A Few Hours Can Make All the Difference

Today we drove to Tautira.  Of this place at the very end of the island road, Robert Louis Stephenson wrote: "It is the Garden of the World, mere Heaven, the most beautiful spot and its people the most amiable, I have ever found."  And so today we spent a few precious hours with a young couple and their daughter, residents of Tautira.

The Bay of Tautira

Totoni and Poet (Pearl) were kind enough to spend the afternoon with us after meeting us briefly on Sunday in Vairao.  What a truly wonderful time of fellowship.  For the second time this week, Tahitian friends asked us about tattoos and Leviticus 19:28.  It seems to be a major concern for Christians here, where tattooing is such a big part of the pagan culture.  So we wrestled with that for a while.  The topic shifted to the Sunday school program at their church, which actually does not exist.  Poet has a vision to begin one since they have 50 children in their church, but no program at all.  So we discussed ways to delicately approach their pastor and respect his position while at the same time lending our organizational skills and experience.  We talked of the forests and mountains of Colorado, and of mutual friends on the island and in the United States, and then again of spiritual matters.  

I had a small bag of French eternity coins in our car, one of a few things we had brought that we were determined to leave behind.  So I showed these to Poet and taught her a simple way to share them and initiate a Gospel conversation.  After we reluctantly began to take our leave, and were pulling away, we saw Poet already giving a coin to a young man nearby.  Wow! Talk about instant results!  We may never meet this man, but he has heard of salvation in Jesus by faith alone, thanks to Poet and the Gospel coins!

As always, please remember to pray for each of these people and the opportunity to come alongside them.