Participants:
Series Code: NOW
Program Code: NOW019036S
|
00:15 This is 3ABN Now
00:17 with John and Rosemary Malkiewycz. 00:21 Hello, and welcome to today's program. 00:24 I'm Rosemary and this is John, my husband. 00:27 It's good to have you here with me today. 00:29 It's always good to be with you, Rosemary. 00:30 Yes, I know, we enjoy each other's company. 00:32 You know, we've worked together for 27 years. 00:38 And a lot of people don't like working 00:40 with their husband or wife. 00:42 They want to get away from them sometimes, 00:43 but we're together all the time. 00:45 So it's really good, isn't it? 00:47 Yes, it is. 00:48 And it's been good working in the Lord's work 00:49 for that period of time. 00:51 Yes, it is very good. 00:52 But today on this program where we're working together, 00:56 we're going to be talking to a couple of people 00:59 who have been on the program twice before 01:02 talking about a specific place called Batuna. 01:06 Now Batuna is in the Solomon Islands. 01:09 And we have been talking about the history of Batuna 01:12 but last time we didn't get to finish, 01:14 we ran out of time to finish the program. 01:16 And there's some interesting stories 01:17 that we gonna be talking. 01:18 There are still some interesting stories 01:20 about Batuna to cover today. 01:22 So sit back and relax 01:24 and listen to Batuna's history part two, 01:28 when we talk about the translating work, etc. 01:31 which is a really, really good and Glynn Lock and Ron Keeler, 01:34 welcome to the program again. 01:36 Thank you. 01:37 They're both still involved in working in Batuna, 01:39 aren't you? 01:41 More or less. More or less. 01:43 In fact, Glynn has been on the program too, 01:45 with his brother and sister 01:47 talking about being missionary kids. 01:50 And that was an enjoyable program too, 01:52 Glynn. 01:53 It never gets out of your blood, 01:55 does it, Glynn? 01:56 It's a bit like aviation. 01:59 You still want to keep flying? You get infected by it. 02:02 I thought you're gonna say 02:03 it's like a virus you get infected. 02:05 Well, you're nearly right. 02:07 It gets in your blood anyway. 02:09 You've got a Bible verse for? 02:10 Yes, yes, I have. 02:12 And it's 1 Corinthians 1:27. 02:17 And the Bible says, 02:22 "But the God, 02:23 but God has chosen the foolish things 02:25 of the world to confound the wise. 02:27 And God has chosen the weak things of the world 02:30 to confound the things which are mighty." 02:33 Interesting verse, Glynn, you've chosen that, 02:35 and you mentioned it last time, 02:37 but you like that verse, don't you? 02:39 Share with us a little bit. 02:40 Yeah, it's, it is a good text. 02:43 And it illustrates particularly 02:44 what we will be talking about part of today. 02:47 The battle, 02:48 it doesn't always go to the mighty, 02:52 the people who are behind the scenes 02:54 who do all the supporting and the, 02:56 if you can say it, the plotting the army, 03:00 the front person is not always the army, 03:02 it's the people who behind it. 03:06 We'll be talking about a particular person today 03:08 who was one of those kinds of people. 03:11 Then someone that we in our church history, 03:14 most of us will never have heard about. 03:16 That's right. 03:17 Never have heard about, 03:19 but of significant contributor to the work of the church 03:22 in the early days of the Solomons. 03:24 Yeah, a very, very good story, too. 03:26 I'm looking forward to it. 03:28 And, Ron, I have your verse. 03:31 You have chosen Hebrews 1:10-11. 03:36 He actually had three verses, three separate places, 03:40 but we chose to use this one. 03:42 They're all about the same thing. 03:45 It says in verse 10, 03:48 "And thou Lord in the beginning 03:49 has laid the foundation of the earth 03:52 and the heavens are the works of thine hands. 03:55 Thy shall perish, but thou remainest. 03:59 And thy shall all wax old, as does a garment. 04:03 Ron, you explain why you chose that verse? 04:06 Today, there is so much publicity 04:09 and protest about saving the environment. 04:14 But if a person who studies the scriptures, 04:16 you'll realize the earth will wear out 04:19 and God has a restoration plan. 04:22 We cannot save ourselves. 04:25 And if people would read the scriptures, 04:27 especially revelation 04:29 that talks about the restoration plan 04:31 that God has in place, 04:34 they wouldn't have to worry 04:35 about the issues that are going on. 04:37 Sure, we should look after the planet, 04:39 I'm not saying we shouldn't. 04:41 But there's so much publicity 04:43 and always focuses on the environment, 04:45 the environment, 04:47 let's save ourselves for the next generation 04:49 and future generation. 04:51 But the scripture says 04:52 the earth will wear out like a garment. 04:55 Wax old. And wax old. 04:57 Be morph agent. Morph. 04:58 And our clothes do wear out. 05:00 And is, is going to do exactly the same thing. 05:03 We'll use up the resources, but God has a restoration plan. 05:06 You know, Ron, 05:08 we actually have to do something 05:09 and I want to encourage the viewers to take your Bible 05:12 and have a look and see 05:13 what God has written in there for us 05:16 to know that we're living in a time 05:18 where this world is waxing old, 05:20 like you said, 05:21 but there's something that you can do. 05:24 This world is not going to be our final home as it is now, 05:27 it's going to be a new world, 05:29 and you have the opportunity to be there. 05:31 It's your choice. 05:32 And you accept the good news. 05:34 That's what the Bible says, 05:35 it's the good news 05:37 that you can live in a new world, 05:38 a perfect world, in fact, 05:40 and the way to do that is to find out about Jesus 05:43 because He's the one 05:44 that's going to make it possible. 05:45 Amen. 05:47 This morning, in our devotional here at work 05:49 in our worship time, 05:50 we were reading about the word earth. 05:53 In 2 Peter, where it says 05:54 that the earth or the elements will melt. 05:57 Yeah. 05:58 It's fermented, 06:00 God is going to renew everything, 06:01 He's going to purify with fire. 06:02 Yes. 06:04 And make it new. 06:05 So I'm, I think there's a wonderful promise. 06:08 Yeah. 06:10 It will wax old. 06:11 And there's a text in, 06:13 brought in the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 06:15 where it talks about the Garden of Eden. 06:19 With Adam and Eve we're asked to look after it, 06:25 to look after what was made... 06:26 Stewards. 06:28 So it's incumbent on us as Christians 06:29 and all our people I suppose right 06:31 through our nation and through the world 06:33 to look after what we've got. 06:35 There is, it's true, 06:37 there is going to come a time when it will grow old. 06:39 But that doesn't mean to say 06:41 that we can be a derelict in our duty, 06:43 we still need to look after. 06:45 The world still a beautiful place, 06:47 you know, the flowers still grow. 06:49 And the earth brings forth its fruit, 06:52 so you and I can enjoy food, 06:54 the food, but it's true, 06:56 you know, we are really in a way 06:59 not caring for it as we should 07:00 because greed, 07:02 and profit and money dictate more than caring 07:06 for what God has given us. 07:08 I think it comes down to the point, 07:10 what is our main focus? 07:12 What are we looking at the most? 07:14 Is caring for the planet is important? 07:17 We should all be doing that. 07:19 But do we make that our primary focus 07:22 more than helping people, 07:24 more than showing people the God, 07:27 who's going to restore everything. 07:30 So it has to be a balancing act between them. 07:33 But we should be knowing 07:34 that God says He's going to renew it 07:37 'cause it's going to grow old, it's gonna wear out. 07:41 And it's a really good thing to keep in mind, 07:44 He's gonna do that. 07:46 Now we're going to go, 07:47 just give us a little bit of a rundown 07:49 on what we covered last time, just as a recap. 07:54 So that we can then go on with our story of this, 07:57 of different people, but especially one. 08:01 The Seventh-day Adventist Church 08:03 made an entry into the Solomon Islands 08:05 way back in 1914. 08:07 And a Welsh minister and his wife 08:13 traveled from Australia to the Solomon Islands 08:15 on a bench full boat, 08:16 along with a little mission boat 08:20 to start the work of the church. 08:21 And that was in 1914. So we're now in 2019. 08:25 So it's 105 years ago 08:27 since the Seventh-day Adventist Church went 08:30 into the Solomon Islands and start working there. 08:33 And they were offloaded 08:38 at the capital 08:39 of the Western Solomons at Gizo. 08:42 And then they worked their way through to some of the islands 08:46 in what is now the Roviana Lagoon 08:49 was known as the Roviana Lagoon, 08:50 they went to and into Viru Harbor, 08:54 and then eventually into the Marovo. 08:58 And there were three significant people 09:01 to get the church into the Marovo, 09:04 one of them was Jones himself. 09:06 And there was a British Commissioner, 09:07 Mr. Barley, Barley, 09:10 and then there was Chief Tatagu from the Marovo people 09:13 from the Marovo Island 09:15 and the negotiations that was successful there 09:18 got the church 09:20 onto an island called Sasaghana, 09:21 where, that was the first mission station in 09:25 for the Seventh-day Adventist Church 09:26 in the Marovo Lagoon. 09:27 So that entailed a lot of building 09:30 and a lot of infrastructure being set up? 09:32 Not so much as Sasaghana 09:34 because there was a very short history 09:36 of Sasaghana. 09:37 And the reason for that 09:39 is not that the people weren't responsive, 09:40 or the church, 09:42 the people were incapable of working, 09:44 but simply because of the physical size 09:47 of the land that was available. 09:49 It wasn't big enough to have a school, a church, 09:53 and extensive gardens that they could grow food 09:56 to feed the students. 09:58 So it was moved from Sasaghana to another little island 10:00 in a Marovo called Telina. 10:03 And Telina was part, 10:10 the original inhabitants of Telina 10:12 previously were part of the Marovo tribe, 10:16 or the Babata tribe. 10:17 But due to some political issues 10:19 in the tribe, 10:20 some of them moved 10:22 out of that particular tribe and became 10:23 a separate organization at Telina. 10:26 And then they were brought after they abandoned Sasaghana, 10:32 they'll have to leave Sasaghana because of their land problem. 10:35 They went to Telina but by too, 10:37 believe within a year or so 10:40 they were up against the same problem again, 10:42 not enough land to grow gardens. 10:45 Telina is only a fairly small island, 10:46 you can paddle a canoe around in about half an hour. 10:50 Oh, that is little. 10:51 It's only tiny, 10:53 and they have a headquarters for the mission, 10:58 a school 11:00 and it's supposed it'd be enough land for gardens, 11:03 but that just wasn't that much land there. 11:06 It's interesting. 11:07 You're saying about gardens all the time. 11:09 Because you know, the staple diet there. 11:13 I don't know, I'd imagine 11:15 there'd be a lot of fish from the sea. 11:18 But if you wanted to, 11:20 but if you wanted to have vegetables in that 11:22 you need land, don't you? 11:24 You do. 11:25 And the land on Telina 11:27 as much as what same as the land on Sasaghana, 11:32 it is a coral island. 11:33 Okay. 11:35 So Telina is very small coral. 11:38 Not a lot, not a lot of top soil. 11:41 So no place to grow garden. 11:43 That was the big issue. 11:44 So that's the difference 11:46 between a lack of volcanic island 11:48 and a coral island. 11:50 Yes. 11:51 The coral island has been built up 11:52 because of the dead coral and soil deposits on it, 11:56 I presume. 11:58 Yes. 11:59 And then a volcanic one, 12:00 of course, that's all beautiful organic soil 12:03 from the lava. 12:04 Yes. 12:06 When we were children we lived not far from Rabaul. 12:10 And Rabaul has, 12:12 the Rabaul Harbor is ringed by volcanoes. 12:15 Okay. 12:16 And it was in the old days many years ago, 12:18 it was a volcano itself. 12:20 And when this massive volcano erupted, 12:22 it blew the side out and the sea came in 12:24 and that created the harbor. 12:26 And but this one, two, 12:28 about four volcanoes around the rim of the Rebel 12:31 but it's a magic place to grow things 12:33 because of the volcanic soil. 12:35 Telina, dead opposite. 12:39 Just coral. Oh, dead coral. 12:41 And because of seismic activity, 12:43 there's a lot of earthquakes around the Solomons. 12:45 And it was probably uplifted to some degree 12:49 and people inhabited it 12:52 but it takes a long time to make soil 12:53 when you haven't got much to start with. 12:55 Yeah, that's right. 12:56 So what did they do then if the island was so small? 13:00 Well, some of them have land on the, 13:01 what they call the mainland, on, you know, Island Vangunu. 13:06 How big is the mainland? 13:07 Well, it's a reasonable size island. 13:11 But, excuse me, 13:14 but you've got to travel to do the work. 13:17 And so that just complicates the matter again. 13:21 And to get between the Telina and the mainland, 13:23 it's all by canoed. 13:25 So if you're sending a work line over there 13:27 to dig your gardens, 13:29 they've got to take their picks and shovels 13:30 and things with them 13:32 to work and bring it over back again, so. 13:33 To cross some ocean. 13:35 Well, it's not very far, but it's protected water. 13:38 So it gets a little bit choppy 13:39 when they have a really strong wind. 13:42 But generally, it's fairly calm. 13:44 But so, how did they move to Batuna? 13:46 Well, when they decided 13:47 that it wasn't going to work at Telina, 13:51 a group of 80 chiefs 13:52 and important people from around the Marovo 13:54 gathered together and as a group, 13:57 they went searching for land. 13:58 Okay. 14:00 And they went from the east to the west and the east, 14:04 the north and the south of the Marovo Lagoon 14:08 searching for land, and eventually, 14:11 they, the Babata tribe, 14:13 thought about a piece of land that they owned. 14:16 Somehow, they owned a piece of land somewhere else 14:18 not on the Marovo Island itself. 14:21 And they talked about that 14:22 and the decision of the group was, 14:25 well, let's go and have a look. 14:27 And they went and had a look and the rest is history. 14:29 That's where they went to. 14:31 There's enough land there. There was enough land. 14:33 It's not real good land, mind you 14:35 because it's still rocky and coraly 14:37 but at least 14:39 there's some water coming off the hills, 14:42 that washed some soil down onto it 14:44 and it with a bit of effort, 14:46 they made gardens, 14:48 but now that's what for best part of 100 years ago, 14:54 1924 I think they establishes that school 14:57 so it's getting close nearly 100 years. 15:01 And they work in the same soil all the time it gets tired. 15:03 Yes. 15:05 So gardening there is becoming a problem. 15:09 So there is also an issue. 15:11 There's also a current issue there 15:13 with the tide soil. 15:16 One of the staff members at Batuna comes from, 15:20 that he did work previous 15:21 or the family worked previously west of Batuna 15:24 up in the western Solomon Islands 15:26 on at Kukundu on the island of Kolombangara. 15:30 And Kolombangara is a volcano, 15:33 an extinct volcano and the soil there 15:35 is volcanic soil and you can grow anything good. 15:37 No. 15:38 So can they, can they move some soil across? 15:41 Yes, it takes the best part of a day 15:45 to travel by boat between the two sites. 15:48 So it's a long way to hold 15:49 a wheelbarrow load of gravel soil. 15:53 That's where I've heard the term organic volcanic. 15:56 Okay. 15:57 That was from Dr. Mark Turnbull in Vanuatu. 16:00 In Vanuatu, he's out there. 16:02 Lot of volcanic activity involved in Vanuatu. 16:07 They have good soil where he is. 16:09 And you know, I just want to ask Ron, 16:11 Ron, you've been out there how many times to Batuna? 16:14 I've been out there 24 times, 16:16 Glynn has probably nearly as many. 16:17 Twenty four times and you said earlier on that 16:20 you're heading out there very shortly. 16:22 Is that right? 16:23 Twenty first of this month, we'll return, yeah. 16:26 So there's a bit of you out there in Batuna 16:28 and you keep going back there, is that right? 16:31 Oh, it looks like he's got still all of his fingers. 16:33 Yeah. Yeah. 16:35 Haven't left any behind? 16:37 No, not yet. 16:38 Unless there's perspiration. 16:39 But he's got a bit of heart there. 16:41 Perspiration? Yeah. 16:42 Bit of a perspiration. 16:44 Because you mentioned in the program 16:45 the climate there is quite something. 16:48 Yeah, yeah. 16:49 And it takes a special type of person, 16:52 I was thinking of all those that went to work there. 16:55 How the climate is so humid and difficult and hot. 17:01 How you survived, 17:03 you know, do you get used to it 17:04 after a while, Ron? 17:05 I don't think you ever would. 17:07 You don't know. 17:08 I used to go for a six week stint. 17:10 I would lose six kilos. 17:12 Now I only go for three weeks stint. 17:15 So you only lose three kilos. 17:17 At nighttime you sleep under mosquito net. 17:20 If there is a gentle breeze 17:21 coming through the trees they have, 17:24 you're under mosquito nets so you don't, 17:26 you don't benefit from the breeze very much. 17:29 And out there their first bell is at 5:30 in the morning, 17:34 which is when you probably just slumbered off. 17:39 Yes. 17:41 You just think it's getting cool a little bit, 17:43 I can go to sleep. 17:44 Yeah, they ring the first bell at 5:30, 17:47 then 6 o'clock, then 6:30. 17:50 I remember when we were in Cambodia, 17:51 our first night there lying under a mosquito net 17:54 in a partly finished building. 17:56 We'd taken a group there to finish these two buildings 18:00 for an orphanage and it was so hot and humid, 18:03 I thought I was going to die of heat. 18:06 And then about 4 o'clock in the morning 18:08 a thunderstorm came rolling through so fast, 18:13 the winds swiped up 18:14 and every, all the iron beds were there to be painted 18:17 all fell down like dominoes straight outside our window. 18:20 There was no glass in the window 18:22 so it was very loud and everybody woke up, 18:24 but it cooled down. 18:26 It cooled and dropped the temperature. 18:27 Yeah. 18:28 Yeah, it was so hot under that mosquito net. 18:30 I was stifling. 18:32 We shipped there 18:33 so it was some small refrigerators 18:36 because you just gonna have some cold water, tap water. 18:41 It can be quite warm 18:43 by the time it comes through the pipes out. 18:45 Having a fridge say, 18:46 you can at least have some cool water. 18:49 So, Glynn, they chose that land. 18:52 What did they immediately do? 18:55 Well, it took a while. 18:57 But once they had settled the ownership of the land, 19:00 the land was leased from the Babata tribe, 19:02 they had, I think was a 70 year lease 19:04 to start with. 19:06 They set about turning bush into a school. 19:09 So the place had to be cleared. 19:11 So lots of swinging of axes and swinging of knives 19:14 to cut grass and clear the land. 19:18 And once they had space cleared, they started building. 19:22 And they started building at about 19, in about 1924. 19:27 Previously there had been a school 19:28 at Sasaghana 19:30 where the church started education, 19:33 educating in the Marovo Lagoon. 19:36 And while that was happening, 19:39 and they found this plot of land, 19:40 they started to develop. 19:42 In 1924 they started to develop Batuna. 19:46 In 1926 they actually moved the school 19:49 from Sasaghana to Batuna and started teaching at Batuna. 19:54 So it would have been a boarding school? 19:56 It, yes, it was probably both, 19:58 but certainly 20:00 there was a lot of students boarding there. 20:02 I think their first intake of students at Batuna 20:05 was somewhere around 70 students. 20:08 And then it grew from there. 20:11 So there had to be a place to accommodate people 20:13 who came from a long way. 20:14 And initially they came from a long walk, 20:17 all over the Solomon Islands except for Malaita. 20:21 And there's two Polynesian islands 20:23 down to the south of Guadalcanal. 20:25 And they didn't turn up until about 1930s. 20:29 I think they started coming to Batuna, 20:31 they were 12 students from Malaita, 20:34 sorry, from Rennell and Bellona who came, 20:37 and they only stayed for six months. 20:39 And then they went home and another contingent came. 20:41 So in that six month period, they tried to learn to read. 20:45 So when they went back to their islands, 20:48 they could take a Bible and read and conduct worships 20:53 and things like that. 20:54 Only six months to learn to read. 20:56 Yes. That's a big ask. 20:58 After the war, 21:00 our family was posted to Tikopia 21:02 which is right down the end of Guadalcanal 21:04 were previously prewar Norman Ferris 21:06 had been there. 21:08 And within the first six months of being there, 21:11 some people from Rennell and Bellona 21:13 rode their canoes for three days 21:16 across open water to get to Tikopia 21:19 to ask for a missionary to come. 21:22 And they had brought with them Bibles, 21:24 and they could read. 21:27 They had learnt to read in the period 21:29 between those first half a dozen or so 21:32 Rennell and Bellona boys coming to Batuna, 21:35 going back home 21:37 and starting to teach their people how to read. 21:40 And it was English. Yeah. 21:42 They were reading English, 21:44 they weren't reading in their native language, 21:45 they were reading English. 21:46 So not only had they learned to read, 21:48 but they had learned how to explain 21:50 so they could teach the people back in the villages 21:52 what was going on. 21:53 The three days in an open boat? 21:56 An open canoe. 21:57 Across open water? Across open water. 21:59 It amazed that they could actually navigate 22:02 and get to where they wanted to go. 22:03 Well, the Polynesians who migrated extensively 22:06 around the Pacific were very good at navigating. 22:10 They were experts at it. 22:13 So it was no task as to find their way. 22:15 But there's the water. 22:19 The ocean between Rennell and Bellona and Tikopia 22:22 on Guadalcanal could get very rough. 22:25 Very rough. 22:27 It's amazing what they can do. Yes. 22:29 Let's go, there was a lot of other work 22:31 going on there at Batuna, there was a sawmill. 22:36 They had to build homes for staff, a church, 22:42 different things like that and the garden. 22:44 And the schools. 22:45 Yeah. 22:47 So there was a lot of work that went on there, 22:48 which is amazing. 22:49 Yeah, absolutely. And they had people. 22:51 They had good wood. 22:52 They did have good timber to do a lot of the building. 22:55 But there were people 22:56 who gathered not just students 22:59 who were studying at Batuna 23:00 but people from the communities, 23:03 sent people to Batuna to help with the development 23:07 of the property, 23:08 felling the timber, clearing the land, 23:10 digging and establishing gardens, 23:12 preparing for students to start 23:14 and the first compliment was in about 1976. 23:16 So it became a kind of a big center 23:18 for the Adventists work in that part of the world 23:21 in the South Pacific, didn't it? 23:23 You're exactly right, John. 23:25 Yeah. It was the center. 23:28 And a lot of things that went on at Batuna 23:30 had a massive influence 23:32 over the development of the church 23:33 and the rest of the country. 23:35 To what you did all that work moved to Honiara? 23:38 I pressed for. 23:39 So at 47 I think by the time ran 45, 23:43 between 45 and 47, 23:45 the headquarters of the church had moved on to Honiara. 23:49 The school was 23:52 but there was still a school 23:54 and there remained the school at Batuna to this day, 23:56 but the main school went down to Honiara 23:58 to a place called Betikama. 24:00 And the press that we'll talk about shortly 24:02 that was based at Batuna 24:06 was also transferred down to Betikama and it work, 24:10 it printed the present 24:12 Betikama survived for quite a number of years 24:14 after the war. 24:15 Okay, so take us through the press? 24:17 Take us on the works that they did there? 24:19 The press was started very early 24:22 in the history of Batuna. 24:23 Back in 1926, the press was almost operating. 24:28 And one of the first buildings that was built was the press 24:32 and on the screen you'll see a building 24:35 on the left hand side, 24:36 that was the original press building 24:37 and the other two pictures show some of the activity inside, 24:41 everything from setting the type 24:44 with a guillotine to cut this pipe 24:46 just pipe it to size to be printed. 24:48 The colliding, 24:50 putting all the pages together till it was in sequence, 24:53 stapling, sewing, sort of they made them 24:56 into little books or booklets 24:58 and it was all happened there in that room. 25:02 But these are people who came from a non-written language. 25:06 Yes. 25:08 And now in a very short time they are producing in English 25:14 or in their language, did they? 25:15 Both. Yeah, they did both. 25:16 So they, they actually 25:18 someone had to write their language. 25:19 Someone had to give them an alphabet 25:21 and make up how to write each word. 25:24 Yes. 25:26 Fortunately, Melanesian languages 25:29 and I suppose Polynesian are the same, 25:31 but Melanesian language, 25:35 the way you say the word is the way you write. 25:37 They're very phonetic. It's phonetic. 25:39 Yeah, so if you say, cat, you'll write ca-at. 25:46 Yeah. It's very phonetic. 25:49 So they, these people though had in that time, 25:52 they had produced a written language. 25:55 They had been learning English. 25:57 And now they could print in English 25:59 and in their language? 26:01 And how many languages are there? 26:03 Oh, fortunately, 26:05 where the Batuna is established 26:07 in the Marovo Lagoon, you can go from Nggatokae, 26:10 which is on the eastern end of the lagoon, 26:13 all the way through to Seghe 26:15 and out around part of the Roviana Lagoon 26:19 around towards Munda and then up the other side, 26:23 through Ramata and almost to Kukundu 26:25 they speak the same language. 26:27 Couple of little inflect differences, 26:29 inflection and dialect. 26:31 But you can move extensively through the Marovo 26:33 and you can talk Marovo, 26:34 and people will understand what you're saying, 26:36 and you can understand what they're saying. 26:38 So how big was Batuna? 26:41 Do you have any record? 26:42 Well, if you walk 26:44 from the transit house 26:49 where the volunteers stay 26:51 through the school to the airport, 26:53 there's a disused airport there. 26:56 If you walk that distance, 26:57 you can get there in 15, 20 minutes, 27:01 just not very extensive then up to go up the hill 27:04 to when they have a lot of the gardens 27:06 up on the hill. 27:07 So it's not a very big property 27:09 and I don't know how many acres it is, 27:11 but it's not, it's not all that big. 27:14 It's not thousands of acres. 27:16 Yeah. 27:17 So in the work in the press, 27:23 there was a specific person 27:25 that we're going to talk about who was phenomenal 27:29 that obviously had an extremely active mind, 27:34 very, very intelligent, 27:37 and was able to do this work in local, a national person. 27:41 Tell us about Peo or Peo? 27:44 Peo. 27:47 You know, some of our viewers, 27:48 particularly if they're our vintage 27:51 and Seventh-day Adventists, 27:52 you they will know the name Kata Rangoso. 27:56 Back when we were children 27:59 he was often spoken about 28:01 when people went off to camp meetings. 28:04 He visited Australia multiple times. 28:06 He even went to the general conference 28:08 for general conference session. 28:10 Kata Rangoso was a leading light 28:13 in the church. 28:15 And he would, he had supervision 28:17 of the church 28:19 while the war was happening in the Solomon Islands. 28:23 So he was very capable person 28:26 and looked after the whole from the work 28:29 in the Solomons from Guadalcanal, Malaita, 28:31 all the way through to Kolombangara 28:34 and further west to Davoli 28:36 and up to the north where Choiseul is. 28:38 He had supervision of the whole country 28:41 while the war was happening. 28:44 He had an older brother 28:47 who was the firstborn son of Chief Tatugu, 28:51 who invited the church into the Solomons 28:54 and he probably was not in that 80 group, 28:59 the group of 80 who went looking for property 29:02 because he died in about 1928 I think it was. 29:08 And his firstborn son 29:10 became chief of the Marovo people 29:14 and his name was Peo. 29:16 Okay. 29:17 Yeah, one of the big reasons for the church 29:20 to the Seventh-day Adventist Church 29:22 to get into the Marovo 29:23 was so that chief Tatugu's boys 29:26 could learn to speak and read English. 29:30 That was the catalyst. 29:32 When Jones went with Barley, 29:35 rather went to talk to Chief Tatugu, 29:38 Chief Tatugu wanted his boys 29:41 and by extension his people 29:43 to be able to read and speak English. 29:47 And the byproduct of that, of course, is that 29:49 and the reference text for reading was the Bible. 29:54 Yes, so they learnt the gospel. 29:56 So they learnt to read 29:58 and they learn to speak English 30:01 with a flyover of King James English. 30:03 Okay. 30:04 It was that, that was the text that they used. 30:13 And then I had, of course, 30:14 expatriates to run the school in the early days. 30:18 And they were English speakers. 30:20 So they got the more modern English 30:24 as well as the King James English. 30:28 And it was that language 30:30 that they used through the schools 30:32 right through the Solomon's prewar 30:34 and post war, 30:35 where my wife and I were there at Betikama, 30:38 1968 or 71, I think it was. 30:41 And we did everything in English. 30:44 So the students who came 30:46 had had primary school in English 30:49 that now that were in secondary school in English. 30:52 And when they finished secondary school off, 30:53 they went to college or university, 30:56 and the language was English. 30:57 So English was, 30:59 was the language that was used throughout 31:02 not just with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 31:04 but through the government. 31:05 All the education. 31:07 And all the education was in English. 31:09 It's a very different ballgame today. 31:11 But in those days, it was English. 31:13 And so people like Rangoso and his older brother Peo 31:18 when they went to school, even at grade one, 31:22 they were learning in English. 31:24 But how old were they when they went to grade one? 31:27 Well, when they went to grade one, 31:28 they were probably around 17, 16, 17, maybe 18. 31:34 So it wasn't education at age five and a half 31:36 or age six or seven. 31:38 It was those ages plus 10 years. 31:41 Yeah. 31:42 So you mentioned it's not the same ballgame now. 31:45 What do you mean by that in terms of? 31:47 Well in, in the Solomons, 31:50 or in Papua New Guinea, or in Vanuatu, 31:53 they usually start school now at about age seven, 31:56 similar to what we do. 31:57 Okay. 31:59 But in those early days, 32:00 it was that 17, 18, 19 year olds and even older. 32:03 But to what languages are they learning these days? 32:06 Is it basically English or are they using 32:09 their local languages? 32:10 They use two languages. 32:12 There's English, of course. 32:14 And then there's the lingua franca, 32:16 commonly used throughout the nation 32:18 is pidgin English. 32:20 Okay. 32:21 So some of the early education is done in pidgin English, 32:24 or most of it is, 32:25 but they learn English as a subject, 32:27 not as the, 32:29 as in quite lingua franca of education. 32:31 Yeah. 32:32 When did you first go out there, Ron? 32:34 Do you remember what year or longer was that? 32:37 Oh, boy. 32:39 A long time. 32:40 We're in '19 now. 32:42 The clinic was opened about in '16. 32:43 Yeah. 32:45 And was 2008 32:46 I think it was when we started, maybe 2007, late '07. 32:50 Yeah. 32:51 So when I think of the language, 32:54 have you learned to speak the pidgin English? 32:57 What? What's that? 32:58 What's that Marovo word for good morning? 33:00 Memorana. 33:01 To me it sounds like memorandum. 33:05 I just say good morning. 33:07 But you're a blessing to the people out there 33:09 what you're doing, isn't it? 33:10 You know, that's, that's something 33:11 that doesn't matter how old you are, 33:14 you know, you can do something and continue to do something 33:17 to help other people. 33:18 That's a principle that Christians have, 33:21 you know, it's not about me or myself. 33:24 But it's about helping other people. 33:27 And you know, I think of the early missionaries, 33:30 if you'd like to call them that, 33:32 the people that gave of themselves 33:34 to go out there and made themselves available. 33:37 That work continued 33:38 and we're still seeing the results of that today, 33:40 aren't we, Glynn? 33:41 Yes. The work is still progressing. 33:44 Yeah. 33:45 I'd like to look at a couple of pictures of Peo. 33:48 Yes. 33:50 A strapping young man 33:52 in the big photo there with the family. 33:55 He's the tallest one up the back, isn't he? 33:58 And the big one, 34:00 the big picture on the right is Peo. 34:03 And the other one? 34:04 The scene, the scene behind him 34:06 that lie the land behind tells me 34:08 that that picture was taken somewhere 34:11 near Batuna. 34:14 Then in the big picture 34:15 that's Peo's siblings and his mother, 34:18 the lady, the shorter lady in the middle, 34:22 in the middle row. 34:23 There's two small children in the front. 34:24 Yep. 34:26 And the one immediately behind, she's dressed in white. 34:30 That's Peo's parents, that's her mother. 34:33 Tatugu, the father was dead by now. 34:35 Okay. He was dead. 34:37 And starting from the right hand side, 34:41 the back row that's Peo. 34:43 The next one is Kata Rangoso. 34:46 And the next one I think is another brother Liligetto. 34:49 And then in the front row on the right hand side, 34:52 I think that's Jimiru. 34:54 And the little boy in the front is Joseph 34:57 and the older girl is the, older sister Dioni. 35:03 And I'm not sure who the little girl is. 35:06 But Peo is, was fairly tall bit like his dad. 35:12 But his mother being so short he wasn't as tall as his dad, 35:15 he's from what I learned is that 35:17 his father Tatugu was really a big man, 35:20 which is unusual in the Melanesian people. 35:23 But that was, that was his mother's baptism? 35:25 That I think was his mother's baptism. 35:27 And the conclusion is based 35:29 on the sort of dress she was wearing. 35:31 Yes. Yeah. 35:32 Then Tatugu never became a Christian. 35:36 He was supportive of the work, 35:38 he enjoyed a Christian fellowship, 35:41 but he never became a Christian formally. 35:44 He was never baptized into the Christian faith. 35:47 But interesting when he died, 35:50 he requested that he be buried in the Christian way. 35:55 So you can go to a little island 35:57 not far from his village of Chea 36:00 on the island of Marovo, 36:01 and his grave is there and beside him is his, 36:05 excuse me, his wife's grave, 36:07 and just looking at the size of the grave 36:09 can tell you that he was a big man. 36:12 Really big man. 36:14 There's another picture of Peo at work, um, doing. 36:20 He was doing translating? 36:23 We'll start from the top left-hand corner. 36:26 In that picture, Peo is on the left. 36:28 Yes. 36:29 And he's busy writing. 36:32 The expatriate next around with a tie on, 36:38 with a white shirt and a tie on, 36:39 and it amazes me that those early missionaries 36:42 dressed that way. 36:44 In that hot climate. In that hot climate. 36:45 And I think 36:47 due to what's happened with the climate these days, 36:49 it wasn't as hot. 36:51 Even the locals out there 36:52 and they are complaining that it's hot. 36:54 That's Pastor H.B.P. Wicks. 36:58 Behind him with the typewriter is another person, 37:04 but he comes from a different island. 37:10 I wanted to say Reni, but it's not Reni. 37:13 And the other person on the right-hand side 37:15 is Kata Rangoso. 37:17 And they are sitting around all sitting around the table. 37:20 And they are busy translating 37:21 and preparing documents ready for the press. 37:25 So the chap is on the typewriter 37:27 is typing it up as they translate, 37:29 Peo is looking up the text and when he was working, 37:35 the story is that when he worked at his desk, 37:38 he had two books. 37:40 While the manuscript that he was translating... 37:42 Yes. 37:44 The Bible so that he could turn up 37:45 the text and read it. 37:47 And beside him was a dictionary. 37:50 And they would read the total resources 37:52 that he had when he was translating. 37:54 Interesting. 37:56 Interestingly in, at the Batuna school, 37:58 coming up to I think about 1934 38:03 they started teaching 38:05 at the Batuna school a subject called translating. 38:08 Because as the school grew, 38:10 and the influence of the church grew, 38:13 the local people, the missionaries 38:15 from within the Solomon Islands, 38:17 the indigenous missionaries, 38:19 they went to places like Malaita and Guadalcanal 38:22 and up to Choiseul, 38:24 where the language was not Marovo. 38:27 And they had to do two things, they had to, 38:30 one, carry the gospel. 38:32 They had to learn the local languages, 38:35 so that they could communicate effectively. 38:38 And then they had to translate 38:40 so that the people in those communities 38:42 would get the scripture portions 38:44 and the Sabbath School lesson 38:46 and the mission stories 38:48 and all those things in their own language. 38:50 And those documents were translated 38:53 and sent back to Batuna 38:54 and printed and circulated through the country. 38:57 Brilliant idea to teach kids in school how to translate. 39:00 Well, the kids were... 39:01 So that they can go on and do that. 39:03 The kids were of course, 17, 18, 19, 20. 39:06 Yeah, but to teach them to do it, 39:08 so they could then go out and do something. 39:11 But coming back to Peo... 39:14 We'd have a look at that picture again. 39:15 Do you want to? Yes, there he is. 39:17 The one underneath, 39:19 the one we were talking about earlier, 39:20 Peo is sitting at a typewriter. 39:22 And that's another subject that they taught at the school, 39:24 typing. 39:25 So when the missionaries went from Batuna 39:27 to wherever they went, 39:29 they had the skill to type 39:32 and therefore to write letters 39:35 and send them back in the appropriate languages 39:37 back to Batuna to get printed. 39:40 So Peo is typing away there. 39:42 In the middle picture is Peo again. 39:45 And in his left hand, he's got two books. 39:49 And those two books are significant. 39:52 The one underneath is his Bible. 39:55 And I would love to have seen his Bible 39:57 because I'm sure 39:58 it would have been very well used. 40:01 And the book on top is a hymn book 40:04 that was used extensively 40:05 by the Seventh-day Adventist Church 40:07 back in the 1920s through to the 30s. 40:10 Post war, we got a new hymn book. 40:12 But before then that was the hymn book. 40:14 And those two books 40:16 would have been very proud possessions 40:18 of anybody who lived in the Solomon Islands 40:21 or anywhere around the Pacific. 40:22 But that book, that song book was called Christ in Song. 40:26 And some of the viewers will remember that. 40:28 In my library, I have one, a couple of copies of it. 40:31 But that's the book that Peo used to translate 40:35 from by the Bible to translate both biblical things, 40:39 and the hymn book to translate hymns. 40:42 And there may be a picture coming up on... 40:46 What's he holding? About books. 40:47 What's he holding there in that other photo? 40:49 In the third, the fourth picture 40:51 one on the extreme right, that's Peo again, 40:53 and he has a arm full of documents, 40:55 that is the first edition of the Sabbath School lesson 40:59 in the Marovo language. 41:02 So Peo would have been 41:05 that significant person in the translation process. 41:09 He probably would have typed up some of the manuscript. 41:13 And then it was published and given 41:16 to circulate throughout the school. 41:19 I am just amazed at how they could do that 41:21 in such a short time, 41:23 not even having 41:24 in their own written language here. 41:25 When you think that the church, our church, 41:27 the Seventh-day Adventist Church arrived 41:29 in 1914. 41:31 And the publishing of those lesson quarterlies 41:33 was happening by 1928. 41:35 That's only 14 years later. 41:37 And in those years, 41:39 the schools that Sasaghana and Telina and Batuna 41:44 had been established, 41:46 the press had been installed in about I think it was 1926. 41:53 And a couple of years later, there were, there was a... 41:56 There's a product. There's a publication. 41:57 Yeah. 41:58 And Peo had been in through the whole process. 42:02 He'd been to school 42:03 for probably no more than three years, 42:05 up to grade three. 42:07 Now he was translating into English. 42:10 And then he was, 42:11 had this wonderful resource of the Sabbath School lessons 42:14 ready to circulate through the Solomon Islands, 42:17 particularly for the Marovo speaking people. 42:20 Now, Peo, 42:21 if you had something to say, Ron? 42:23 I'd like to get back to the tie. 42:26 If you're out there now, 42:27 and you're invited to go to a community 42:28 and laid out in Sabbath services, 42:31 and you turn up like Glynn and I with a round neck shirt, 42:34 the deacon will kindly say away, 42:36 there's some ties hanging up. 42:38 And you're given the option. 42:39 Do you want to wear a tie or not? 42:41 You don't have to. 42:42 But they've got quite a few ties hanging up. 42:43 They would prefer you to. 42:45 They prefer you to wear a tie. 42:48 Well, you know what, that shows some respect. 42:51 Yeah. 42:53 And that's important when, 42:54 you know, if you're representing 42:56 and I always think when you're representing God, 42:59 there is, there are two standards, 43:01 there's your standard and there is God's standard. 43:03 And so when you, 43:05 when you want to introduce people to God, 43:06 you want to take them up to God's standard, 43:08 not remain where we are, 43:10 because that's part of the growth 43:12 that comes from knowing, knowing God. 43:14 So I'm coming back to Peo again. 43:16 Sorry to interrupt you. That's all right. 43:18 Coming back to Peo, 43:20 his influence in the church 43:21 in the beginning was quite remarkable, 43:24 right back in the early days, about... 43:28 See, Batuna was established in 19, 43:31 it was ready to be inhabited by 1926. 43:36 In about 1918, 18, 19 somewhere there 43:40 Peo had been at school for a little while. 43:43 And there was some interest coming from Malaita. 43:47 Now Malaita had the reputation of being a pretty tough place. 43:52 Fiery. 43:53 And Peo volunteered to take the gospel to Malaita. 43:59 Is that right? 44:01 And he knew that if he went, 44:04 the chances were fairly high that he would be murdered. 44:08 But he was willing to go 44:11 and volunteered to go 44:13 to Malaita to take the gospel there. 44:16 And it's not like Malaita was just down the road. 44:18 No, it was... 44:19 It was on the other side of the Solomon Islands. 44:21 Yes, it's on the north chain of islands 44:23 rather than on the south chain. 44:25 And it's, if you get to Honiara, 44:26 you've got to go sort of northeast 44:28 to get to the, 44:29 but that's where he was prepared to go there 44:31 and risk his life for the sake of the gospel. 44:34 And so he was quite an astounding person. 44:37 And if, you were gonna say something, Ron? 44:40 No, no, no. 44:42 And it wasn't long after that, that he was married. 44:45 Yes, we've got a photo. Yes. 44:47 Photo of his wedding. 44:49 Okay, on the left wedding is Peo's, 44:51 on the left picture is Peo's wedding. 44:55 And the, his lady, 44:57 his wife is the short lady holding a bunch of flowers. 45:00 You can see the difference in the height of the people. 45:01 Yes, you certainly can. 45:03 So the women, and there's a male there 45:06 standing beside Peo 45:07 behind the two women on the right. 45:09 You can see how tall Peo is. Yes. 45:11 Quite tall, significantly tall. 45:15 And that was his wedding. 45:16 And within a couple of years after they were married, 45:19 they had a daughter. 45:23 And Peo became quite ill soon after. 45:27 Who's in the other photo? 45:29 The other photo is Peo's younger brother, 45:31 the next born that's Kata Rangoso. 45:34 And his second wife. 45:36 When Kata was married, 45:37 both times he picked a wife 45:39 and chose a wife from a different island. 45:42 So not from the Marovo. 45:45 But soon, not long after that photo was taken, 45:49 well, within a couple of years anyway, 45:51 their child, their daughter was born. 45:54 And before she turned one, she died. 45:57 Tragically. Tragically died. 46:00 And it wasn't long after that, 46:01 within a year after the daughter died, 46:04 Peo for quite some time had been suffering 46:07 the effects of tuberculosis. 46:10 And within 18 months or so of the daughter dying, 46:14 Peo died. 46:17 What year was that do you recall? 46:19 It was about, well, they were married in '24. 46:26 And so I've got a date here somewhere. 46:29 But it was probably around '28 I think when Peo died. 46:34 And at that time Wicks and Pastor Wicks 46:37 and Pastor Bulmer both at Batuna 46:41 and they had been teaching now 46:43 with all the translating and those. 46:46 You've actually got some things you've got written here. 46:49 And this is Peo translated many hymns 46:52 into Marovo language. 46:54 And one of which was sung at his funeral at Telina. 46:57 Yes. 46:59 On March 9, 1926. 47:01 So that's only two years after he got married. 47:03 Yes, that Batuna was only two years old. 47:05 Yeah. 47:06 So in a very, when you look at his life 47:09 in a very short time, he accomplished an awful lot. 47:12 Oh, great. He became... 47:14 Very, very smart. 47:15 He became the coordinator for all the churches 47:19 in around that part of Marovo. 47:22 So he was given a huge amount of responsibility 47:25 very early in the piece. 47:28 Oh, he must have shown great. 47:29 Great talent and great, yes. 47:32 And you mentioned that he translated hymns. 47:36 There was a book published, a hymn book published, 47:38 the majority of the hymns in it were translated by Peo. 47:42 And one of those was sung at his funeral on Telina. 47:48 I like the concept. 47:50 The missionaries go to a place, 47:52 they help develop and do things. 47:56 And then those people like Peo did, 47:59 he went and became a missionary himself 48:01 to do the same thing. 48:03 Exactly. And you know what? 48:04 We're here in 2019. 48:06 And we're doing the same thing. 48:08 You know, and so the work never stops. 48:10 And the gospel commission still continues, go ye, 48:13 that's you and I, that are there to do something. 48:16 And you're doing that too, Ron, even in your retirement years. 48:20 You're going out there and doing things. 48:22 And tell me, do you feel that it's a, 48:27 it's something that you have to do, 48:30 it takes a lot of effort? 48:32 It does take a lot of effort. 48:34 But it is rewarding 48:36 because we'd like to take students 48:37 who are involved 48:39 in any part of the construction industry 48:41 and bring them down to where we're working. 48:44 My last episode out there, 48:45 I took a nail gun out 48:47 and these guys just saw 48:49 that was better than sliced bread. 48:52 To be able to use a nail gun, 48:53 but we'd like to take the students 48:56 and teach them the Aussie way, 48:57 that's what they say, Ron teaches us the Aussie way. 49:01 Just improve their skills. 49:03 So when they graduate because at this, 49:06 at Batuna Vocational School they only teach theory, 49:10 not very much practical. 49:11 Okay. 49:12 So the boys have to, 49:14 and the girls that are doing other courses, 49:16 need to find some practical work. 49:19 So the electricians have come out, 49:21 take boys, the plumber comes out 49:23 takes boys and we... 49:25 They are all learning from anyone that goes out. 49:27 Yeah, so it's just lifting the standard, 49:32 a better way to do it. 49:33 So we don't only go out there to show 49:36 the spiritual side about God in the Bible, 49:39 we're actually showing a practical things 49:41 because that's the balance a school should have, 49:43 isn't that right, Glynn, 49:44 that we should be able to teach them 49:45 how to garden, how to feed themselves. 49:48 And that's what the early schools were doing, 49:49 weren't they? 49:51 And now teaching people 49:52 how to translate and read and write, 49:54 which is and type. 49:56 I have trouble typing. 49:58 Now a bit what Peo did was 50:00 astounding for such a short period 50:02 in the short life. 50:03 Had he not died as a fairly young person, 50:07 he would have been a magnificent leader, 50:10 right through the war year. 50:12 Well, his brother managed to be. 50:13 Well, his brother took over basically. 50:15 When Tatagu died Peo became the chief. 50:19 And when he died, 50:20 his next brother Kata Rangoso became the chief. 50:24 At Peo's funeral the theme that he alluded to 50:29 was one that he had translated. 50:33 And we know it is, 50:34 I'm thinking today of the beautiful land 50:36 I shall see when the sun goes down in it. 50:38 Will there be any stars in my crown? 50:41 Will it be any stars in my crown? 50:42 He translated that into the Marovo language. 50:47 A.R. Barrett, Pastor Barrett 50:49 translated it back into English that what Peo had written it. 50:56 And it's, it's a bit different to the one that we know, 50:59 when we sing it, we sing 51:01 but I'm not sure it's in our current hymn book, 51:03 but we sing. 51:04 Will there be any stars in my crown, in my crown, 51:07 when at last, the sun goes down? 51:09 When I wake with the bliss in the haven of rest, 51:12 will there be any stars in my crown? 51:14 But when Peo wrote it, 51:18 he changed the sense of it just a wee bit. 51:20 And I think that what he wrote 51:24 reflects what he learned at school. 51:29 When he was taught the gospel 51:30 those early missionaries who have, who were, 51:36 how can I say it? 51:38 Probably died in the wool, 51:40 certainly died in the wool Adventist, 51:41 but they understood the gospel, 51:44 and they taught the gospel, 51:46 and when Peo translated the hymn. 51:49 I'm going to read it now to you 51:51 from what A.R. Barrett translated 51:53 back to English from what Peo had read, 51:56 had written. 51:57 And this is the way it goes, 51:59 I'm thinking today of that very good land, 52:01 but we can't recognize that 52:02 but for I must go there when the sun goes down. 52:07 Will there be any stars in my crown? 52:08 That's the end of the verse. 52:11 And then he goes on, 52:13 will there be any stars in my crown, 52:15 when at last the sun goes down, 52:17 when I wake in that beautiful place, 52:20 and here comes the bit that's different. 52:23 There will be stars in my crown. 52:26 So it's not a question anymore. 52:28 It's a statement. 52:30 And that tells me that he understood the gospel. 52:34 One of the significant people in the church recently, 52:37 the editor of the Review and Herald 52:39 write a book called An Absolute Confidence, 52:41 and Peo was merely, was saying that in this hymn, 52:46 there's confidence, 52:47 there's no need to be in doubt 52:50 as to your status when you accept Jesus. 52:53 They will be, he said, they will be stars in my crown. 52:55 They will be stars in my crown. 52:57 Just a wonderful idea. 52:58 That is a beautiful idea. 53:00 And on that note, 53:01 I just want to go to our address roll. 53:03 We love to hear from you. 53:05 And if you have any questions, 53:07 we would like to be able to answer them. 53:09 And if you'd like to contact us and make any donation 53:13 or just let us know 53:15 how you enjoy the programs on 3ABN, 53:18 we'd love to hear from you and this is our contact detail. 53:25 If you would like to contact 3ABN Australia, 53:27 you may do so in the following ways. 53:29 You may write to 3ABN Australia PO Box 752, 53:33 Morisset, New South Wales 2264, Australia. 53:37 That's PO Box 752, Morisset, 53:41 New South Wales 2264, Australia. 53:44 Or you may call 02-4973-3456. 53:49 That's 02-4973-3456 53:53 from 8:30 am to 5 pm, Monday to Thursday, 53:57 or 8:30 am to 12 pm Fridays, New South Wales time. 54:02 You may also email us at mail@3abnaustralia.org.au. 54:08 That's mail@3abnaustralia.org.au. 54:15 Thank you for all you do to help us light the world 54:18 with the glory of God's truth. 54:22 Don't forget we love to hear from you. 54:25 Now, I'm going to come back to you, Ron. 54:26 We're going to switch from a local native person Peo 54:31 who is brilliant. 54:33 But we're going to go now to a doctor 54:36 who had gone out there, Dr. Muriel Parker. 54:38 What can you tell us about Dr. Parker? 54:41 She was a nurse, not a doctor. 54:43 All right. Okay. 54:44 When we first went there, 54:46 we noticed this grave with Muriel Parker on it, 54:49 when she was buried there in 1930. 54:51 There's a picture of the grave. 54:53 Yes, that's the picture of grave. 54:55 When we came home we gave a report 54:57 in Port Macquarie Sabbath School 54:59 and Glynn put that picture up 55:01 and at Sabbath School member jumped up all excited, 55:03 and he said, 55:05 "Is that where my aunty Muriel is buried?" 55:08 And Glynn is sort of missed him a little bit, 55:10 perhaps he's got the facts wrong. 55:11 So we did some research, 55:13 and it was his dad's older sister, 55:16 and her maiden name was Muriel Stace. 55:19 And as a young girl, she grew up in Yarra, 55:21 which is which is halfway 55:23 between Woolhope and Wonka in New England. 55:27 And she went out there as a nurse 55:30 with Evelyn Totenhofer and her husband, 55:32 who was pastor, Arthur Parker, and she died there in 1930. 55:37 That's before the Second World War. 55:40 Yeah. 55:42 What can you tell us about her, Glynn? 55:44 Well, she and her husband, I think was Arthur Parker, 55:47 Pastor Parker anyway, 55:49 had only been in the country 55:50 and as missionaries for six weeks. 55:53 And they had, they had gone to Batuna to learn something 55:57 about the experience of being missionaries. 55:59 And a lot of other missionaries had gathered there for this, 56:02 for a meeting. 56:03 And she became really ill. 56:06 And she died on a Friday evening, 56:11 and was promptly buried 56:13 because there's no refrigeration 56:14 to look after someone. 56:16 She had an ectopic pregnancy. 56:19 And basically hemorrhage to death. 56:22 And it was... 56:23 Very painful death. 56:25 Very painful death. 56:27 And we, 56:31 we saw this grave, 56:32 and we learned about the story 56:34 and some other relatives 56:35 came to Port Macquarie Sabbath one day 56:36 and told us the whole story 56:38 about the Stace family 56:40 of which she was a member. 56:43 But there's, 56:45 there's an interesting bit in her obituary, 56:47 which if I want to read it if we have time. 56:51 And this is what she said to her husband 56:52 in a very soft voice as she was dying. 56:55 And she was quoting a hymn out of Christ in Song, 56:58 the book that Peo had. 57:00 I'm trusting Thee Lord Jesus. 57:03 And then she said to her husband 57:04 just before she died, Jesus is all the world to me. 57:08 And that is captivates the spirit 57:12 that largely infused the missionaries 57:14 who went to the Solomons and everywhere basically. 57:18 A wonderful testimony. Yeah. 57:21 So she had her husband sing as a hymn from the book. 57:25 No, she was singing to her husband there. 57:27 It's beautiful. 57:29 To go out there and die so soon from such a tragic way was sad. 57:34 But one of the things I learned from this story 57:36 is that those in the native areas 57:39 are not cannibals, they're not heathen, 57:41 they are smart people that God uses for His work. 57:44 So until next time, God bless you. |
Revised 2020-11-02