Indonesia (MNN) — Nathan Fagerlie is a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship. Along with passengers and supplies, he carries memories and stories – some of them strikingly poignant. Take, for example, his account of a landing field in Papua, Indonesia, the region where he most frequently flies.
“I love this airstrip. It’s called Apahapsali,” he says.
Intrigued by the name, Fagerlie asked the local Yali people what it meant in their heart language.
“They said, ‘Apah’ means ‘human’ and ‘hapsali’ means ‘where we remove their skin,’” he recounts.
Matching the candor of their answer, he posed another question: what was the backstory of this airstrip? They pointed across the valley and gestured.
“You know, we used to do a lot of night raids to that village. We’d capture people alive, we’d bring them back here, we’d skin them, and we’d eat them.”
It’s a hair raising account, yet Fagerlie relays it without a hint of alarm in his voice. That’s because something happened between the head hunting history and Fagerlie’s entrance to the village. That something was the Gospel.
When missionaries first introduced this tribe to Jesus Christ and His Word in the 1950s, they were met with opposition that ended with two of them dead. But as the Yali began to receive the Word, a magnificent transformation rippled throughout the community. Cannibalism was turned on its head, as the Yali began to hunt fellow souls for redemption.
By the time Fagerlie met this tribe in 2018, they were able to give an update on some of the structural outcomes that accompanied spiritual change.
“They said, ‘This place that we used to skin and eat them, now it’s the air strip. And our celebration hut is now the church. And that place across the valley that we used to go and raid, our sons and daughters now marry their sons and daughters.’”
The transformation of the Yali people is a reminder that when God’s Word goes out, it does not return void.
“It changes them personally, it changes them culturally, it changes the way they view themselves, their neighbors, and the world,” Fagerlie says.
MAF pilots are integral in carrying the Gospel across challenging terrain. Throughout mountainous jungles in Papua, for example, villages are isolated from each other because of the physical features of the island. It can take days to walk from one community to another, Fagerlie says.
“An MAF airplane can get them there in 15 or 20 minutes. And not only can we get them there quicker, we can bring in their family, food, building supplies,” he says.
So please pray for MAF pilots, their passengers, and the villages they serve. Pray for safe flights, open ministry doors, and receptivity of Papuan people to the Gospel. This tribe is an example of impact.
“In a generation, it has changed them from cannibals to Christians,” Fagerlie points out.
Please pray that Yali believers would continue to grow in their faith and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And please pray for the others still waiting to hear the Good News: that even now, the Holy Spirit would be moving in their hearts to ready them for His life-giving Word.
Village in Papua, courtesy of Becky Fagerlie, MAF.
Header image courtesy of MAF.
