Tales of Tahiti

On every mission trip I’ve been on, the verse that seems constantly called to mind is Psalm 127:1: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain”. This trip has been no different.

On Monday morning our team got together for a time of prayer. We’d been encountering one closed door after the other and, to say the least, it was beginning to get discouraging. We shared observations about our time in Tahiti up until that point and wondered out loud what purpose God might have for us being here. We ended the time praying for the people of Tahiti–and asking God to use us in whatever capacity He wanted for our remaining time on the island.

That evening we ended up meeting up with a YWAM group we’d heard was on the island. The team consisted of one leader, one staff member, and three 18-19 year old students. As soon as we saw them, we could tell they were feeling just as dejected as us. They–like us–didn’t have a translator with their team, which made ministry a very difficult task. We offered them some encouragement, swapped prayer requests, and spent time praying for one another. The YWAMers ended up inviting us to stay for dinner and the rest of the evening passed in conversation and laughter.

I think one of the sweetest gifts God gives us (other than Himself, obviously) is other believers. He adopted us into a family, which means our pursuit of Him and service to Him never has to be done alone. He knows how hard it can be to do the things He calls us to do, and I think it is just so kind of our God to give us each other as a support system.

And who knows? Maybe that is our purpose for being in Tahiti right now: to encourage the believers who are here for the long haul. Tahiti is a tough place to minister and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Talking with the YWAM group made this fact even more evident. The leader of the team–a man from the Cook Islands–explained that the church in Tahiti is sliding back into animism. And the churches that aren’t doing this are dealing with the issues described in my last update (disunity, corruption of leaders, lack of discipleship). Mark’s goal is to one day have some sort of Bible school or pastor training program established in Tahiti so that people can learn how to teach and live out Biblical truth. Before this can happen, however, there needs to be a desire for Biblical truth.

So how does this all come back to the verse I opened with? Because without the Lord moving in Tahiti, all the work we’re doing to reach these people will be in vain. Ministry must always begin with prayer. Sometimes it feels like a cop out, like the thing to do when we don’t know what else to do. But prayer is where we must start. Prayer is our most powerful asset because, at the end of the day, it is God and God alone who can make lasting change in Tahiti. Unless the Lord builds the house, our labor will be in vain.

With that being said, please continue to join us in praying for Tahiti. Pray that God will rise up believers in this place to faithfully live out Biblical truths for their fellow Tahitians to see. Pray that God will weed out the false teachings and corruption that exist within the churches here. Pray that new leaders will step up and be men above reproach. Pray that God will work here.

This coming week we have a couple opportunities to teach and a few more people to meet with, so please be praying that these will go well. We are also hosting a picnic on Saturday where we’re inviting everyone we’ve interacted with. Pray that people will show up and that the Lord will use this to connect the people on this island that share a similar passion for seeing His name glorified.

Thank you all so much for your support!

-Jules, Turner, Mark, and René

P.S. We found this vending machine in the most obscure location. Let me assure you, after picking up trash for two hours in the hot sun, there is nothing better than ice cold soda.

Good Morning! Yesterday was our third full day in Tahiti and the four of us are finally over the jet lag and caught up on sleep. The last two days we’ve had the pleasure of exploring the island and getting a taste of what Tahiti is actually like. Before arriving here, the only image I could conjure up when I thought of the island was tourists taking artsy photos of themselves looking longingly out at sea. I’m happy to report that the only tourists I’ve seen taking artsy photos are Turner and myself.

But in all seriousness, Tahiti is blowing my mind. It’s a mix of beautiful beaches, mountains, and jungles. If you look across the ocean you can see the island of Moorea seemingly floating on the water. There are luxury resorts speckled along the beachfront (where I’m sure I’d find a plethora of tourists taking artsy photos), but the majority of the island’s buildings and homes are built more for functionality than opulence.

Island life has a certain appeal. We’ve seen people riding bikes with baguettes sticking out of the baskets, giant fish being sold along the road, and stand after stand of freshly picked fruit. Brightly colored flowers grow in abundance and the color green is everywhere. Basically, it’s beautiful.

But as we were exploring the island, it became obvious to me why Mark felt such a desire to minister to the people of Tahiti. I don’t think we saw a single evangelical church in all the exploring we did. We saw a mormon church about every ten minutes, as well as quite a few Seventh Day Adventist churches–but no evangelical churches.

After three days here, I’m discovering that ministry in Tahiti will have a certain complexity to it–and the biggest thing we need to be doing right now is praying for the believers who currently exist here. Yesterday we spent a bit of time with a man named Edualdo and his family. Edualdo is a French resident who came to Tahiti with the French navy. He married a woman from Vietnam and has lived with his family in Tahiti for over thirty years now. He and his wife are very strong believers and it was really inspiring to see Edualdo’s desire to see Tahitians transition from simply being “religious” to being disciple makers. In Edualdo’s opinion, what the Tahitian believers need is training in how to practically live out what the Bible says as well as how to make disciples. He has a desire to see Tahitian believers learn how to do ministry in their individual neighborhoods.

This is were ministry in Tahiti gets complicated. Based on our conversation with Teri Pito earlier this week, it seems that the reason outreach and disciple making isn’t the goal of the Tahitian church is because there is some corruption and disunity among the leaders of the churches. As we’re interacting with different believers down here it has blown my mind how many times I’ve heard “so-and-so isn’t talking to us” or “we’re not welcome at that church” and so on. God calls believers to be in unity with one another, and that doesn’t seem to be happening here–which is leading to a pause in disciple making, evangelism, and outreach.

However, we’re outsiders here and it feels a bit presumptuous and disrespectful for us to march in and say “Hey you guys are doing this wrong.” Prayer is so essential here. There are Tahitian believers who notice the issue (like the Pitos) and we need to pray that they can communicate their concerns to their church leaders–and be praying that God will humble and open the hearts of the church leaders. Another thing you all can be praying is that God will show us our role in all of this. We don’t want to swoop in and hijack what other Tahitian believers are doing but, rather, come alongside them as an encouragement. Our goal with this trip is to build relationships with the believers in Tahiti and see how we can best do this. So, please, continue praying that God will connect us with the right people and give us wisdom and guidance in regards to how we can best aid His church in Tahiti.

Thank you all so much for how much you have already been praying. We are seeing God work and we’re excited to see how He continues to move in our time here!

-Jules, Turner, Mark, and René

P.S. We’ve made a few bug friends in our time here

Hello from Tahiti! After a long day of travel, our team of four arrived
safely in Papeete Tuesday night–and the warm welcome we received was
incredible! Taiana (the host of our Airbnb) and a couple of Mark’s contacts
greeted us with handmade flower leis and kisses on the cheeks (you don’t get a
welcome like that in the States!).

Yesterday was our first full day on the island, and I have to say that I was
completely blown away by the hospitality of these people. We were invited to
have lunch with a man named Teri Pito, along with his wife and family. For a
moment we all feared that the lunch would be a disaster. While talking on the
phone with Magdalena (Teri’s wife) we realized that language was truly a barrier.
Mark tried explaining in broken French that we would arrive shortly at our meet
up point, but Magdalena wasn’t understanding. When we finally found her and
waited for her to get her car, we shared nervous glances and prepared ourselves
for the worst. Turner said a quick prayer, and then we followed Teri and
Magdalena up to their house.

And wouldn’t you know it, God came through. Lunch ended up being great. The conversation switched between broken French, broken English, and many repeated phrases, but it was perfect. Teri and his wife are strong believers and they were able to communicate to us some of their concerns with the Tahitian church. Based on what they were explaining, I would say their main concerns were 1) pastors not being above reproach 2) pastors not respecting each other and 3) church members not reading the Word for themselves and simply believing whatever they are told by the pastor.

A phrase Teri kept saying that really stuck with me was “how do we change a person if their head is sick?”. I would say this is the biggest need for prayer. There are strong believers in Tahiti (like Teri and his wife) that desire to make disciples and see their fellow Tahitians walk rightly with the Lord. However, they’re coming up against the challenge of pastors not leading the church correctly, and congregants not seeing the need for change. Be in prayer for the church leaders of Tahiti. Pray that they would read what God’s word has to say about church leaders and be convicted to be men above reproach. Likewise, pray that the people of the church would be active in reading the Bible for themselves and hold their leaders accountable. In addition to this, be praying for Teri and Magdalena (and the other Tahitians who are like them). Be praying that they will not give up hope, but will continue striving to see the Tahitian church grow in a healthy direction.

Overall, yesterday was a great start to the trip. We spent some time at the beach (where I [Jules] learned that the local bees are not as friendly as the local people), we laughed with Teri over the fact that his last name means “belly button”, we got to attend a church service, and we adopted a baby lizard named Biff to eat the flies in our Airbnb. We don’t know exactly what the Lord has planned for the rest of our time, but we are trusting in Him to continue working and leading us as He did yesterday.

Thank you all so very much for your prayers. We will keep you updated as the trip continues!

-Jules, Turner, Mark, and René

 

“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation”

French Polynesia Trip June 2019

            Iaorana (Tahitian for “Hello”),

            This summer we will be visiting French Polynesia from June 18^th to July 3^rd, and we want to tell you about it and ask for your prayers.

            French Polynesia is a far-flung collection of islands in the Pacific Ocean almost directly between Australia and South America. The most famous island in the country (and the island where we will be spending the majority of our time) is Tahiti, a name you might be familiar with! The population of French Polynesia is 283,077, which is incredibly small; for reference, the population of San Francisco is 884,363.

The world sees Tahiti, Moorea, Bora-Bora and other destinations in French Polynesia as an earthly paradise. Indeed, the mountains and waterfalls, the birds and tropical fish, the waves and the lagoons are so spectacular that no photo can do them justice.  And it is possible that the people are the real treasure of the land, with their legendary hospitality.  But beyond the resorts they are a people as broken by sin and broken down by the weight of this sinful world as any other people on earth.  Although French Polynesia is predominantly Christian in name, and even 65% Protestant, very few are Bible believing Christians who are actively engaged in disciple-making.  Because of this vacuum, there is an unusually high percentage of false religions and cults masquerading under the name of Christianity, and a great number of believers who are just not engaged in their faith.

Therefore, three significant needs exist for local Christians:

First, the need for understanding the clear grace Gospel focused on the necessity of faith alone in the person and work of Jesus.  Tahitians need God’s redeeming love and the freedom that comes from believing in Christ’s sacrifice for sin and resurrection for victory over death.  This was Paul’s deep desire when he wrote the epistle to the churches in Galatia (see Galatians 1:6-10), and it is the desire that we have for French Polynesia.

Second, we see a need for biblical discipleship to take place, so that our Tahitian brothers and sisters learn to live the Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit that is manifest in God’s perfect Word.  From this will come the motivation to become disciple-makers themselves.  (Ephesians 3:14-19, Matthew 28:18-20).

Third, we see a need for training pastors to go deeper into the Word through learning how to study the Bible by centering on inspiration, canonicity, and principles of interpretation.  As Paul wrote to Timothy, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

            Our team is composed of Mark and Rene’ Perkins, Turner, their son, Jules, a dear family friend, and Titus, an archaeologist friend who was a member of last year’s team. The five of us will be staying together in the town of Punaauia (Pu-na-vee-ah) on the island of Tahiti, where we will visit other exotic-sounding places like Papeete, Teahupoo, and Tautira, and serve the indigenous peoples there in whatever way God leads. Our philosophy of missionary work is simply this: empower the local church to do what it is already doing. We do not see ourselves as the heroes of the church or spiritual giants who will save the island. Rather, God is already doing a work in the people of French Polynesia; we are humbly here to participate in what He is up to.       

            While we are in Tahiti, we will be sharing the Gospel side by side with Tahitian believers on beaches and in neighborhoods and even with the homeless in downtown Papeete, the capital. We will also be leading and mentoring Bible studies in homes, and teaching and preaching in churches. Furthermore, we will be prayerfully seeking guidance to meet more and more Tahitians who long for God’s Word and are eager to make more disciples in His Name. We hope not just to help the people of French Polynesia grow, but to strengthen our bonds with them.

            So, please pray: 1) that our ministry in French Polynesia is fruitful, and that we do it by the Lord’s grace and not our own power; 2) that we establish and grow strong relationships there; 3) that the Lord prepares us spiritually, mentally, and physically for our service; 4) for good health and smooth travel there and back; 5) that the Holy Spirit works powerfully in Tahitian believers; and 6) that the Lord would keep unity among the team for our time overseas. Thank you all for your prayers; it is a crucial element of any ministry or missionary endeavor. 

            If you have any questions, please feel free to email us back at evaneliapf@gmail.com  Finally, we are grateful for the partnership of Village Ministries International: www.villageministries.org. Their prayers, friendship, wisdom, and support have been invaluable during this pioneering time.  Much the same for many Tahitians who have been amazing in friendship, wisdom, and support.  We cannot wait to see where the Lord takes us!

Serving the One and Only Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,

                                                Mark, Rene’, Turner, Jules, and Titus

Follow along with our blog to see how the Lord is working to advance the Gospel in French Polynesia.