summer Mom asks for my help. “Would you check the readers as they come, Marlene?” “If they pass one primer, I give them the next. But I have to be sure they can truly read the one they have.”

“Sure, Mom.” Some read quickly and clearly…others are slow, stumbling over syllables and words. One lady fails the test and weeps, humiliated. I feel so sorry, try to comfort her. Older adults often are slower in learning.

During afternoon naptime I scour our bookshelves for interesting books. There are a few classics like David Copperfield and The House of Seven Gables, some interesting missionary biographies, and a number of anthropology resources, especially ones by Margaret Mead. So I can compare the Danis to her descriptions of tribal life in other places.

I see that cultures are amazingly diverse. And I am immersed in two of them. The exotic warlike Dani culture colors my life vividly four months of the year. And the Larson home as well as boarding school life trains me in patterns of living. Through it all is God’s Word, the life of the Holy Spirit teaching me, above culture and geography.