Missionaries take Dr. McGee to the Chuukese of Micronesia

Twenty-four-year-old Andrea Colson has been a missionary living and serving in Chuuk, Micronesia, since 1997. Chuuk is a group of islands in the western part of the Pacific, just north of the equator. She contacted us recently to share a phenomenal testimony to Dr. McGee’s legacy of staying true to the teachings of the Bible and the power of God’s Word to inspire His people to produce glorious fruit in His name! Andrea’s story begins with her parents and a 1987 TTB newsletter article:

“Dr. McGee and his wife had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Hawaii, and Dr. McGee wrote his thoughts about the first missionaries to go to Hawaii in the 1800s and the need for more missionaries to go to Hawaii today. My mom read his letter first, then showed it to my dad when he got home from work. They both felt that this was what the Lord wanted them to do.”

So in 1991 Jody and Terry Colson moved their family to Hawaii. Through their service in Honolulu they became acquainted with a group of Chuukese people, and before long God was leading them to make another big move – this time 4,000 miles away to the even smaller island of Weno in Chuuk.

According to Andrea, life in Micronesia was drastically different from what they were used to: “Chuuk is a very poor place – Weno is the only island with electricity (at least when the power plant has money for diesel). The only hospital for all of Chuuk state is…very dirty and has very little medicine or medical supplies. Every week there are young men in the hospital (and morgue) because they’ve been stabbed, shot with an…arrow made out of rebar sharpened to a point at one end and shot with a slingshot, or attacked with a machete. Over 75% of the male population are alcoholics, and the average life expectancy of a Chuukese man is only 47.”

Into this bleak climate, the Colsons are helping to shine the light of the gospel – especially through the use of a newly-acquired FM radio transmitter, which is operated by Andrea’s younger sister, Alisha. The signal reaches almost all of the 50 inhabited islands of Chuuk, and for the first time ever Chuukese people have a Christian radio station in their own language. Can you guess what radio pastor they’re hearing? That’s right – unbeknownst to us, Andrea took Dr. McGee’s Sunday sermons and began translating them into Chuukese! Listeners hear both Dr. McGee and Andrea’s voices, since she first plays a few sentences by Dr. McGee and then cuts in with her translation. It’s a tedious process, requiring about 15 hours of work per sermon!

Andrea tells us, “Folks tell us they look forward all week to the next sermon. We’ve even heard of some men who listen to Dr. McGee on Saturday night and take full pages of notes so they can preach his sermon in their village churches the next morning.” She closed her letter to us with these encouraging words: “I wanted to share with you how the Lord is continuing Dr. McGee to this day, even in the uttermost part of the world.”

(June 2009)