Seventh Day Adventist influence

116 to produce a blackboard, which they frequently carried with them, and ask the Catholic catechist or Seventh Day Adventist SDA pastorteacher to write the “Roman figure” III, VIII, etc. for any number called out. The challenges and derision, he said, were much more blatant and obnoxious in those days. In more recent years, the Raronga Theological College United Church near Rabaul has sent intern theological students to some villages on Bougainville-Buka for their practical training. Students have been assigned to live in Ruruvu Village near the David Voeta Memorial Church and to be responsible for several Rotokas villages in this area. One of the students, Samuel S. and his wife were from Buka. Another couple came from New Ireland. The intern student works together with the local church officials and rotates with the lay pastors on the preaching schedule. Several Rotokas men and women are considered qualified to conduct the devotional and Sunday services. Names are rostered so that each one has an equal share of the responsibilities and so that the villages and hamlets can hear from them all. A “preaching plan” was prepared using a silk screen. One might ask about the effects of mission teaching on the Rotokas. An isolated example gives some idea of the commitment to the church teaching. David A.’s maternal uncle became a widower in the late 1950s. He had shaken hands with his wife shortly before her death, promising never to remarry. To this day, he has never remarried. Several years after the death of his wife, he was washing in a stream near Togarao village. While he was in midstream, he observed a keravo hawk fly down to where he had placed his clothes on a rock before bathing. He thought he saw the bird carry a long snake and place it on top of his clothes. After the hawk flew away, the man discovered that the “snake” was actually a thin belt sewn double and about 2 meters in length. It is about four and a half centimeters wide and appears to be commercially sewn. Both ends are cut and sewn at an acute angle. The material, which was shown to us, appears to have an Asian design, large yellow leaves with red blotches here and there. He keeps it tightly rolled and in a small paper bag. The cloth belt is very special to him in light of his promise, which he made to his wife just before she died. He had shaken her hand, saying that he would never remarry after her death. When the bird brought the cloth to the stone, he sensed that this was a “sign” from God confirming that his promise was to remain and was, in fact, now a contract between himself and God Pauto. It would serve to remind him of this contract when others from the village would try to persuade him to remarry. And, in fact, they did. Within a few years of his wife’s death, he was approached by the village leaders, who felt that it would be better for him to remarry and settle down again. Had he not seen the belt-sign, he would have agreed to the proposal by the leaders. He remained firm, and if he is still alive, he is still single. Later on, this same man dreamed of a banana plant bending over. He went to his nephew, David A., for help with the dream and he interpreted it as meaning that when his uncle was a young single man, he was like the young banana plant pointing towards the sky. His attention was directed to God. As he matured, however, he was given a wife by God to look after his needs. As the growing, maturing banana stalk goes from pointing straight up to its final position of pointing to the ground with fruit attached, so his attention had been directed to his wife, a provision of God for his earthly needs. This interpretation, along with the belt-sign, has helped to reinforce his commitment to remain single, for his wife’s sake. The observation was made by a Rotokas man that the younger men have the written Scripture to read and to use as a source of knowledge about God. But, he said, for older men like the uncle who cannot read, God uses different methods to confirm His reality. For this man, it was the long, colorful belt placed on his pile of clothes by a hawk. Later, the belt-sign will be seen to play another important part in this man’s concept of God.

9.3.3 Seventh Day Adventist influence

Although we had several Seventh Day Adventist SDA neighbors and met the traveling pastors when they would visit these families, we do not know much of the church and its work. I enjoyed staying in one of the pastor’s homes near Nupatoro and was impressed by the number of reference books he had Biblical and secular. At the time, the man was interested in translating songs of the church into his own language of New Britain. From Oliver’s book we know that the SDAs: …began their work in 1924 in the village of Lavelai on the southeast coast of Bougainville. Their progress was very slow; in 1941, they recorded only about thirty converts, all in the area around Kieta. This is not to be wondered at, because their membership requirements were even more stringent than the Methodists’ and included the prohibition of tobacco, betel chewing, and the eating of crustaceans and pork. To forswear 117 pork eating was an especially onerous test of commitment. Meat in any form was a grand luxury to these islanders and much of their traditional life revolved around pigs—raising them, exhibiting them, trading them, gift-giving them, and eating them on the most solemn or festive occasions Oliver 1973:118. SDA School Near Nupatoro 9.3.4 Influence of Rotokas Scriptures In October of 1982, the complete New Testament in the Rotokas language became available for the first time. Previous to this, portions of Scripture including Mark’s Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, John’s Gospel and Epistles, and an abridgement of Genesis had been in print and circulated. In July of 1984, a compilation of Old Testament stories became available in the Rotokas language, as well. It was interesting to observe how the absolute standards and severe consequences of broken laws which recur in Old Testament stories impressed Rotokas readers. A letter from Togarao in 1985 confirms the continuing interest in the Old Testament stories, especially among the older people. It is yet to be seen how much influence the vernacular Scripture will have on the three churches in the Rotokas area. It was intended that with a better understanding of Scripture being in their own language, the Rotokas people would be better able to establish their own standards of behavior relevant to their cultural practices and with the knowledge of God’s approval.

9.4 Cargo Cult