Rev. R. B. Cavaness, Jr. – Pastor, Missionary, Teacher and Mission Mobilizer

 

Roswell B. Cavaness, Jr. was born in Hollister, Idaho, just south of Twin Falls, 178 miles southwest Idaho Falls. He was raised in Salmon, 161 miles northwest of Idaho Falls. He pastored a church in Roy, Idaho, 102 miles south of Idaho Falls.  During the 39 years he served as a missionary in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, he spoke several times at the Assembly of God church in Idaho Falls and other churches in southeast Idaho.  While his connections to Idaho Falls are not as strong as others I have written about, I believe the story of his life is worth including in this collection of people the Lord has sent out from this region.

R. B. Cavaness, Sr. owned and operated a grocery store in Hollister, Idaho from 1914 to 1920, managed Safeway stores in four different states from 1923 to 1935, and then until his retirement in 1949 operated a grocery store in Salmon, Idaho.[1] In 1936, his son, R. B. Jr. [2], age 18, became the manager of that grocery store in Salmon.  However it wasn’t long after that when R. B. Jr. responded to God’s call to pursue training for the ministry, first at Prairie Bible Institute in Canada and then Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri.[1],[3].  I’m sure his parents, very involved with the Salmon Assembly of God church, encouraged his ministry training.

While at Central Bible Institute he met and married Avalone Rasmuson.[4]  Following graduation he pastored a church in Roy, Idaho, from 1943 to 1945.[5]  In 1945 he was ordained by the Assemblies of God and appointed a missionary to Indonesia.[6] They spent their first year, 1947, on the island that was then called Batjan, now known as Bacan, sharing the gospel with various unreached people groups.[7] They continued evangelistic and church planting efforts in Ambon, the capital of the Indonesian province of Maluku, having a population of about 37,000 in 1950.

A notice announcing that Rev. Cavaness would be speaking at the Assembly of God church in Idaho Falls in early 1952 included, “… he will tell of their experiences in the islands during times of famine, invasion and a tidal wave.”[8]  Regarding the invasion, I imagine he had people sitting on the edge of their seats.

On April 26, 1950, Dr. Chris Soumokil, a former attorney general for the Federal State of East Indonesia, declared the independent Republic of South Moluccas, which included the islands of Ambon, Seram, Buru, and Banda. He was supported by Ambonese guerillas who had returned to the island after fighting in WW II. The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Sukarno, considered this declaration as a serious threat to the unity of the Republic of Indonesia, so he sent military forces to Ambon and a war raged for months in Ambon and nearby islands. The city of Ambon was leveled; about one-fifth of the Indonesian army of 20,000 soldiers, half of the rebel fighting forces (500 people) and 5,000 civilians were killed or wounded.[9] Another source[10] reported that when “a mysterious fire wiped out a third of the city of 25,000 population, the Javanese cut off food supplies to the island.”

Before the war erupted, Rev. Cavaness testified that in one particular service in an Assembly of God church in which he was filling in for a missionary on furlough there was a message in tongues and interpretation, saying that calamity would come upon Ambon. The next day, another missionary visited Ambon and told R.B. Cavaness that at the Moluccan Bible Institute there was the exact same message.[11]  Rev. Cavaness’ wife and two children were evacuated from Ambon on the last boat that could leave before the government blockaded the island. Rev. Cavaness stayed during the next seven months during the time of fighting and famine. He was there during seven days and nights of fighting when the church he was leading was destroyed by fire.[12] During that week,

The missionaries and natives improvised a bomb shelter of furniture and of concrete rubble left from World War II ruins.  During the fierce fighting there were only a house-width away from the street where the Ambonese and Indonesians were fighting.[13]

Rev. Cavaness reported that during the blockade, the price of some food items increased by as much as 3,500%. In a statement that suggests his sympathies, he said, “The Ambonese army of 2,000 fought bravely against 2,000 Indonesians and 12,000 Javanese.”[14]  When the rebellion was finally put down, the American consulate ordered Rev. Cavaness and the one other American missionary still in Ambon to leave.  He joined his wife, who had been staying with her parents in Winona, Minnesota, and they then took a year-long furlough, speaking in churches across the country, before returning to Indonesia.[15]

From 1954 to 1966, Rev. R. B. and Avalone Cavaness pastored the Elim Church in Singapore.[16]  Announcements for his U.S. tour in 1957 included, “Rev. R. B and Mrs. Cavaness have just turned from Singapore following the communist riots in October and will show a series of colored slides entitled, ‘The Face of Singapore Today.’”[17] At some point during this time in Singapore he became the superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Malaysia and Singapore, for which he did extensive traveling through Malaysia. Thus he was personal acquainted with the Indonesia revival in 1965 on the island of Timor, and when on furlough the following year, gave a presentation in Idaho Falls on a Sunday night and Shelley the next Tuesday entitled Pentecost in Action in Malaysia.[18]

In 1973 the Cavanesses left Singapore and returned to Ambon, Indonesia.[19]  The Post Register reported that when they were In Idaho Falls next, in 1976, “Their current area of ministry covers approximately 1,000 square miles and includes nearly 1,000 islands.  They are the only Assemblies of God missionaries for the 300 inhabited islands and the 1.25 million people in the region and they serve as advisors to the denominations’ churches in their district.”[20]  After teaching in the Assemblies of God Bible School in Ambon for eight years, the Cavanesses moved to the island of Java to teach at the Seminary Alkitab Trinitas Indonesia.[21]

Sometime in the early 1980’s they returned to the U.S., locating in Springfield, Missouri, home of both an Assemblies of God university and seminary.  Their mission now became promotion of and recruitment for missions.  After Avalone passed away in late 1984,[22] R.B. traveled as Foreign Missions Representative for about four years. He also served in Palau for eight months. Then in 1989 he married missionary Barbara Liddle and they ministered in Singapore for three years.  The Post Register reported that the Firth Tabernacle Assembly of God hosted him at a Friday night dinner October 16, 1992, noting that he and his wife were coordinators for the Decade of Harvest for the Assemblies of God in Singapore and that they were both active in preaching, publishing and distribution of tapes, videos and literature.[23]

His 2005 obituary concludes, “For the past 11 years, he has been very effective at mentoring missionaries and making calls to pastors, raising monthly support for hundreds of world missionaries.”[24]  His 58 years of ministry is aptly summarized by his a statement he including in some of his presentations, “What really counts in life is a personal commitment to achieve that which has value in the face of eternity.”[19]

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[1] Obituary for Roswell Broughton Cavaness, written by Ben Cavanass, published in Idaho, Southeast Counties Obituaries, accessed via https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/L2V6-R5N.   The name of the Salmon grocery store was “Cavaness Cash Store.”

[2] Nearly all references use only his initials for his first and middle names.  His first name, after his father, was Roswell, and his middle name either Broughton, again like his father, or according to information for his memorial on FindAGrave.com, Beeler.

[3] Obituary of R.B. Cavaness Jr., published in The Power County Press, American Falls, ID and others, Oct. 27, 2005, accessed at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/news-leader/name/r-cavaness-obituary?id=48890679.

[4] Assemblies of God Heritage, Vol. 22, No.4, Winter 2002-3, p. 28.

[5] Obituary for Roswell Broughton Cavaness with notes about their children, written by Ben Cavanass, published in Idaho, Southeast Counties Obituaries, accessed via https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/L2V6-R5N.

[6] Obituary of R.B. Cavaness Jr., published in The Power County Press, American Falls, ID and others, Oct. 27, 2005, accessed at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/news-leader/name/r-cavaness-obituary?id=48890679.

[7] The Post-Register, Feb. 14, 1952, p. 15.  The Cavaness’ year on the island of Batjan was reported in numerous newspapers in articles about R.B.’s speaking engagements. However another source [footnote #27, https://pentecost.asia/articles/the-beginning-of-the-assemblies-of-god-of-indonesia-1936-1951/] makes no mention of it. Instead, it reports that R. B. and Avalone Cavaness sailed on the M. S. Japara on July 7, 1947, arrived in Jakarta on August and transferred to Ambon in September 1947 on an Army bomber. This information is from  an email from R. B. Cavaness to Gani Wiyono, January 29, 2003.

[8] ibid.

[9] https://pentecost.asia/articles/the-beginning-of-the-assemblies-of-god-of-indonesia-1936-1951/; original source Nena Vreeland, Area Handbook for Indonesia (Washington D.C.: Foreign Area Studies of the American University, 1975), p. 40.

[10] Winona Republican-Herald, “Missionary Was Trapped Between Two Armies,” Feb. 7, 1951, p. 4.

[11] https://pentecost.asia/articles/the-beginning-of-the-assemblies-of-god-of-indonesia-1936-1951/.

[12] Evening Times [Monroe, Wisconsin], May, 13, 1957.   

[13] Winona Republican-Herald, “Missionary Was Trapped Between Two Armies,” Feb. 7, 1951, p. 4.

[14] ibid.

[15] ibid.

[16] https://elimchurch.org.sg/our-history/.

[17] Monroe (Wisconsin) Evening Times, May 13, 1957, p. 6.

[18] The Post-Register, February 24, 1967, p. 8.

[19] Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Feb. 8, 1986, p. 5A; also The Daily Register (Harrisburg, Illinois), Nov. 29, 1985, p. 3.

[20] The Post-Register, August 28, 1976, p. A-10.

[21] Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Feb. 8, 1986, p. 5A

[22] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86907433/avelone_r-cavaness.

[23] The Post Register, October 16, 1992, p. B5.

[24] Obituary of R.B. Cavaness Jr., published in The Power County Press, American Falls, ID and others, Oct. 27, 2005, accessed at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/news-leader/name/r-cavaness-obituary?id=48890679.