Bush life

Dear Pray Partners,

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We really appreciate your prayers. On last Sunday, Geoff both girls and I along with the four Youth In mission guys and Jimmy and his wife Feni (they were interviewing for the Pastor job in Iri Iri Pasa Pasa) took a ship to Noro the voyage took about ten hours, the girls did great, and the seas were very calm overall it was a good trip. When we arrived at Noro it was late and we only had about 20 minutes of sunlight. We boarded a canoe and traveled for another two hours in the dark. We finally got to our destination Iriiri Pasapasa. When we arrived there we were treated like kings and queens. They had flowers all over the dock and our house. As we arrived there were lots of people to greet us and help carry our luggage. They had a house just for our family and the YIM team. When we entered the room that was for our family there were mattresses. Not only was there a mattress for Geoff and I but also one for the girls. I was about to cry. I knew that they did not have any extra mattresses and that someone had given up their own mattresses for us. They did not have enough plates for everyone so they made custom plates out of coconut leaves and banana leaves. The next morning they taught me how to weave the coconut leaves into plates and fans, I really enjoyed spending time with the women. The whole time they treated us very well and it was a humbling to be treated so highly.

Monday, we had kids service in the morning and afterwards we made balloon animals and colored just spending time playing with the kids. Another church that is about a two hour canoe paddle away, came and joined us for the evening service. Geoff preached and talked about how God has given us power over the spiritual forces at work in the Solomon Islands. That night one of the Youth In Mission team members was startled wake by a evil spirit. We all woke up and started praying and reading Scripture we battled for about an hour then everyone had peace and went back to sleep. I praise God for the power that we have through the Blood of Christ. Our church members in the Solomons battle spiritual forces and many times they don’t use the power they have in Christ to get rid of the spirits instead the spirits continue to torment their families. Tuesday morning we had another service then a feast, many of the women stayed up most of the night preparing food. After we ate and said our goodbyes we boarded the canoe and traveled to Munda.

That evening in Munda we went to show the Jesus film at a Gibson’s house. Gibson is a new convert really excited about serving God. He just enrolled in Bible College and attended his first class in May. It looks like he may be the pastor at our church in Munda. As we started the Jesus film there were only about 20-30 people there. This is a really low number and we asked why the attendance was so low. We found out that there was a politician campaigning nearby and everyone went to hear him. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence that the campaign was going on the same night or something spiritual but I do know that Satan is working against the Church in the Solomons.

Wednesday we got into a huge dugout canoe (I think that we had 18 people in it) and traveled three hours to the village of Vogi. The canoe was very unstable there were many times I thought we were going to flip it. Vogi is the home town of Rodney. Rodney is also a new believer and the Sunday before we arrived was Sanctified. We traveled with him and his family to show the Jesus Film to his village. When we arrived there was no one to greet us, come to find out that Rodney’s mom was taken to the hospital that morning. We made our way up this large hill to the chief’s house (a very nice house even indoor plumbing but very old). The chief had passed away about a year ago and now his house set empty and they let us use it. Right next to the house there was a Methodist Church and the chief had been the pastor. I was a little frustrating because I had thought that we were going to a CFC (a cult) village not one that already had the truth. As I talked with the people I realized that the church doesn’t have a pastor and the CFC are taking over the village and the whole area. After we arrived they said there is just one thing, the women can’t go in this part of the house because the chief still has some “stuff” in there. Oh, by the way, the restroom is in there so the women will have to go back down the hill to the pit toilet. Geoff thought “This is great how many times tonight am I going to have to take a girl down the hill to the toilet.” That afternoon our team began to pray for the Jesus film and that we could really impact the community for Christ. Churie must have been praying for the toilet issue because they came back and said that the girls could use that part of the house. Some of the men had moved the chief’s “stuff” (it was a very small basket with spiritual significance) upstairs so the women couldn’t go upstairs but at least they could use the restroom. After doing spiritual warfare in Iri Iri Pasa Pasa and knowing that this house had possibly been used for spiritual worship we began to pray and do spiritual warfare before we were awaken in the middle of the night. As we started the service we had a good number of kids maybe 30 and about 15 adults we found out that someone had died in the village and the people were still mourning. Here in the Solomons, when someone dies the family and friends come bury the body and then they will set with the family for almost a week and do nothing. Because of this death not many people showed up and also they had sent word that we were coming but the message was not delivered well. We started the Jesus film even with the small number and then about half way through it started to rain we brought everything inside but most of the people had left we only had about seven or eight kids left. That night as we went to sleep all slept with no incident.

When we got up the next morning we headed back to Munda in the rather large shaky canoe . The driver decided to take a short cut and instead of going through the lagoon like we had came he decided to take the open sea. The sea was not really rough, but there was a strong current and large swells. Every time we went up and down a swell it felt like the canoe was going to tip. At one point we rocked so far that the lip of the canoe touched surface of the water and water splashed all over me. As I looked for the closest escape route if we tip I realized that we were about half a mile to a mile to the nearest shore and that the shore had cliffs that the waves were crashing against them. It was a miracle that we did not end up in the water. I was so thankful for the assurance of a life jacket. About one hour after we arrived in Munda, it started to pour with strong winds and I was so thankful that we were in Munda and not on the sea in the shaky canoe.

Thursday night, Jimmy (the Jesus film Director) and Alick (the Pastor in Munda) took the Jesus film to a nearby village. Alick had made plans to show the film but when they arrived there had been a large fight and they could not watch the film because they were still trying to work out the disagreement. Alick and Jimmy tried to help reconcile the parties and prayed with them then returned home without showing the film.

On Friday, we went down to the market to do market evangelism. We took the Jesus film equipment and used the mike speakers to preach to the people in the market. This type of evangelism has a big impact here in the Solomon Islands. One of our pastors was saved through market evangelism. We sang some songs and then the Youth In Mission (YIM) team preached a little and gave there testimonies. It was very hot to be standing outside and we did not see anyone accept the Lord, but we did here a lot of good reports through the grape vine or through the bush rope whatever it is called here.

Friday evening we went to the church and played soccer and then planned a service afterwards. Alick told us to walk to the church and he would meet us at the church with the lights and generator for service. We had about thirty kids there to play soccer but Alick was held up with other problems and showed up with the lights well after dark. We were a little frustrated because about half of the kids left. We went to one of the church member’s house which had security lights and had the service under the security lights. This was a great time of worship and the teens really enjoyed the Youth In Mission group. On Saturday, we had a service in the morning played soccer afterwards and then in the evening we had another service. There were about 40 teens and kids who attended the services. On Sunday morning, there were a lot of the teens that had come Friday and Saturday. It was very exciting to see all those teen in church. The church in Munda is very new and does not have many teens attending, some of the teens attend other churches but hopefully God will use the time we spent there to grow the Church. Geoff preached on Sunday morning he spoke on the dualism of cultural spirits and Christianity and how the spirits that have controlled the islands for thousands of years have no power over Christ and Christian should not rely on cultural spirit but on Christ. We had one man come forward and pray. Pray that He will use his authority as a son of God over the demonic forces in his life. After Church we had a huge dinner and lots of BBQ fish we finished about 3:00pm.

After church we decided to go on a hike to see a waterfall. This was a refreshing break to the busy week we had. The hike was not very long, but it was very muddy. When we got to the waterfall there was a big pool that was so wonderful to swim in and the best part was that the water was cold and felt great on a hot day.

On Sunday evening the teens that we had met had walked around town and found the house that we were staying at. They came in our house and played some games with us. It was really cool to see these kids find us and want to spend more time with us before we left.

Also on Sunday evening, we had got word that our return ship did not leave Honiara. That pretty much left us to take the slow ship home, meaning that instead of a ten hour boat ride and arrive on Monday morning, we would be on a ship for more than 24 hours, and not get home until Wednesday morning. We started calling around to see if we could get on the slow ship and realized that the slow ship was headed even farther west and would not reach Honiara until Friday morning and our next camp started on Thursday in Honiara. Later on that night we found out that the slow ship had also had engine problems and was stuck at a port(they did get it fix but it delayed them one more day) We called the airport and to fly home it cost a lot more money and they were fully booked until Wednesday. We decided to get up early Monday morning and fly standby to try and get at least Raina, Felicity and me on the plane. I really needed to get home and get things situated before Mom and Dad left on Tuesday. Sunday night to Monday morning it had rained all night. When we got to the airport they had three cancelations. We were so happy to hear that at least the girls and I would get home on Monday. Felicity was able to ride on my lap, which meant that we could get another person on the plane. Before we left we found out that the plane was light so they let Raina set on my lap and Felicity on one of our team members lap and we could get another person on that plane. It was a miracle for us to be able to get five out of the ten of us out on the plane on Monday morning. Geoff and the other two Youth In Mission team members along with Feni finally made it home Wednesday morning. Feni had left her five kids with her cousin and the youngest is under a year old to go interview, we helped her fly home because we were unsure when the next ship would arrive because all the ship that service the area are either having engine problems or broke down. I just got a call from Jimmy and it looks like he will be coming home Saturday pray that the ship does not have any more engine problems.

The trip had some great times and some frustrating times. It was great to meet and visit with other people. It is frustrating to plant seeds and not always get to see the harvest or any of the harvest.

Continue to pray for use as we travel around with the YIM team. We have a very busy schedule. I think that I sent out a more detailed schedule in the previous letter.

This week we are having youth services Thursday-Saturday here in Honiara. We just finished our first service and it went really well the kids really opened up to the YIM team.

Next week we are going to Malata. We will be there for two week at four different churches. Mage, Nazareth, Kualitutu and Beri. There is a good chance that we will see spiritual opposition at these churches.

When we return from Malata we are going to Macedonia it is about thirty minutes from Honiara. There might be some problems with this church and the youth camp pray that everything works out and we will be able to minister there.

We are trying to get pictures from this trip posted on our blog and it should be done in the next couple of days. If anyone would like to go and see these pictures, our blog address is geoffandchurie.wordpress.com. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

The Millers