Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

nurturing. Though assistants were found, these being not bornagain were incompatible. Rather they became stumbling blocks.Among the eighteen learner-students, some were quite adequate tothe task, but were liable to temptation. Some were virtual traitors,renegades, who disrupted and spoiled our work. Others weresimpletons and no better than the Dyaks. Of course there werethose who, despite their limitations, did not do a bad job at all.Now, all these situations gave me not a few headaches. If theylacked technique in the work, that would not matter. At the worstthey would finish a little late. The worst, indeed, was theirirregularity of character. The majority of these learner-studentswere of little help to me and rather a burden. Truly one’s gainswere no recompence to one’s losses. So there was a time when Iwas sunk in utter pessimism, like descending a deep valley,hemmed in on all sides by the enemy. Satan’s offensive andoppression upon me was hurled with the objective of downing theshepherd – in order to scatter the sheep and devour them.A student who lost heart in his work got into a craze tobecome a ringleader. Striking partnership with a primary schoolteacher of the “heterogeneous faith” he made the Church to rebelover a little incident. The storm broke out at Long Puti, the homevillage of the paramount chieftain, and it began right inside thepalace. Conspirators were the chieftain’s son-in-law and son,pillars of the Church. You see how ferocious was Satan’s attack,how subtle his tactics! At that time the chieftain had died for someyears. When he died I was at Samarinda, from whence I wassummoned to officiate the funeral. When the deceased was putinto the coffin his cousin spoke to the people. “Our Chief is goneto heaven. Fortunately, his brothers are here (referring to us incompliance with the recognition given us by the chieftain in hislifetime. Hence his village-subjects, old or young, addressed us asgrandpas). Henceforth you must follow Grandpas’ leadership to abright future.” Although we restrained ourselves assiduously fromgetting involved in politics, not willing to take part in anything126