Roger Doriot Missionary Family in Irian Jaya

To editor UNITYINCHRIST.COM,

From "Roger E. Doriot, roger.doriot@crossworld.org, rogerdoriot@yahoo.com http://www.rogerdoriot.com

Subject: Greetings from Irian Jaya, now Papua

Found your site while looking for more things on Irian Jaya on the Internet. We have been working here since 1975. I had heard a little here and there about the changes in the Worldwide Church of God, but hadn't really read much on it. I was glad to read some of the things you put on your site. Praise the Lord that He does lead those who really want to know the truth to the truth!

Don't have time to check your site further tonight, but wanted to drop you a note. Thought you might be interested in what has happened here too. Tremendous things the Lord has done in some of these formerly cannibalistic tribes where we have been working!

God Bless,

Yours in Christ,

Roger Doriot

http://www.rogerdoriot.com

To: editor UNITYINCHRIST.COM

From: "Roger E. Doriot, doriot@crossworld.org, rogerdoriot@yahoo.com

TESTIMONIES-DORIOTS

Since I grew up in a Christian home, near Fayette, Ohio, and we regularly attended an evangelical church, I knew much of the Bible and understood the Gospel from an early age. It was at the age of ten that I definitely received Christ as my personal Savior, on July 15, 1954, at a Bible camp in Greenfield, Ohio. I had been convicted of being a sinner and needing to be saved for some time, and on a Thursday evening at the evangelistic service, I went forward to an altar there and asked the Lord to save me. At the same camp two years later, at a campfire service, I made a complete commitment of my life to the Lord, in accordance with Romans 12:1,2, determining to do whatever the Lord wanted me to do with my life. Early in life, I chose Proverbs 3:5, 6 as my "life verses": "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thing own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

After high school, I attended Bible college one year, then studied Civil Engineering. After graduation, I worked as an engineer for about three years. Then I felt the Lord wanted me to prepare for full-time Christian service, and went on to seminary. During my seminary years, I met Suzanne Fogle, and after we were married, the Lord led Suzanne and me into association with UFM International, ["UFM" stands for Unevangelized Fields Mission] and after graduation, we went to Irian Jaya to serve in a church-planting and Bible translation ministry.

Roger E. Doriot

My father made the navy his career, as our family moved often. In each new location we found a gospel preaching church and became faithful members soon after. Early in my life I learned the basics of salvation from my mother. These truths concerning my personal sin and Christ's substitutionary death were deeply meaningful to me though I was of pre-school age. During a week-long revival service I went forward in response to the invitation and publicly acknowledged my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior.

A few weeks later after following the Lord in baptism, I felt moved to become a missionary nurse. This became a life-time commitment to the Lord. At age 12 while living in Japan, I read about an African boy in Reader's Digest. As a result I committed my life to serve the Lord in a tribal situation. Throughout my life many different Scriptures have been used of God to encourage and guide me. John 3:16-18 has been the basis for my understanding of and my assurance of Salvation.

Suzanne Doriot

NALJA, IRIAN JAYA

Irian Jaya is the former Dutch New Guinea, or West Irian, the western half of the second largest island in the world. It is located just north of Australia, just below the equator. It is a province (state) in the country of Indonesia.

aviation.htm for a description of the organization that provides Roger's transportation.] and Jayapura (provincial capitol-formerly Hollandia) on the north coast.

The Nalja people are short, almost pygmy type, kinky haired black-skinned people. Agriculture and a little hunting provide bare subsistence living, sweet potatoes being the staple. Inter-village fighting with bows and arrows was common in the past, with cannibalism practiced occasionally. They live in round grass-roofed houses, with no furniture, and a fireplace in the center of the room.

Animism has been their religion, primarily involving worship and fear of spirits, supposedly of their departed ancestors. The need for sanitation was not known, medicine was unknown--in fact, these people had no contact with the outside world until the latter half of this twentieth century.

Two UFM missionaries trekked for about a week through the dense jungle from the nearest airstrip to contact the Nalja tribe in 1963. A short airstrip was built and opened in 1964, with the Stan Sadler family arriving to begin the work.

Analyzing the unwritten language was difficult, and interest by the people low, so the work went slowly during the initial years. Sadlers had to leave the field, and the Cuttings and several other families and individuals spent some time at Nalja.

Finally, in 1970, a break came, and the first village burned their fetishes. There were still some ups and downs, but in 1974 the first believer was baptized. The Doriots arrived in late 1975, just as preparations were being made for the first major baptism.

Forty were baptized in 1976, and forty-six more in 1977, but then a big inter-village war set things back significantly. However, in a couple years, things began to move forward even more rapidly. By the end of 1981, church membership had doubled, and by 1984 had doubled again, making a total of about 400 baptized believers when the Doriots left for furlough that year.

During that year of furlough, the church came into its own, learning to pretty much carry on by themselves, and 218 additional believers were baptized. There were then about fifteen churches organized with indigenous leadership, over thirty-five villages having at least one baptized believer, and evangelists working in most of the other villages in the tribe as well.

In the subsequent years, the church has continued to grow. In 1986, almost another hundred were baptized, and about 200 more in 1987, which gave the tribe 1000 baptized believers. The number has continued to climb. However, there was another inter-village war in 1989, which was not finally settled until 1991. This was a significant setback for a time for five major villages.

Several young men are in an Indonesian Bible School on the coast (first graduate in 1992), with other leaders being trained in the Nalja Bible School, in the vernacular language. Several fellows are taking, or planning to take, further theological training in other parts of Indonesia.

The Doriots are now working with the Nalja church in reaching out into a number of neighboring unevangelized tribes, as well as working to complete the translation of the New Testament and continuing to work to develop leadership and help advise current tribal leaders.

LIFE AT NALJA

Life for a missionary at Nalja is a little different than life in the States, to be sure. Our closest neighbors (other than our tribal friends) live two days' walk away, or fifteen minutes by single engine aircraft [Mission Aviation Fellowship aircraft]. There are no roads in the Nalja jungle. However, we do have an SSB radio, so we have contact almost every day with people from other interior stations or on the coast.

Cooking is done on a wood-burning stove, and running water comes by a ¾ inch plastic pipe form a spring 100 yards away. We have a kerosene-burning refrigerator, and electric lights by a 12-volt DC system powered by two solar panels on our roof.

Labor is cheap, so we have some househelp to assist in cooking, cleaning, watching children, etc., to free much of our time as possible for the multitude of responsibilities here. Besides her household duties, Suzanne does much medical work, and also has Bible studies with different groups of ladies.

Roger works on translation and literacy, preaches, counsels, and advises in various areas, supervises station and airstrip maintenance (and new airstrip construction--Terablu is now the seventh airstrip in the area), does ordering, bookkeeping, and correspondence, occasionally treks through the mountains to various villages to assist and encourage the local believers and workers, plus whatever else needs to be done at the moment.

We look forward to the arrival of the MAF airplane every week or so to get mail, as well as to the summer and Christmas holidays and vacations, when we can be together with our whole family, as the older children must go to school away from home on the coast.

The work is sometimes difficult, many times discouraging, even exasperating, but also rewarding, fulfilling, and satisfying, and we wouldn't trade places with anyone, as we believe this is where the Lord wants us to be. With the Lord watching over us, and a multitude of friends and relatives caring and praying for us back home, what more could we need or want?

PERMANENT PRAYER REQUESTS

1. Spiritual growth and testimony of Nalja believers.

2. Wisdom for, and continuing development of, church leadership.

3. Love, patience, wisdom, and personal discipline for Doriots.

4. Evangelism of the unreached and the uncommitted.

5. Translation, distribution, and reading of the Scriptures.

6. Bible school, literacy, and general schooling.

7. Adequate finances to carry on necessary ministries, including funding needed to reach new tribes.

BIRTHDAYS

Roger: October 6, 1943

Suzanne: February 18, 1949

Kathy: December 26, 1973

Jonathan: February 26, 1975

Brian: July 12, 1976

Linda: October 12, 1982

Daniel: December 27, 1985

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Subject: The Chicken Head (Irian Jaya jungle trekking)

My son Daniel (13), and I had risen early and were sitting around the fire with a few other Nalja tribespeople in the grass roofed hut where we had spent the night in the Salenggon village. We were planning to get an early start for our seven hour trek back home to our station, as we had a treacherous cliff to negotiate on the way back, along with a stop to check on lumber being cut out by Nalja pitt sawyers (by hand using a cross cut saw) for a small translation building for the three Nalja tribal Bible translators with whom we work as we finish up the New Testament in the Nalja language.

We ate a little of some of the food my wife, Suzanne, had packed for us, and some of the fruit we had bought the day before from villagers as we traveled, and were about ready to leave when a young man ducked through the low doorway into the hut carrying a wok. "We have some chicken for you," he said. Well, the aroma was good, and though I realized it wasn't Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was a really nice gesture from them, and I figured it would still taste good.

They placed the wok near the fireplace between Daniel and me, and I reached over and picked up a piece in the dim light f the barely flickering fire. I took a little bite off the side of the piece, quite heavily seasoned and quite tasty. As I did, I thought to myself, "As dark as it is in here, I could be eating the head, for all I know!" (They waste NOTHING when they eat meat here!) Just then the fire flickered a little more brightly, and I saw the silhouette of a rooster's comb on the piece I was holding!

Well, being the generous person I am, at that point I placed that delicacy back in the pan for some person more worthy than myself, and took another piece! And after I mentioned it to Daniel, I noticed that he also avoided that piece.

We did appreciate that contribution to our breakfast, however, and a little later obtained a couple of carriers and left for the Diriwemnat village nearby, where we made a short visit, and then headed home, at which we arrived safely early in the afternoon.

Please pray for these tribal people in the Nalja tribe, and for those in the other approximately 270 different tribes in Irian Jaya, Indonesia! Pray for those where the church is already established, as at Nalja where we have worked for twenty years. Pray for those where the church is very new. And pray for those tribes still without the Gospel or any church at all!

We'd love to send you occasional info and stories by e-mail if you'd like, so you can also pray specifically and have a meaningful part in the wonderful things the Lord is doing to raise up people for himself from among many formerly Stone Age tribes throughout Irian Jaya! Thank you for your concern! Let us know if you'd like to join us in prayer.

Yours in Christ,

Roger E. Doriot

UFM International

doriot@crossworld.org, rogerdoriot@yahoo.com

http://www.jesus-connect.net/world/jesus/Doriot (then click on Doriot circles for interesting pictures,)

http://www.jesus-connect.net/world/Missions/worldpray

P.S.: Please pass this on to friends and others as the Lord leads, and pray that the Lord will raise up more prayer support for His work in this needy area of the world.

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A two-week workshop for translation consultants starts here Monday. Pray for my presentation on that day, and for a profitable time for us throughout the workshop.

Lulanat-ups and downs in the last week. We had about given up hope, as she was feeling very bad and discouraged after the last time the incision reopened, and with the inability of the doctors to close it up. She wouldn't eat at all. We arranged for her to have some sugar cane, and other tasty food--and she started eating well. However, yesterday we heard the doctors are concerned because they believe there is some urine getting into her stomach, indicating a serious problem. So,.(You're probably weary praying for her, but as the Lord enables, please keep it up.) [It worked, as it seems she's healed up nicely now.]

JESUS Film: Got great news this week--that we can have the JESUS Film done in the Nalja language! This would be great for the Nalja people, and even some of the neighboring tribes where some of the people understand this language--like some of the Kosare people where Tadius and Lulanat have been working. Pray for all the arrangements we must make to provide funding, get Nalja translation into script, etc. It will cost about $7,000 total, we were told. [To see what the JESUS Film Project is all about, and a description of the ones who trek into these lands to show it, log onto: http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/excerpts_isawjesus.htm .] .

UFM meetings-important meetings this week of all UFM missionaries here in Papua. Plans being made for future ministry of the UFM hospital in Mulia in the Dani tribe, now that the Lord has sent three new couples in the last year.

Translation checking process--went very well. Dr. DeVries is very happy with the work of our MTT's-Samuel, Jeremi, and Martin.

All for now.

Roger and Suzanne in Papua

http://www.rogerdoriot.com

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Well, can a person study four languages at once? I want to try! (Some people just never learn what is impossible!) J We are planning to give particular help to four translation projects. I will work on learning what I can in each of those languages during the coming months (years?). A consultant does not necessarily need to know a language well to be of help to the Mother Tongue Translator, but the more a consultant does know, the more help he can be.

So, pray for me, and for the people involved in the four language groups:

a) Kimke--Darius Puruwi

b) Lepki--Wellem Nokweibra

c) Kosare--Yakobus Tapiri

d) Kapori--Maxi Waybara

This is a big undertaking, and we need faithful specific prayer! Would you consider committing to pray regularly for one of these projects? Please let us know!

Pray that the national tribes-people in the various areas will take as much responsibility as they can for their own projects. We are also excited that some funds are starting to be provided by Christians from other parts of Indonesia, but additional funds are still needed. I'd like to visit a couple of these areas soon, but can't really afford to do that yet. Let us know if the Lord leads you to help in this way also--$10 per month, a quarterly gift, a one-time gift--even a small gift, a "mite," can make a "mighty" difference!

Miscellaneous: Praise the Lord that Brian has started his full-time job at Grace University!--Pray for work for Linda in Florida where she plans to spend the rest of the summer. She has had difficulty finding anything besides the house-sitting she is now doing. She needs $800 for her school by July 29, and she is feeling the pressure--thinking she may have to take off this semester unless she can earn some more money quickly.

Pray for our personal finances-quite critical at the moment also. The Lord has provided for us so well through the years, that we have not usually had to face real financial pressures for very long, so we do thank Him, and YOU, all our faithful supporters! Just continue to pray for our regular support, and for project funds and special gifts as the Lord wills, that we may be able to accomplish all that the Lord would have us do with the great opportunities here at present!

Thanks so much for your interest and prayers, as you think of us, Papua/Irian Jaya, and MTT/Bible translators!!!

Yours in Christ,

Roger and Suzanne Doriot

UFM International, Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), Indonesia

http://www.rogerdoriot.com

http://www.sukupapua.info (Info and maps of tribes in Papua)

PS. We were able to help a UFM colleague by checking some of the translation work in the Duvle language this week. Pray that that translation work will continue to go well.

Content Editor Peter Benson -- no copyright, except where noted. Please feel free to use this material for instruction and edification
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