NTM

Buru is an oval shaped Island in the Malukus, a series of islands in South Central Indonesia, formerly called the spice Islands. It is roughly 70 by 90 miles across. Because of the valuable spices that grow wild on Buru Island there has been some outside influences dating all the way back to the 1400’s. The Island was even used as a prison camp for political prisoners. There are many small towns on the coast of Buru, but the interior people have been mostly feared and avoided. They live in small villages made up of family clans and often war among themselves. They are also somewhat nomadic, moving the entire village if someone dies, and going on possum hunts for months at a time. While people living on the coast are mostly either Muslim, Catholic, or Protestant, those living interior are largely Animistic, living in fear of ancestral spirits and trying to appease, bribe or trick those spirits in order to have health, food, etc.

NTM has been working among the Buru since 1989 We have two NTM families, Paul and Atin McDole and us, and 3 Indonesian missionary families, Simon and Meiti Layukdatuk, Herman and Marien Kodidi, and Waris and Syeni working in two villages. Our team taught through the chronological lessons in 2003, and we are now working on translating the Bible into the Buru Language. Buru currently has many young believers!

We have had many obstacles in our path to reaching the Buru people with the Gospel. There was violence and unrest in the neighboring island of Ambon for many years. Currently we are praying for an airplane for Central Indonesia so we can travel in and out of Buru safely and get supplies.