Captain's Log #19
July 2001

ONE THURSDAY AT SEA
- The weather fax is giving problems. - The radar went out. - 4:15AM the alarm goes off to get up. Great trip planned. Finalization of 30 acre land transfer planned, starting of Nazarene church planned. Much preparation and excitement for this trip. - Final stowing of gear, run pre-start check, start engines bring up to temperature, tie everything down. - 6:30 AM, passenger head count of 13 all here, safety orientation, prayer for safety, cast off lines. - YIM team from the States aboard, Dentist aboard, DS, pastor and others aboard. - 7:30 AM, cleared Suva Harbor heading out into open Pacific. The day is overcast -  visibility reduced - weather station forecast less than accurate... again. - 15 knot wind forecast is 20 to 25 knot reality straight off our starboard bow. Batten down hatches. - Australian's leaving Suva Harbor call us on radio for weather in the passage. - Motor Vessel 'Jade' captain calls us on radio heading to Dravuni Island -" we'll stay in contact". - 8:30 AM, calm harbor is forgotten and has been replaced with increasingly heavy seas and white caps. - 8:45 AM, 'land people' passengers begin to vomit. Many stop having fun. Nothing is not moving, they say. - 8:55 AM, blowing seas find way down the inside wall around starboard windows and short out 110v system. - 9:00 AM, 110v system gone reducing power supply for navigation system at upper helm to 12v back up. - 9:10 AM, 12v back up system to upper helm is now lost because of same problem that took out 110v system. - Navigation system at upper helm is now reduced to portable power (3rd) back up system. We are now out of sight of land. - 10:00 AM, discover diesel loss out of port fuel tank air vent. Discover reason why and fix. - 10:15 AM, holding tank pump left on, burns out. - 10:30 AM, we make the passage between Astrolabe Reef and Dravuni Island. - 11:00 AM, we are now south of Dravuni Island and heading to Ono Island. We have now made 39.6 nautical miles in 4 & 1/2 hours...  good for these ocean conditions. - 11:15 AM, one of the main engines begins to overheat, discovering the problem is serious, I shut it down. - 11:20 AM, I make a difficult call to abort trip and return to Suva. I can't fix this problem in a remote location and safety remains priority, I am on one engine now. I turn the m/v GALILEAN around. - 11:30 AM, I make radio contact with m/v 'Jade' at Dravuni Island and advise that I am returning to Suva Harbor on Viti Levu Island with one engine. They offer help and to monitor radio. - 1:00 PM, the 'land people' on board fully realize we are now going all the way back the way we came...   only slower. - 1:02 PM, the 'land people' want me to drop them on any island, anywhere...  soon...   they will pay money. - 2:00 PM, we are making between 7 and 8 knots on one engine with the wind behind us. We should make land by nightfall. - 4:30 PM, through the thunderstorms and completely overcast and dismal sky from horizon to horizon there is suddenly a window that opens in front and above us, over to our left, and a huge shaft of brilliant rays of tropical sun pierce down through the dark and dreary day...   it is  awesome!!!  behind it rise the mountains of the island of Viti Levu - 5:20 PM, we navigate through the passage into Suva harbor at sundown. - 5:45 PM, we are back through the 'Bay of Islands' to where we started this day. The 'land people' want to promise the solid ground that they will never leave it again. Over eleven hours at sea today- 6:00 PM, we have prayer thanking God for a safe day and for the prayers of the 'Plankholders'. 6:20 PM, Cindy begins cooking supper for everyone. We begin considering the engine problem.
 
NO AUTHORITY?
"You..   have..   no..   authority..   to..   send..    me..    away..!!   I..  have..  no..  where..  else.. to..  go.."  The sound is a chilling deep, strained slow voice of a huge man, yet the words came out of the twisted lips of a seventeen year old IndoFijian girl. The room is in shambles, like a storm has gone through. She was trying to bite her hands. In the room are several Fiji JESUS Film team members praying seriously. The girl's mother is crying. The girl's father is clutching a Bible to his chest, pacing back and forth with his eyes closed saying; "My Jesus I Love You!, My Jesus I Love You!"  The tears are streaming down his cheeks. This was all earlier today.
 
HINDU PRIEST
Only yesterday the father's life had turned around. Only yesterday morning he had been one of the leading Hindu priests, a witchdoctor in this part of Fiji. His livelihood had come from marketing that which is offered by the gods of India and China. But in exchange for wealth and recognition, they had exacted a toll. The evil entertained had taken hold with long talons that pierced and gripped his soul and filled him with total realization of his own despair. His desperate search for escape and peace had finally come to a head during one of the follow-up meetings with the JESUS Film team members and others helping where his eight year old son accepted Christ after one of the JESUS Film showings this week.
 
DELIVERED 
Through an agonizing ordeal, God used these men to help free this priest who had sold his soul. As he accepted the freedom that only Christ can bring, he stepped away from the only life he knew, the only source of income that he had, and that was only yesterday. By the end of the day every idol and god in his home and temple, he had helped destroy with a sledge hammer and fire. He knew that his seventeen year old daughter was possessed ... he had helped in the process. She fled to the town of Raki Raki and when he realized that she had gone, he took the last $150 that they had, with no food in the house, he hired a vehicle to take our team to go find her...  that was this morning. Helping to lead that team is a young Nazarene pastor and another minister. The pastor had belonged to a gang in Suva and eventually was converted in prison. He originally comes from the 'fire walking' island of Beqa....   his past is well acquainted with the powers of darkness. He knows what the answer is.
 
It was this young pastor who crouched in front of the girl. With conviction and belief born out of a faith that has been tried and proven, he looked at her down cast face. "Do not look away, look me in the eyes and tell me I have no authority to send you away! I have all the authority in the world! I have the authority bought by the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God and you are not welcome in this girl anymore!" The girl went into violent convulsions. That was this morning.
 
HEALED
"There is no way to describe the incredible transformation. A peace moved across her face and through her eyes as I watched. For the first time she looked straight at me and then she started to cry as she accepted the love and forgiveness of Christ." said Pastor Mala. In the hour that followed, her mother began to worry; "What are we going to do for food now?" she asked. The girl turned to her mother and with a voice that should come from a seventeen year old she said; "Look at me mother, I am healed. Do you not think that the God who could do this to me will not also be able to feed us?"  This was all a few hours ago, today.
 
THREE DAYS LATER
This is now Sunday...   incredible. I watched today as a young woman stood to her feet right in the middle of the service and walk over in front of where I was. She handed the new Bible to a lady in the chair in front of me with a question on her face. The pastor had given the Scripture reference in John... then he added that John was in the New Testament. That didn't help.
 
The Bible, now opened to the book of 'John', was handed back and as the young woman walked over to all the rest of the new Christians, they followed her instructions to find 'John'. Today was the first time they had ever been to church. Here in front of us was the result from this week's JESUS Film showings, sponsored by the 'New Beginnings Church of the Nazarene'. The young lady was the seventeen year old girl whose father had been the Hindu Priest last week, her father was right behind her.
 
BLOOD SPILLED OUT
Last week this man had been offering the blood of very real sacrifices to the demons that had him in bondage. Before today's meeting was over we watched this former Hindu Priest come forward and turn to the people in the church. His face lit up with a huge smile and he lifted his hands and gave thanks and praise to the God who has set him free. The God who has paid that very high price for his freedom. The chains are gone! The bondage, the fear, the despair, the hopelessness is all gone. There is no torment; there is peace. There is power in the blood of Christ! It was shed and He died so that others might live. He died to set the captives free! I have seen it today. The pastor placed a bag at the back of the church and I watched people who only possess two days worth of food, place half of their food in the bag for the new Believers who have left everything they have to follow Christ by faith. Please pray for them.
 
TWO NEW CHURCHES
Our most recent new area of work with the JESUS Film has been over on the western side of this large island of Viti Levu, within this last month. We have been working together with a Nazarene church over there so that the necessary preparation and follow-up will be done correctly. In the first village that we showed the film there was serious opposition. There were also serious results of the film showing. As a result we are now beginning a Nazarene mission church there. The second place that we showed the film on that side of the island had similar results with another church being started there as well. Two JESUS Film showings, two new churches! Please pray for them.
 
Thank you for the overwhelming support,
Mostly thank you for your prayers,
OUR GOD REIGNS!!
Harmon

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