Find

6.6.19

Crape Myrtle

Take
Refuge
避难 
Binan
避難所を取る 
Hinansho o toru
ps 31

Take refuge.
Safety is your due.

I have taken refuge in you.
You help me to find that which is true.

Don't make me regret my trust.
I feel like this will last beyond the dust.

Bring me civility.
Civility cultivates fertility.

Please listen.
My sweat glistens.

The clock is ticking.
My pulse is quickening.

Time is escaping.
Reality is quaking.

Be my defense.
Let me see what is sure about sense.

You are my rock.
You walked the walk.

My foundation is sure.
My intention is pure.

Lead me in love.
Love me until I've won.

Limit weapon use to defense.
Offense is not what's meant.
Let defense be defensive in intent.

Non-violence isn't offensive
but it doesn't rule out aggression.

Aggression isn't an excuse for violence,
cruelty in punishment or violet silence.

Deliver me from the trap they have set.
I won't enter into something I have to regret.

They have been exploiting trust.
They promised protection that would not rust.

You are my strength.
The measure extends beyond length.

I commend my spirit to your care.
Your love has led me to dare
to share.

You have redeemed me with truth.
Meaning gives trust that soothes.

My time is yours.
Design divined cures.

Inside the ah of the aha experience
lies the immense pleasure of group expedience.

I saw a man on a red horse in the night.
He sat there among the myrtle trees in the moonlight.

Different colored horses of different kinds
stood behind him as the light shone through the tree lines.

I asked what it was that they were.
I was told that 'They were sent to patrol the earth.'

Help me to find independence.
Freedom in the law is sent from heaven.

Deliver me from deception and oppression.
The state created by deceit is not worthy of leaven.

The immaterial view of matter as a word
sees the particulars of general abstraction inferred.

The Healer was asked to heal the servant of the officer.
His word was enough. Faith was the power that cured her. 

Watch yourself for the sake of your prayers.
The end is near for this state of affairs.

There was one like the Son of Man seated on the cloud.
He had a crown on his head. His hand gripped a haft like a vow. 

A tree may sprout again when it is cut down.
A mortal body does not rise after it dies with or without renown.

Joseph asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. 
Pilate gave it over to entomb to protect the public from diseases.

Mary saw the light when she went to the tomb.
The body was gone. There was nothing but room.

Jesus rose from the dead as he had said.
He left the tomb that had a slab for his bed.

Let your light shine through me.
Your joy in my face will be seen.

Your kindness will redeem me.
Your redemption will be believed.

I have taken refuge in you.
You kept me from feeling blue.

Safety is your due.
Take refuge.

------------------

Psalm 31
In te, Domine, speravi
In you, Dominated, I trust

1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Incline your ear to me;
make haste to deliver me.
3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold;
for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.
4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,
for you are my tower of strength.
5 Into your hands I commend my spirit,
for you have redeemed me,
O Lord, O God of truth.
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols,
and I put my trust in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy;
for you have seen my affliction;
you know my distress.
8 You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy;
you have set my feet in an open place.
9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye is consumed with sorrow,
and also my throat and my belly.
10 For my life is wasted with grief,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails me because of affliction,
and my bones are consumed.
11 I have become a reproach to all my enemies and
even to my neighbors,
a dismay to those of my acquaintance;
when they see me in the street they avoid me.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am as useless as a broken pot.
13 For I have heard the whispering of the crowd;
fear is all around;
they put their heads together against me;
they plot to take my life.
14 But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord.
I have said, "You are my God.
15 My times are in your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.
16 Make your face to shine upon your servant,
and in your loving-kindness save me."
17 Lord, let me not be ashamed for having called upon you;
rather, let the wicked be put to shame;
let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be silenced which speak against
the righteous,
haughtily, disdainfully, and with contempt.
19 How great is your goodness, O Lord!
which you have laid up for those who fear you;
which you have done in the sight of all
for those who put their trust in you.
20 You hide them in the covert of your presence from those
who slander them;
you keep them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord!
for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a
besieged city.
22 Yet I said in my alarm,
"I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes."
Nevertheless, you heard the sound of my entreaty
when I cried out to you.
23 Love the Lord, all you who worship him;
the Lord protects the faithful,
but repays to the full those who act haughtily.
24 Be strong and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord.

------------------------------

Zechariah was the 11th of the 12 Minor Prophets. He was a prophet in the Kingdom of Judah. He was of priestly extraction like the prophet Ezekiel.

His career began in the 2d year of Darius, King of Persia (520 BCE). His greatest concern was with the building of the Second Temple.

The Book of Zechariah recalls the history of nation in order to present a warning to the generation of the time. A series of 8 visions followed each other in a single night. The visions presented a symbolic history of Israel. Joshua was crowned to indicate that the kingdoms of the world were sanctified by the Messiah.

The purpose for the book is theological and pastoral as well as historical. God is present in good deeds like the building of the Second Temple. The deeds are accomplished by the power of the Spirit.

The story of Zechariah's vision of horses among myrtle trees is in the first chapter of his book. The flower for the myrtle tree is red. The berry that it produces is the same color.

wiki Zechariah
wiki Book of Zechariah
Zechariah and the Myrtle Tree

Zech. 1:8-10

I saw a man riding on a red horse in the night! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen. Behind him were red, sorrel and white horses. Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.' The man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘They are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.’

--------------------------

I saw a man on a red horse in the night.
He sat there among the myrtle trees in the moonlight.

Different colored horses of different kinds
stood behind him as the light shone through the tree lines.

I asked what it was that they were.
I was told that 'They were sent to patrol the earth.'

===================

Rev. 14:14

There was a white cloud. Seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand!

--------------------------

There was one like the Son of Man seated on the cloud.
He had a crown on his head. His hand gripped a haft like a vow.

===================

Matt. 8:13

Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go. Let it be done for you according to your faith.’ The servant was healed in that hour.

--------------------------

The Healer was asked to heal the servant of the officer.
His word was enough. Faith was the power that cured her.

===================

Conversion of Self

Ps.31:21

Blessed be the Lord
for he has shown me the wonders of his love
in a besieged city.

Ini Kopuria
b. 1880 Maravovo, Guadalcanal
d. 6.6.1945 Maravovo, Guadalcanal
Lectionary

Ini Kopuria was a police officer from Guadcanal in the Soloman Islands. He formed the Melanesian Brotherhood in 1925 to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ in Melanesia.

Maravovo, Guadalcanal

Ini Kopuria was born in Maravovo on Guadalcanal. He looks like a man of at least sixty in his photo.
Maravovo is a village on the northwest tip of the island. The island is mainly covered in dense tropical rainforest and has a mountainous interior.

Guadalcanal is one of the Solomon Islands. These are located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia.

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal is the principal island in the nation of Solomon Islands.

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands are a sovereign state made up of 6 major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania.

The first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neira from Peru in 1568.

Some of the earliest and most regular foreign visitors to the islands were whaling vessels from Britain, the United States and Australia. They came for food, wood and water from late in the 18th century. They took aboard islanders to serve as crewman on their ships.

Relations between the islanders and visiting seamen were not always good. Sometimes there was violence and bloodshed.

Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first. ‘Blackbirding’ was the brutal recruitment or kidnapping of laborers for the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji.

The cruelty of the practice led to a series of reprisals and massacres. The evils of the slave trade prompted the United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in June 1893.

More outlying islands were added to the protectorate in 1898 and 1899. The remainder of the archipelago was transferred to British administration from German jurisdiction in 1900. The islands of Buka and Bougainville remained under German administration as part of German New Guinea.

Traditional trade and social intercourse between the western Solomon Islands of Mono and Alu and the traditional societies in the south of Bougainville continued without hindrance.

Missionaries settled in the Solomons under the protectorate. Several British and Australian firms began large-scale coconut planting in the early 20th century. Economic growth was slow. Islanders benefited little.

Most planters and traders were evacuated to Australia and most cultivation ceased with the outbreak of the Second World War. Some of the most intense fighting of the war occurred in the Solomons.

The most significant of the Allied Forces' operations against the Japanese Imperial Forces was launched on 7 August 1942, with simultaneous naval bombardments and amphibious landings on the Florida Islands at Tulagi[18] and Red Beach on Guadalcanal.

Oceania

Oceania includes Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

Maravo, Guadalcanal

The population for Maravovo is Anglican. This status was the result of the work of Bishop Selwyn and Bishop Patteson of the Anglican Church.

Bishop Selwyn established the community in New Zealand as a means to propagate the gospel to surrounding areas. The islands of Melanesia were declared to be part of the mission in 1848. The area was declared a separate See in 1854.

History
Melasian Brotherhood

Bishop Patteson founded a school for the education of native Christian workers to answer the call to evangelize the people in the area. He was adept at language. He learned twenty-three of the languages spoken in the Polynesian and Melanesian Islands of the South Pacific. He was consecrated Bishop of Melanesia in 1861.

Charles Elliot Fox was a British missionary in Melanesia. He was educated in New Zealand and graduated from the University of New Zealand in 1901. He received a degree in theology from St. John's College in Aukland in 1902.

He joined the staff of the Anglican Melanesian Mission in 1903 and was ordained the same year. Fox lived and worked in most of the islands of the Solomon chain, on the Banks and in the New Hebrides during his more than seventy years of service as a missionary and teacher.

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Zech. 1:10

So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'They are those whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.'

----------------

Guadalcanal is a large island. It is more easily accessible than others. Ini Kopuria was influenced to a peculiar degree by the forces shaping Melanesian history. He was baptized at Maravovo when he was a student at a small all male school. He was a dedicated and intelligent student. He possessed depth of personality and a thoughtful disposition.

His years at school were spent in daily contact with white Christian men and women. It was a racially integrated community that proved to be formative in Ini's career and character. The details of the kind of life he led there are relative to understanding his life.

S. Barnabas' School was on Norfolk Island. It was the forerunner of the later schools in the islands themselves. It had been established by Bishop Patteson as the training-ground for Melanesians who were expected to return as teachers to their own islands.

The boys who were brought by the mission ship, the Southern Cross, from the various islands, remained at school for two years. They were allowed to return home, either permanently, or for a six months' holiday before a further period of training.

History of the Brotherhood
Anglican History

Life was disciplined with respect for an Anglo-Catholic culture. The Spanish had been to the area first. They had established a cultural integration with the natives. The Anglican tradition was adapted by Bishop Patteson. The school set the stage for the formation of the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood was reminiscent of the Franciscan movement of thirteenth century Europe given differences in time and place. It began with the great change that dedication to God made in the life of one person.

It was followed by the gathering round of a group similarly bound. Lady Poverty was taken as a wife. They took no payment for their service except for food and a night's lodging.

The Brothers went to those whom the Church had not yet been able to reach. They preached in untouched places or among those who had grown lukewarm. They brought comfort and healing for body, mind and soul with love and joy for the ideal. They visited the lepers and tended the sick.

The power of the community worked out like that in the days of the Apostles. It has continued to do so down to our own days. "Whenever Christianity has struck out a new path in her journey it has been because the personality of Jesus has again become living and a ray from His Being has once more illuminated the world." (Bossuet.)

That is because of those who see in Christ the heart and purpose of God. They have been so filled with gratitude that they have been impelled to do what they could. They have learnt to understand "down to its very depths, the theory of thanks..."(G. K. Chesterton: S. Francis) That theory extends its depth to a bottomless abyss.

Each of the seventeen daily bells demanded some action promptly carried out. There was work in the school, garden, field, house, kitchen, workshop and dairy. Labor formed part of the teaching before time was given for the students to feel as free as if they were at home.

Saturday was a holiday. They could fish or tend their own gardens. They could occupy themselves in their own residence. They could play football or cricket.

White and brown lived and worked as a community. Meals were taken in common in the hall. Patteson's plan for the education of the native mind insisted on constant contact with his white friends at work or play. This was always carried out. The students found instructors ready to help them with any problem that might arise.

A bell called for prayers morning and evening in the beautiful Patteson Memorial Chapel daily. This was unique in its place. It was not the building one would expect in the heart of the Pacific. It was also unique for the time.

The Chapel was crafted with attention to detail at a time when architecture in England was at a very low level. The materials were rich, yet used with simplicity and restraint. There was a combination of European art with native inlay work on altar and stalls which would have inspired the heart of Bishop Patteson.

He delighted in the treasures of Europe and valued the beauty inherent in the minds of his Melanesian students. It was expected that Ini on leaving school would become a teacher among his own people. He made a different choice.

His sense of duty called him to join the native police force. His life with the police was unhappy at first. The strict discipline for secular public service irked him. The conditions were foreign to his experience.

He felt cut off from his old surroundings and heritage. He had never felt as separated at school where life was as far as possible run on native lines. Native lines were run by village custom. People acted as they were taught to act by the people of the village. Customs differed.

---------------

Rev. 14:15

Another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, 'Use your sickle and reap. The hour has come. The harvest of the earth is fully ripe.'

----------------

Ini met with an accident in 1924 while he was new to the service. He was ill for some time in hospital at Tulagi, the government center in the Solomons. It was then that the light to which he had been groping came to him with respect for his mission.

He had been impatient and dissatisfied. He even asked the Mission authorities to secure his release from his obligations. This they refused to do. Ini showed his solid sense by settling down to earn a reputation for smartness and efficiency.

The value attached by the Police authorities to his influence is shown by an incident which occurred after he had left the service. He was asked by the Commissioner to return to the police force In 1927 at the height of the excitement caused by the murders on Mala. He was asked to return in order to go to the island  to attempt to put matters straight.

The fact that he was asked to do this shows the esteem in which he was held. His attitude to the request throws fresh light on his character. He explained that he was no longer his own master.

He had to consult the Bishop. He explained himself more clearly to the Warden of the College at Siota, "I could not refuse outright, but it would be bad for me to go to Mala with a rifle. I shall probably want to go later with the Gospel."

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Matt. 8:9

"I also am a man under authority. I have soldiers. I say to one, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come," and he comes...

--------------------

This was the birth of the idea for the Brotherhood. He offered himself to celibacy to "feed the flock of Christ" particularly on his own island of Guadalcanal, but he knew that he would need a band of brothers to help him with this mission.

Ini was fortunate in having a bishop who understood his dreams. He saw the great possibilities in the call to service. The bishop was convinced of Ini's sincerity. He was willing to give him that sympathy and encouragement for which someone longs when he has passed through a great spiritual experience. He was willing to help him after he had come down from the mountain-top to work out his vision in terms of ordinary everyday life.

Ini went for a time to the College at Siota in 1925 for further study and experience as a teacher. Siota was the administrative center of the Diocese. Then he returned to his native village to clear the site which he had given to the Mission as Headquarters for the Brotherhood when it should come into being.

Tools for draining and clearing were provided from the school at Maravovo. Ini made an effort to get help from all the Christian villages near. He was not as successful as he had hoped in this. The people made monetary collections, but few came to help in the actual work. He was forced to attempt the task aided only by three others.

Two of these were boys who wished to go to the school but were not considered suitable. Ini found time to teach them to read in addition to the work of clearing which they carried out together.

His plan had to be modified considerably. He had to content himself with one building for the time instead of the six houses he had hoped to build. The chapel that he had longed for had to be left for the future.

The Ship needed more workers.  Ini wrote, "As to the 'Sailors,' I have written how the Captain...wants Sailors for a voyage to Guadalcanar to bring into the fold those three or four thousand sheep in the ninety villages. The Captain longs to bring those sheep into the fold. He has said, 'They must hear My Voice and there shall be one flock and One Shepherd' . . . any of you young men who can, let him come with me."

Six other young men were found to venture forth with him during the next six months. All were Solomon Islanders. Three, Moffatt Ohigita, Dudley Bale and Cecil Logathaga came from Santa Isabel. Two, Maurice Manere and Hugo Holun came from Laube. Benjamin Boko came from Guadalcanal.

The seven met together in the middle of May 1926 with the Bishop at Siota. Rules were discussed. Several names were suggested for the band. It was agreed to adopt that which most truly described the men and their mission as "the Brothers." Such has accordingly been their title. When speaking they address one another as "Brother So and So." Their writing concludes with "So and so, a Brother."

The Brotherhood was formally constituted for work in the highlands of Guadalcanal on Whitsunday, May 23d after evensong in the College Chapel at Siota. The Bishop received the vows of dedication after the Invocation and the Lord's Prayer.

The vows were binding for one year. The laying of his hands upon each admitted him into the Brotherhood. Each Brother promised to remain unmarried to receive no payment and to obey "those set in authority over them."

The Rule of the Brothers was simple, yet far-reaching. It provided great opportunity for expansion within the original framework.  The society was organized in groups from four to eight Brothers for a house. The household was supervised and directed by an Elder Brother.

The elder was chosen by the members. Each household met four times a year for discussion of the work and of any problems which may have arisen. The frank statement of opinions or grievances was encouraged. This prevented the feeling of repressed dissatisfaction which is so often a hindrance to any corporate undertaking.

An Annual Chapter of the whole Brotherhood was held when vows were to be renewed or a Brother was to leave. Questions affecting the whole community were discussed and fresh plans made. It was only at such a Chapter acting under the Presidency of the Father that changes to the Rule were allowed.

The households were subdivided for the actual work of evangelism. The brothers journeyed two by two. None were to work alone according to the Rule. Two brothers at least are always in residence at the Brotherhood House at Tabalia.

This Rule was solemnly dedicated in 1928 in the presence of numbers of white men, native clergy and boys from Maravovo. The ceremony was completed by dancing and a feast.

Even when the site of the village was known there was always the possibility that the people may not actually be living there. The government of the Solomons insisted on a permanent village being made, but the people often preferred to live on their various garden sites in temporary houses.

The Priest-in-charge of the district had to be prepared for a similar nomadic existence to get in touch with such people. This added difficulty to his already strenuous work.

The difficulties for missionary work were intensified when they had to pursue the inhabitants to their various resting places. There were times when they arrived to find the village deserted. The inhabitants were again on the move.

Ini and the Bishop of Melanesia, the Right Reverend John Manwaring Steward, realized Ini's dream by forming a band of brothers. They were known in the Mota language as 'Ira Reta Tasiu.' The band was dedicated to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the non-Christian areas of Melanesia.

It was reported that 7 brothers were killed in an effort to negotiate the surrender of guns from local islanders.

The Melanesian Brotherhood is a product of the Anglo-Catholic reform. The main feature of the reform was Bishop Selwyn's incorporation of the native people into the Church. Advance into leadership positions was encouraged.

Monastic organization was also allowed. The story of the execution of the 7 brothers is the tragic result of a political dispute over the ownership of weapons.

While it may seem natural to want to outlaw guns as the cause of death, weapons play an important role in the building of nations. The police can't be there to defend the weaponless at any given random crisis event.

People have to have the opportunity to work things out without violence. The use of weapons for negotiation or defense from attack is necessary whenever it is.

Guns can be owned even by a monastic community. The potential to train a band of brothers for the well-regulated use in defense is strong.

The situation in the Solomon Islands has changed since Ini Kopuria passed away.

Allied forces landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands on 7 August 1942. These were predominantly US Marines. Their objective was to deny their use by the Japanese.

Enemy use was viewed as a threat to Allied supply and communication routes between the United States, Australia and New Zealand. American and Australian naval forces supported these landings.

The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases in supporting a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain.

The Japanese defenders had occupied those islands since May 1942. They were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Allies. The Allies captured Tulagi and Florida as well as the airfield. The airstrip was later named Henderson Field when it was under re-construction.

The Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field.  Almost daily aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November.

The Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal in December. They evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943 in the face of an offensive by the U.S. Army's XIV Corps.

The victories at Milne Bay, Buna–Gona and Guadalcanal did mark the Allied transition from defensive operations to the strategic initiative in the theater. This led to offensive campaigns in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Central Pacific.

The Brotherhood
 Melanesian Brotherhood Website


Ini Kopuria
这是伙便里啊
這是夥便裡啊

这  Zhe     this                          這  sha   crawl                   Ini   いに   イニ         Ini  이니  I   
是  shi       is                             是  shi    just so                 Ko   こ        コ            Ko    코     nose
伙  Huo     group                      夥  wa    immense             pu   ぷ       プ              pu    푸     fu           
便  bian    expedient                 便  bin    convenience       ri     り        リ            li      리     lee         
里  li          inside                      裡  ri        inside                 a     あ       ア             a       아     ah 
啊  a           ah                            啊  a        ah                                                                                     

--------------------------

Inside the ah of the aha experience
lies the immense pleasure of group expedience.

===================

Melanesian Brothers Song and Dance
Melanesian BBQ