“It all started with a chance encounter at a bank, and from that moment God began opening doors we never imagined.”

An Unexpected Encounter at the Bank

Hundreds of our village families have been fleeing the fighting and chaos, moving their children to coastal towns until peace returns to their home areas. One of our greatest challenges has been finding schools that would accept the younger children, many of whom have little if any school background.

While in the town of Nabire, I was planning to explore possibilities, but first I needed to stop at the Mandiri bank. As I sat waiting my turn, I noticed two ladies surrounded by about 15 Papuan children. My head was spinning with the many things I still needed to accomplish, but then I heard the children whispering to each other in Moni.

Moni is my first language, before English, so I understood every word. “Could this guy be John, the missionary we’ve seen before in some of our villages? It kind of looks like him!”

I jumped up, went over to the children, and began speaking to them in Moni. The bank erupted in chaos. The children shouted, the ladies tried to calm them down, and everyone around us stared in disbelief. No one could understand how I was speaking their language.

As I spoke with the children and the ladies, their story began to unfold. The two women ran a small school for special needs children. But when they discovered that many Papuan children were being left out of school due to lack of education, they opened their doors to them as well. Almost all of these children were Moni. That day, they were at the bank helping each child open an account in case donors wanted to help feed and educate them.

I asked Maria, the school’s founder, if I could visit the next day. She agreed, and I left the bank humbled, overwhelmed at how God had orchestrated this unexpected meeting and provided a solution to how we could educate Moni children far from home.

Maria’s School in Nabire

The next day at Maria’s school felt like a family reunion. We all laughed and shared in Moni while the teachers looked on in amazement. Maria walked me through the compound, old buildings she had purchased 13 years earlier after selling her home and car in Java. Her story was heartbreaking. Her husband had taken her two children away years ago, and she had never seen them since. Now, she said, God had given her new children to love and care for. She was even preparing to expand the school with more dormitory and classroom space.

Within days, 19 Moni students, many from war-torn villages, had joined the 15 students already living at the school. We played soccer, splashed at the beach, and shared meals. Maria and her staff poured themselves into these children. I began reaching out to government contacts who soon responded with extra food for the school’s 110 people. Maria is now preparing a proposal for new dormitory facilities to replace the worn-out old buildings.

Miracles in Timika

At the same time, in the coastal town of Timika, God was working out another miracle. A Moni church there was building a new facility and offered their old building to be used as a school. Lee, a Papuan woman who had taught and served as a nurse in Pogapa for five years, agreed to lead the school, assisted by Olince, a Moni university student.

While we were organizing the details, a friend called to say he had nearly $2,000 set aside for a village project that never materialized, and he wanted to give it to help the Moni children instead.

God was not finished. Lee needed a budget and supplies to start the school, along with snacks for the children. At the airport, I bumped into another friend, a former grocery store manager, who now ran his own store. When he learned what we were doing, he begged us to give him the supply list so he could stock the school himself. Then, as if on cue, God provided a motorcycle for the teachers’ transportation, donated by Jo Hodges, a longtime mentor.

God’s Provision for the Future

And then came one more confirmation. An email from Corner Springs Church in the USA arrived asking me to share the Moni children’s most pressing needs so they could explore how to help.

From Nabire to Timika to the United States, God was connecting people, resources, and opportunities in ways we never could have imagined. He is raising up schools and support for Moni children who have lost so much.

Please join us as TOGETHER we work with God to prepare the future leaders of Papua to be Godly, fearless, and bold.

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From Banks to Classrooms