巴瑞和家人（Barry and family）

水手回家了

南太平洋中部的一个小礁岛上，身为复临信徒的阿姨在每个安息日都会带巴瑞去岛上的教堂。 但在星期天时，巴瑞的父母则会带他去另一间教堂。

这是可以理解的；巴瑞在吐瓦鲁长大，这是一个由11,000人组成的小国，他们生活在澳大利亚和夏威夷之间的九个小岛上。吐瓦鲁九个岛屿的陆地总面积只有10平方英里（26平方公里 ）。

吐瓦鲁的习俗是由母亲的妹妹抚养孩子。所以，巴瑞出生后是由小姨佩娜抚养长大。

佩娜深爱巴瑞并待他如同自己的儿子一样。每个安息日，她会带他到纽陶基督复临安息日教会，这是他们在纽陶岛上唯一一间复临教会。

巴瑞的母亲对于她的儿子去复临教会聚会没有意见。和她姐姐一样，她是受过洗的复临教会教友，但她的丈夫则属另一个基督教教派。因此，当巴瑞在安息日去复临教会时，他的父母则会在星期天带他去另一间教会。

随着巴瑞长大，他决定上一所海事学校将来当一名水手。吐瓦鲁四面环海，许多居民都是水手。所以，巴瑞最终成为了一名水手，并寄钱回家供养他的家人。结婚后，他继续做水手，他的钱则是寄给妻子和四个孩子。

在两个教会长大的巴瑞不知道该对上帝有什么看法。他的妻子陶法和他的父亲属于同一个教会。他的海上生活使他远离了教会，所以他不再去教会做礼拜，他的生活陷入了混乱。他沉迷于烟草，酗酒。他在该国首都上岸休假回家时，因酗酒导致了三起严重的摩托车事故。他每次都是在流血不止且失去意识的情况之下，被紧急送往该国唯一的一间医院。

巴瑞和家人相处得并不快乐。他的妻子陶法曾在吐瓦鲁政府担任公务员，她和丈夫的相处并不愉快，他们的四个孩子在家里也没有什么欢乐可言，一家人很少一起祷告。

一场突如其来的疾病震撼了这个家庭。 最大的孩子莉亚娜患上了腮腺炎，不得不送往斐济的一家医院接受紧急治疗。巴瑞和陶法陪同他们 14 岁的女儿一同乘坐斐济航空公司的航班，两个半小时后才到了目的地。

在医院里，巴瑞多年来第一次开始认真思考有关上帝的事。他想起小时候姑姑带他去复临教会聚会，所以他开始祈祷。莉亚娜痊愈了。

回到吐瓦鲁，巴瑞辞去了水手的工作。他想摆脱旧生活的邪恶影响，与上帝开始新的生活。 他开始在每个安息日下午与他的妻子和莉亚娜一起在复临教会学习《圣经》。在安息日的早晨，他和他的家人一起在教堂做礼拜。当他们敬拜时，他们渴望更加了解《圣经》的心愿增长了，他们开始参与其他的教会活动。

2021年，巴瑞和他的妻子及大女儿效法了耶稣的榜样，入水接受洗礼。 巴瑞和莉亚娜于四月在富那富提复临教会受洗，而陶法则在两个月后的六月受洗。

今天，当一家人经常在一起祈祷时，喜乐充满了这个家庭。四个孩子在家里找到了快乐，陶法找到了和丈夫在一起的喜悦，而巴瑞也找到了与家人―和上帝在一起的快乐。

来源：本文译自《圣工消息》（社会青年季刊）2022年第四季

Sailor Comes Home

A Seventh-day Adventist aunt took Barry to church every Sabbath on a tiny reef island in the middle of the South Pacific. But on Sundays, Barry’s mother and father took him to another church.

Perhaps understandably, Barry grew up confused in Tuvalu, a small nation comprised of 11,000 people living on nine tiny islands between Australia and Hawaii. The nine islands of Tuvalu cover a total land area of only 10 square miles (26 square kilometers).

It is the custom in Tuvalu for children to be raised by the mother’s younger sister. So, after Barry was born, he was raised by his aunt, Pena.

Now Pena loved Barry dearly and treated him as her own son. Every Sabbath, she took him to the Niutao Seventh-day Adventist Church, the only Adventist church on their reef island of Niutao.

Barry’s mother had no problem with her son going to the Adventist church. Like her sister, she was a baptized member of the church. But her husband belonged to another Christian denomination. So, while Barry went to the Adventist church on Sabbaths, his mother and father took him to another church on Sundays.

As Barry grew into a teenager, he decided to attend a maritime school and become a sailor. With Tuvalu surrounded by ocean, many of its inhabitants work as sailors. So, Barry ended up working as a sailor and sending money back home to help his family. After getting married, he continued to work as a sailor, sending money to his wife and four children.

After growing up in two churches, Barry wasn’t sure what to think about God. His wife, Taufua, belonged to the same church as his father. His sea life kept him far from church, so he stopped going to church services, and his life sank into chaos. He became addicted to tobacco, and he drank heavily. His drinking led to three serious motorcycle accidents while visiting home on shore leave in the country’s capital, Funafuti. Each time, he was rushed, bleeding and unconscious, to the country’s only hospital.

Barry found little joy in being with his family. His wife, Taufua, who worked for Tuvalu’s government as a civil servant, found little joy in being with her husband. Their four children also found little joy at home. The family rarely prayed together.

A sudden illness shook the family. The oldest child, Liena, fell ill with the mumps and had to be flown to a hospital in Fiji for urgent treatment. Barry and Taufua accompanied their 14-year-old daughter on the two-and-a-half-hour flight on Fiji Airways.

At the hospital, Barry began to think seriously about God for the first time in years. He remembered his aunt taking him to the Adventist church as a boy. He began to pray. Liena recovered.

Back in Tuvalu, Barry quit his job as a sailor. He wanted to get away from the evil influences of his old life and to start a new life with God. He began to study the Bible with his wife and Liena at the Adventist church every Sabbath afternoon. On Sabbath mornings, he and his family worshiped together at the church. As they worshiped, their desire to know more about the Bible grew, and they became involved in other church activities.

In 2021, Barry and his wife and oldest daughter followed Jesus’ example into the waters of baptism. Barry and Liena were baptized at the Funafuti Seventh-day Adventist Church in April, while Taufua was baptized two months later in June.

Today, joy has filled the home as the family regularly prays together. The four children have found joy in the home. Taufua has found joy being with her husband. And Barry has found joy in being with his family — and with God.

Please find the original article at: https://am.adventistmission.org/mqa22q4-20