TV Program

Current Episode

With Christ in the Desert

2006-07-16

PRODUCTION #: 1054

SPEAKERS: Shawn Boonstra, Sebastian Tirtirau,

The San Tribe is a very remote tribe of Bushmen living in the Kalahari Desert. A few generations ago, you might have wondered how in the world anybody would ever reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today on It Is Written, you are going to meet a man who has gone to the Kalahari Desert, and raised up churches for Jesus Christ among the Bushmen. This is a story you will have to read to believe.

Today I'm excited to have my friend, Sebastian Tirtirau, on It Is Written. Sebastian grew up in Romania under the Ceausescu government, an atheistic, communistic government.

He had parents who taught him there was no God, and he had a remarkable experience that we have shared on a previous It Is Written program.

He spent time in the army at age 14. He was sent to prison to serve time for something that his brother did. After his release and the death of Ceausescu, he taught history at a school where a 10-year-old girl led him to Christ.

And today, Sebastian is joining us again to tell us what God has done with him since. It's a remarkable story, and I know you are going to be blessed as you meet Sebastian and read about what God has done in his life.

INTERVIEW

SHAWN: I'm really glad that you are with us again this week on It Is Written.

SEBASTIAN: I'm pleased to be here, Shawn.

SHAWN: Sebastian, God took you into a knowledge of Him through an unusual set of circumstances. You went from atheism to believing in God. And shortly after you accepted Christ in your life, you read a book that influenced you greatly. What was that book?

SEBASTIAN: It was a book on the life of David Livingston, the missionary of Africa, who left England in the late 1800s and arrived in Africa to discover many tribes and convert many of them.

So this book of his changed my life forever, because I knew at that point that I had to do something about it.

SHAWN: So, Sebastian, as a new Christian, you came under conviction that God didn't want you to just keep a pew warm in a church. He was calling you to action, to service. And this book really ignited a fire in your heart. What happened to you? You were in Romania, so how did you end up in Africa?

SEBASTIAN: I read the book about a month after my baptism. And the moment I read the book I knew that I was never going to be the same, so I quit my job as a teacher. I went to pass the exam in the theological seminary in Romania. And then two years later I found out that there was a possibility for me to leave for South Africa, where we have another theological seminary. So I sold everything at home. I was married by this time, and had a six-month-old daughter. We had enough money to buy one plane ticket, one way, and a tourist visa for two weeks.

Everybody I knew told me that this was a mistake, because it wasn't a planned thing, it wasn't logical. But I knew deep down in my heart that God called me to go to Africa. And whether it was logical or not, it was His plan, so I had to follow.

SHAWN: So, you made all kinds of arrangements, I suppose, and you called ahead to South Africa and you had a home lined up and you knew exactly where you were going and mapped it all out, right?

SEBASTIAN: As a matter of fact, I left in the middle of January from Bucharest, Romania, which was in the middle of winter, minus 30 degrees. And I arrived in South Africa, where it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit, in the middle of summer.

I had no friends, no relatives, nobody to wait for me. I had no home lined up, and I had only a hundred dollars in my pocket. But I knew that there would be something there, that God would show me the way.

SHAWN: Were you dressed for 100 degrees Fahrenheit?

SEBASTIAN: No, I was dressed for minus 30. And I came from the middle of winter to the middle of summer. People were in slippers and shorts in South Africa, and I was in a winter coat, gloves and boots.

So everybody knew I was coming from somewhere like Siberia. I was walking in the airport, thinking, "What am I going to do tonight?" because I had no idea what was going to happen.

And out of that whole crowd of people, one man came to me, and for some reason he felt very impressed to talk to me.

He asked, "What are you doing here?"

And I said, "I want to be a missionary, and I'm looking for a place."

He invited me to his home. I lived in his home for three days. He asked me everything about my life. And after three days, he said, "I'm going to take you back home because you are not gong to survive in South Africa."

SHAWN: Was there ever a moment when you were tempted to doubt that? Did you think, "Hey, did God really ask me to come here?"

SEBASTIAN: Yes, human beings have that tendency to doubt when nothing works. But in that moment I knew there was a force that was pulling me to go forward all the time.

And when this man showed up, and he took me to his home, I found out he was a Christian as well. I knew that God had a plan.

But His plan was better revealed to me when, after three days, instead of taking me to the airport, this man took me to the Greyhound bus station, a bus that was going down to Cape Town, where the theological college is. And at the door of the bus, he gave me a check for $3,000.

SHAWN: He had known you three days and he wrote you a check for $3,000.

SEBASTIAN: Three thousand dollars, and he said, "I want you to continue in this faith that you started."

So I went, and I knew that even without any plans, any logic at all, that God, if He calls you, He will find a way.

SHAWN: So now, somebody has paid for you to finish your theological studies in South Africa. And you are studying and preparing your heart for whatever is to come. And somehow, you go from South Africa to somewhere very special. What happened? I understand there is another book involved.

SEBASTIAN: Yes, I was a theology student in Cape Town, and they asked me to write a thesis on the primitive culture of Africa, being a former history teacher. So I was researching in the library and I found another book, called: "The Lost World of the Kalahari Desert," written by Sir Laurens Van Der Post, a man who grew up in the Kalahari and spoke the language.

And he was explaining about their plight in the 20th century, how they were dying of hunger and punishment and persecution.

So I fell in love immediately with this tribe and I decided to go see them. So I jumped into a Greyhound bus again. I had a backpack, $20 in my pocket for some food, and a tent.

And I jumped in the Greyhound bus and I went up there. I caught a ride in the back of a government truck for 400 miles into the desert, to the first Bushman village. And I put my tent next to the village, and for one week I prayed that the Lord would show me a man who speaks English so I could preach the gospel to these people.

SHAWN: Now, you are already camped near them. As you are praying during that week, have they noticed you?

SEBASTIAN: Yes, the whole week they studied me. Who is this stranger and what does he want from us? They couldn't understand anything from me.

But one week later as I was walking through the village, a young man stands up and shakes my hand. And he says in English, "Good day, sir."

SHAWN: In English?

SEBASTIAN: In English. And his name was Combesi Erastus Caveto, a man who speaks the Bushman language perfectly, but not only the Bushman language. He also speaks English, German, Afrikaans, and 11 other languages.

SHAWN: You are kidding. So God didn't just send you someone who knew the Bushman language and one you could speak; he sent you a linguistic expert. Just like that, he gave you more than you ever dreamed.

SEBASTIAN: That's right. He was a gift from God for the mission at the right time in the right moment, in the right space and time.

So this man, for the past nine years, this man has been with me. We share the same food and the same tent. We have driven together through many places and countries and tribes.

I took him with me to tribes with whom he had never spoken, and in one week he would speak their language fluently. So this man truly has a gift of tongues from the Lord. A true gift, because he speaks to tribes that I've never seen before.

When I left there after the first year, I never realized I would ever come back.

I had no potential. I was a third-year theology student with no money and no physical power to do anything. I was crushed by their suffering, but I had no power to do anything. And yet, by the end of my first mission there, after six weeks, we baptized the first 32 Bushmen.

SHAWN: Thirty-two.

SEBASTIAN: Thirty-two Bushmen.

SHAWN: Listen, let me ask you. You know, you have a translator. What's your next step? You go to the village and begin to preach? Tell me how.

SEBASTIAN: We started to visit the villages and we started preaching. We would ask the permission of the chief. And once he said yes, we started the preaching.

And I had no images, no technology with me. It was just pure preaching. And after six weeks, the Lord blessed us with 32 people who converted to Christianity. They were the first Christians in the Kalahari Bushman tribe in northeastern part of the desert.

And these people, they had been worshiping spirits because their religion is animalism. They worship spirits.

They came to Christ with a passion that lasts forever, because they go to villages right now and they preach the gospel themselves. The gospel is growing without my influence.

SHAWN: Amazing. Now, Sebastian, I'd love for our viewers to believe that we are actually on location in the Kalahari Desert today, but that's not true. Actually, we are in the United States. We re on an old movie ranch. This is a place where they shot a lot of adventure films a couple of generations ago, like "The African Queen" and so on.

But that's all fiction. Your life is a life of real adventure. And I understand that out in the Kalahari you found a tie to Hollywood, right out there in the desert. It's a remarkable story. Tell me what you discovered out there.

SEBASTIAN: I was in my first year in the Kalahari, and I was walking through a village one day. And I saw a Bushman, and because everybody looks almost the same, I hardly recognized anybody. But I spotted a face that looked very familiar. A few months before I came to the Kalahari, I watched a film called "The Gods Must Be Crazy" where a little Bushman finds a Coke bottle that fell from a plane.

SHAWN: I remember the film.

SEBASTIAN: His face was very familiar. So I looked at this man, and I thought, "This is the man who starred in that movie." And I went with my translator to him and we started to talk. And he said, "Yes, I was in that movie."

He actually starred in five or six other movies that were not released in North America. They show them over in China and Japan and so forth. His name was Gaukana. Gaukana was an amazing man. He became an instant friend of mine.

SHAWN: Now, when you said his name, I heard a little click in there. Is that the Bushman language?

SEBASTIAN: That's right.

SHAWN: That must have been difficult to learn.

SEBASTIAN: That's right, it took me about nine years to be able to communicate with them on a basic level.

SHAWN: So, you met this man. Tell me a little bit about the relationship you had with him.

SEBASTIAN: We became instant friends. He was a joyful soul from the beginning, a very happy man. Very poor, even though he had played in five or six movies. He had nothing. He was still a hunter. He was barefoot and wearing skins. He was actually going hunting when I saw him.

The man had nothing for his life. But he was happy, a very happy spirit. And ever since then, every time I come to the Kalahari, I take him with me in my camp and we eat together. We share many things.

As a matter of fact, he became one of the first (if not the first) Christian converts in the Kalahari. I personally baptized him in July 2000.

SHAWN: No kidding. So he gave his heart to Christ. You know, the contract that the West had with him was for the movies. Nobody ever told him about Christ. God sent you in there, and you told him about Christ. Now, I understand as he gave his heart to Christ, he met a little bit of resistance in his own family.

SEBASTIAN: That's right, his wife was not very appreciative of his choice to become a Christian. While he was being baptized, she was beating the drums, calling the spirits to curse him. And this is a common practice in Africa.

I asked him if he was afraid, and he said, "No, now I know God the Creator. I know Christ my Savior. Nothing can stop me."

Unfortunately, his wife died two weeks later from a very strange disease. He later remarried. My friend Gaukana died in July 2003 from tuberculosis, an instant death. But he was one of the first people in the Kalahari to die in the Lord.

SHAWN: Amazing. So you've worked with these different tribes. You mentioned that there were 32 people right away who accepted Christ. Tell me a little bit about what it's like to live among the Kalahari Bushmen. I understand you are not just their friend, but you are actually a Kalahari Bushman yourself, aren't you? Tell me a little bit about living with them.

SEBASTIAN: That's right. As the years passed, I learned more about myself. But in the first year when I finished my first mission, I never thought, "I'm going to come back." Later on, as I finished my theology studies, I was employed as a pastor in Montana, right here in America. And I spoke on 3ABN in southern Illinois.

SHAWN: 3ABN is a Christian television network.

SEBASTIAN: It's a Christian satellite network, yes. And I talked about my conversion story and my mission to Africa, and I went back home to Montana to continue my work as a pastor.

And when I got back home there were hundreds of letters from all over the place saying, "We want you to go back to the Kalahari. We will help you go back to the Kalahari."

And I went back. I went back every year. In the past 10 years, I have been there 15 times.

In 1998 they adopted me as a Bushman myself, where they gave me a Bushman name. Right now, in the Kalahari, they don't call me Sebastian anymore, they call me "Kow Po Komunga."

SHAWN: That's amazing. I would never be able to say it. Sebastian, what does that mean?

SEBASTIAN: "Kow" means "the white chief." "Po" is the shortest name in the Bushman language, which means "the jackal." And "Komunga" means "the white tall beast."

SHAWN: So you are still nicknamed " the beast!"

SEBASTIAN: I'm still "the beast" whether I'm a Christian or not. It doesn't matter. And they think I'm very tall. But they gave me the position of a chief, and every time I go there, I don't have to ask permission anymore. I can preach the gospel in any village I want. So the doors are open to this tribe in an amazing way.

In the past nine years, I learned to live with them, eat with them. I learned how they are suffering, how they are dying, their children are dying at a percentage of 80 percent because of malaria, TB, starvation, and abandonment by parents. Parents die for the same reasons.

So there is great suffering in this place, and I learned that once I became like them, one of them, I had to be the spokesperson for this tribe.

And I had to do everything I could not only to continue to teach the gospel, but to seek ways of how we can feed them and give them water, because they die of thirst as well.

SHAWN: When you arrived at the Kalahari, obviously, they are not living in a lush tropical garden, did they let you live your way when you arrived? Did you continue to live with abundance? What was it like to integrate yourself into that tribe? How do they live, how do they exist?

SEBASTIAN: Well, first of all, they told me that if I wanted to become a Bushman, I had to live like a Bushman, to see what they go through. So they took me to their village. I didn't have any food of mine, any water of mine. For the first two days, they didn't give me any water to drink, so I could understand what thirst is. And then I understood why they go in the morning and break the grass and rub it between their lips so they can get the few drops of dew from the grass, because they are so desperate with thirst.

And yet, during those years I discovered that under the Kalahari lies the largest underground lake of drinking water on the planet.

SHAWN: So, while they are breaking blades of grass in the morning to get the dew for water, they are actually sitting on one of the biggest deposits of fresh water in the world.

SEBASTIAN: That's right.

SHAWN: They had no idea. How far down is that water?

SEBASTIAN: Two hundred feet. There is a huge opening, a huge cave under the rock, and there is enough water in there for the rest of the planet. And the tribe didn't know that. We found out that the government can drill holes into this cave, and right now we are installing water systems powered by solar technology.

We go deep into the ground, and with the touch of a button, the sun produces the power to give them fresh water and the Bushmen cannot believe it.

You see, the name "Kalahari" in Bushman language, means "the great thirst."

SHAWN: The great thirst. Because they have no water.

SEBASTIAN: That's what I thought as well. I asked the chief, "You are always thirsty, that's why you call the Kalahari, 'Kalahari.?"

And they said, "No, that's the small thirst we have. The great thirst is our thirst to know and go back to God. Because we lost Him on the way and we don't know how to go back."

SHAWN: That's amazing. Again, one of my favorite passages in the Bible is that God has planted eternity in the human heart. Ecclesiastes 3:11. And He planted that in your heart and you found Christ because of it. Here is an entire tribe, and they are named after that thirst in the heart, that hunger that every human heart has. They have been craving God.

SEBASTIAN: That's right.

SHAWN: Listen, I know there is a fascinating story you shared with me, what it was like to show them their first solar operated pump. How did that go?

SEBASTIAN: They didn't know the sun could provide energy to pull up water from the ground. And I called them one morning, with my first system. I called them before sunrise, and as the sun rises, more power comes. And the pump started to pump, and water started gushing out of the pipe.

So they were extremely shocked to see this blessing. And they asked me, "How is it done?"

And I said, "All you have to do is just keep the panel from east to west." And every morning now they come with the buckets, and pull up the water and so forth.

So we have right now, 170 villages in which we are installing water systems. There are thousands of people who are saved every year because they have water to drink.

They had never washed in their life before. They didn't know what it was like to dip in a pool of water and refresh yourself, because that amount of water didn't exist.

I saw villagers walking 20 kilometers, 12 miles, to go to another village and pick up two gallons of water and bring it back, on foot, in the middle of the bush in the heat of the day.

So it's an amazing experience to see how these people suffer. And yet they never complain. I never have seen one Bushman being angry or upset about his life or his destiny.

SHAWN: You know, you are reminding me of something. Here, water is coming out of the ground in a barren, desert place, and it seems to me you are not only an answer to prayer for these people. God sent you there to answer their prayers, their hunger, their thirst, not only for water, but for the Word of God.

But, in another way, you are also fulfilling prophecy in a small way. I have been thinking about that prophecy in the book of Isaiah, and I happen to know it's one of your favorites.

It's found in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 35. Sebastian, I know you know this. Verse one (Isaiah 35:1-2 KJV):

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing?"

Has that verse ever crossed your mind?

SEBASTIAN: Absolutely. This verse is always in my mind when I go to the desert because I see the gospel being preached there, and these people blooming just like flowers for the kingdom of God. That's number one.

Number two, Psalm 91. It became the mission sound for me because it was fulfilled literally in my life as a missionary. And everywhere I've been in this world as a missionary, the Lord really protected me just like Psalm 91 says.

SHAWN: Well, let's come back to Psalm 91 in a moment. We'll share a little bit of it and you can maybe share what is so meaningful to you. But while we are talking about the Bible, I want to get to that. The Kalahari does not have the printed word, is that correct?

SEBASTIAN: No.

SHAWN: They only have an oral tradition. They don't have written history. It's in their minds, and they share information orally. And yet, you are sharing the Word of God with them. I know that you have a unique way of sharing the Bible with them. Tell me how the Kalahari Bushmen study the Bible.

SEBASTIAN: There was a Bushman who translated the whole Bible in the Bushman language from Genesis to Revelation on tape. With 99 tapes, it's a whole set of the Bible. And I bought cassette players with batteries and I gave them one set per village.

And the first village that I ever took the Bible to didn't know what it was. Everybody was doing his or her own thing in the village, there was noise and the kids were playing. And I just put the cassette player down on the sand and put the volume up as loud as I could, and I put the first tape in.

SHAWN: That must have made an incredible impression.

SEBASTIAN: The moment they heard, for the first time, they heard the voice of God in their language, speaking to them from the Word of God.

And the chief told everybody to be quiet, they all gathered around the cassette player. And for seven hours they did not move or do anything but listen to the Bible.

And what they do right now, because some of the villages don't have the Bible, is they share 10 tapes per week with every village, and then they switch. They listen to the Bible, everybody has a chance to listen. So it's an amazing experience. Right now, we are planning to send several hundred sets into the Kalahari there, because this is the only way they can have the Bible with them.

SHAWN: At the end of the program today, I'll tell you how you can be involved in sharing Bibles with the Kalahari Bushmen.

Sebastian, as we are nearing the end of our program, I know that life out there in the desert isn't easy. I know that you've been to some amazing places, some tough places. There are passages in the Bible that have fortified you, and one of these is Psalm 91. Tell me, what it is about that psalm. Share with us a little bit.

SEBASTIAN: I truly saw the terror, the flights by night, and I saw a thousand falling by my side, ten thousand by my right side, but truly it never touched me. I have been working in malaria areas for the past 10 years. It never touched me. I had children dying of malaria in my arms, and it didn't touch me.

Because, God says, if you work for Me, if you take my name on your shoulders, I will never let you down. I will always be with you. And this is what happened in my life. In my life, I've been amidst great darkness.

I've done almost everything this world knows about. And yet, only when I became a Christian did I realize that when you take hold of God, only then does your real adventure start. There is nothing before. It's a boring life when you don't have Christ. When you have Christ, it's an adventure.

SHAWN: You know, I can appreciate that. I know that since I gave my heart to Christ it has been a big adventure. Somebody watching today isn't happy just sitting in a pew. What would you say to that person?

SEBASTIAN: I would say, trust God on His Word, and go by faith. And never look at what you can do or what potentially you have, but look at what God can do through you. And there is no way, there is no way you will ever truly fail. And if you do fail while you do this for God, God will never blame you, because you did it by faith in Him, and you wanted to do something for Him.

And this is what happened to me. I was a pastor, and seeing the need around the world for missionaries, I decided that there is time for me to go into this full time, and create a ministry that works just with the remote tribes.

I created a missionary society in Canada called Pilgrim Relief Society. It's a mission organization that deals only with isolated cultures like the Amazonian tribes, like the Greenland and northern Canada people, Kalahari Bushmen, Congo Pygmies and so forth.

SHAWN: Now, I know we are out of time for today. We are going to talk about some of those other places you've been on next week's program. But Sebastian, at this moment I want to pray for you and for those who are watching us. Let's bow our heads for a moment.

PRAYER:

Father in heaven, I just thank you for Sebastian, for the way that you have touched his heart, you have changed his life, and Lord, the way you are using him to bring the hope of Christ to people who would have never otherwise heard. I ask for your blessing on him and on his family. And Lord, for somebody watching today who feels a need in their hearts to do something great for the kingdom of God, inspire them, I ask. Show them your plan for their life. And Lord, send them. Give us a willing heart to go. For I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

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Today, you've heard a story that kind of makes your heart race with excitement. Imagine, God is raising up special people like Sebastian to carry the gospel to the remotest tribes on the face of the planet.

And that's just one more sign that we are getting closer to the return of Jesus Christ.

Now, it's not easy to reach some of these people. Today, you heard about the San, who do not have access to a written Bible. And I'm determined to help them hear about Jesus Christ. A few years ago, we would have had to do it with cassette tapes and cassette machines that need a lot of batteries.

But now, thanks to modern advances in technology, the Bible is coming alive for these beautiful people in a little MP3 player some are calling the "Godpod." It's small and it holds the whole Bible in a format that enables you to jump from book to book or verse to verse.

And best of all, it's completely solar powered. No more batteries.

Now, I need your help to get these to the Kalahari Desert. They cost less than you might spend on a good quality Bible for your family. They are just $60 a piece.

Imagine, a whole family could hear the stories about Jesus that you and I take for granted. And they will be hearing them for the very first time.

For just $600, you could share Jesus with 10 families or a whole village. I don't know what you might be able to do, but I do know this: I need your help right now.

I have a team going to Africa with as many of these units as we can raise the funds for, and they are going to go right away. Please, please help. You really could make a difference in someone's life for all eternity.

I'm inviting you to partner with me on this important project. To donate online, click here.
To make a tax-deductible donation over the phone, call 1-800-253-3000.

For more information about Sebastian Tirtirau, please visit www.pilgrimsociety.com

Scriptures Used in “With Christ in the Desert”

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing?"
—Isaiah 35:1-2 KJV