October, 2009, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia
"Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee" - Jer. 32:17
It’s true that our travels have taken us to the ends of the earth. There aren’t too many more remote places than the outer islands of Yap. Yap is one of the Micronesian islands and surrounding it, in a ring, are outer islands, although they are hundreds of miles away. Commercial airlines fly to Yap once or twice a week but to reach the outer islands, one must either take a boat for many hours in rough seas or fly by missionary air service in a small plane.
Our destination was an island called Falalop, in the Ulithi chain of outer islands. Falalop has about five hundred inhabitants and only people born on these islands are allowed to live there. They speak a different language from the people of Yap. They speak a language called, believe it or not, “Outer Island”. We were planning a medical and dental clinic there in an effort to help a young graduate, J, of Harvest Baptist Bible College in Guam, a native of Falalop, start a church there.
Each island has its own chief who has lots of power to decide matters of daily life and practice. Often the chief decides what religion the island will be. He also decides how the people on the island will dress. On Falalop, our targeted island, the chief insisted on “island dress” which meant no clothes were to be worn above the waist for either men or woman. The women wore a skirt and the men wore a traditional garment called a Thuu. This was a loosely wrapped garment that resembled a large diaper. Our team had to apply for permission from the chief to come onto Falalop wearing regular clothes. If it wasn’t granted, we wouldn’t go but because we were a medical and dental team, offering free care, we were allowed to wear our “traditional” dress.
J faithfully shared the gospel with the waiting patients each day as we worked in the small medical clinic on the island. The young graduate clearly had his work cut out for him in this place. It was awkward for our team to treat half-dressed people but we had dental bibs that helped a lot. It was an odd place as the people lived mostly out of doors and some were covered with a gray fungus that could only be removed by using Head and Shoulders shampoo as a body wash. The woman did most of the work except for fishing, which the men did. The men on our team fished as well and brought in delicious ocean fish for our evening meals. We didn’t have a kitchen but we made do with a hot pot and an open fire. The dental needs were overwhelming as it is the custom of the people to chew Betel Nut there. From the oldest to the youngest (toddlers) Betel Nut was used. It gave the people a high as it was mixed with lime powder, tobacco and sometimes vodka. It stained the teeth black and the lips and gums red and was extremely addicting. We had learned from treating patients on the islands of Pohnpei and Palau that the only thing that would take it off was lots of scraping and then polishing with pumice. It took over an hour to do the exposed side of just the upper and lower front teeth. Each patient would promise to stop “chewing” as they were told that Betel Nut causes mouth cancer but when they would leave our dental chair they would pop more Betel Nut into their mouths. The truth was that they couldn’t stop because it was too addictive and so much a part of their culture. Only the Lord could deliver from such an addiction. The small island of Yap has one of the highest incidences of mouth cancer in the world, all because of Betel Nut chewing.
The island had some WWII history as the American Seabees had come there and built an air strip that was greatly used during the war and was still functional. There was evidence of a few planes that just didn’t make it as they tried to land on Falalop during the war and ended up wrecked at the end of the runway, half on land and half in the ocean. The island was right at sea level making it subject to flooding from tropical storms that frequently came up.
Although the gospel was shared and treatment was given, there were few outward sign of response by the people. Another religion had been decreed by the chief and it was hard to go against his wishes, but at least they had heard of Jesus’ sacrificial death and His offer of forgiveness of their sins. It was a good introduction to Christianity and a help to our friend, J, who would have an uphill battle to get a church started there.
We had been sleeping on the cement floor of the medical clinic but we were thankful for the shelter and privacy it afforded us. On our last night there, as we were getting ready to climb into our sleeping bags, we got word by radio from our missionary pilot that he wouldn’t be coming for us the next day. There was a typhoon coming and it was headed directly at Falalop! He wouldn’t be able to fly because of the storm and he told us to take shelter and wished us the best. The wind was already blowing and it was beginning to rain. The medical clinic was right near the water so we knew that storm surge was going to be a problem even though we were glad we had a cement structure to stay in. If we didn’t get flown out the next day we would miss our flight back to the States as well.
We were tired from a busy week of clinic and not sleeping that well on the cement floor of the clinic. We also were running out of food as we hadn’t planned to stay any longer. A little discouraged, we prayed and told the Lord how weary we were and asked that if there was any way possible, we would surely love to go home, not to mention, not go through a typhoon there. Exhausted, we went to bed, listening for the storm to hit.
But we awoke in the morning to only light rain. Soon we received a call on the radio from our pilot telling us to get packed immediately and be at the airstrip in 45 minutes. He was coming for us after all! We didn’t know what was happening but we were packed in no time and waiting as the plane touched down. On the way back to Yap, the pilot told us that he had never seen before anything like what had happened. During the night, the typhoon had split in two and the only place he could safely fly that day was to Falalop to pick us up and then back to the main island of Yap. He was so amazed that he had printed out the radar picture showing what he had described. It brought tears to our eyes! Our loving, prayer answering God had delivered us once again! We were going home after all!
And that wasn’t the only wonderful thing that the Lord did! What seemed impossible in 2009 has come to pass as a small Bible believing church has been planted by J on the island of Falalop!