September 2022 Village Trip, Part 3
This post is part 3 of a series about Jason’s trip to the Mubami people in Papua New Guinea in September 2022.
In this Post: On the morning of Sunday, September 11, 2022, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, just as church service was about to begin. Coincidence? Or is there more going on than meets the eye?
The next morning, I looked over the sermon I had prepared, making a few last-minute tweaks and praying for the upcoming service, and reviewed the section of text that we hadn’t translated. I would have to read this section in Tok Pisin, and I wanted to make sure that it communicated as clearly as possible, especially regarding the image of God concept. I talked it over with my host family and was satisfied that, at least for those who knew Tok Pisin, I would be able to explain the concept accurately. I reviewed and practiced reading the Mubami translation of verses 1-18 and chatted with my hosts.
Coincidence? Or something else?
Just as I was preparing to walk over to the church building for the 10:00 service, at about 9:45am, an earthquake shook us around. It was a strong one, and our host jumped to his feet and nervously suggested that we all get out from underneath his house for fear it might collapse on us. But, after a few seconds of more intense shaking, it started to let up and we no longer felt the need to evacuate. Earthquakes are pretty common in PNG, but they tend to be more common in the highlands and the islands, so it briefly crossed my mind that it’s possible the epicenter of the earthquake we felt was in the highlands somewhere. But, since Ukarumpa is over 200 miles away from Sogae, I figured that the chances were low that it would have had any serious effect on our home or mission center. I was wrong.
Houses in the area are built on posts, raised about 6′ off the ground. This creates a nice, cool area underneath that most people use for cooking, resting, and socializing, equivalent to a front porch.
We went on over to the church building and service began. After a good 45 minutes or an hour of singing and announcements, it was time for me to preach. It’s hard for me to estimate how many people were there, but I would guess maybe around 150 were present, including the young man who had left the night before in his canoe and the group of friends he had brought back with him. I preached in Tok Pisin, except for the portion of Scripture that we had translated into Mubami, and Rex translated from Tok Pisin into Mubami for me. I had briefed him ahead of time on some key terms (like the image of God), so that he wouldn’t have to guess how to translate those on the fly. The main points in my sermon were:
- You, and all nature, were made by the Creator God.
- You have been made in the image of God.
- You have been bought with a price, you are not your own.
Worship leaders play guitars and lead the congregation in singing during service.
Then, I concluded with a gospel presentation and call to repentance. People listened attentively, and it seemed to me that the Spirit was moving, but no one responded during the service. At the conclusion of the service, though, there was a lengthy conversation during the announcement time, which culminated in them asking me to preach again that night. I had already determined that I would gladly preach as much as I could, so I happily accepted.
After church, I checked my SAT phone and I saw the message from my wife: “HUGE earthquake. Call ASAP!”
A chill went down my spine as every conceivable scenario played out in my mind. I called my wife and got the details. It had been a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, and the epicenter was very close to our mission’s center. My wife and kids were fine, but there was extensive damage all over the center. Jennifer and the kids had run outside and stood in the yard, surfing on dry land, and watched powerlessly as the earth rocked and rolled. Dishes crashed from the cabinets, bookshelves toppled, our brand-new microwave toppled off the fridge to the floor, the cross-beams on our carport splintered, and the concrete slab in our shed cracked. Elsewhere on center, pipes burst, brick and stone chimneys crumbled, decks collapsed, and giant cracks opened up in the ground. While no one was seriously injured on our center, landslides claimed the lives of some in other parts of PNG. Jennifer and the kids were understandably shaken up from the event and had a lot of cleaning up to do, but I was thankful they were physically unharmed.
A video of the 7.6 earthquake taken by security cameras in the shop at the Ukarumpa International High School.
I couldn’t help but marvel at the timing, though. Right as I was getting ready to preach on a topic that was a great spiritual need? Just as carefully translated vernacular Scripture is about to be read, possibly for the first time ever, to the Mubami people? Of course, pastors had read Scripture before, but usually either in another language or by simply translating it on the fly (which is probably about as accurate as it sounds). It had been painfully obvious that there was a spiritual war going on in the minds and hearts of the Mubami people. But could this be related? The last major earthquake we had experienced in PNG had been in February 2018–the day before our first trip to the Mubami people. Now, four years later, while I’m in the village, another big one?
Of course, ultimately, only God knows the purposes he has for events, and we aren’t the only ones waging war against Satan and his forces in PNG. In fact, I found out later that another missionary/translator friend of ours was also in the village where he works (in another province) leading a discipleship course that was producing major fruit at the time the quake hit. So, it’s not as if this earthquake was solely targeting us. But I do know that Satan uses evil and disasters to discourage and in order to “steal, kill, and destroy” (Jn 10:10), and God uses those same events to work for the good of those whom he has called (Rom. 8:28). So, I wondered whether we were, in fact, under attack by Satan, and if so, what God’s purposes in it all might be. There had been a series of things that had seemed designed to discourage us. My own internal struggles with returning to the village had been plaguing me. But, almost as soon as I arrived in the village, I had also learned from Jennifer that some PNG friends of ours in the highlands were caught up in some fighting that had broken out in the area and Jennifer was left to deal with that on her own. Hope had also fallen off a bunk bed while playing at a friend’s house and had to be taken to the clinic after hours to be evaluated and monitored for a concussion. Now, the earthquake had left Jennifer with a huge mess to clean up and she would have to evaluate the house for structural damage on her own. All of this had happened within the first six days of my departure from Ukarumpa. We were both feeling the pressure of my absence from our home and family as Jennifer was left to deal with some fairly major issues all on her own, and it seemed as though Jennifer was being targeted.
I’m not one to “see a demon under every rock,” as I firmly believe that we’re responsible for our own sins and much of our suffering is self-inflicted. Oftentimes, our own sinful nature is sufficient to explain the temptations we face, and we rarely know for sure whether demonic forces are directly behind our trials or not. But demonic forces ARE at work in the world around us and refusing to acknowledge that reality is nothing more than anti-supernaturalism. There had been enough “coincidences” associated with my arrival in the area to make me wonder if Satan wasn’t perhaps putting up a fight to keep people from hearing the Gospel. And, I had not come in peace. I came to shine a light in the darkness. So, why should I be surprised when the darkness fights back?
Regardless of what is going on in the spiritual realm, though, our response from Scripture is the same. Trust God, pray, stay alert, and resist the temptation. So, that night, I jotted down my thoughts in my journal and spent some time in prayer. I prayed for protection for my family, for eyes to see the spiritual reality around me, for endurance and strength for myself and my wife, and for opportunities to pierce the darkness and Satan’s grip on the lost.
And, I wouldn’t have to wait long for the answer…