Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

We have been married for many years, and we haveexperienced such a situation not a few times. In the early days ofthe Japanese occupation of the Southern (Indonesian)Archipelago, I had the most bitter experience of my life. We knewthat the Dyaks were an ignorant and weak people, and couldhardly go through the crucible of suffering, that even the nativeevangelists would not be able to stand against such beatings ofstorm and rain. So, we decided to shift to the Dyak Christianvillage to stay by and encourage them. We knew this was a movefraught with danger, but we did it as a matter of duty. Sureenough, during the vacuum period of transition before theJapanese army arrived, the heterogeneous disciples, using politicalpressure, began to threaten the Church. The tide of persecutionrose ominously and kept me in almost complete isolation. At thatjuncture, we were not afraid to die, for we had been prepared fordeath from the day of going to Dyakland. What we felt somiserable about at this time was that a decade of bitter labourswas turned to nothing in a moment. We felt like Elijah seekingdeath under the juniper tree. I felt not only weak like water withall my ambitions pulverised, but was also prostrated by a sickbody. In this utter solitude with not a single relative amidst theaborigines, deprived of medicine and food, not only was I laid lowby illness, but my sick wife too. It was a case of patient nursingpatient. Whoever got better would get up to work. Husband andwife were never so closely knit together as one life. Whenthoughts went to my mother and son now separated from usduring those turbulent days, sadness poured down in tears. Thefollowing is an unforgettable page from my diary: – Tuesday, 23rdJune, 1942, drizzling and cool.We had a copious conversation last night on what occurred tous recently. We felt that the hardest thing to face in life was“man”. So our talk centred on the philosophy of living. Since wewere husband and wife, what I went through was hers as well.When trouble came, I became pessimistic, and so did she. So she50