Dav had an ability in a land of caste and segregation to treat a mentally retarded highland guy with dignity in the same way he treated the highest government official or westerner. Scotty Wisley
Dav preached a message on trials when he and his family were in the States on furlough. Click on the link to listen: Subject: Suffering For Christ
http://www.4shared.com/dir/8859663/bd97acfd/Dave_Clapper.html
In Memory of David Clapper
Today, in a place
Where the skin of this world is translucent
And peeled back to reveal what is not visible to earth
The celebration is glorious
Another soul was welcomed into Heaven
Another hand was taken and led through the Gates
Another name was called and found to be in the Great Book
Another servant was given both the greatest title: “Good and Faithful”
And the greatest invitation: “Enter into the joy of the Lord”
Another worshipper before the Throne
Another bowed head awarded a Crown
Another finally sealed in the safety of Eternity’s embrace
Another freely dancing among the Angels
Yet elsewhere, in a place
Where the skin of the world is not translucent
The celebration is not so triumphant
Another father was taken from his family
Another husband from his wife
Another missionary from his people
Another son, brother, friend, hero to those who knew and loved him
Hearts bleed and tears fall
In a time when pain is reality
And answers are impossible
I can only pray that they will be carried
Oh that our hearts may be open
To catch a glimpse of the celebration
The dance of the angels
And the song of the Father
“Sing oh son of Zion
Shout oh child of mine
Rejoice with all your heart and soul and mind
For you are Finally Home.”
Written by Ervina Barkman in Memory of Dave Clapper
What We Leave Behind
A tribute to Dave Clapper
So many in Papua die in infancy. Some of us die in old age on the front porch in a rocking chair and others will go in the prime of life on a jungle ridge, but we are all going to go. How we live our life determines what we leave behind.
What Dave Clapper left behind is in each of our hearts and in our memories.
For you Clapper kids (many of us referred to your dad just as “Clapper”) I want you to have something to remember your dad by from the memories of one of his friends. Your dad wasn’t perfect but his strengths and gifts were an example for me. One of my first memories of you guys was when you came up to Pyramid and stayed in our house almost 10 years ago. Your dad let Elisa, our resident crazy man, hug him over and over again. Every time your dad went outside Elisa was there to give him some love. Elisa is one of the smelliest, dirtiest and snottiest humans on the planet and he has never met anyone who treated him with such love and dignity. Your dad treated him like Jesus would. This is my tribute to your dad, Dave Clapper, a true man of God.
There are countless rotting mission buildings and broken airplanes scattered over this island. There are countless schools, vehicles, projects and programs that were built, served a purpose and now are forgotten. But there are the lives of men and women that we cherish and whose impact goes on from generation to generation. We will remember Dave Clapper.
Your dad was cut from the same cloth as the early pioneering pilots who opened up this land. He exemplified Elliot’s quote of “ He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. Bonhoffer says “when Christ calls a man He bids him come and die” and your dad was ready to pay the ultimate price but more important than that was how he lived.
He was a man of integrity in a world suffering from an integrity crisis.
His yes was yes and his no was no. He didn’t manipulate or deceive and his word was good. If he promised something he stood by it and you knew you could count on Dave Clapper. He was the kind of man you wanted at your back when things got out of control and in Papua that happens allot. Politics and power struggles were a frustration to him because they hindered the clear vision and calling that he had in his heart.
Those of us living far from town really appreciate a pilot who knows why he is here. We knew that if we were ever in trouble Clapper would do everything including risk his life to get us out. He demonstrated over and over to us that he was here to support ministry and he wasn’t bound by denomination, skin color, or the lines we humans like to draw. Clapper’s God was bigger than petty human politics. One time I was in town and completely exhausted and needed to get back Bok and Dave said “I am going to Mulia, why don’t you come along and I’ll drop you off on the way back?”
I asked “how much” and he said “sightseeing flights are free.” Dave knew I needed help and I couldn’t pay the flight and he wasn’t going to make me grovel but instead treated me with dignity and found a way to help me. A man who has power and the humility to use his position to hold you up as an equal brother is hard to find in this world. He was there for me. He was there for all of us.
In the status land of Indonesia where a pilot is the great white shark in the food chain your dad treated people with dignity. When he interacted with the staff in the office, the load crew, Elisa the crazy man and his passengers he lived the golden rule. Some may say that showing emotion or getting angry is a flaw but what I saw in Dav Clapper was a man who saw all of us created equally in the image of God. The way he interacted with Papuans and non-Papuans was a blessing and challenge to me. He has left a deep mark in many lives by not treating people as the status culture dictated but as Jesus would.
In this last year we had several long conversations about his desire to be part of National Training and I never once hear the prejudice that I have so commonly encountered with others. Dave was so matter of fact in his attitude of “sure they can do it, it is just a matter of opportunity and how we can make it happen.” His pioneering spirit showed through in his being on the cutting edge and believing in what the majority cannot imagine. He didn’t just talk but was planning out how he could be personally involved. Your dad was real. I cherish the memory of his being so real when we are drowning in perception management and political correctness. If he said he believed it, then that meant he was going to do it.
Clapper was a man of courage. He was willing to stand for what he believed and the way he believed it should be even when he had to stand against the majority. He was not swayed by popular opinion or fear of man but he truly lived in fear of God, His Father. That didn’t mean that he was not deeply wounded by how he was treated by many of his brothers and sisters. Your folks went through some hard times and were not treated in the same way as your dad treated Elisa. This world is not fair and Christians can be incredibly cruel, exclusive and arrogant. Your dad gave me a few glimpses into his heart and the hurts and fears that were there. His courage was not fearlessness or insensitivity, but it was saddling up anyways and going out to do what he knew was right.
But above all we saw Clapper as a great family man. There are babies and old people and women who were in labor that Clapper saved in medivacs.
There were pastors and evangelists and missionaries who Clapper enabled to be part of eternal soul work. There were health and CD and education programs that his little plane supported. More importantly, the way he treated all of these people is his mark, the mark of Jesus he leaves in Papua.
But in the end Clapper’s most lasting mark is on you, his kids. There are very few children in the world that have had the blessing of a father like you have had. He has paved a way for you to know your heavenly father in a world where so many fathers do the opposite. His ceiling is now your floor.
His passionate commitment and love for our heavenly father and his family, his integrity, his courage, his love and respect for God’s children and his commitment to God’s work are your heritage. Clapper has left a deep mark.
You are a reflection of who Dave Clapper was on this earth. There is no pressure on you to replace your dad, to go into full time ministry or to be something because your dad was bigger than that. Your dad was, and is, proud of each of you for who you are. When he talked of you his love for you came blasting through. Rest in that love and let that love lead you to your heavenly father because they both feel the same way about you. Like father, like son and daughter. I believe in each of you because of your father’s.
If you ever have a need that me or my family can help you with, please know that we want to be there for you like you dad was there for us. I hope we will be able to serve you with as much integrity, courage, love and dignity as your father served us. Above all I hope that I can be a father to my kids like your father has been to you.
Scotty, Heidi, Walker and Arwen Wisley
Others
Lord let me live from day to day
In such a self forgetful way,
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer will be for others.
Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this my motto be,
That while I’ve lived for others,
I will have lived for Thee
Dave lived for others. His closest friends were the common man. ‘Others, Lord, Others’, was more than a song or poem to Dave; it was his daily life in Papua!
Lord, give us the grace to do the same!
Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
