THE NAKUI STORY
Pre-history for the Nakui tribe is strikingly recent. With no written record, the most studied Nakui can only name back five generations. Their first contact with the outside world came after World War 2 with Australian patrol officers. A number of adventurous Nakui men ventured to the coast to work at Austraila-owned copra plantations. The ones who returned brought stories describing unimaginable things there were no Nakui words for such as roads, cars, schools and stores. As missionaries began moving into the area in the 1970's, word began to spread about a ragged group of swamp-dwellers called the Nakui, a fearful and suspicious people being killed off by malaria and lack of nutrition.
A man named Makai became a regular at a nearby mission station, carrying letters with a passionate request for Nakui to have missionaries of their own. With a clear invitation, a new pioneer church planting team was formed and moved into the village in 1992. They built their homes in the village (bush materials) and began to learn Nakui language and culture. They came to understand more about their animistic worldview, and their belief powerful spirit affect human interests and must be controlled on a daily basis. As Nakuis later would later describe, they were living with no hope and were burying their dead "like cats and dogs".
Tim and Diana along with their two daughters (Bekah 2 yrs. and Bri 6 mos.) moved into Nakui in June 1997 (TJ came along in 1999). They joined Greg and Heidi Greenlaw and family, and would spend next 3 years in language and culture study, learning how to communicate with their new neighbors. Diana spent days in the medical clinic dispensing medicine and and training Nakui workers. After reaching fluency, Tim began working on Bible translation while co-worker Greg began writing Bible lessons. Bible teaching began in early 2001 with the entire village showing up for daily lessons presented in chronological order. On Easter Sunday 2001 the Nakui church was born when a handful of men, women and children accepted Christ as their "Promise Man", the one God sent to pay for their sin.
As glorious as those days were, the work was only beginning. Now came the hard work of cultivating a first-generation church to maturity. Over the next nine years the going was very slow. Bible curriculum in the vernacular was developed and taught, and books of the Bible were translated. But for long stretches of time the response was one of apathy and disinterest. Now that they "heard the Jesus talk" many just wanted to go on with their daily lives. Leaders had been trained and the church had everything it needed to function on their own. In 2010 a decision was made for the team to move out of the tribe. Nearly twenty years of church planting effort was placed in God's hands, and we would soon learn how the Nakui church would respond.
This is where God REALLY surprised us. The three church leaders, with a renewed sense of conviction the church was not going to fail in their hands, stepped up in a big way. With a track record of faithfulness in the church and strong testimonies as husbands and fathers, these leaders were recognized as elders in 2012. Kibo, Suse and Sobai have functioned together in unity for seven years, an unprecedented achievement in a Nakui world that doesn't "do" teamwork. Perhaps even more amazing - the church and leaders are being looked to by other churches in the area for strength, teaching and encouragement. Nakui pastors are traveling to surrounding churches to teach and preach. In 2016, the Nakui villages hosted the 3-day area churches conference, planning and coordinating the entire event. The church has a long way to go, but has come so far. We are optimistic about the future of the church and it's ability to pass along its message and mission to the next generation.
