Ronan missionaries prepare for departure to Africa
Megan Strickland
Missionaries that will depart on Dec. 11 for Gabu, Guinea Bissau listen to a lesson by Pastor Lynn Lapka in their Discipleship Training Classes.
Megan Strickland
Photographs document previous work in Guinea Bissau.
Megan Strickland
Missionaries that will depart on Dec. 11 for Gabu, Guinea Bissau listen to a lesson by Pastor Lynn Lapka in their Discipleship Training Classes.
Megan Strickland
Missionaries that will depart on Dec. 11 for Gabu, Guinea Bissau listen to a lesson by Pastor Lynn Lapka in their Discipleship Training Classes.
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RONAN – Millions of people around the world have faith the Lord will provide for them, but only a fraction decide to put the fate of their livelihood completely into His hands while they devote their entire life to serving others. The Tatukivei family from Ronan is among the few who do.
“As a mission, we are not paid,” said Emosi Tatukivei, a missionary to Africa who also works at YWAM Discipleship School in Ronan. “We have to trust God every month for the finances. For me that is the most exciting thing, to know God is real, because it comes in every month. He provides for the finances, pays the bills, brings the food, everything. It all comes true. God provides.”
Tatukivei, his wife, and three children, will leave Dec. 11 with a group of other missionaries for Gabu, Guinea Bissau in western Africa. Tatukivei said he has faith the community in Mission will continue to support the community it helped build overseas the past decade.
Emosi met his wife Silvana, a Brazilian, in 2000 in Guinea Bissau. The couple married in Brazil the next year and made their home in the Mission Valley where their two daughters Karalaini and Adriana were born. In 2004 the family moved to Guinea Bissau where they worked for eight years and were able to facilitate a huge change in the lives of the villagers of Gabu, thanks to the generosity of people in the Mission Valley.
When the Tatukiveis arrived in Gabu, the village did not have electricity or running water.
“They would just take the bucket and put up their T-shirt and drink it through the T-shirt,” Tatukivei said. “That’s how they filter it. Most of the death in this area is due to unclean water or water-related diseases. Bringing water really saves the health of the community. The money they would use to buy medicine they can use to buy food. So many times they don’t save. Anything they sell is mostly to get medicine. When we bring about basic needs it really helps progress.”
Ninety-nine percent of people in Guinea Bissau are Muslim, so it takes acts of kindness to help get the Christian message to them.
“You cannot force your religion,” Tatukievi said. “It has to be an act. It has to be an act outside the normal to get them to question why they do it. Our main focus is to give them hope, especially for the new generation who needs hope. As much as we have rights in America, I believe they have rights to have clean water, a roof on their head, clothes, health, food, and above all, they have the right to understand our belief in Jesus and that they have the freedom to choose.”
One way the Tatukiveis reach out to people is through school. When the Tatukiveis arrived there were 350 students in the school system. When they left in 2011 there were more than 1,100 students.
One of the biggest draws to the school is porridge that the staff cooks over an open charcoal fire on the ground. Poverty is so rampant children often only get a single meal per day at home.
“So many parents send their kids to our school because we not only educate them, also we feed them,” Tatukivei said. “Once you start feeding them we notice a change of grade.”
Silvana works in the village’s nutrition center that includes one of two dental clinics in the entire nation of Guinea Bissau. Missionary doctors often use the clinic because its facilities are so advanced for the region. Tatukivei said the clinic will have a malaria testing center soon. The facility will spare people in the 700 surrounding villages long trips to testing facilities that are hours away by car.
“Everything they pay is like a dollar or two dollars, whatever they can afford. Those monies go back to buy more medicine, but the whole concept I am trying to teach them is nothing is free. Once they buy things they see the value of it. They see the value of it, they in turn, start to protect it. If they don’t have money they bring something with them like peanuts or corn or anything to trade-in with the medicine. Now, what we are doing is changing their way of thinking to plant more for exchange with medicines.”
The Tatukiveis want to expand the ministry to include another school. Eventually, they would like to spread God’s word to other Portuguese-speaking nations also. Silvana, Adriana, and Karalaini speak fluent Portuguese. Denny, the youngest Tatukivei, is a toddler and still learning language skills.
“The whole point is to multiply,” Tatukivei said.
Having a base already established in Guinea Bissau helps.
“When you go to a new place, 75 percent of the time is spent trying to get things like water, electricity, (and) good food,” Tatukivei said. “Seventy-five percent goes to yourself and only 25 percent goes to ministry. That’s a very short amount of time. When you already have a place, it changes the percent. You spend 25 percent putting up bed, because it’s already there. Then 75 percent is spent on the community.”
Tatukivei said Georgia Penniman, Joe and Kay Darlington, and numerous churches in the area have been incredibly generous in helping further the mission in Gabu.
“The community has invested in this community and we want to honor that. We don’t want it to die down and waste all of the effort and time, money, and relationship that we’ve built,” Tatukivei said.
The missionary group needs to raise approximately $10,000 before they depart to pay for airfare and projects in the village. They are seeking donations of items for raffle or sale at a Nov. 18 barn dance at the Ronan Community Center in Ronan. The fundraising barn dance is open to the community and begins at 3 p.m.
On Nov. 24 there will be a fundraising breakfast from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Lake City Bakery in Polson. For more information, call Silvana (406) 210-4031.
