Captain's Log #18
June 2001


THE BEGINNING
This is the beginning...  
"In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.  It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat." Psalm 19:4b-6.
 
For all of mankind there is a place where every new day begins and this is it.... the 180th meridian...  the international date line. In front of me are 40 ton rocks that someone, somehow in time long gone by, shaped and balanced up on top of each other. The shadows created by these massive stones each dawn are among the first shadows measured out on earth each new day. This is the Kingdom of Tonga. A tiny island nation here in the South Pacific in the direction of the rising sun from Fiji. Tonga's population of 90 thousand Polynesian people hold fast to their right to have royalty with King and Queen who's ancestry goes back countless generations, and today is significant for the Church of the Nazarene here because today we started the JESUS Film ministry in this kingdom.
 
WHO SINNED?
I have been continuously reminded  of the heart of our Lord as I have watched what is happening in Tonga. Part of our South Pacific Field team is here, they are NIVS (volunteer) Missionaries, Doc and Charmayne Olds. They are being used by God to reach out to those who are suffering, the handicapped children lost in these countless islands speckled across this vast deep ocean. As he wiped the tears from his eyes, Doc told me of the first days on this tiny piece of earth...   Charmayne had heard about a 9 year old little boy that was severely handicapped, hidden from the outside world. There seems to be a shame associated with having kids that are handicapped here. Somehow she got the family to show the boy to her. The remnants of his arms and legs were pulled up against his body. His head drawn back and over to the side. No one believed that the little boy could hear or understand anything. There was no indication that his mind was functioning at all. Charmayne pulled out her Bible carefully and slowly started to read. It was from John's account...  John 9:2-3 "And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?"  Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents;...      but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him." (NAS)        Charmayne looked up...      great tears had welled up in the little boy's eyes and started to run freely down his drawn cheeks...    God gripped Doc and Charmayne's hearts and He would Love this little one and countless others, through them.
 
This is your church and one of the ways that God wants it to move forward and outward across the missionfield of the South Pacific. It is the hands and feet and very heart of God. We want our passion to come from the things that God is passionate about. Please pray for Doc and Charmayne.
 
FINGERS IN THE JESUS FILM
Pray also for the fingers of the JESUS Film team members in Fiji - yes the fingers!. Why? Well if the manufacturer of this film equipment could see how hard it's being pushed by the Church of the Nazarene here, they would break out in a rash all over. We lost our sound on our primary ( and only) projection system Saturday night - gone - nothing - zero - no sound. Everything else is fine -  no sound. We had a crowd who thought that there would be sound with the movie. I changed the fuses, still no sound. I changed the exciter lamp, still no sound. I did everything else that I knew to do and some I didn't, still no sound. Finally I told the people, "sorry, the movie is cancelled!". I really hated to do that.
 
We lost the Saturday night showing. We also lost the Sunday night showing and, of course Monday is another holiday in Fiji. We found the director of Campus Crusade for Christ on this long weekend and pled our case. He gave us a different semi-broken projector to use tonight while ours is hopefully being semi-fixed. Now the problem with this projector is not the sound, it has good sound but the motor that turns the reel doesn't work! Hey this stuff is being pushed! Anyway this means that you have to turn the reel by hand...   actually by finger. Around and around and around. The whole, very long reel. All thirty minutes of it. And then the next reel, then the next and then the next!! There is four reels...  two solid hours of movie...   sore fingers. So pray for the fingers. Also pray for the equipment. The JESUS Film Partnership people in Kansas are frantically working at getting another set of equipment to us - thank the Lord for this partnership! We should have that next set before long.
 
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - ReachOne
I just heard that the members of one of our churches in Fiji is meeting tonight and every night this week from 8 until 11 PM to pray for the General Assembly. If you're going to the General Assembly this next week then be sure and drop by the ReachOne Internet Access booth and take a look at the latest 70 photos of this ministry that they agreed to display for us. If you mention FIJIBoat as the ministry of your choice, these great people at 'ReachOne' even direct a percentage of the fees for their service to this ministry. They are also the ones who maintain our web page at no charge to us! God is really making this all happen!
 
YOUTH IN MISSION
I landed at the airport well after dark, got a taxi to where the boat is, said Hi to Cindy and the kids, had a bite to eat, picked up our truck and headed west across the island to meet a 5AM flight in from L.A. landing at the main airport on the other side. Eleven university students from across America came through immigration and we loaded them in a van.
 
I spent the day with them, going over schedules and plans and do's and don'ts and customs of these people and by late afternoon we had sent half of them on over to Tonga and we got the other half back to this side of the island later that night. For me, the highlight of all that was the look on the young people's faces when I told the ones going to the island of Tonga that they needed to be ready Monday morning for a one hour live, nation wide TV show that we were placing them in charge of and they would be expected to do that hour every morning for this next week. "Also," I said; "It's looking good as far as you guys getting an audience with the Queen... remember you represent the church...  and tomorrow, no...  I think it's day after tomorrow is maximum security at the prison, you'll be taking the JESUS Film...    welcome to the missionfield." Would you pray for them as well?
 
ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE SCHMELZENBACH'S
The other night was pitch, black with pouring rain and the wind was howling - about 20 knots. We were dry and warm and secure at the moorage we have in the 'Bay of Islands' here close to the capital of Fiji. Somewhere out in the darkness, Cindy and I heard a dog barking...   then suddenly we realized that the sound was coming from the direction of the open ocean. I scrambled out to the fore deck in time to see the steel hull of a sailing boat that had broken loose in the storm. It was coming right down onto us, not more than a boat length away. It's keel was already at my mooring line. The impact of that steel hull against the fiberglass GALILEAN could take us down, or at least break us free and put us onto the rocks. Jumping into our tender in the darkness, I prayed that the outboard motor would start with the first pull...   it did!   I got the inflatable tender up against the bow of the sailing boat and somehow, amazingly it began to turn against the wind. There was no one on board, just a little dog barking like crazy. Our tiny 10 hp Honda motor was screaming!
 
Twice I thought that I had lost it, but both times the wind shifted slightly and by some miracle I found that the tender had stopped the steel boat, moving it across the wind and now I had the boat out into the open channel away from ours, but there was no controlling it and it was headed for the rocks. Climbing up the side and over the bowrail I cut through the tether that held the plow anchor tight to the bowsprit. It fell free and in the darkness and rain and I heard the splash as it hit the water. Within seconds the wind pushing us hard had played out all of the 'rode' (the anchor chain and line) and it came tight. By now I was getting way too close to one of the islands with it's jagged reef. Quickly I picked out two lights over on land to use for bearing markers, praying that these people's anchor would hold. I watched the lights slowly slide out of line, the anchor was dragging - there was nothing more that I could do here, she was going in. In a moment I had left the boat and was racing back to the GALILEAN. In the cockpit, at the stern of our boat, I have a spare storm anchor which I threw into the tender and using all remaining adrenaline proceeded to also load 200 feet of chain faster than I care to do again. By now I was exhausted and aching all over and drenched. I returned and shackled the chain to their bowline, took out and set the GALILEAN's spare anchor and their boat stopped moving! For now, it was safe! I hung a flashlight in their rigging to alert any vessels using the channel and spent the night changing batteries and making sure the anchors didn't foul. The next day with some help we moved the boat over to a solid mooring. The people, returned in twenty four hours - needless to say, they were very thankful.
 
Thanks again for all your prayers,
God listens and I watch His hands move when you pray,
Harmon

Be sure to visit our NEW web site at http://www.fijiboat.org
Click on 'Captain's Logs' to read all of the FIJIBoat Email Reports!

The FIJIBoat Project / Nazarene Maritime Ministries is completely funded by designated donations and is a "10% Special Project" approved by the World Mission Division, Church of the Nazarene.

A Big Thank-you to those of you who support Nazarene Maritime Ministries regularly! To be a part of this ongoing ministry you can send support to:
FIJIBoat Project / Activity Fund ID # AFS 1219
General Treasurer, Church of the Nazarene
6401 The Paseo
Kansas City, MO 64131
or you can now contribute online >>

To other Captain's Logs >>