The Wedding:
I held a wedding on Saturday before Easter for a girl named Daisy and her husband Augustine. She ran away with him a year ago and has been living with him ever since. This really broke my heart because she was like a daughter to Nancy and I. I held some marital counseling classes with them. It was a good wedding and God's presence was really felt. Please pray for Daisy and Augustine that they will get serious about their faith. Daisy is now a few months pregnant and so pray that they will find a church home.
Easter Sunday and Good Friday:
We had a wonderful Good Friday and Easter Sunday service with the Mage church. Pray for the Mage Church. Many of their young men and leaders in their church are Bible College students and will soon by deployed to pastor other congregations.
Trip to Alisisiu:
I planned to go to Alisisiu on Monday, but on Monday [Public Holiday] there was no truck in Auki going to NE Malaita where our Alisisiu church is located. So after waiting all day in Auki for a transport to arrive we went back to Mage and waited for the next day, Tuesday.
We knew the ships arrived in Auki on Monday night and felt sure that a truck would be there to meet the ship or at least by Tuesday morning before the ship's departure. Therefore we arrived in Auki at around 8:00 a.m. to hear that the only truck serving our destination had just left. We waited and about an hour later we heard the truck returned to Auki. The driver met someone as he was leaving town who wanted to hire his truck to carry timber to build his house and so he returned. We praised the Lord for now we had transport. A day late but we would be there. The truck was loaded down with timber, other provision, luggage, and 20 or so passengers. It all took time loading up but we were on the way by 2 p.m.
Once we got to the part of the road where it was rough and the truck had to drive slower the passengers began lighting their cigarettes. I was choked up, and began to pray for rain to kill the fire. It was a clear cloudless sky, and we rounded a curve and out of nowhere there was a big black cloud right in front of us. The wind picked up, it began to sprinkle lightly, and you could smell the rain. The smokers put out their cigarettes and we had a momentary reprieve. The rain never really came and when we arrived at Alisisiu I asked Eric, a Bible College student and my traveling companion, if he prayed for the Lord to hold the rain back and had confirmed he did. I told him that I had prayed for the rain to drown the smoke. We had a laugh but actually both our prayers were answered because with the wind it was difficult lighting the cigarettes and once lit the wind blew from my side of the truck blowing the smoke away from me. Also we arrived about 6 p.m., 30 minutes or so before dark, with dry clothes in our bags. Actually once the full moon came up the night sky was pretty well lit and you didn't need a torch (flashlight for those from USA) to see.
Once at Alisisiu, I met another one of the Bible College students, Lazarus, who went to Alisisiu on Thursday before Easter to ready the program for our trip as well as check about becoming the pastor of the Alisisiu Church. I should have been exhausted after a grueling trip, but I asked if they were ready for service. They confirmed they were and we started service at 7:30 "Solomon Island Time". I don't remember now when it actually began.
We had some time of reconciliation and hopefully necessary healing. We talked about Lazarus being their pastor and he received a unanimous call. Later I realized the layman who has faithfully served as pastor for 7 years, even though he voted for him was really not in agreement, esp. when the agreed to pay the new pastor (US $8/month) and the laymen had been serving for (US $0.75/month). There were other issues that he was not happy with too.
Pray for this church and Lazarus as he goes there to be their pastor. He is also the Jesus Film team leader there. There are some other villages around that request him to come. There is a large number of Moslems there now. Islam has just recently entered the country and is making strides particularly among the youth.
When I arrived at Alisisiu I told the truck driver that I would like to go back to Auki, on Thursday. He replied, "If you need to be back on Thursday you'll need to catch the truck on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m." I agreed even though this would cut my time short. At 6 p.m. Wednesday word came to me that the truck would leave Thursday morning at 4 a.m. Perfect! Now I could get to Auki in time to register the marriage and do other things and then catch an early afternoon truck to Kwailatutu and be there as planned on Thursday mid-afternoon. We had a wonderful service Wednesday night. People came to the altar seeking sanctification and committing their life to Christ. It was wonderful.
Service lasted until 10:30 and after eating it was near midnight when I lay down. Years ago I would never tell this story as I would have been viewed as some loon but as I lay there almost asleep, an ugly face faded in before my eyes, this face disappeared and another face appeared, then I opened my eyes and the face was still there. Before I was fully awake two other faces came into view. I've only had this happen once before. Being awake now I just gave a simple command, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave." They left but now I'm aware that there is some spiritual forces (demonic activity) at work there. Pray for the people living there. My internal alarm clock went off early at 2 a.m. and so I got up had my devotions and got ready for our 4 a.m. truck ride. Well 4 a.m. came and went, then 5, 6, 7, & 8 a.m. and no sign of a truck. Finally around 10 a.m. the truck came and said he had to move some timber and would be ready to take off at 12 noon. It is a long story but let's just suffice it to say that we waited all day and finally departed around 10 P.M. We spent most of the day at the house of a friend who lives on the road. I had a chance to witness to his backslidden son Patterson while there. Pray for Patterson that he will come back to the Lord. He has a beautiful voice and is really talented. While their he entertained me with his guitar and gospel music. It was lovely. I was in tears and told him that his singing brought tears to my eyes, just think what it'd do if he really experienced what he was singing about. As I was there shortly after noon I began to complain to the Lord about the waste of time. It seemed like the Lord just told me, "Well, stop wasting time and get your Bible out." I had been reading through the Proverbs so I began where I left off and this is the first verse I read, Proverbs 16:1 "To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue." My paraphrase of this verse goes something like this, "A man makes his plans, but the Lord has the last say." Then I read other verses that followed about plans and I said Lord my plans are in your hands and I'll patiently follow [or at least try to be patient.]
At 10 p.m. we loaded up as the first passengers on the truck so I took a place at the front just behind the cab where I could breathe. After we loaded (or packed) everyone in we left around 11:30 or so for Auki. Once positioned in the truck, I couldn't move at all. I thought we were crowded coming. In Melanesia there is always room for one more passenger it seems, but we were so packed we couldn't fit in anymore I don't believe. There were two men setting on top of the cab of the truck. It did rain on the way home drowning out the cigarette smoke. The front of my shirt was soaked as I was facing the front. We had a plastic tarp but I held it up so I could get fresh air. We arrived in Auki at 2:30 a.m. on Friday. By the time we walked to Mage and got into bed it was shortly after 3 in the morning and it had been a really long day.
Trip to Kwailatutu:
I slept until 6:30 a.m. I even slept though the village alarm clocks otherwise known as roosters. I wanted to try and catch a vehicle to Kwailatutu so I'd get there with as much time available as possible. I showered in the water supply that feeds into the creek by the house. Got ready so I could get a vehicle to Kwailatutu. As I figured I slept too late to catch the morning transports going that way, and the afternoon transports would not give me enough time. I had Barnabas find a taxi for us. At 10 a.m. when the taxi arrived and I departed Eric was still fast asleep and so I changed traveling companions and took Barnabas and Revelation with me.
The situation at Kwailatutu is sensitive and so I can't share a lot in this letter, but please pray for Regina, the pastor. I had to take back her district license and remove her as pastor of the church. Pray for her father Jacob. They are really new Christians. Regina cried and was very sorry and has repented. I think she will still attend Bible College and will someday be restored. The situation was not totally resolved. I phoned Nancy, praise the Lord for Satellite phone and many of you contributed to our deputation that provided that for us. I told her that I would have to delay my return to Honiara, barring a real miracle, and so she booked my on a flight on Sunday evening. We had service with the church and I sent word that I'd like to meet with others from the community involved in this issue, but they refused to meet with me, so I felt staying 2 or 3 more days would make little difference, so I met with the Nazarenes and tried to encourage them and work through some of the issues and concerns.
Travel to Honiara:
Then on Saturday I woke up at 4:30 to get to the road to catch a 5 a.m. transport. I wanted to get to the wharf in Auki by 8 a.m. to catch the Express Pelican Ship which travels to Honiara in 2 ½ hours. Finally we caught the truck at 6:00 and made it to the wharf shortly after 7 a.m. and the truck had a flat tire on our arrival, but we made it. I went to the wharf and it was full of people. Normally on Saturday morning there are 3 or 4 ships at the Auki wharf but this morning only two the Pelican and the Bikoi (pronounced be-koy). The Bikoi departs at 9:00 and takes 5 hours or so. The doors on the Pelican were locked and then I heard the news, "The Pelican was chartered by a candidate, for his supporters." By the way Friday was an election in Auki and East Malaita since the members of parliament from these two constituencies passed away. So I boarded the Bikoi. {Pray for the Bikoi shipping company. It is a good ship and they really help our church and Jesus Film move around. They give our Bible College students a good discount and don't charge for cargo needed for ministry}. God is blessing them for their faithfulness. I mentioned there are always at least 3 ships on Saturday, well now this Saturday there are twice as many passengers as usual and they are going to try and squeeze onto two ships. When I boarded the Bikoi and went into the first class section and found a good comfortable chair (a rarity for many SI ships). The Bikoi has about 10 or so swivel chairs and I boarded early enough to get one. It didn't take long for it to fill with people. I don't know what it would be equipped for but probably 450-500 passengers max., maybe less. Anyway there was probably a 1000 people attempting to get to Honiara. I was by the clerk selling tickets and as the captain came and told him they were overloaded to stop selling tickets, I overheard him says that according to ticket sells they still have 36 available spaces. In Solomon Islands some people board the ship without enough for their fare and the crew don't check tickets until they have almost arrived at the destination and then they take what money the passengers can give. In other words there were a lot on board without a ticket. We were overloaded, they announced that anyone without a ticket would need to leave the ship, but I saw no one move. At 8:45, 15 minutes ahead of schedule, we were loaded and began our voyage. Many passengers were in the front of the ship making it nose heavy and the ship was leaning a little. After a few minutes we returned to the wharf as the water level was above the safe line. We spent probably 1 ½ hours trying to get the 50 or so passengers to leave the ship so we could sail. We finally left with probably 100 passengers over the max. There was literally no place to put your foot without stepping on something or someone. It's in times like these that I'm glad you are praying. Also I'm thankful for the life jacket I was wearing and also thankful I didn't need to use it.
I arrived home tired at around 3:30 p.m. Nancy fixed me my favorite supper and then favorite Breakfast Sunday Morning (today for most of you, but yesterday for me).
Sorry about the length of this letter. Due to requests from some of my prayer partners I use large fonts which makes it even longer.
Your Partner in His Ministry,
George Miller
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