Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

dangerous. For our people have a high degree of knowledgeinasmuch as they are exposed to temptations of the cities andmore prone to sin. But not with the Dyak situation. They are astraightforward people. Moreover they are a docile people with asimple mind but sterling faith. Unless they do not understand whatis the good of it and are still in doubt – else when they have got it,they will persevere to the end, little wavering. So, what wewanted was to get them to understand some basic doctrines ofsalvation. And should the foundations of faith in their hearts beshal1ow or limited they could still persevere in the faith as ever.Another factor was Borneo’s unopened interior with a mostinconvenient transport system. Though we were located in themountains not far from there, owing to blocked communication,we were so near and yet so far. Owing to travel hazards andhardships of livelihood we could not remain long with them.Thus, were we to adopt the method of “teach first, then take”, wewould not, primarily, be able to do this ourselves. Circumstancesforbade us to live a Dyak’s life for long. Secondarily, these weresurrounded by heathen religions. Unless we adopted the methodof opportunely receiving them into the fold, we had to face up tothe traditional-old enemies of Christianity who were most likelyto spoil our work by preventing them to come to Christ. And so, ifwe did not grasp the opportunity to baptise, we would have madethe trip for nothing.So, in the first two to three years, we baptised almost threethousand. A steady stream of baptisms flowed in through thesucceeding years. No doubt there were not a few who “retreatedfrom the faith”, especially those of the Japanese occupation. Thereasons for backsliding were: First, lack of nurturing. In the earlydays we had no assistants. Later the Makasar Bible Institute sentus students “to do their practical”. These were not onlyinsufficient for fielding, but also inadequate in standard.124