Monday, May 31, 2010

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Do We Go or Do We Stay Now?

The day after I arrived in Wewak, we got word that a lady in our village had committed suicide.  She was the second wife of one of our main guys and although they’d been married for two years, the two wives still did not get along very well – and with good reason.  That particular day, the ladies got in a fight and it kept escalating.  Then when things seemed to have settled down, this lady cut down all of her garden things – greens, bananas, etc. so that no one else could eat them.  She cut up her clothes and anything else that someone else might have use for. Then she took some of the poisonous root that they use to fish with and squeezed some in a cup with water and drank it – twice.  A third cup was knocked out of her hand by another lady but the damage was done and she died within an hour.  But the people of Papua New Guinea, in the West Sepik anyway, don’t believe in suicide. They believe that sorcery caused her to do this.  So again, the people are terrified of the local witch doctor.  Harmony is a huge thing here – the most important thing to be maintained as disharmony is one of the main sources of sickness and death.  When there is disharmony, the village is really vulnerable at that time for sorcery to come in and kill people.  So the land dispute with another village, Beymaf, has our folks running for their lives.  They own the land here but this other village has claimed that this land is theirs.  They of course only started saying that once they knew that white missionaries were going to be moving in here.  And although this village is part of another language group and right next to the village where other white missionaries are located – that speak their language and help them all the time, they see this as a way to get money and things for themselves.  So over the years, they’ve demanded money and an outboard motor and drums of fuel from us but it’s not our land nor is it our dispute really.  Because of their fear of the witch doctor in this village, our folks are ready to run for the hills (swamp actually) to avoid the disharmony that comes with this disputed ground.  Because of Awe’s death, they’ve started counting up how many people have died since we got here and they’re pretty convinced that they’ll all die if they stay here.

 

As we came back in, we heard that we were having a meeting on Monday to talk about whether the village should move to their old village deeper in the jungle. Some said it was just a question – that if we say yes, we’d all move and if not, that’s ok too.  Some said it was far more serious than that.  Some didn’t even come back from their makeshift houses in the jungle for the meeting.  There was a large majority of the folks here though and although it was the main reason for the meeting, they started out trying to figure out who stole Paetrik’s tobacco and who stole bananas, sugar cane and tobacco from another guy’s garden, etc.  So we sat all morning talking about these things, just waiting for the heavy topic of moving to come up.  It seemed to us like they kept pushing it back as they didn’t really want to talk about it and yet we’d have to get to it eventually.  So finally, when they could avoid it no longer, the guys started laying out their case.  To us, it was hard to know how to respond to them.  We’ve talked about this in the past but the end result was that no one really went anywhere.  This time though we sensed that even the guys who have stated that they’ll die here were leaning more towards going too.  This made it all the more serious and so much harder.  We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the chronological teaching – from the truth that will set them free from their fears of sorcery – and yet, they’re ready to run off and not be here for the most important message of their lives.  They want to hear it, we definitely see that and hear that from them – it’s not a question of being uninterested in it, it’s all about their fears of sorcery and death.  It was a pretty hard meeting for me – seeing the darkness and deception they live in so clearly.  It was hard to see the faithful ones who have always stood with us now considering this so seriously too.  They’re in a really tough position.  They are terrified of this witch doctor and yet they want to hear the teaching.  There’s no Holy Spirit to guide them and empower them to stand up against the fear – they’re entrenched in their ancestral beliefs of life and death being held by the witch doctor rather than the Creator of heaven and earth! 

 

So once they were finished laying out their thoughts and concerns, we stepped up and started with a skit.  Elias had a shirt over his head and he stood in the middle.  Matt was on one side with a bow and arrow pointed at Elias the whole time.  He represented Satan and the lies that he tells.  I was on the other side, holding a fresh-off-the-presses copy of Scripture in the Uriay language.  I was trying to ‘lure’ Elias to my side with truth – with a way for them to have peace and not live in fear.  All the while Matt is telling him that he has good things for him and that I’m lying – that I want to kill him.  It was amazing to see how they responded to the skit!  I saw complete countenances change as they said how true this was.  It was a good foundation from which to share our heart and thoughts with the village.  We really tried to stress that life and peace are in God’s Word – in hearing and believing this message that they asked us to come and teach.  The long and short of our message was that we were asking them to at least stay and hear the teaching and then we’d talk about moving after that.  All three of us shared different things and reiterated what the other had said through various approaches.  Matt challenged them that no matter where they lived, trials and hardships were going to come up.  The men who stole the things from Tyems’ garden or Paetrik’s tobacco, they’d be moving to the old village too.  And we stressed that we’re not afraid of witch doctors because the One who made everything knows the number of our days – our life is in His hands.  They all agreed but when push comes to shove, He knew what day the witch doctor was going to kill Awe, as opposed to him being the giver and taker of life.  So we presented our case and although they didn’t stand up and commit as a village to being here for the teaching, we felt like there was a shift in their thinking.  Elias and I both thought that many were saying that they’d be here – at least for the teaching.  Matt felt like most had gone from absolutely moving to now being torn as to what to do, open to staying but not seeing how they could do it and live.  So we were encouraged with the outcome at first, but since then the village has emptied out.  Some guys have traveled to Vanimo to get their royalty money from the timber company while others have gone to their temporary jungle houses.  We’re not sure at all as to how many will be here for May 30th.  As a team, we all feel that we need to wait on the Lord.  He is the changer of hearts – and He will draw them to Himself.  It could mean that we push the start date back a bit – especially if the guys aren’t back from Vanimo.  It could mean that we have half the village here and a few from our other two villages.  It could be that everyone is here.  We don’t know – but He does.  It will take an act of God for the Wabuku village to be here, ready to go for the teaching – and staying for the 12 weeks it will take to present all the lessons.  So we wait….we wait on Him.  He will build His church – in His way and in His timing.  The enemy cannot thwart the plans of God.  Right now, quite a few of them are gone, but we don’t know how temporary or permanent that is, but He does.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Literacy Graduation!

Graduation Day October 10, 2009

The last literacy class had been taught. The last test finished by all the students. We did it – we finished the course. There were days when Elias and I both wanted to pull our hair out. There were days of pure fun as they caught on to new symbols and enjoyed the short stories in their primers. There were days of too many dogs and kids in the class room. There were only a few marital disputes to disrupt class and one death that stopped class for a week, but overall, it was a relatively straightforward journey from start to finish. The Lord enabled and strengthened Elias and myself to be in the classroom at least once a day for a little more than 6 months, and twice a day for 3 of those months. We didn’t miss a day for sickness. That’s an amazing feat in the jungle! We had 20 students to recognize, with only one of those students not reading.

So now their focus was on the graduation ceremony. When we westerners think about a graduation ceremony, we’re thinking of the ceremony itself – a guest speaker, student representatives, handing diplomas out, the celebration of all that the students have accomplished – that sort of thing. Well, in PNG, the main focus is on the ‘bung kaikai’ (pot luck) happening after the speeches and diplomas. The excitement in the village was electric – you could feel it all around you. Men had been hunting – filling our freezers with pig meat. Then they all went fishing and brought back vines of fish to be held in our fridge and freezers until the big day arrived. Greens and grub worms had been gathered and all was ready. Elias and I had printed and laminated the certificates on bright colored card stock and then laminated them. Our speeches were in our heads and ready to go so we were ready too.

The day before the ceremony, two of the students built a make-shift ‘grandstand’ for the ceremony itself. They decorated it with flowers and hanging grass and as long as too many of us at one time didn’t stand up there, it looked and worked great! We thought about having all the students up there but we decided against it when we felt the sway in the posts! But it worked and it looked great!

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We planned on an early afternoon ceremony since there was going to be a pot luck afterwards. So the ladies started cooking that morning – getting their sago paste ready as well as cooking all the greens and meat. Almost every saucepan had greens, grubs, pig meat, fish and even some bush rat meat in it. While I really enjoy fish and greens and even can tolerate the grubs or bush rat, the flavor of it all mixed together, along with the ramen noodles we divvied out, it was a rather interesting taste. It wasn’t bad – just too much of too many kinds of meat in one pot. I’m not one to mix my pig and fish in the same greens soup. But hey, they loved it! So it the food was ready….the garamut finally got hit and it was time to actually start the ceremony. Well, after we waited for 45 minutes for everyone to get there. While we were waiting, some of the guys saw that I had the Scripture portions from Genesis and Exodus with me so they all wanted to read it. It was pretty neat as they hovered around the guy sitting next to me while he read out loud! They asked for them again later after the ceremony! What an encouragement!

So our village leader started things off – thanking Elias and myself for teaching and for giving them the opportunity to read and write. This guy started off in the class but his wife kept throwing a fit since she wasn’t in the class and she was worried he would be flirting with the ladies, or they with him, so she forced him out of the class. But this guy was probably the most grateful for it. He said thank you – literally numerous times. As the day went on, after the ceremony even, he would stop and say thank you every time he passed by me on his way to somewhere else. It was amazing! He thanked all of the whites (their term for us, not ours) and encouraged the students to keep reading and challenged the teachers to be ready to teach those that haven’t been in the class yet. It was a good balance of everything. You never know when it could have become a big argument or too pushy or whatever would create a big mess rather than a nice celebratory day. But it was good.

Other students and teachers (those we’ve recognized within the literacy classes and pulled in to help teach the class the last couple primers.) stood up and spoke about the class. Some thanked us, mostly Elias since we live in a man-focused culture, for teaching them. The teachers challenged the other teachers to step up so that it wasn’t just one guy doing it. Folks that weren’t in the classes but are waiting on the next class stood up and challenged the teachers to not be selfish but to teach them as well. It was really encouraging to hear them thank us. I almost laughed at one point because although Elias and I split the workload so we both taught as much as the other, they mostly recognized him. It was as if I wasn’t even in the classroom but it was ok, I knew it was a cultural thing, women have no value beyond bearing kids and feeding the family. So although they look at me differently in some ways, the culture still dictates my equality with the guys more often than not.

After the Wabuku folks were done, they called for Elias to talk so he gave a little speech and used a story to illustrate how a guy thought he knew how to read and so did everyone else but that he’d just drawn a square and a circle but it couldn’t help him write or read. Anyway – it was a cute story that the people liked and he just reinforced the need to read and write – so that they could read God’s Word later on. Then they called my other coworker, Matt up there. (Matt’s still in early stages of culture and language study.) Matt encouraged them and told them how he could see the difference from when they first started to now and how neat it was to see them sitting around and reading. Then Boni, our village leader, called me up there. As I was walking to the grandstand, he was telling the people how I wasn’t just standing in the classroom for no reason but that I was a ‘real’ teacher too. I had done everything that Elias had done! He also talked about how I really knew the language – I was sitting inside the jungle, not on the outside. (I understand all of it, not just bits and pieces.) It was so amazing and encouraging! I did not see that one coming at all! It was almost un-cultural that he would say so much about me – and he’s not even one of the guys that has been a main helper of mine! He’s gone more than he’s here so I would never have expected him to be speaking so highly of me! Wow – what a generous gift from the Lord! I didn’t need to be recognized as an equal to Elias but this guy did just that.

So then it was my turn. I had brought out some of the Genesis and Exodus portions we’d had printed a year ago to illustrate how before only one guy could really read God’s Word in their language, but now there were 20 that could! I reminded them that they were the first group of people to read and write the Uriay language. Their parents hadn’t ever seen or read their language on paper – they were the first ones! I encouraged them to keep reading and how much work they had put in and how I wanted to honor them for that. I thanked them for teaching us their language so that we could in turn teach them to read and write – and translate God’s Word into their language. I reminded them that this wasn’t just something for those that were in the class already, but that we wanted everyone in Wabuku and our other two villages to be able to read and write. It was a fun time to just encourage and thank them.

Now it was time for the certificates so Elias and I stood up there and called the names of the students. The folks wanted us to call them in order of ability basically but we didn’t want to encourage any jealousy or pride or whatever so we did it rather randomly. In most things, everything has to be even. If they play soccer, they only end a game when the score is tied – no one can actually win. But when it comes to this kind of thing, they want to be better than everyone else and want to flaunt it. But we decided that wasn’t the way to go so we just randomly called names and gave them their certificates. After that, we took photos and shook hands with all the students and other village folks. We took some neat shots of folks looking at their certificates – reading them. One guy came up to me to thank me. He’s the one guy in the class that’s still not really reading. He got a certificate saying that he came to class all the time but not that he actually graduated. He was so excited though that he actually reached over and hugged me! That is NOT a cultural thing to do here! He was just so excited that he couldn’t contain himself! I’ll never forget it! This guy is such a soft-spoken guy that hardly says boo to me. He’s my brother – more like a distant cousin in the family line but it took him about 2-3 years to even say a word to me – and now here he was hugging me! It’s a precious memory for me! That was the perfect example of the excitement and pride that the students had!

Now it was time to gather the food and bring it to be divvied out. Let me tell you, there was a huge amount of everything! Leaves of sago paste, saucepans of greens and meat, saucepans of rice that we cooked up, and an igloo of lemonade I made. They actually scaled it out rather quickly – we did this on New Year’s Eve a couple years ago and it took a couple hours just to divide all the food out. But not this day – the folks were so excited about it all that they moved a lot faster through the process. So they sat us whites together in Elias’ ‘haus win’, covered sitting area outside. They gave us a big pot with all the greens and meat and a leaf of sago each. We tried to finish off what they gave us but there’s just no way to do that! Then with the mixture of meats, it wasn’t as good as when I eat greens with individual families. They hadn’t oversalted it like they have in the past, it was just the mix of meats that made it less tasty for me than normal. But that’s ok – I shared my food with my namesake and we gave the rest away to others who ate it up. They know that we can’t eat as much as they do so they’re fine with that. Overall, the day was a huge success! The folks thanked us as we headed back to our houses and the party continued on into the night as the teenagers and young married danced the night away listening to their big radio (brought back from Vanimo by one of the 20 yr old guys).

So the first two literacy classes are done in Wabuku. We’ve got 19 folks that finished and are reading well. 7 men and 4 ladies are trained teachers for the future literacy classes. God has accomplished much in and through this literacy class! Amazing – Uriay people are reading and writing their language – the first generation to do that in their history! And people think that I’ve sacrificed so much to live here. Ha! I’ve had the priviledge of being part of this. Those that don’t are making the greatest sacrifice in my mind. J Yoohoo! Uriay people are reading and writing the Uriay language!

blog photos for literacy grad

 

IMG_4559.JPG  One of the student’s moms decorating Matt for the celebration.  She put flowers around all of our necks!     IMG_4561.JPG  Elias’ wife, Jose, gets her flowers. 

 

more literacy photos

 

IMG_4566.JPG  Elias’ flowers were a lot more elaborate!    IMG_4619.JPG  Me with Imi, the oldest lady in the class

more photos

 

IMG_4555.JPG  The guys – Stenli, Aendru and Markus reading Genesis!

 

IMG_4649.JPG  Stenli receives his diploma!

still more photos

 

IMG_4695.JPG  Eren, one of the sharpest students gets her diploma

 

IMG_4740.JPG  Stiben, the guy who hugged me, looks at his certificate

 

IMG_4742.JPG  Wobre reads his certificate that he has nicely put away in his red folder!  Ha!

graduating class!

 

IMG_4760.JPG  the literacy grads!