Photo: Canva.comReading the gospel from Mark 6:7-13, I recall my days as a young missionary traveling around the villages that made up the parish of Naililili in the Rewa delta. What I learnt to do when I was traveling around these villages was to take a big rubbish bag. Since I did a lot of travel by boat, what little extra clothing I would take with me could easily get wet either due to the rain or to the water coming into the boat. I recall one occasion when I went to the village of Kiuva for the first time. Because the qase ni yasana left our departure until rather late, it was dark by the time we reached the delta entrance. On the way, a man from one of the villages along the river joined us. His task was sit in front of the boat and dangle the hurricane lamp over the front of the boat so he could see where the reef was. This was necessary because the tide had got so low that we could not ride inside the reef. We had to go out into the open sea and make our way down to another entrance in the reef that led to the village of Kiuva. I did not know this at the time since it was my first trip to Kiuva. I was sitting towards the back of the boat and all I could sense was that we were heading straight out into the very rough open seas and leaving the mainland. I was terrified but trusted in my two companions.
My extra clothing was fortunately wrapped tightly in this bag at my feet because the water was pouring into the boat. The old catechist who was steering the outboard motor and following the directions of the gentleman holding the lamp in the front of the boat yelled out. “Nima, nima.” Now, I was still learning Fijian and I had certainly not learnt the meaning of this word yet. So he quickly gave me the bottom half of a Janola (washing liquid) bottle. I cottoned on pretty quickly. He was saying, “Bail, bail.” My job was to bail out the water as we made our way through these rough waters in the middle of the night. Eventually, I felt the tug of the engine and realised that the catechist was turning the boat around to face the shore and in the distance I could see the lights of the village of Kiuva. I was enormously relieved and realised why one should not take too much in the way of clothing when heading out to these distant villages, well beyond the entrance to the delta.
Maybe we have become far too dependent on far too much clothing these days and other comforts to be able to simply hop into a small boat and head down a river in order to preach the gospel. On the other hand, I can’t help think of people in war-torn zones around the world who endure awful conditions as armies send drones and missiles to destroy their homes and power supplies.
Let us keep these people in mind and prayer and continue to pray for peace.
Fr Tom Rouse, Regional Counsellor Aotearoa/New Zealand.
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