Author: David Searcy

I was born in 1950 in Vinita Oklahoma. My parents originally wanted to go to China in 1948 but ended up working with small churches and youth in poor rural, post-depression, post dust bowl, Appalachia. I grew up in farming communities and working on farms and ranches. I actually chopped and picked cotton by hand and started learning to use a mule and double shovel. I left home for a Christian boarding school when 13 and never lived long term at home again. I worked summers away from home. After HS graduation I went to Dallas Bible College for a year. Then, because of a girlfriend, I went to Wichita State in Kansas to pursue a geology career. In the spring of '70 I broke up with the girl about a month before the wedding. That summer I went to work for a house painter, just to have a job. I did not know a lot about him, other than he was from a church I went to. He was a Godly man and began to question my future. I did not want to serve the Lord, because of the poverty factor, I had seen too much of that growing up. But one day that summer, I realized that what is visible in this world is not eternal—it is all going to burn. So I applied to New Tribes Mission at the first opportunity. In Aug. '70, I went to New Tribes Bible School in Wisconsin. Immediately my decision was confirmed and, by the sovereignty of God, I met Teresa from OH. We were married in June of '71. We completed the 2 phases (3yrs) of missions training and had 2 babies and by '74 were preparing to leave for Indonesia. We arrived in Indonesia in Aug. of '75 and started Indonesian language study. Our 3rd child was born that December. In Aug. of '76 we moved to the Upper Kapuas region and began living with a tribe of forest nomads—Arino Hobongan. It was a long process to learn the unwritten language, culture, and then teach nomadic people. We became nomads ourselves. People were taught and by the early '80s there was a growing church. Then from 1985 - 2000 the Indonesian Government quit granting missionary visas. If we already had a visa we could stay, even though tenuous. So by the early '90s, we were the only missionaries left in the Upper Kapuas region, which had originally had 11 missionary units in 4 tribal groups. We found ourselves alone with baby churches. So from '91 until we retired in 2016 our focus was disciplining and networking churches from these 4 language groups: Punan-Hobongan, Taman, Daqan, and Embaloh. For many years we lived in 3 locations, then in '05 focused more on Nanga Bungan and teaming with our daughter Rachel to complete the Punan translation of the New Testament. Then when our son DJ and his family joined Rachel in '08 we moved close to the frontier town of Putussibau to establish a mission home and base for outreach into more tribal groups. I still make trips back to visit our "family" in Indonesia—both biological and spiritual. I hope to go again as soon as the COVID passes.