The rainbow never sets

*

Some months later I took the same students for a weekend to the island of Semau, where two of our students, Mes Beeh and Eli Kisek came from. The problem we encountered there was a pastoral one. A woman said she was dying, because someone had poisoned her. The students asked, how long had she been sick. She replied for over four weeks. "Then it can't be poison, or you would have died a long time ago," they told her. She just shrugged her shoulders. Then the students were stuck. What would they do next? Normally they would have had a Bible reading with her, a prayer for healing, and then they would have left her. But this would not have addressed her real problem, they reasoned. So I called them into a huddle outside and asked:

"What is her real problem?" They guessed, but none of them had a clue. I suggested that a couple of them go back and ask her about her relationships. She may have some deep-seated guilt still unresolved.

The two went back and had a pastoral conversation with her. They found out that she has had a relationship in the past with a fellow, who was now happily married. She didn't want to let him go and her guilt would not let her live in peace. It had literally 'poisoned' her life. The two came back and reported their finding. We then arranged for a devotional which would acknowledge her guilt and would proclaim Jesus' forgiveness, based on the story of the woman caught in adultery. The impact of that devotional was miraculous. She smiled and was feeling visibly better.

In our discussions afterwards it became apparent, that people will often express their problems in a language that they are familiar with from the old, pagan days. The students realised that they couldn't just dismiss a case because of the words used to describe their problems, but that they had to delve deeper until the real hurt comes to the surface.

*

As I had taken the senior class in 1970 to SoE on a study tour, the senior class in 1971 hoped, of course, that I would do the same with them. The class wanted to go to the island of Rote. We caught a regular steam ship to Baa, the capital of Rote, an island neighbouring Timor to the south/west, the island closest to Australia. Our first activity in Baa was to help the main church collect river stones for their new church building. Then we followed a similar programme as that in SoE, visiting the various civic bodies and see how ministry would touch them all.

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