3,680,00 people in 19 island nations* on 34,650 sq miles of land mass nestled in over 5,000,000 sq miles of Pacific Ocean 30 congregations of 700+ Christians served by 20 Bible trained workers 8 missionary families * not including Hawaii, Guam, Australia, Am Samoa, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea
3,680,00 people in
19 island nations* on
34,650 sq miles of land mass nestled in over
5,000,000 sq miles of Pacific Ocean
30 congregations of
700+ Christians served by
20 Bible trained workers
8 missionary families
"the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" - 2 Timothy 2:2
January 2007
Dear Brethren
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ who has made us partakers of the incomparable riches of His grace.
A world in turmoil faces the Christian in our day. At no other time in human history has the church of the living God faced greater opportunity or opposition.
Christ needs leaders. We live in a world of specialization. It is even true religiously. Men must arise, as never before, to face the challenge of our age. Too long isolationism and apathy have held the church in a death grip and stymied her effectiveness and efforts. People are going somewhere, they must follow someone. The Christian and the church must be ready to meet the cries of "who", "why", "where" and "when"? The Christian must challenge the plastic gods of society. These plastic gods which say "money can buy everything", "science can answer anything" and "sex is everything". The world has awakened; the sleeping giant has been stirred and Christ must be there to meet the needs.
Throughout our world, nations arise and clamour to be heard. As Christians we have the answer to their plea. There is a gigantic task of dethroning the false gods of secularism and materialism in the hearts and minds of the people of the world. But we will be able to overcome, for "if God fights for us, who shall be able to stand against us?"
Too long, many brethren have felt foreign mission work was a necessary evil and therefore only "token conscience money and effort" have been put forth. The evangelization of the world "in our generation", in every generation, is God's command, Matthew 28:18-20. Too long, people have felt that foreign mission work would rob the local congregation of needed dollars, and too long the "crumbs that fell from the table" have been all that was available to carry the unsearchable riches of Christ to those covered in darkness and spiritual poverty.
We believe that God's people are the greatest people on earth. We believe that they have the greatest love for the lost the world has ever known. We have everything necessary to do any job God wants done. We know God stands ready and waiting to bless, guide and establish every effort. May we then launch out into the deep to gather a harvest of souls like this world has never seen.
Many times our mission efforts are only a "bandaid", in a world with a terminal illness. This approach has been used and is continuing to be used in areas of the world where the need for missionaries is great but the expense has frightened off potential workers and supporters. This is very true in the Oceania area of the world. This is an area of the South Pacific with several thousand islands stretching from Hawaii to Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Other than Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand most of these island nations who do have the Lord's church have congregations of less than 40 members, most less than 20 members. Many of these congregations were begun with Correspondence course follow-up. Because of the high cost of living and high cost of travel in this region very few missionaries have settled for long term sojourns. Those who were instrumental in the establishment of scattered congregations throughout the island nations have done their best to continue the maturing process with periodic visits and the sending of Bible materials for further study. But sadly this is not really sufficient because many if not most of those who have been baptised as BBC follow-up have not remained faithful or have stayed in the spiritual baby state. Physical babies have no hope of survival if fed only occasionally in large chunks. How do we think spiritual babies have much hope either if we birth them, throw chunks of food at them, leave them and then (maybe) come back many months down the track and throw some more food at them!
It is because of this need for the maturing and leadership training of local brethren into working and outreaching bodies of Christ that we began looking for trained workers from within the region of Oceania to help train their fellow, culture-like brethren. During the hay-day of missionary activity in Papua New Guinea many men were trained in the Bible. Many other Bible training schools have operated from time to time in the region. Currently we have a Pidgin Bible School in Lae, Papua New Guinea and English Bible Schools in Australia and New Zealand. A group out of Forest Park, Georgia even started a travelling Bible School which comes into some of the Oceania nations once or twice a year. This school tries to come to the people whereas the other schools have to be applied for and government restrictions and expense make it only possible for a small number of men to be trained from outside their respective countries. We are appreciative of any training which can be provided for this urgent need, but we have to ask, "Is there a better way?" We think there is!
There are a couple of schools of thought in regard to mission work. Some think we should only support local (overseas) men in their local (overseas) situation (with outside funds), others advocate that no local workers should be supported with outside funds. I have been part and partial to both types of working relationships. Many of those who advocate that no outside funds should be expended to local workers spend many dollars "to and froing" to the various mission areas in which they are involved injecting the brethren with Bible teaching from time to time, while in-between these injections the local brethren struggle and flounder to survive because they are not getting sufficient nourishment to survive spiritually. Now not all works are such but way too many are. If international business can and does implement localization to save excessive spending, perhaps its time we also looked this direction.
I also do not wish for local works to be hindered or destroyed because of overseas funding. It is an admirable desire to see all works, whether local or overseas to be self-supporting. There are many variables which should dictate how a particular work should be funded.
As my experience is mostly in some of the countries of Oceania my remarks are addressed to that need. On the whole the island nations are not financially wealthy and the brethren are mostly struggling to put bread on the table for their families. That does not mean that we should not teach and expect them to give sacrificially to the Lord's work. What I am trying to say is that I believe there is a Biblical principal that "those who have been blessed more should be willing to lend a helping hand to those who are in need." I are not talking of unlimited hand-outs to the Third World but I would like consideration to a thought that we give a helping hand, "a jump start", to those works which we deem to be worthy.
I envision this "jump-start" funding much like training wheels on those bicycles we rode as toddlers. When first learning the rudiments of "balance vs gravity" (lose your balance and gravity takes you to the ground) those training wheels were a necessity. But after we had somewhat mastered the balance bit, the wheels had to come off so that we could learn to properly ride the bicycle. Sure there were the inevitable spills and falls but usually someone was close at hand to help us get up and brush off so we could try the balancing act once again. Leaving the wheels on only retarded maturation and growth. In the same way just taking the training wheels off and walking away was detrimental to maturity and growth. Wisdom would dictate the length of time financial aid would be given to worthy works. I firmly believe that in areas where the population is not as developed literately (the ability to read and write and/or have the Scriptures in their local languages) a longer time frame might be necessary for the "training wheels" funding of projects in the local environment. This would apply to the missionary operated printing, Medical clinics, Bible Training Schools, evangelistic teams of local men, schools and even churches with paid preachers. There might even come the day when some of these "training wheel" projects are no longer needed and/or the funding for some will come totally from the local brethren if these projects are deemed necessary for the further maturity and growth of the Lord's Kingdom. Historically such projects have been downsized considerably to accommodate the financially ability of the local brethren, but they have continued.
That is not to say there might not be cases where finances are not so wisely spent (that happens even in our so-called mature congregations in the Bible belt in the Southern United States) but the idea is that accountability should be in place when the wheels are on as well as when they are taken off. I have seen works overseas which receive considerable overseas funding and have been shown to be worthy of this support in the way that they are accountable for these funds with the frugal way in which they are able to get the maximum spending for their dollar. On the other side I have seen widespread abuse of the Lord's finances when large sums of money are thrown into works without the proper parameters of accountability in place. This applies to supporting local men in the local work or American missionaries in foreign works.
This proposal addresses the needs of the Oceania area. We wish to minimize the risks and maximize the accountability. In other words, the wise use of the Lord's resources for the maximum maturity and maximum growth of the Lord's church in the areas of Oceania where the Lord is allowing us to be kingdom partners with Him.
After much prayer, thought and discussion with the local island brethren it has been decided to try and establish a located "Basic English Bible School" which would cater to the needs in the Melanesian portion of Oceania (Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands). "Basic English" because in most of the island nations English is an official language and spoken by the majority the inhabitants. "Bible" because Biblical teaching is what they need to establish and build strong congregations of the Lord's body which will remain even after the presence of the missionary is gone. "Located" because so much more time can be dedicated to a concentrated course of Bible study rather than - a couple of hours - for a couple of weeks - a couple of times a year. A more grounding and lasting foundation of Biblical truth can be accomplished with a concentrated setting of Biblical training.
Fiji has been chosen (at this time) because:
Plans that change: May 2011 Four years ago we packed a container of our worldly goods (and gave the rest of them away) and moved from Joplin Mo and came to Fiji figuring that this would be the last big move we would be making, wrong! After evaluating the current situation for the establishment of a located campus for “The Christian School of Biblical Studies” in the Oceania region of the South Pacific we put a plan in action which saw us moving to Vanuatu in 2011.
The congregation at Eton Village formally invited us to come to Vanuatu and they would work with us on getting our visas and “The Christian School of Biblical Studies”established.
June 2012
Even though we sold the idea of the Bible School to be located in Fiji it did not prove, in our hindsight, to be what the Lord was thinking (maybe like Paul being forbidden to go to where he thought was best). The move to Vanuatu had shown that we are indeed moving forward with the Bible School concept after 4 years of no movement in Fiji. The house we are building right now at Eton is a temporary house so that when we get back in August 2012 we will be out in Eton and not paying rent in Port Vila ($900-1300 per month). We are trying to keep the costs down but make it livable.
Moving out there will also let us start some Bible classes (using the Eton church building) and to get the ground cleared and the building started for more permanent buildings for the Bible school we have planned down the road.
If you wish for information regarding this challanging opportunity I can be contacted at: dthuff@joplin.com