Wabi World

Kisses of grace

2011-05-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

I've been back here in Wabuku for all of ten days now but it seems like it's been ten times that somehow! Coming back with a stealing incident to face right away sure made the first few days melt into one long day! I shared with you of the incredible journey the Lord took me on to Memphis and back – and how tired my old body was as I got back to Wewak. I stayed a few extra days to rest up and my coworkers, Elias and Jose Struik came back in on the Tuesday. I had packed up a bunch of stuff and sent it in with them to help cover the weight I left in not going in. J Then on Thursday, my other coworker, Matt sent me an email to let me know that one of the kids had stolen one of my boxes – hiding it under our dinghy (that leans against the back of the fuel shed). Then three other boys joined him after dark to tear into all the treasure in there. It was especially hard as it was the box filled with the gifts and purchases from the US. Parents of the kids from ECS had purchased some things for me and then the parent teacher fellowship had given me $200 to go shopping. The lady who does my mom's nails had sent nail polish and a pedicure kit to me and my mom had brought some Mary Kay stuff I was running out of. And the majority of those things were in that box. There were some really nice things in there – three bags of Starbucks coffee, chai green tea, three bottles of nail polish, hot tamales, a spa kit from one of the moms so I could pamper myself in the jungle, note cards, Croc flip flops, dried blueberries and then things like shower curtain liners and big storage-sized Ziploc bags. I'm not the first person in the Sepik to have tribal people steal from them. Many have had much bigger things stolen from their houses or boxes missing on the trail so I'm not alone in this. And that made it almost harder for me. It was just 'stuff' – it was not anything that was going to keep me from functioning in the tribe – but everything in that box basically was a gift. And it was all from America – and couldn't be replaced in Wewak or anywhere in PNG.

I'd like to say that I handled it with grace and joy but that was far from my reaction. Many have been there – the stages of anger, hurt, betrayal and all the rest that goes with it. Hope, a missionary living in Wewak was the first person I saw after reading the email and I felt a bit numb at that point but then shared with her what was going on. She was really sweet and encouraging while I was just mad the more I thought about it. I cried often that day as I thought of it – more about the fact that these ladies had been so insistent in getting these things for me and now they were gone. Then knowing that these kids get candy from me every cargo run as they help carry our stuff to our houses – and now they'd stolen from me. I was going to eat lunch with two couples, one of which had just arrived on the field soon after I found this out. Hope came over with a shower curtain she had – to replace one of the ones taken – so sweet and it just made me cry all the harder – as I shredded carrots for the salad. It must have been some sight – tears running down my face as I shredded carrots with more gusto than perhaps ever before in my life! Hope was encouraging and such a help to me at that moment! So I dropped the salad off at Tara's and went to the radio – to see if anything had been returned or if it was all just shreds of bags and such. Yep – pretty much gone, wrappers had been returned! Anyway – I felt ridiculous as I headed up to Suttons – tears in my eyes and obviously having been crying – just in time to welcome the Georges to the Sepik! Can you picture it? So ridiculous – but they were gracious and at least acted like they didn't notice. Tony was talking with the new couple in the living room as I snuck in the door and cried on Tara's shoulder for a couple minutes in the kitchen and explained what was going on. No one died – it was just a dumb box that was stolen. Oh – why can't I just accept it with a song instead of tears? But again, Tara was super sweet and was ready to hang some boys up by their toe nails for me!

Anyway- made it through lunch and the rest of the day but I was no longer so anxious to get back into Wabuku. My brain was still trying to make the transition from the US to Wabuku and this sure wasn't making me feel loved and welcomed back into the Wabuku fold. I also knew that the believers were upset and not happy about this either. I knew that there were some folks that were looking forward to my return but as mad as I was about this too. I was mostly sad that we would all be talking about this stupid box instead of all that God had done through my trip. I was so excited to share with them about these kids and their parents' reaction to hearing about Wabuku and the believers – and how excited they were with their little string bags, etc. It was so fun to be able to share with these kids that there were ladies in Wabuku praying for them – and now to be able to share their responses with the folks here was going to be so cool! But instead the first thing we'd be talking about was stealing. Ugh. The enemy seemed to be still trying to derail all that God wanted to do through this opportunity. But I knew that God would prevail – He would still use this for His glory! Then I read this devotional on Thursday night, with tears streaming down my face. It said something about saying to yourself, 'All is well,' no matter what difficulty or hurt you find yourself in – not as a mantra but as a healing balm and to say it until it had pulled the poison out of the sting. I went back to that thought several times in the next couple days – it did seem to pull the poison and its sting out.

I knew that God wanted to do something through this – in my life, in the lives of these ladies that supplied everything and in the lives of the Wabuku people. I knew that He could enable me to not only forgive these kids but continue to love them. Another missionary made me cry again as we met in supply Friday morning and he prayed for me and the Wabuku folks in this – I was fine at that point but his compassionate plea for God to undertake for me and these kids was so encouraging and helped to heal the hurt a bit too. God was using His people to minister and encourage me in so many ways!

We landed in Wabuku and Imi, my sister and perhaps the strongest female believer in here hugged me and we were both just about in tears by the time it was all said and done. It was a bit strange and as my coworkers all said how good it was to have me back – I wasn't quite ready to say I was glad to be back. That wouldn't have been completely truthful at the moment. J One of the missionaries in Wewak had shared some great stuff on Easter Sunday – how Christ had kept his eyes on the joy set before Him as He endured the cross – and we needed to do that too. I kept thinking back to that – and that God wanted to do something through all this. I wanted to be able to love these kids and their parents but also knew I'd need His strength to do it. My flesh wanted to knock some heads together and it sure wasn't feeling like loving these folks. But God….however we responded to this needed to be with the church in mind – another incredible opportunity perhaps to display grace and forgiveness.

Anyway, I went to dinner at Struiks that night and had a good meal and good fellowship with them. Then I came home and started unpacking different things – we were going to meet the next day as a team to decide how to handle the stealing incident and I needed to make my list of things that were in that box. The two shower curtains had been returned as well as the Ziploc bags and a partial bag of coffee. And don't forget all the nasty panty liners and the bits of one note card and an empty tube of eye cream and filing sponge. But I didn't have those in hand yet – just knew that they'd shown up at the other houses so far. I had this list of things in my mind that were in that box and was sad about the loss of things like latex-free band aids and a coffee mug and dental floss that were in the box. The mug was a one of a kind type of thing – a random single one that would be hard to replace. And the floss was a new kind so how could I tell my mom what to get? And although a friend in Wewak had given me a box of latex-free band aids and Hope had shared some latex-free tape with me, I was more sad because of how much work the one lady had gone to get them – she was so afraid she wasn't getting the right thing. Anyway – those things were in that box too as far as I could remember. But as I opened another box, I found the band aids, the coffee mug, and the dental floss in there! It was like the Lord had placed kisses of His grace in the midst of all this loss! All I could say was 'thank you.' I don't even really know how to put into words the comfort and love I felt in just having these couple things. But I definitely felt His love and presence through them. The icing on the cake was that on my way back, I thought I had lost one of the earrings that another missionary gave me for my birthday but as I unpacked, I found that I actually had both of them! That was the final kiss – and it was sufficient for the moment!

I cried my way through the team meeting - mostly because of the betrayal I felt. The kids are all unbelievers but it was frustrating to see that very little was coming back – parents and adults knew and weren't doing anything to show support for us. We met with our committee guy and it was funny – he mentioned things that I'd forgotten were in the box – like a book and pen. I'd forgotten about the flip flops until someone started mentioning to Matt and myself that one of the kids had given them to someone from Busan, another one of our villages. In the meeting with the village the next day, we saw a mixture of both. We saw a clear line of demarcation of those that are with us and those that want nothing to do with teaching and are not supporting us. We weren't surprised by it – expected it actually but it was encouraging to see those that are behind us stand up so clearly. I brought the letters these kids had written to Wabuku kids and recounted how these kids have been praying for the Wabuku people for the last year – and how the moms wanted to do something to help me since I live so far from my mom, without a husband or family to look out for me. And the very kids that these folks were praying for had stolen those 'memory' things. The total loss was almost 800 kina but I knew that we couldn't really charge them that full price or people that had had nothing to do with it would pay – and I didn't want their money. We ended up charging each of the four kids 50 kina – and although we'd already decided as a team that we'd settle for that figure, one of the guys said that so we knew that it was acceptable. So Boni, our committee, tried to get some of the stuff back and the flip flops did come back, as did several empty bottles that had lotion or whatever in them. But the nail polish was on lots of kids' fingers as well as Diksen's, one of the men and chief thief in the village. It was sad to hear that some of the male believers had eaten some of the things along with the thieves – 'we just tasted it, we didn't fill up our bellies on it' but they sure didn't tell any of us that it had been stolen! It was a 12 year old boy that came to Matt to let him know that a box had been stolen. On the other hand, it was neat to see Tyob, one of my main translation helpers stand up and pay his nephew's 50 kina quickly and state that these kids had brought shame on the village and parents and that he would never say anything about having to pay this money – it needed to be paid. It was 'right' that it be paid. He hugged me and apologized for his nephew's behavior. The other three kids' relatives were slower in coming up with the kina but it showed up. Then three of the four kids and their parents shook my hand and admitted their part in it and that they wouldn't do it again. The fourth kid and his parents didn't bother - and that wasn't surprising really either. The dad made the choice to even be in the village at times and refused to come to the teaching so we don't see his support and didn't that day either. I was amazed that I was able to share all that I wanted to share in a calm voice without tears. I figured I'd cry my way through it but again, the Lord knew what the Uriay needed and perhaps the tears would have brought more shame to those that were already feeling bad for me. Perhaps it would have made it harder for me to share the things I shared – I just know that I kept asking the Lord to undertake – that I could reflect Him well and He could be glorified through a situation that was not good so I have to trust that the control He gave me must have been for the best. I must admit that as I see my nail polish on kids' toes, I have to check my attitude but I can shrug the things off without wanting to strangle kids either. For a couple days, I'd remember something else that was in the box that I'd forgotten about – like some note cards for Jose's birthday or whatever. But I don't feel the anger or hurt anymore – just a wee bit of disappointment. Mostly I feel His grace and support and can say, it's just stuff and it doesn't matter. Only by the grace of God….

Me with some of the ECS students!

2011-05-12T13:11:00.001-07:00

The students prayed as they commissioned me to go back to Wabuku!

2011-05-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Imi is on my right here reading the Word of God

2011-04-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Imi continues to amaze me!

2011-04-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

It was Sunday night and time to meet with the ladies again. It had been a long week and yet I couldn’t skip this meeting! I was leaving the following Thursday to head out to Wewak as the first step in a long trip to the US to speak at a Christian school. So I couldn’t very well miss the last meeting with the ladies for a couple weeks – and God sure blessed me as a result of my going!

We had talked about baptism in the lesson that morning – the last lesson of the week from our first week of Acts teaching. I asked the ladies if they had questions on what we talked about and so we spent most of the evening talking through the real reason and meaning of baptism. It was so cool to sit back and watch Imi respond to some of the other ladies that were still a bit confused about the meaning of baptism – and that it didn’t help in terms of salvation – only Christ did that. I was just an observer as this new believer taught the other ladies! Wow! So so cool to see the answers coming from an Uriay woman, and not the white one!!!

Then we started talking about prayer requests. The ladies knew that I was going to be making a whirlwind trip to the US to speak in a Christian school where a friend of mine has been teaching them throughout the year about tribal ministry, specifically about Wabuku and myself. The ladies had woven little string bags for me to give the kids – I bought them but they knew why they were making them. They knew what I was going to do but I didn’t ask them specifically to pray for flights and the speaking times and such. We were talking about things going on there in the village – who was sick and other things that needed to happen in the days ahead. But then as we prayed, Imi started praying for me and the kids that I would speak to. She asked God to undertake in my journey – to get me there and back safely. She asked God to give me wisdom in what to say to the kids and then she went on to ask Him to work in the kids’ lives so that they too might one day become a missionary! I was humbled, amazed and even convicted that I hadn’t asked them specifically to pray for those things! The Spirit of God is at work in Wabuku. He is speaking to believers and challenging them to get involved in what He is doing – in and outside of Wabuku! Why hadn’t I asked these ladies to pray for flights to go off on time? Why hadn’t I asked them to pray for me and the kids? Dumb on my part and yet I’m so very thankful that the Holy Spirit works in spite of me! I’ll have an opportunity to return and share with this lady just how God answered her prayers. Praise the Lord His Spirit is at work and growing these young believers up in the faith!!!

Sunday morning - Wabuku style

2011-02-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, as I sat in the church ‘building’ this morning, waiting for the folks to get there, I couldn’t help but reflect on how different it is from my home church in Florida. We’re using the same building that we taught literacy in back in the fall of 2009 and where we presented the Gospel. It changed a bit between there - we removed one side wall so that there was enough room for the whole village to sit and hear. But as it’s a tribal building, it doesn’t last that long between the dogs and the kids. The siding has been pulled out by the kids almost completely on two of the remaining walls. The thatch roof is still good but the rest of the building has literally gone to the dogs! I could see more of the village than I could walls this morning as I sat there! Before we got started though, we had to remove the siding (sago palm frond stems) from the pieces of flooring that we sit on. It’s basically a tree bark that they use and right now they’re sitting on little logs for us to sit on. My knees are almost in my nose if I sit with them up too far. J Anyway, the siding was all over the spot where the ladies usually sit so I tossed those out. Then we started noticing the little piles of dog poop laying around. Elias got a shovel and removed one but then one of the ladies came back with the shovel to remove three more piles further down to my left. The ladies were all commenting on the flies – that were there because of the poop – child and dog bits left over from the last meeting. So we seemed to be free for the moment of poop and its smell. But then here came one of the little pups carrying a piece of burnt pig skin, running from his siblings and the older dogs – the church building being his hideaway. But he was soon chased out, only to have one of the bigger dogs take away his find. So the yelping and such was louder than the conversations happening in the little broken down building as we waited on the crowd to gather. I don’t think I can really paint a picture here of all that I saw this morning but perhaps you can catch a glimpse.

The smells and sounds and light coming through the various spots where there used to be a wall….or the sight of watching three little boys (two years old or so) running away together from the building so that their mothers would have to leave the teaching in order to bring them back and make sure they don’t beat on each other or head to the river and fall in. Or of the slurping of the snot from folks all around me as they deal with the latest cold going around the village. Or of the interruption at the beginning of the teaching as a guy heading off to the nearest town called for his mom from the meeting to take his son from him. Or as I watched the crew that followed these guys upriver rather than coming to church – just to send them off. Or of little Yeniyo wanting to toss a container back and forth with me in the middle of the meeting as he stood in the middle of the floor. Or of little Brooks pooping on the floor while we prayed….or of Bundos practicing his balance as he walked across a pole lying on the floor in the building or of how Elias just continues to teach through all this stuff. This is a fairly normal Sunday or Wednesday morning for us. While the building has no floor, one wall and a roof, plenty of dirt, trash and poop laying around, the people that make up the real church here continue to come to hear His Word taught in this little ramshackle of a building. They continue to read Scripture in the meetings and grow in their understanding of who God is. In between hearing the lot of them very noisily pull their snot back into their head this morning, I could just hear Fabel thanking the Lord for His power and goodness, His love and mercy. I could just hear Dakruma praise the Lord for sending His Son to pay for her sins. I could just hear the praise of His kids as they sat in a messy and by western standards, disgusting little place of worship so that they might praise and worship Him. Not exactly Florida – no carpets, no air conditioning, no nice smells or certain time of service but I can’t imagine being anywhere else at the moment.

Flat Stanley was one of the many of us crammed into the canoe! Can you see the close quarters?

2011-01-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Pretty narrow paths at times!

2011-01-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Some Business Trips are More Rigorous Than Others!

2011-01-23T16:58:00.000-08:00

It’s been awhile but I thought this trip to Siawi was worth a blog report! Linda Krieg, a missionary and translation consultant that lives in a neighboring village had graciously agreed to check the first three chapters of Romans for their clarity and comprehension. I say neighboring but it’s not like it’s in the suburb across town or something. This business trip took a bit more travel than that. So let me get right to the story…

We left here around 8:30 on January 6^th. Linda had gotten sick the weekend before so dates changed and it was a mad dash to get things ready to go. But we left around 8:30 to begin the journey to her village. We’re in wet season but it’s been a very dry season so far. Our river is really low but it had come up just a bit in time for this trip. We made good time getting to the Weyya baret. This small tributary is the way to get to the village from the main Sepik river, without a three hour hike. The water was so low that the Sepik turned into the baret. Normally you can stay on the Sepik and pass by this tributary without seeing it. So we had passed the village of Weydo and were on our way up the smaller river. I thought we’d just passed a couple of bush houses like we did last time, not realizing that we’d passed Weydo already. We didn’t see the guys from Linda’s village and we were slowly making our way up the tributary through some tricky parts as the water was so low. I finally asked Wobre if we had passed Weydo and he said yes, we were going up the Weyya tributary. I told him what Jason had said several times on the radio the night before – that if we got to Weydo, we had passed the baret and needed to turn around and go back. But we were pretty sure that you needed to pass Weydo first but since he was so insistent, I thought maybe something had changed that we didn’t know about. So we turned around and went back to Weydo – where some of another village’s folks told us what we already knew – that there wasn’t another baret. So one of the kids, Alex was standing there and because it was now 11:30am, we didn’t have enough time to go all the way to Siawi and get our guys back to Wabuku that night, I asked him to jump on and just show us where the road started next to the river once we got half-way up or whatever it would be. So we headed back up the baret – and finally met up with the Siawi guys around 12:15. I was SO glad to see them – I had begun to wonder a couple times if we were going to make it to Siawi or not! But we met those guys and started heading upriver by 12:30 or so. It was slow-going as the water was so low and we kept having to stop and push/pull the canoe over logs and such. The driver was literally under water pushing the canoe from underneath to get it over some of the logs while other guys pulled and tugged the canoe over. The further we got, the more stones we got stuck on (instead of sand) and so it took us about 3 ½ hours to get to where they shored the canoe and we hiked the 20 minutes or so to the village. We arrived around 4:30 and everyone thought we had motor problems – as opposed to just not finding each other for awhile and the slow ride up the river. If the Siawi guys had been there the first time up the river, we could have been there a couple hours earlier but we were there! It was better than the three hour hike but it would have probably been more like a two hour hike with how dry the trail is and how low the water is – as you have to cross the river a number of times. But we were there!

Then Linda and I needed to work through the pre-check stuff so I ended up cooking dinner while she made the adjustments to her English back translations with my changes. I was dead on my feet but it made sense so I made a big stir-fry while she worked on the computer and asked me questions from across the room. She asked me something at one point, and I finally just told her that I was too tired to figure out how many packs of noodles we needed in the stir fry – she needed to make that decision! We finally ate around 8:30 and worked until 10:30 – but we were fed and ready to go for the next morning!

The check itself went well although we definitely found a few spots that needed work. Tomas was doing a great job – obviously processing all that he was hearing as well as giving it back. Wobre was less helpful but he inserted some smaller details. He talks a lot in Melanesian Pidgin, PNG’s trade language, but in this check, he spoke almost totally in Uriay - even when we were sitting at the lunch table or something. Tomas asked some good questions at lunch that first day – about his ancestors based on what he’d heard in the first half of chapter one. Linda basically told him to keep listening to the rest of chapter one and even into chapter three and he’d get the answer to his question through them. It was pretty neat. We got through most of chapter two in the afternoon but we hit verse 24 and realized they had hit the wall. I could already see it in Tomas’ face but he was still pushing so I thought maybe he’d get a second wind. But we gave up about 4:30 and figured that we could finish on Sat morning. I ended up sitting outside talking with the guys until it was time to go to the other missionary’s house for dinner. We talked about all kinds of things that Tomas had questions on – some in Romans and some in other stories and books. It was really fun and I can’t help but think that he’s a believer that’s lacking a lot of teaching.

The next day was a bit slower – the guys were a bit sluggish from the start and those fun verses in Romans 3:5,7 didn’t come across as well as we wouid have liked. It was good though – we didn’t get done until 1pm or so but we got it done and Linda felt like I’d do well on the rest of the book. As soon as we got done, we started working on dinner for that night – to host the other missionary couple. I worked on potato salad – peeling and chopping potatoes. Then I made the deviled eggs and got those stuffed. Then later I made the brownies and cut up carrot sticks and did other little things - like pulling Linda’s laundry off the line and helping her fold it all. I was glad to help but I was literally dead on my feet by the time they got there for dinner! They loved it – a lot of what Linda made was what she was going to make for New Year’s Eve so the kids really enjoyed it! Pigs in a blanket, potato salad, deviled eggs and brownies! They wanted to play WII but neither Linda and I were up for it so we ended up watching a really cheesy Hallmark movie which involved no brain power!

After the slow haul up the river, the guys were asking me about our return trip. We decided that if we didn’t get any rain, it would make more sense to hike than go by canoe. As of Saturday night, we were planning on hiking as it hadn’t rained. Jason said the trail was so dry that we could probably make it in two hours. But it poured down rain that night – which kept me awake for quite awhile so I didn’t sleep well at all. But the river was up so were going to canoe down rather than hike. We left Linda’s before 8 but didn’t get loaded into the canoe and moving until 9am. It was a much different ride down! It started out with 13 Siawi guys in the canoe and then us – but we were too tippy and some of the guys were sitting on top of our stuff – including my computer! (I forgot to mention that my computer screen went out again mid-day on Friday! This is the third time my screen has been so bad it needs to go to Cairns, Australia to get fixed! It’s already spent 7 of the 20 months I’ve owned it in Australia!) So I asked that they not sit on top and so three guys eventually hopped off the canoe. But there were still 13 of us and we were sitting really low in the water! It was much like one of those log rides – where the people in the middle get soaked! The little rapids we were riding through kept splashing into the canoe – onto me and Tomas – and no one else! It was cold and wet! We had to stop once just to throw debris out of the way so the path was open again for the canoe. Then later we had a much longer delay as they cut a fairly large log at one end that totally blocks the river (we went under it on the way up) and pushed that out of the way to open up the road again. It wasn’t bad though – about 40 minutes of hanging out there on the side of the river. From there it was pretty smooth sailing and we met up with our Wabuku folks around noon. There were only about three times that I thought we might actually capsize! Seriously! One time the right side of the canoe was laying flat on the water – we took on water but somehow managed to stay afloat! It was quite the adrenaline rush until we got past that last log! The ride back up the Bapi was relatively innocuous.

I can think of other business trips that might involve flight delays or even traffic delays but they don’t really compare to sitting in a canoe for 8 hours or having your back muscles ache from trying to stay upright in a canoe while it tips from side to side for hours! I don’t usually have to go to the bathroom in the woods or sit in water-soaked clothes for hours or wonder if my computer is going to get lost in the river or not. So I think this business trip classifies itself as a ‘narapela kain’ – a different kind! I’ve only hit on the highlights – not describing in detail the time and manpower that it took to get the canoe up and over logs and across stones. Or of some of the smaller details of what it means to travel from one village to another when the main mode of transportation is a motor canoe and hiking! Think jungle cruise at Disney but multiplied a few times! It was great though – the Lord undertook and another chunk of verses are ready to be printed in the Uriay language!

To wed or not to wed....

2010-10-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

And no I’m not referring to myself! I haven’t been holding out on you and keeping a fiancé under wraps. I’m in town for a break and my coworker, Elias has been shooting short little emails as to what’s happening in Wabuku. Yesterday I got an email that Aendrien, one of the new believers had taken a widow, Ame, another believer as a second wife. I was rather bummed in that we’ve already seen such a change in him already that I wouldn’t be surprised if he became a leader or elder in the church in the future. So I hated to see him disqualify himself by taking a second wife. I knew too that my sister, Kayne, his wife, would not be happy – and as a young believer herself, I wondered how it would flesh out. Then today, Elias wrote and said that Aendrien has backed off because Wobre has made an official marriage proposal to this same lady. Not sure that Ame wants to marry anyone but she doesn’t have much say, short of running away to Bayyo, her home village. She’s the one that’s been teaching her kids – her two sons are believers too, along with her oldest married daughter.

Personally, I’d rather that Wobre marry her than Aendrien….for the sake of the church. Wobre is still an unbeliever and he’s determined to take a second wife so for the church’s sake, it would be better for him to take a second wife than the other guy. It’s not a done deal yet but that’s the latest news.

It’s so funny….before we were concerned about the salvation of our friends before but now not only are we concerned about the salvation of some, but we have new ‘concerns’ for these brand new believers – wanting to see them grow and how their choices, even as babes in Christ will affect them down the line, and the rest of the Body of Christ in this little village. So keep praying for your folks if you’re praying for someone individually – or for the church as a whole. Pray for wisdom for us as we disciple and know when to share and how much to share when some of these things haven’t been taught yet.

He's ALIVE! Ladies see the Risen Savior!

2010-10-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

The ladies arrive at the tomb and are met by an angel (Elias)

2010-10-25T17:50:00.001-07:00

Tyon, Noel and Fabel all listen intently

2010-10-25T17:49:00.003-07:00

Review Questions...I don't usually handle these with my eyes closed!

2010-10-25T17:49:00.001-07:00

Looking over my shoulder as I read...notice the lamb in the background...

2010-10-25T17:48:00.001-07:00

Full "House", dogs and small pigs included!

2010-10-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

Tyob (my main translation helper) ponders all this...

2010-10-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Broad view of the crowd that morning

2010-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Christ is carried to the tomb....

2010-10-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Noel's mother-in-law checks out the situation

2010-10-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

The earthquake hits and the soldies run away!

2010-10-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Roman soldier (Lisa) checks to make sure Christ is dead

2010-10-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

It is finished!

2010-10-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

Jesus cries out, "Father why have you forsaken me?"

2010-10-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

Markus and Paetrik look on

2010-10-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

Jesus hangs while others mock him

2010-10-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Jesus watches as the nails go in...

2010-10-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

In go the nails...

2010-10-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Jesus is nailed to the cross

2010-10-13T21:47:00.001-07:00

Saymon (Matt) carries the cross with Jesus (Noel) right behind him

2010-10-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Aendrien (now a child of God) follows along in his Scriptures

2010-10-11T21:44:00.002-07:00

Jesus (Noel) is led to the cross by Roman soldiers (Paetrik and myself)

2010-10-11T21:44:00.001-07:00

Jesus and the soldiers arrive as Saymon (Matt) drops the cross at Golgotha

2010-10-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

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2010-09-29T06:38:00.002-07:00

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2010-09-29T06:38:00.001-07:00

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2010-09-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

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The ketchup and the nail looked real....

2010-09-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

The Uriay were very quiet and somber - Wenti and Aketa included

2010-09-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

Death, burial and resurrection

2010-09-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

The day had finally arrived! It was finally time to present the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. I could hardly pray as we met this morning, getting choked up as I thought about a church being born here in Wabuku for the first time. In some ways it’s a bit of a blur – skits, reading of Scripture and teaching – going back and forth between the three things and monitoring the audience. But I wanted to get my first impressions out there for you to read and enjoy! The weather was perfect – we’ve had a number of rainy days and it would have been tricky if it rained during the teaching time. But it was sunny and fine. The whole village was there minus one couple plus some folks from the other two villages. Even Tyems and his wife were there, in spite of him still being upset about the marriage arrangement. Some of the guys that have been out in the bush came back in time to hear the last couple lessons here so it was a full house, and yard.

Noel, one of the Uriay men played the part of Jesus in our skits and he did a great job! We started with the soldiers taking Jesus while Simon carried his cross to Golgotha. I played a Roman soldier along with Elias and Paetrik. Matt was Simon so he carried the cross over to where it be planted. We mocked Jesus and while he wore his crown of thorns (and old clothes of Elias’), they ‘nailed’ him to the cross and we lifted the cross up and got him up into the hole and hung. Then we left and came back as Jews, mocking him and telling him to help himself like he helped everyone else. Then we talked about the darkness now covering the land and ran away at the earthquake. Then Noel cried out to the Father, as Jesus cried out to His Father, asking Him why He had forsaken him and then saying, “It is finished.” He hung his head down and ‘died’ and it was quite convincing. The ketchup on his hands and feet looked quite real. Then we came back on as soldiers again and I was the one that pierced his side – a Ziploc bag filled with red water – that splashed and ran and really looked like blood. Matt said that as it hit and splashed, it took him back to when Elias ‘killed’ the wooden sheep and the red water popped and flowed down. Then we took him down off the cross and carried him to the tomb. We wrapped him in a white sheet – and it looked so similar to what they do here when someone dies – so it resonated even more with the folks. You could have heard a pin drop! We put him into the tomb and went back to the teaching. I read the rest of what we had acted out – the soldiers beating and the people mocking him and the actual hanging. I got choked up as I read but the Lord enabled me to continue reading in spite of the tears running down my face. Elias taught on these portions, driving home the reasons for Christ enduring such a painful death. Imi was sitting next to me with her head down as were many of the other people – a somber mood had settled over the crowd. Then it was time for the resurrection and Jose, Rachel and I played the ladies that went to prepare Christ’s body with the spices. Elias played the angel that we met in the tomb and sent us off to tell the disciples of Christ’s resurrection. It was amazing! We got to use these fun expressions of surprise that we hear all the time – wanariri and kukaka! Then we met Jesus on the road and I exclaimed that He’s alive, weaving in the things He had said before about dying and being in the tomb for three days before rising again. Then it was back to teaching and Scripture reading again. It was an amazing morning – full and emotional and everything in between. At one point Elias had to wait for the dogs to stop howling – every dog in Wabuku (seriously) was in one spot and they were all howling at the same time!

We left the teaching there – we didn’t go over the review questions, wanting to give them time to ask questions or make comments – hoping that they’d declare their faith in Christ. We actually didn’t expect that since it would be too public a thing for some of them. Jon from Busan asked a question that basically only showed that he hadn’t heard much of the teaching. He’s been here the last two weeks and was here the first week but his question about the veil that was rent only showed that he had missed too much. Jon is a pastor for this other denomination but we heard later that he was at his house and crying because he’d never heard this before. He’s been steeped in works and never understood about Christ’s substitutionary death on his behalf. He realized that he’d missed it all these years. Not sure yet what he really thinks yet but we’ll find out more in the days ahead perhaps.

Anyway, the crowd was pretty quiet and somber but they didn’t hang around for very long. I sat with some of the ladies though and Imi was in tears as she talked about Jesus dying for her sins. She recognized that His blood had poured out to cover her sins but she didn’t seem to know how to put it into words. Wekot and Kayne were also tracking right along. I talked with Imi later on and she seemed hesitant to say she is child of God now. She recognizes that only He can save her but because of the teaching they’ve heard from this other denomination, she seemed unsure that she could say she’s in God’s canoe now. She seemed worried about sin – if she’s a believer then what about sin after that. I think she’s a believer, but with questions on eternal security but we’ll see as the days progress. I talked later with Dakruma – and she was beaming! I went over to see her and she was rolling her sago paste into the little globs when I got there. Her son was running around and had pooped in a few spots – he’s barely walking and no diaper so she cleaned that up while I started rolling the paste into globs for her. We sat there talking about the teaching this morning, me rolling her sago globs while she boldly talked about her trust in Christ’s shed blood for her sins! She was clear and confident that she was a child of God – and I had no doubt either! I had tears in my eyes as we talked – it was an incredible moment! Then here came Nawiyem, she was under the house and she and I chatted through the floor board, she really seems to understand but wasn’t sure what to do with the other teaching she’s heard too. Then she came up into the house and we talked some more. Again, I think she understands the basis of salvation but may need a bit more clarification on the other teaching before she can fully rest in what He’s done on her behalf. I think she’ll get more clear in the days ahead. The next phase of teaching will talk about eternal security and hit on the things we’ve been teaching about salvation too.

Imi’s husband, Fabel, was talking to Elias and he told him that this other denomination has lied to them. They had never heard this talk before. There’s an area meeting for this group next month and he asked Elias who they’d be worshipping – why would they meet? The doctrine is heavy on them cleaning up their lives, and even physical bodies in order to be right with God. They have stressed that they need to wash well with soap before coming to this meeting – and change their behavior in order to be right before God. He recognized that they weren’t talking about the God of the Bible. It was so cool to hear him recognize the truth for what it is!

Aendru came by and talked to Elias and said much the same. He’d heard talk about Jesus but never understood the substitutionary side of things. He was in tears basically. He said that when he saw ‘Christ’ hanging on the cross, he put his head down and could hardly hold back the tears. He went back to his house after the teaching and read the account again himself and couldn’t stop thinking about it. He tried to sleep but couldn’t – just kept thinking about it. He couldn’t do anything for thinking about what Christ did for him. He said he’s asking the Lord to change his mouth – that that’s the thing that gets him into trouble so much! This young man has been a huge help to me in translation but tends to lean towards pride and arrogance! And now he’s a believer! Praise the Lord!

Now it’s the evening and there are still lots more people to talk to and see how many more have truly placed their trust in Christ. We’ll know more tomorrow but we do know that God has built His church here in Wabuku on September 8, 2010! There will be others added to the fold and we’ll keep you updated on those too!

Death of a small boy

2010-09-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

It was barely dark last night when I first heard what I thought was one of the single boy’s radios. They have a tape that they play a lot lately that sounds rather gray and mournful and at first, that’s what I thought I heard. Then a bit later, I heard my ‘sister’s (Imi’s) mourning wail. Unfortunately we’ve heard the death wail enough to know who’s is who’s. Sad but true. Once I heard that, I knew it wasn’t a radio but truly death had come again to Wabuku. The fact that others were still siting in their houses and it was a single wailing I heard, I figured that it was a baby that had died as opposed to an adult or even toddler. A baby boy that was born the first or second week of this teaching phase we’re in had died. He didn’t really have a name yet, he was too young for them to officially assign a name to him. It’s Komnawe’s baby boy, her last child with her husband Wobre. Now Wobre is still alive but his second wife, that Komnawe fought with most of the time, Awe, killed herself a few weeks before we started teaching. She has been blamed for Awe’s decision. The two of them fought – Awe was the more abrasive personality of the two. She was a loud mouth and fought with her previous husband all the time before he died. But because these two ladies fought, it was Komnawe’s fault that Awe chose to kill herself to get her ultimate revenge on the other wife and her husband. Wobre’s been in Vanimo, the closest town that our guys can walk to, for the last three months basically. He came back last week with all kinds of plans to get another wife from a different region of PNG so that he can get his baby back from the other village. Anyway, it’s a complicated mess – and now his son is dead. He seemed to get the village cold or bronchitis or perhaps even pneumonia earlier last week and although he was short-winded, he looked fine and was breast feeding well until yesterday. My coworkers gave her medicine for him on Friday but even still, he was so young, not sure if it would really do any good or not. But then last night he died. No one else cried – the child wasn’t really old enough for anyone besides the immediate family to mourn for him. We wondered if we should cancel the teaching this morning and yet knew from history that a 3 month old baby doesn’t garner much sympathy here – it’s far too common for them to die at that age or younger.

We could hear the mother crying this morning after the first tree gong was hit, but still no one else. As we gathered at the teaching house, her nephew and oldest son were digging the burial hole underneath her brother’s new house. They made a little platform of sorts in the bottom to put the body and another platform above so the baby would lie in between the two pieces of flooring. Once they got it just right, the brother carried the baby wrapped in a piece of tree bark (soft and moldable that they use for their baskets, etc.) and the mom came behind him and threw herself on the dirt, still crying. No one else shed a tear or cried or anything…they covered the baby with dirt and said it was done….time to go listen to God’s Word.

So we walked the few feet over to the teaching house, waited for a few of the folks to come back that had wandered off and dove into the next lesson. At first, the mother still lay under the house crying….I could hardly hold back the tears. I just about can’t stand to see anybody cry anyway – I’m that person that cries in the movies and every time my pastor gets choked up…..and apart from that, this woman had lost her child. The village thinks it’s her fault because she sinned, she didn’t sit well with this other lady and so now God is paying her back. I couldn’t help but wonder if she feels anything but condemned and lost and alone. This was the last tie to keep her husband close to her – apart from the other six kids that they have together (that he’s ignoring). The father is downriver. He left yesterday morning to go down and shake hands with his dead wife’s sister who is caring, and keeping his child. She’s sick and in their world, he needs to shake hands to indicate that there’s no dispute there or hard feelings – that will make her well – since disharmony is what brings sickness and death and sorcery. So he’s gone down to straighten that out and his son here died. As far as we know, he doesn’t know yet. A canoe came through and we’ve sent word down but haven’t seen him yet.

After all these weeks of teaching, they’re still combining their ancestral customs with the truth they’ve heard. So sad…but that’s what we’re here for – to bring light and truth into this little corner of the world. Everyone was there this morning apart from her. Chances are that she won’t come to the teaching this week – when she’s heard so much of it. Pray that God would do a work in her life to bring her to the lessons – especially on Wednesday. Pray for wisdom and opportunity for me to encourage her and share His love for her with her.

Mrs. Pharisee

2010-08-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

I want to tell you about the meeting with the ladies on Sunday but first I need to introduce you to a different character in order to set the stage properly. Wekot is one of our sharpest ladies, a young mother of two that flew through literacy classes and even helped teach the last class. She’s actually from our third village, Tudaw which is the farthest away from us. Her mother is still alive and often comes to Wabuku to stay for a month or two before heading back to Tudaw. She usually wears her welcome out – with her daughter and the rest of the village. She’s the worst when she’s been in Tudaw for awhile and then comes here. She’s one of the worst Uriay Pharisees we know. J She’s always pointing the finger about how bad everyone else is and how good she is. She even told me yesterday morning that she’s a good woman (righteous) while others are not. She’s this skinny little lady with a big mouth. She’s always getting into arguments with the rest of the village – mouthing off to men so that people mock her and pretty much laugh at her openly. In that sense, we’re thankful as it means that they don’t take her list of do’s and don’ts too seriously as to how they can be righteous. She tends to think all the men are ogling her, wanting to marry her. She’s always telling us ladies that. It makes us want to laugh! I have a hard time keeping a straight face because it’s all she talks about it and it’s the farthest thing from any of these men’s thoughts! We wonder if she’s getting a little senile actually based on the odd things she says and does at times. More recently she even said she wanted to marry her son-in-law. Ok, so picture this skinny mouthy woman who is always telling the Wabuku people how bad they are and how good she is, coming in time to hear this week’s teaching after having been in Tudaw for the last three months basically. She was here the first week of teaching but then went back to Tudaw. She’s in her best self-righteous state (she does mellow out and become fun to be around when she’s been here for awhile) as she comes to Sunday’s lesson. She sits next to me and tells me how much she’s been wanting to hear this talk- on and on she goes. Really what she’s doing is establishing her goodness with me (in her mind anyway) while I’m thinking that if she really wanted to hear it, she could have been here listening to it. The choices was hers so all this talk means little to me while she thinks she’s buttering me up, so to speak. So anyway, as Elias teaches, she manages to listen and be still for a good part of it, but she can’t help trying to take over as he asks comprehension questions through the lesson. She tends to make statements – wrong ones but she makes them all the same as to how people get saved or who God is or whatever. Elias was gracious and didn’t embarrass her but he also made sure the truth was understood as he went along. Then even as I asked review questions, she was quick to answer….just incorrectly. But other ladies and the men answered with understanding and knowledge of the truths we’ve been teaching. It was really neat to see! The Tudaw folks look down on the Wabuku folks because they don’t do ‘church’ here. There are church buildings in our other two villages and they meet regularly but it’s a gospel of works not grace that’s taught in these buildings. You do this and don’t do that and God will save you. Nothing about them being sinners or that Christ died on their behalf – it’s all about your works. So to see our Wabuku folks answering questions with authority and real understanding while this Tudaw woman and other guys from the second village were a liitle off in their responses was really cool!

As soon as the meeting was over, the ladies and I were waiting for the men to leave so we could meet. My little Pharisee lady started going off on something. She was talking about some guy upriver that supposedly came back to life and lots of talk about sorcerers and sorcery. The men were answering her and the debate was going back and forth while the other ladies and I were trying to figure out if we should hit the tree gong, especially since one of the guys was sitting on it! Finally, we were ready to start and I just asked the other ladies if I could raise someone from the dead by my power. Could the sorcerers? Could any other man raise someone from the dead? They all responded without hesitation that none of us could, only God. This did exactly what I wanted it to do, it made the Pharisee shut up. I asked questions of the ladies about that morning’s lessons and previous ones and they answered quickly and correctly while this other lady, Sakwe, kept responding incorrectly. She kept trying to take the floor and direct the conversation to things about her, her husband’s death or what someone else taught. So I finally looked right at her and asked her if she came to listen to God’s Word or to preach. She’s about the only lady I would ever be that direct with but you have to be with her. She said she came to listen and so she turned to look directly at me (she was sitting next to me), pressed her mouth together tightly and made as if to listen, grudgingly perhaps but she was quiet anyway. I want her to understand the truth but she’s not really one to listen, she knows it all. And I sure didn’t want her to distract the other ladies or keep them from learning what they wanted to learn. As we continued to talk about the most recent stories, it was so amazing to watch the other ladies tell her the stories and the truths they’re learning! If Sakwe had a question, the other ladies would answer before I could, so I usually just waited and let them answer first. They were right on and I didn’t need to ‘catch’ her up – they were doing it! Wow! These ladies are solid in their understanding so far! That was the best part of the morning for me! I thought you’d enjoy it too! It made me think of that verse in 3 John 4, I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in truth. We’re almost there! We’ll soon be able to rejoice with God to see His Uriay children walking in truth. I was privileged to get a glimpse already!

Keep praying for these ladies – Imi, Dakruma, Nawiyem, Kayne, Ame, Tabe, Makay, and Maria. There are others but these are the ladies that are there most every week for the ladies’ meetings. Others are hit and miss but still tracking too.

Update on Individuals

2010-08-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here’s an update on the Uriay folks and how you can better pray for them!

Wobre - in Vanimo, heard the first 2-3 weeks of teaching perhaps and hasn’t been back since

Komnawe – attending daily, seems to be following but pretty quiet

Timoti (teen) – came at first but not really attending

Tyekob (teen) – has only heard a few lessons

Akusta (teen) – attends often but her attendance has dropped off recently

Tyoel (11) – definitely old enough to understand, periodically attends

Akaria (3) – there every day to scream her head off during the teaching time J

Tyob – really tracking well!

Fena – attending and very intent as she listens to the lessons, really quiet so it’s hard to get her to say what she’s thinking about all this

Nuafe (8 or 9) – attends daily but not sure what she’s thinking

Karoba (11)* - there occasionally

Makret (9)* - attending but has become rather sporadic in her attendance

Aki – Tyob’s mom – there daily and seems to be tracking but can’t get her to say openly what she thinks

Boni and Komayyo – neither one are attending, expecting cargo and things to just show up, we’re holding out on him by not showing him how to get all the cargo from his dead ancestors

Inok (11 or 12) – not attending

Dakruma (8) – sporadically attends with her cousins

Dona (6) – sporadically attends with her cousins

Diksen – has attended some and seemed really interested but has fallen off lately, in the same camp as his brother, Boni – waiting on the cargo

Edade – sporadic attendance

Sebeti (teen) – rarely there

Tyesi (10) – has heard very few lessons

Lubina (7) – occasionally attends with her cousins, but not enough to really catch it all

Fol - not coming, one of the other guys accused him of stealing tobacco so he doesn’t attend

Lusi – attends occasionally but has missed as many lessons as she’s heard

Nawiyem (widow) – sharp as anything! She’s missed a few lessons but she’s one of the ladies interacting in the lessons and ladies’ meetings! She’s so close!

Tyimi and Kristina – were there for the first week of teaching but have been in Kristina’s village, Busan for the rest of the lessons

Meyyo (widow) – there almost every day, she’s another quiet one that won’t really answer my questions as to what she’s thinking about the lessons, time will tell

Dina (teen) – sporadic attendance but has heard quite a bit

Terens (teen) – sporadic attendance but has heard a fair bit

Wilfet (9 but mentally slow) – there most days

Wekot (7) – there most days with her mom

Ame (widow) – she has been tracking so well – so keen to hear it – answering questions in the ladies’ meetings and asking them. Her daughter’s husband died in a nearby village so she’s missed the last two weeks of teaching and may miss the rest. Pray for a miracle here that she can come back and hear the rest of the story!

Kata (12) – there consistently when her mom was here in the village but she’s in the other village as well

Dominik (8) – in school in this other village, hasn’t heard any of the lessons

Tyeko (6) – was here but now in the other village

Paetrik – there most days but tends to skip out for fishing or gathering house posts, tracking well though

Tayna – same as her husband but she seems to be tracking well

Kilfet (6) – there but still too young

Fabel – has probably only missed one day in the whole three months! He’s keen to hear it and seems to be tracking wel

Imi- hasn’t missed a day, tracking REALLY well and hungry to know the truth! She actively participates in the lessons and ladies’ meetings – so close to understanding it all!

Tyefri (teen) – rarely in attendance

Erot (teen) – there most days, she’s sharp but not sure where she’s at for sure

Noma (7) – there with her mom almost every day

Albert – has helped with translation and checking Bible lessons but he’s very hit and miss in his attendance

Wabsa- there more consistently than her husband but a hard one to get talking about what she’s thinking!

Tyems – there daily, has missed some but he’s another one that’s keen to hear this and seems to be tracking really well!

Tabe – there daily and attends the ladies’ meetings too, very quiet but have had some neat talks with her

Stenli (19) – lives on his own – distracted by his sister’s baby out of wedlock and how that kept him from getting married – has hardly attended and isn’t getting the point as a result

Erik (teen) – sporadic attendance

Marina (11) – sporadic attendance

Mayyori (9) – sporadic attendance

Rems (7) – there most days

Aron (5) – there with his mom most days

Makay (18) – just had a baby but not by the guy she was promised to in marriage, so still single and living with her parents with the baby – there every day and often comes to the ladies’ meetings – seems to be tracking well

Makret (Tabe’s mom) – widow – there every day, quiet so we’ll see what happens in the days ahead

Maria – widow - very faithful in her attendance, tracking really well and eager to hear it all

Kiware (teen) – sporadic attendance but has heard quite a bit so far

Yabmu (8) – there most of the time

Aendru (19) – there most days, has missed a few for fishing, etc. He’s tracking well but he’s pretty proud and cocky right now too. Pray that the Lord can break through that pride.

Aywasi (teen) –not attending at all

Buti and Tariri - they’re in her home village – he’s not heard any of the teaching and she’s only heard about 10 lessons at most

his kids – Abram (teen) – sporadic attendance

Dara (11/12) – there just about every day

Eretia (7) – there most days

Her kids – Samaria (19) – in the other village with her mom and step-dad

Yurista/Yubet (teen) – in the other village

Dobeta (10/11) – in the other village

Ensel (7) – here and attends sporadically

Ambi – sporadic attendance, has been in another village the last week

Eren – very eager to hear, there every day and seems to be tracking really well but has missed the last week

Saylas- attends occasionally but seems to be in the same camp as his father-in-law, looking for stuff

Wenti – there more often than her husband, has missed quite a few lessons but still coming more often recently

Markus – attended rather faithfully at first but hasn’t come for the last three weeks or so

Mekrin – there daily and at the ladies’ meetings – she told she was hearing new things and she seems eager to hear but she’s also very quiet!

Aendrien – has hardly missed a day! He’s so keen and tracking really well. He’s probably surprised us the most because his brother falls into the disappointed with the missionaries’ camp and yet he’s there every day.

Kayne- don’t think she’s missed a day yet! She’s so keen and tracking really well – another one of those ladies that’s interacting and pondering how this affects her and her kids!

Dasti (12) – there most days

Naensi (8) – there most days

Silia (6) – there most days

Noel – missed the first two weeks but has been pretty faithful since. He seems to be tracking really well and keen to hear it.

Wekot – there every day although she missed the first couple weeks as well. She is answering lots of questions in the lessons and really putting things together well!

Lisa (4) – there but hard to tell what she’s really grasping

Stiben – there every day, he seems to be tracking but he would probably be one that would associate daily attendance with righteousness. Pray he grasps the real way to be righteous before God!

Dakruma – another of those sharp ladies that’s answering questions in the lessons and actively participating in the ladies’ meetings. She’s another one that’s really close to putting it all together!

Manay and Aketa - haven’t been in the village for any of the lessons

Manwel (has two wives) – not attending the teaching, he’s in Boni’s camp, disappointed with us missionaries because we aren’t pouring cargo out upon them day and night.

Mabe (first wife) – attends sporadically

Aysik (10) – attends occasionally and is almost more disruptive than attentive

Saylas (7) – rarely if ever attending

Bio (second wife and Mabe’s sister) – attends occasionally, more so than her husband or sister but has missed a lot too

Tyud (11) – not attending

Saenta (7) – there when her mom or cousins are occasionally

I think that’s everyone. Tyon Abe came from Busan last week and it seems like there will be open doors to Busan and Tudaw to share this message there too! Be praying for that – it won’t happen right away but we want them to hear it all too! A large number of the teens mentioned above are thinking about marriage so they seem to be super distracted with that and not focusing on the teaching. They’re waiting on Wobre’s return from Vanimo to arrange these marriages so they’re spending more time flirting and doing whatever the others are doing all together than attending the teaching.

Me with Saymon's widow - a feisty lady that's really grasping the Truth!

2010-08-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Abraham (Matt) raises his knife to offer Isaac (Silas) as a sacrifice

2010-08-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

Matt (Abraham) takes Silas (Isaac) to Mt Moriah

2010-08-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

Checking out the photos up close

2010-08-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Reading Scripture passages

2010-07-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Poopy Banana = Your sin in my eyes

2010-07-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Turtle, Greens and Sago

2010-07-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Noel has been helping me with translation and lesson comprehension checking for months. He’s the most faithful of all my helpers, helping me twice a week consistently. He would help me more if I didn’t need to work with other guys as well. Anyway, he came on Wed after the teaching time, although he slept through the teaching time and was ready to work on a couple Bible lesson checks. On Monday, he’d helped me and as he was leaving, he and some other guys were going fishing. We talked about turtle meat and how good it is but I don’t ever get any of it. So he said that if he got one, he’d give it to me. Well, he didn’t come by that night with one but someone else did – the whole turtle, shell and all! I was barely eating real food again from the stomach bug so I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I didn’t know how to get the meat out of the shell or anything – wasn’t sure I felt like tackling it that night either. Then Akusta suggested that they cook it on the fire first and then she would bring me the meat. Great – sounds like a good idea to me! So she brought it back partially cooked and as much as I wanted to finish cooking it and eat it, I threw it into a Ziploc and put it in the fridge. Then it was time for my lone egg and biscuit dinner- the first real food in days.

Anyway, so now we’re back to Wednesday. Noel came and somewhere in the middle of lesson checking, he started talking about how they caught turtles and fish bare-handed in the really low river the day before. They caught something like 244 fish and turtles and a couple of small crocodiles too. I was excited for them – it’s always good to know they’re getting meat to eat! So I thought we were just going to chat about their great catch and fun but then he invited me to eat with them that afternoon! His wife, Wekot was going to cook turtle meat and greens and make the sago paste for us to share together. This is not a normal thing – they don’t actively invite us to meals very often so that made this a pretty special invitation. So I cooked some rice and went over for dinner. My stomach was barely used to food again so I wondered how it would go. The turtle meat was good – hard to eat the meat without the skin and such. The little claws were still attached but it was pretty good meat. The first bite of greens hit my stomach and just kind of sat there like a lead balloon. I wasn’t sure I could finish what was on my plate although it wasn’t an outlandish amount of food. But I kept pushing myself and insisted that they eat more of the rice than what they put on my plate. Once we finished off our food, we sat around and talked about things they’re learning in the teaching or have questions about. Noel asked again about where their spirits would go after death. If a man doesn’t believe in God, does he go to hell? Yes, and one who believes God’s talk – that he’s a sinner before God but that God has provided for that in Christ goes to heaven. We didn’t go as far as naming Christ since we haven’t taught that yet but kept pointing towards that as we talked. Then he asked, well, if our ancestors didn’t have God’s talk, then where did they go? That’s always a much harder question to answer, eh? I tried to get them to come up with the answer themselves by asking questions based on the things they’ve been learning. They recognized that they must have gone to hell and said that we’d talk further about it once they’d heard the rest of the lessons. It was a neat time with them – felt like I was visiting friends in the States in a lot of ways, talking about the Lord after dinner. Never mind that we ate with our fingers in the darkness and hardly talked as we ate, it was a neat time of fellowship with them!

Poopy banana or sin, neither are very appealing

2010-07-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

On this second day of teaching on the 10 commandments, we utilized a lot of skits to bring the Uriay perspective to the forefront – to drive home these points so they could see themselves as transgressors of the law. Matt and I demonstrated coveting from their perspective. They all do it but the difference here is that if I press you enough, you have to give me your knife. This goes back to their thinking that a good person gives whatever another asks for. But now the shoe was on the other foot, showing the sin of that coveting and even pressing of the owner to give it to you. We did a skit where I was Matt’s daughter and not obeying him and even lying to him. He asked me to cut firewood and I not only didn’t do it but lied and said I didn’t hear him tell me to do it. It was clear to all that they do this all the time. Then we ended the day with me playing the part of God and Elias was a guy trying to come to God – to be right in His eyes since he’d mostly kept the 10 commandments. He’d only broken a few so he couldn’t be that bad in God’s eyes, I mean, everybody does it. So as he tried to convince me that he was pretty good and his good outweighed his bad, I dipped a banana in poop (it was really barbeque sauce) and offered it to him to eat. “Would you eat this banana if someone dipped it in poop first?” As Elias turned away in horror and disgust, I continued to tell him (as God) that his sin is the same in my eyes. It’s as if his body were covered in poop just like the banana and I can’t bear to look at it or smell it. How could he expect to come into my pure and holy presence with his sin? Breaking one means that he’s broken them all in God’s eyes.

Poop is the one thing that’s really disgusting to the people here. Their kid can stand in pee but they’d immediately cart them off to the river to be washed off if they put their foot in poop. So although it’s so gross, it’s the perfect thing to compare sin to. Dirt or mud aren’t near bad enough in their eyes to convey the meaning. It certainly hit home here.

The amazing thing to us is that the Uriay people seem to be seeing themselves in this! They’re not pointing their fingers at the Israelites as being dumb and weak when they saw all the miracles that God did to get them there and broke the law. Instead they’re seeing themselves in the Israelites – yep, we do those same things. It was quite the eye-opener for them to see that coveting is bad. They would say it’s bad but presented in the way that it plays out here was quite revolutionary for them. The ladies were all chatting about it at the end of the session – talking about how they do that all the time. It’s so neat to watch them grow in their understanding of truth!

Lisa covets Matt's knife, following the Uriay norm

2010-07-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Lisa in the middle of the crowd

2010-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

What about my kids?

2010-07-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

It was Sunday morning, time to start another new week of teaching but my body was hardly wanting to dive into another week. I’d spent more time in the bathroom the night before it seemed than in my own bed. But it was time to get up – the first tree gong was being hit so it was 6am already. By not eating and sitting more than standing, my body was able to make it through the teaching time. We talked about the purpose of the law and then covered the first 4 commandments. Matt demonstrated the very normal occurrence here of taking the Lord’s name in vain and it hit home. It’s very normal to hear them say ‘Thank you Jesus’ when they cut their hand or stub their toe, whenever they hurt themselves or come close to it, they use His name commonly. So today we were talking about how He commanded the Israelites not to take the Lord’s name in vain. Of the first four commandments, this one hit home the most. They’ve worshipped evil spirits but they wouldn’t necessarily admit to that at the moment and yet they could sure see their habitual breaking of this law. Anyway, the lesson itself went well and they really appreciated the skit on the purpose of the law. Matt had dirt on his face and as his friend I told him it was there. But he insisted that his face was clean – he had washed that morning already. But I kept insisting that he couldn’t see his face on his own so I gave him a mirror and he could see his dirt then. Then he tried to clean his face with the mirror and of course it didn’t do much to help him. We were comparing the law to the mirror. It showed him his sin but it sure couldn’t get rid of it – it wouldn’t help him become right in God’s eyes. Again we were encouraged with their understanding and grasp of these truths.

Now it was time for the ladies’ meeting. As bad as I felt, I knew the Lord could undertake and make it a neat meeting with these ladies. And He didn’t disappoint! There were only about 6 ladies there but they all participated and were all so keen to hear all that they can about God’s Word. I opened it up first for questions – to see if they had any on the last week’s teaching. So my ‘sister’ asked about her kids. If she followed God, would that help her kids go to heaven. It was a super neat opportunity to talk about how we must each make this decision for ourselves. We must each choose to believe God and accept Christ as Savior – or not. I didn’t say it exactly like that as we haven’t taught all of that yet. But I did lay out that her kids too will have to make a choice as to whether to believe God’s talk. They will have to choose to come to God His way – or not. If she believes, then she can help them by teaching them and helping them understand the choice they have to make but they will have to choose for themselves. Since we don’t even have a word for ‘choose’ in Uriay, it’s always interesting to talk about making a choice or decision. It ends up being more of a paragraph to explain it but you can get there….I think. J Anyway I was so glad to see her thinking and analyzing all this.

Then my other sister asked about the word pictures represented by the skits that morning. So we talked again about the mirror and about how it showed them their dirt but could do nothing to clean it up. And how the law was like that for us. It’s good and it helps us see that we’re sinful but it doesn’t make us righteous before God. It’s so cool to see them grasping that there is nothing they can do in their own strength or from their own knowledge to be right with God. They are understanding that God has made a way for us to be right with Him – to be clean in His eyes and we can go to Him by that road. And if we do, we will be righteous before Him. We can spend eternity with Him in heaven as opposed to being eternally separated from Him in Hell.

She also asked about the previous lesson where we talked about God coming down to the Israelites in fire, thunder, lightning and smoke and how afraid the Israelites were. She asked again about why God showed His power to them. So it was a neat chance again to talk about how the Israelites recognized God’s holiness and just how pure and different He is from them. And they recognized their own sinfulness – that they couldn’t approach God because of their sin.

For a group of ladies that have done little besides scrape sago, look for food, prepare meals and take care of their kids with no real educational background, these ladies are getting it. Some are younger ladies that are quick anyway but most of these ladies are the older crowd here. Some have learned to read and write. Some are still waiting on their turn. Some may never actually learn it even if they attend the literacy course, but God is opening their understanding to who He is….and to who they are. Keep praying that they’ll also understand His provision and accept Christ as their substitute. I can’t know their minds but as I talk with these ladies, I can’t help but think they’ll ‘get it’. Pray that I’m right. J

'God, honor them for their commitment to hearing Your Word.'

2010-07-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

We’d been hearing all week that they were going to ‘wash’ the Bapi river on Friday. We’re in the middle of dry season and we’re not sure that we’ve ever seen the Bapi this low – seriously! Anyway, because it’s low, the people have been gathering poison root to beat the pulp until the juice runs out in a canoe. Then they’ll capsize the canoe so that the mix of water and ‘poison’ makes the fish all slow and loopy – and much easier to catch! This is always a big event and lots of fun. The people get lots of fish and dry quite a bit of it afterwards. Anyway, we kept hearing that they were going to do it on Friday – which was encouraging as we don’t teach on that day and no one would be tempted to skip out on the teaching with the temptation of lots of food. Then yesterday we heard that a canoe of guys from another language group upriver had come through and said that they were going to do it today – Thursday, the last teaching day this week. We were a little bummed as we knew that some would skip the teaching for the sake of fishing. That’s understandable when they live hand to mouth every day. But still….we were praying and hoping that many would wait and go after the teaching time.

And there was a small crowd there this morning. The most faithful were there and it was a good enough crowd to teach, even though we would have liked for everyone to be there. Then as soon as we got done, the talk and preparations started to head upriver and meet up with the ones that went ahead. So Elias, Matt and myself changed and got ready for the hike upriver and the fishing down river. The guys use spears and knives to catch the fish while fortunately, us ladies use small hand-held nets. So we set off, a group of about 8 of us with others coming behind us. It was kind of fun to be doing something different from the norm – and this is always a really fun thing. You come back tired and burnt but having had a really fun time with the people – and with some fish for dinner too. So as we were hiking on the very edge of the river, through the jungle, over some logs, through brush and such, some of them were talking about whether the ones that went first thing in the morning had already started or not. Would we meet them on the trail half-way or get there before they actually started? And as I listened to them talk (many of whom had encouraged others to wait until after the teaching), I prayed, “God, please honor these folks’ commitment to hearing your Word. They’re wondering if they’ve missed out on all the good fish and yet, you are Jehovah Jireh. Give them fish to carry home for their willingness to honor You before their bellies.” And we kept walking – still looking for folks and wondering what the day would hold.

Then we saw a couple and another lady just ahead of us on the trail. When we got up to them (folks from another of our villages, Busan), they told us that they weren’t ‘washing’ fish today but tomorrow. The Busan folks were still gathering the poison root today, everyone was going to fish tomorrow. So all those that went first thing this morning were going to be a bit disappointed when they didn’t rake in any fish in today. It didn’t take long for me to think back to my prayer. He didn’t answer it the way I expected, but He did honor their commitment to hearing His Word! Now tomorrow, they can all go first thing in the morning and be a part of the process from the beginning – and they didn’t have to miss any of God’s talk to do it! I wanted to do a little jig right there as I thought about what He had done! He knew all along that they wouldn’t ‘miss’ anything today but they didn’t know that. Hearing His Word was more important – and I feel like the Lord honored that! I can’t wait until they’re praying those things for themselves but in the meantime I’ll rejoice and praise Him for answering in a way that He knew would be best! Yea God!

Will God destroy us like he did those in Noah's day?

2010-07-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

We had just finished the lesson and review questions on the flood. God offered a way of escape but only 8 people chose it. God had killed everyone outside of the ark and then promised Noah that he would never flood the earth again. And now that the lesson was over, my ‘sister’, Imi had a question. Because guys were using the question time as a platform to air their grievances, we had cut off the question time, telling them to come to us individually with questions. My sister decided to wait until we met as ladies later that morning. So when we came together, I started the ladies meeting with her question, asking her to share it with all of us. It was a small group of ladies, and this particular lady has been tracking right along – speaking boldly in the lessons and ladies’ meetings. She’s one of my favorite ladies here and that makes it all the more special that she’s tracking so well! Anyway, she finally asked if God would destroy us as He did the people in Noah’s day. The way she phrased the question made it clear that she feels like she’s in trouble – in danger of being destroyed for her sin! Wow! It was so exciting to hear her ask that – all of the things it revealed about where she’s at in her thinking. She’s wondering what she needs to do to be saved….that’s the bottom line. She sees that she’s a sinner before God and she seems to be grasping that she’s going to receive punishment for those sins. She didn’t state it as boldly as any of that but her phrasing and question sure indicated that she’s pondering all these things. Praise the Lord for what He is doing in her life!

Then I opened it up again for them to share thoughts or questions and Dakruma started talking about how she kept thinking about the people in Noah’s day as she scraped sago the day before. She kept thinking about what they were doing – and how they (the Wabuku people) are no different – they do those things now as well. She was just talking about how it was going round and round in her mind as she scraped sago. As I sat and listened to her, I was almost in tears. It hit me just how incredible it was to finally be talking about spiritual things with these ladies – and see all that they’re understanding – and believing. And that one day very soon, I could be sitting there listening to believers talk about their Savior – and what He’d taught them while they were out in the middle of the jungle. It was almost overwhelming as I sat there! I held my tears in check because I knew the ladies would wonder what I was upset about…..but I felt it. I can almost taste the reality of a church birthed here in Wabuku. I’ve been so encouraged by what these ladies are sharing – seeing them grasping the things they need to know about God and themselves. As we get to the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Law, I imagine that weight and concern about sin’s punishment that they’re glimpsing right now will only get heavier. And then we’ll finally get to the Answer we have in Christ! Exciting stuff!

Tyob reading his Bible portions

2010-07-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tyob, my main helper reading his Bible portions

2010-07-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Late Night Village Argument…

It had to have been 9:30 or 10pm when I first heard the voices. I heard the mumblings of other voices but overpowering all the rest, I could hear Tyob’s ‘code red’ level voice. He was not happy! There had been a village meeting the week before where voices got heated and a teenager even stripped down to his tshirt in his anger. There was talk of his sister, Akusta, his marriage exchange being given to his half-brother as his marriage exchange and Timoti was not happy about it! Anyway, with the number of voices and the bits and pieces I could hear from my house, I figured it was another conversation about potential marriages and exchanges – nothing gets the whole crowd hot so fast as the talk about women – or money! It was late enough that I decided I didn’t need to head over to find out what the problem was – I’d hear the next day all about it anyway. But I started praying right away because I know Tyob well enough to know that if he was really upset, his frustration tends to overpower every other thought. This could keep him from hearing God’s Word taught the next morning – and it probably meant that he wouldn’t help me finish up the taping of Acts that next afternoon either. So I prayed. The enemy will use all kinds of distractions to keep them from hearing God’s Word, and Tyob has been tracking really well. As a main part of the translation process, he has heard every Scripture that’s been translated up until now – all of the phase one and two teaching portions that are in print as well as the entire book of Acts, save this last chapter at that point. So I doubt that our enemy is going to leave him alone!

But the next morning, the teaching started with a smaller crowd than usual. It wasn’t just Tyob that was upset the night before! Tyob came late and sat at a distance but he came. He voiced a question at the end to shame everyone else basically but he had his say. Then I gave him the ‘out’, knowing instinctively that he would have not been any good at translation that day so I approached him first and gave him the out. His voice was hoarse from all the screaming the night before. He seemed thankful that I approached him and promised to help me the next day if his stomach cooled down basically.

One of the single boys had written a letter asking for a certain girl in marriage, but he doesn’t have an exchange for that girl. The tricky part is that Tyob is the girl’s uncle and has a say in who she marries, he also has been basically taking care of this single guy too. This single guy, Aendru really wants to be married and has been sort of going about it in all the wrong way! The meeting the week before had to do with him sort of enticing another young girl to inappropriate behavior. He’s at that age – and pretty much all of the single teens are doing this, he just keeps getting caught. The thing is, if Aendru would go through the proper channels and yield to what Tyob says, Tyob would really go to bat for him and get him a wife. But he’s impulsive and certainly lets his emotions drive his actions – a norm for this culture so he keeps ticking the very people off that could help him the most! So Tyob was mad at Aendru and Aendru was mad too so he didn’t come to the teaching. He came after everyone else had left and told us to remove the pictures that were attached to the siding so he could remove his siding (sago palm fronds) from the teaching house. Matt sort of talked him down and he didn’t do it but his frustration was high too from the night before. Both he and Tyob were trying to get us in the middle to declare that what the other person did was wrong – and not acceptable in God’s eyes. We managed to stay out of it but we definitely need His wisdom to do just that!

Tensions were high in the village that day. It wasn’t just Aendru and Tyob that were involved in the heated discussions the night before but another couple of young teens that want to marry each other were caught fooling around and the boy had taken off for fear of reprisals. So that marriage was being discussed, although Tyekob doesn’t have an exchange so not sure what’s going to pan out there. That’s really why it got to heated. Her brother, Terens, wouldn’t be getting a wife in the deal if his exchange is given freely to Tyekob. So it’s rather a tricky situation for them. If the adults don’t settle it soon, it could very well be that Tyekob and Dina will run off together and basically elope culturally here – then money will need to be paid, but it will also make the family lines easy prey for sorcery. It gets very complicated and hard to put into a short paragraph here – let’s just say that marriage talks are often some of the most heated! Not everyone is happy at the end of those discussions!

I heard the tree gong being hit that night around 6pm but was busy doing something else and didn’t go down. So then it was Wednesday. They’d decided the night before that there was going to be a village meeting after the teaching that day. So even though the crowd was there that morning, it was a subdued crowd, knowing that there was more to come after – and it might not be so pleasant. So the teaching ended, Tyob disappeared and we all thought we were having a big meeting. I stood with one crowd of ladies who are on one side of the equation and they were chattering about the meeting and what might happen. Then I stood with a few ladies that are on the other side and they were even telling Dina to run away and hide if it looked like they might hit her during the meeting. The tree gong was hit once, but without a lot of authority. I eventually made my way that direction, only to be stopped by Tyob. He asked me what time it was and what time we were going to start working. Huh? I asked about the village meeting and he told me that they weren’t having it. So we marked a time and he went to get a fishing hook from someone and then came back awhile later, ready to help me. I was actually praising the Lord because I knew that He was answering prayer and intervening here. So we finished taping the last chapter of Acts and worked on a few other little things. He seemed rather tired as we worked so I asked him if he’d not slept well the night before. He told me that he woke up at 3am when his 4 week old daughter woke up and stayed up the rest of the night reading his Bible and thinking about this trouble that had come to him. He didn’t go into specifics but somewhere in there he decided not to ask for the village meeting. The fact that he could actually help me showed me that the Lord had helped him and he was able to concentrate on other things besides the dispute- very unusual for him! Praise the Lord! We see the Lord working in Tyob’s life. He’s not got it all figured out quite yet but he is hungry and he is responding to truth. So keep praying! This topic will come up again – and the enemy may continue to attempt to distract them with this stuff. But it seems to us that we’re seeing God’s little victories in it too!

Elias...aka...Abel offers a lamb - coming to God God's way

2010-07-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

Matt...aka...Cain offers God garden food as a sacrifice - coming to God his own way

2010-07-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

Dakruma reads her Bible as we listen to God's talk

2010-06-27T18:07:00.002-07:00

The guys are super intent on what's being taught here!

2010-06-27T18:07:00.001-07:00

We are all born in Adam!

2010-06-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

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2010-06-25T08:56:00.002-07:00

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2010-06-25T08:56:00.001-07:00

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2010-06-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

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Cargo Cult Still Lives

2010-06-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday as we met together at the end of the day, we talked about a question that was asked that morning. If you don’t give whatever someone asks you for, can you possibly be standing in the ‘good’ canoe? (used to represent truth and being part of God’s family) The question was general but it was aimed at us whites. The people know that we have more than they do. They are hunters and gatherers so the concept of not eating everything you find today is foreign to them. We don’t have gardens – we don’t hunt for our food (otherwise we’d never get any teaching or translation done) so the fact that I have extra rice or meat in my freezer is beyond their understanding. They’ve heard that good behavior is sharing everything you have with those that have less than you do. By and large, that philosophy is one of the things that keeps this country as the third world country it is. No one can get ahead – you are obligated to share whatever you have with family – sometimes so far removed that you’re not even really sure how they could possibly be related. We see it as our folks get royalty money from the timber company. There are three other villages along the Sepik river trying to figure out how they can get a piece of it – claiming their distant kinship relationship. It’s amazing to see the things they’re coming up with to lay claim to some of those funds.

Anyway – as we talked about the question last week, Matt had heard that some of the single guys were planning on doing a skit on Sunday morning to ask their question. The night before several folks had come back from the bush – folks that are intentionally choosing not to listen to the teaching. The one guy has been disgruntled for a long time – because we’re not giving him everything he asks for. I believe that we are generous and yet we want them to understand the value of things as opposed to just freely giving things away all the time. That does not create gratitude with them – rather just more greed and discontentment. It’s never enough – no matter how much we give them. So as we talked, we realized that the skit was going to be about sharing. There is a cargo cult thinking here that if they do the right things, then they’ll get all the white man’s cargo. They need to follow the white man’s god and the cargo will literally appear before them. I heard a guy preaching this in the trade language a couple years ago and thought I misunderstood since he was so blatant about it. But they really do think that. Some believe that that’s really what this teaching is about – how to get the white man’s stuff. They’re demanding and in their minds, when it comes to us, if we are in God’s canoe, then we should never say no to them. We are obligated to give them whatever they ask for – no matter how ridiculous it might be! So we were thankful that the Lord had revealed this so we could talk about it and pray about it – and be prepared for it when it came on Sunday morning. The Lord impressed some neat things on our minds and we were encouraged that He’d brought this out into the open.

So Sunday morning rolls around and we finished the lesson about God creating Adam out of dust. The idea that God decided how He would create Adam – that He’s Adam’s creator and that He loved Adam was all part of this lesson. We moved through some other questions and then the guys did their skit. The funny part – or sad – or typical of how much they don’t understand about Scripture was that they took a little piece of the parable about the rich young ruler that came to Christ and the parable about Lasarus and the rich man and laid out their case. They missed the point of both talks and only took out the parts that they wanted to apply to their belief that we must give them everything they ask for if we’re going to be God’s people. That’s the ultimate behavior that will get us into God’s good canoe, right?

Elias in turn asked them about God’s Word – was it all about whether they should eat the betel nut plant or not? Was it about batteries and salt? Giving those things and everything else you have would ensure you a place in God’s kingdom? He explained that getting all of the white man’s stuff is not what this teaching is about. The base of this talk is about how they can sit together with God forever. God will tell us what He expects from us – what behavior is good and what isn’t in His eyes. Matt shared with them that we know that they’ve heard all kinds of teaching about what God expects from us – from other men’s perspectives but now it’s time for them to hear it from God – from His Word. I shared something in terms of a word picture. We have a tree drawn on the blackboard with roots, branches and leaves. From the start we’ve been telling them that we’re starting at the root and working our way up the tree. We will get to the leaves but we need to start from the bottom and work our way up – that sense of building a strong foundation and working from that. So since they had used a piece of this passage and a piece of that (translation helpers have already heard these stories as we prepared them for the lessons), I first shared that we want to answer them quickly on this particular question as well as others that they have. But we don’t want to just grab a leaf without having the foundation for it. If they just grab a leaf and don’t get it while standing on the tree, they’ll just fall down. They need to climb up the tree and take it off of the branch they’re standing on – then they won’t fall but they’ll understand the whole meaning. God’s Word does talk about giving – and the believers in Acts shared what they had so no one had any needs. But the recipient didn’t make the demands of how much or what they should get. Their approach here to giving is really about receiving or taking. Other talk sprouted up through this and it was a neat opportunity to challenge them to keep coming – that they would know the base of this talk – and it will/could change their lives. They were satisfied with our answer and it ended up being a neat time together although I’m sure they’re still wondering when we’re going to get to the ‘real talk’ and how to get the stuff.

In the past, as people died, their relatives would come to us asking us to pass on a letter to their dead relative with the list of things they needed. The dead person needed to send them clothes, a pot, batteries, salt, etc. And we white people know how to see them and pass on this letter. For people that only ever get food by gathering it themselves, the idea that a guy in Wewak buys my groceries with my money and sends it in from the store is a very foreign concept. So they try to come up with a reason for this – and it’s like watching a 4 year old decide how things came into being. They look around at the things they know in their grid and decide it must come from this or that. May the truth of His Word liberate them! May they walk in light and not darkness soon!!

The guy's side of the meeting house....

2010-06-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's Begun!

2010-06-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

So today was the first day of teaching! We’ve waited 6 long years to get here. With so many people gone, we wondered who would be here. Five couples came in from the bush yesterday – that we saw anyway. There were some key players that we wanted to see but we were afraid that they weren’t planning on coming. But we knew we could rest in the Lord – it’s His plan and His church to build, not ours. So we met for prayers, hit the first tree gong to let everyone know it would soon be time to gather. It was pretty soft so most people didn’t hear it – we found out later. Then after we prayed together, we hit it again. Then it was time to gather all the last minute things and head to the meeting house. Matt hung the digital recorder while I grabbed Scripture portions to have on hand in case anyone wanted to buy one. And we waited….the third gong and we still had just a small crowd although we could hear people talking in their houses. But there were three other families there that had come in yesterday that we didn’t see. And news of three more coming this afternoon yet! Thank you God!

We waited an hour before everyone was ready. Then it was time to begin. Elias started with pointing out things that had happened in the past to bring us to this point. Things like their letter asking for missionaries, our first visit and language and culture study – why we didn’t answer all their questions before we could do it in their language – those sorts of things. Then he talked about how we weren’t going to teach them white man’s talk or another man’s talk, only God’s. We needed to establish ( and will continue doing so in the weeks to come) that although there are lots of stories about creation, for example, there’s really only one true story – and it’s in God’s Word. He created everything so He’s the only one that can tell us how everything came into being. He laid out the two canoes that are in the building – one broken useless canoe and another really nice canoe. The one is to stand for God’s talk – truth and being on “God’s side” while the bad canoe stands for lies and “Satan’s side”. You’re either on one side or the other, can’t really stand in the middle of the two – you’re a child of God or a child of Satan. We didn’t establish all that today, just setting the stage for future teaching. Then he introduced maps and although he started with Wabuku and showed them their houses and moved out to immediate region, to Papua New Guinea and then on to the world, these ethnocentric people were most enamored as they saw a map that had their house on it! But it was important to establish that the world is bigger than their very small world here in the middle of the jungle. They still think that when I go to Wewak, a nearby coastal town, I will see my coworker, M’Liss who is in California. Elias did a good job of teaching and although we covered a lot of material, they tracked with it all well. The kids did great and it was a relatively quiet meeting for Wabuku!

So keep praying! God is going to do a work here and it’s exciting to be a part of it! I’ve attached some photos too – just different impressions from this first day!

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2010-05-31T11:53:00.001-07:00

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2010-05-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

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2010-05-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

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2010-05-30T09:12:00.001-07:00

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2010-05-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

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Do We Go or Do We Stay Now?

2010-05-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

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 30^th. 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.

literacy graduation grandstand in progress

2010-05-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Guys reading God's Word in Uriay

2010-05-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Literacy Graduation!

2010-05-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

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!

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

2010-05-02T04:55:00.005-07:00

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

more literacy photos

2010-05-02T04:55:00.004-07:00

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

more photos

2010-05-02T04:55:00.003-07:00

The guys – Stenli, Aendru and Markus reading Genesis!

Stenli receives his diploma!

still more photos

2010-05-02T04:55:00.002-07:00

Eren, one of the sharpest students gets her diploma

Stiben, the guy who hugged me, looks at his certificate

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

graduating class!

2010-05-02T04:55:00.001-07:00

the literacy grads!

Krikey! The Croc Got Me By the Head!

2008-02-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

We've got our very own Steve Irwin wannabe's right here in Wabuku. They prefer to kill the croc first and then play with it...good thinking. Here's a photo of Markus with his head in the crocodile’s mouth! This one was killed a couple Sundays ago – just outside the village! Yikes, they’re coming closer to us.

Death of the 8 ft Python!

2008-02-21T06:26:00.001-08:00

You may be thinking that missionaries like me enjoy telling scary, snake stories - and you would be right! If you are afraid of snakes you definitely do not want to look to your left. Don't be too afraid. Its just me with an 8 foot python that was killed right outside the village. Not sure he enjoyed his visit to Wabuku – and he sure won’t make another one!

Trip to the City! (Nominated Best Tribal Comedy)

2007-12-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

The big trip to the city started with us heading to Goroka with four men from Wabuku to attend a team translation workshop. The guys would receive training from a national man involved in the translation process and church planting in a tribe in the Islands region of Papua New Guinea. We white skins sat in classes every morning and then applied what we learned in the morning to our own translations in the afternoons. We translated the prodigal son story from Luke – taking it through all the steps so that my coworkers could see how they would/could be involved in the process. It’s not just one person that sees a translation come to fruition. It’s a team effort. My coworkers will be involved in the comprehension checking and content checking – making sure that what I translated actually means what it’s supposed to mean to the people and then making sure that I haven’t added to or taken away from the original content.

Anyway….four of our guys went with us and it was a whole new world for them! One of our guys had flown before but not the other three. They’d all been out to the nearest town to our village, Vanimo, but they all commented on how big Wewak was compared to Vanimo….and Goroka is even bigger than Wewak so their world just kept getting bigger! Some were more overwhelmed by all this than others.

Albert, by far, dealt with the most culture shock – people that looked like him but so many people that he didn’t know – so many buildings and things happening that he’d never experienced before. He sat on the plane next to Jimi on the first flight and just about held onto his leg or pant leg the whole way! He was smiling and said he was fine anytime I asked him, but there was definitely some fear with it! He looked the most shell-shocked in town – just sort of staring off into space as he tried to process all the people, cars and stores. They saw the ocean and things that they’d really not seen before.

Because of changes to plans, we ended up in Wewak for a couple of hours before our next flight up to Goroka. Since we’d be late in arriving in Goroka, we went shopping for shoes for our guys. The Interface campus where we were headed is in the highlands region of PNG – a mile above sea level and quite a bit cooler than our swamp village. The highlands doesn’t have sago palm trees – they get coconuts from a coastal town as opposed to even seeing coconut trees around their villages. It’s a much cooler temperature – mid 80’s during the day and down to the 60’s even at night. (It got down to 45 F one night when I lived up there.) Anyway far too cold for our Sepik guys to be running around with no shoes on. So off we went to the local Walmart, aka Papindo’s, to buy shoes. They each picked out a pair and tried them on….then we had to stand in a different line in order to get the shoe strings for them (a loss prevention tactic).

Actually, before we started shopping, we stopped for lunch. There’s a little fish shop right near town that sells a pretty good plate of fried fish and French fries (chips) or roast chicken and fries. Most of us got the fish but Albert decided on chicken. He was definitely still in the overwhelmed state of things as he sat there. I kept looking over at him – to see if he was doing ok and most of the time he was eating the fries. The last time I remember seeing the chicken, he still hadn’t touched it. A few minutes later, no kidding, I looked over and his entire plate was empty – the garnish, the chicken, fries, everything – including the chicken bones! They gave him a wing and breast portion so it definitely had bones…..but not when he was done with them! He ate everything, bones included! It was so funny – one minute it was there, the next minute, none of it was!

We got on a bigger plane and they all did fine – enjoying the sight from above. Another one of our guys, Paetrik, was like a kid in a candy store. He was a little nervous but so excited. He giggled more than anything! We got to Goroka and they were able to go around town a couple times – amazed at all that was available in town and the huge numbers of people. We went to the Goroka veggie market and two of the guys didn’t even get out of the vehicle! They were too overwhelmed by the huge mass of people selling things to venture out on their own – or even with us. It was great for challenging their world – enlarging the size of it in huge proportions.

Their teacher, this guy from the Islands, is a mature believer who challenged them with questions that they couldn’t answer from their world view. He didn’t give them the answer to his questions although he told them that he knew the answers because the answers were in the Bible. He really got them thinking and started challenging their world view – a perfect pre-evangelism tool! We’re so thankful for the training they received from this guy – in the classroom and outside of it.

Dada cuts her hand... (Rated R for violence)

2007-09-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon – just finishing my lunch when my co-worker, M’Liss, calls for me. One of the tribal girls, Dada, has cut her fingers with a machete. Ugh….you have to understand that open bloody wounds and I don’t get along very well. My stomach starts turning and I feel faint. I’ve passed out only once – when they were taking my blood and had to try a couple times. Anyway – I went down to help. None of us missionaries have had any medical training. We’re limited in what we can do as this particular province of PNG doesn’t allow us to do anything yet in terms of shots or disseminating medicine. (Our leadership team has been working with the government authorities to sponsor a training course for national guys that we appoint so that medical work can continue even after we leave. This course starts in February for our folks.) So we start off rather limited in knowledge and options. The nearest aid post is a 5 hour ride in a paddle canoe and because sorcery is always tied into sickness – it’s hard to convince them to get medical care anyway. Ok…so now you know a few background things for the rest of the story.

I go down to our verandah where M’Liss and Dada are. Her middle finger is cut right at the last knuckle – closest to her fingernail. It’s crooked – sort of hanging off to the side – definitely broken. The blood has coagulated around the open cut so at least the blood isn’t running down her arm at this point. I only looked at it for a few minutes before my stomach was twisting. After about 10 minutes, I had to actually sit down – or pass out. So I sat down as M’Liss and I tried to figure out what our best option was. If she removed all of the coagulated blood, then it would start bleeding all over again – and neither of us thought the ten year old girl could handle the pain that would be involved in putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. So we decided to try first pouring an antiseptic solution on it to clean it and see how it went from there – leaving some of the coagulated blood where it was. All I did was hold a bucket under her arm as M’Liss poured the solution over it – with my head turned away – and provide moral support. M’Liss did all the work.

Dada didn’t make a sound – she wasn’t crying – she wasn’t saying a word. She winced plenty of times and tensed her whole body up but other than that, she just sat there. M’Liss got a lot of the blood cleaned off. The finger needed to be straightened – the bone put back in place – a little beyond our skills – and again, pain tolerance comes in there. These folks have high pain tolerance but the kids especially would rather leave a splinter in their foot so that it ends up being a huge sore rather than deal with the small amount of pain it would take to remove that splinter. So here we are – no anesthetic for her – no way to numb her hand and yet we needed to do something. So we finally got the wound clean – wrapped it in a bandage – along with the finger next to it – gave the equivalent of childrens’ Tylenol and put her on an antibiotic. The hard part is to see how her aunt – who now looks out for her as her mother died way back in 2004 from breast cancer – wasn’t concerned for her at all. She said it was ‘Dada’s thing’ and went on by. Most of the adults didn’t care that she almost cut her finger off. Another lady in the village who seems to be ‘the lady’ to care for people when they’re sick is taking care of her. Dada has moved from her aunt’s house to this other lady’s house. We’ll see how she does – they do heal in ways that we don’t. But they’re quick to lose bandages and do all the things that a doctor would tell them not to do – like get it wet – hang her hand down rather than holding it up, etc.

It’s a very different story from the standards we’re used to in the United States. She would have been taken to the emergency room – perhaps had to wait awhile but she would have been in a fairly sterile environment – no flies trying to land on the open wound – minimal chance of infection – Novocain or some other anesthetic – stitches – and a wealth of knowledge between the doctors and nurses in how best to handle it all. Not exactly what she has here in Wabuku. Pray that her finger heals – that it doesn’t get infected and that He will be glorified through this situation in spite of it all. We can’t expect western standards of medical care in a country that can’t provide it – that’s the hard part. We can help but the country as a whole is not equipped to provide the medical care that we take for granted. Yet another way that we could easily compare and condemn their way of life to ours but it isn’t for us to judge. We can help and deal with situations as we are able but we didn’t come to build a hospital and care only for their physical needs – we came to care for their spiritual needs. You obviously can’t only take care of those and ignore the physical needs so it’s a hard balance. We want to do both – to the extent that that’s possible and yet without creating paternalism too. We don’t want them to be totally dependent on the white man.

We’re not the answer to all their problems. He is the ultimate answer. Aside from that spiritual need, we feel we should train them and empower them to care for themselves. That means that when we move out of here, medical care can continue without our presence. That sounds logical and easy – but like so many other things, easy to say and harder to do. Pray for that too – that the Uriay people (all three villages) would take this responsibility as their own – and not just look to us.

Your 4 year old daughter or a husband? A glimpse at marriage for a widow…

2007-08-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

I was in the canoe – headed back into Wabuku for the first time in seven months – and culture was happening before I made it ‘home’. We had to stop in Bayyo – a village at the mouth of our river where it meets the Sepik river. Several ladies from this village had married men from Wabuku. Because of their location and the intermarrying, we’ve formed a relationship with the people there and see them coming or going – as well as visits they make to our village. Maria, one of the Bayyo ladies, was married to one of our Wabuku men before he died last August. My coworker, Elias, told me that Maria and another of our widows had just married our two village widowers the week before. Maria was one of them but our guys hadn’t asked permission of her clan so Bayyo was not happy about this little arrangement. In tribal culture here, they do an exchange system for marriage. If a guy wants to marry a girl, he has to have a sister to give to the potential bride’s brother. If he doesn’t have an exchange (a sister to give) then the parents of the girl may still be willing to give the girl to him in marriage – for money or a bride price. The brothers of Maria’s deceased husband had already agreed to give Maria to Matiu in marriage without talking to the Bayyo men so her Bayyo family members were mad. They wanted an exchange for her – even though it was a second marriage – and money. That’s the background so that you can understand the scene that I’m about to describe.

We stopped in Bayyo to pick up Maria and her three kids – two boys and a girl, to take them back to Wabuku. Most of the village had come out to the canoe – I was greeting the ones that I knew and shaking the hands of all the kids surrounding me. Maria came out carrying her little girl and had already gotten in the canoe when her brother and sister came towards her with a big stick and a machete. They were trying to rip the daughter out of her arms – threatening Maria with the knife and stick. She had her own stick and was trying to hold on to her daughter and fight them off at the same time. They weren’t trying to hit the daughter – just Maria but the daughter was crying and her little arms were being pulled by the sister while the brother struggled with the Maria. I sat there with tears in my eyes – trying not to lose it as I watched this heart-wrenching scene. People were laughing and more and more were helping the sister and brother try to pull the child away from her mother. This was the reality of tribal life – hitting me between the eyes before I hit the shore of my own village. This went on for 10 minutes or so and finally they were able to get the child away from the mother – although she got a few punches thrown in against her brother with her fist and the stick she held. It was so sad. Neither of them came to Wabuku – she sent her two boys up to stay with their uncles but she stayed in Bayyo with her daughter. The boys sat in the canoe – at times being told by the Wabuku folks to lay down so that other Bayyo family members wouldn’t see them as we passed them on the river.

Marriage and the exchange system is a huge thing here. And add to that their fear of sorcery and how any type of dispute opens the door for sorcery to come in and kill someone, this was a huge ordeal. The Bayyo folks were mad – they had a ‘hevi’ (dispute) with some of our Wabuku men so that clan was especially mad at the new husband until the dispute could be settled. The new husband had to pay a ‘bone price’ (literal translation) to the brothers of the dead husband for taking his widow. Now he had to pay Maria’s family a bride price for her as well. Until all of that was settled, the brothers were extremely afraid of sorcery. These guys got mad and grabbed bows and spears to threaten the new husband, Matiu – to push him into paying this money so that there were no disputes. It was an interesting week as I listened to these two brothers yell and scream at Matiu – although we knew that the threatening was all a sort of posturing. They act like they’re going to fight but it’s all for show really - but it does get the point across to the other guy.

A few days after I arrived back in our village, Maria had run away from Bayyo and come up to Wabuku. She’d left her daughter in Bayyo and run away to be with her new husband. She and Matiu took off to another village to get money from other clans to pay the bride price and bone price to settle these issues. Last Saturday, the Bayyo men came up and had a meeting with the deceased husband’s brothers and the new husband – and most of our village – to settle the dispute. The daughter would stay in Bayyo as Maria’s exchange – and be raised by her family members and when she was old enough, she’d marry a Bayyo man. Matiu paid his money to Maria’s family and everyone was happy, except Maria’s oldest son. He was mad and throwing a fit that his sister would remain in Bayyo. He threatened his mom with spears and sticks – screaming and crying that she had gotten a new husband and that his sister would stay and marry in Bayyo. Folks said that he was mad because his sister wouldn’t return to Wabuku – and some said that he was mad because he didn’t have an ‘exchange’ now – so when it’s time for him to marry, he won’t have a sister to give. Sad all the way around. The mother’s fine to have a new husband but give up her 4 year old daughter so that she can have this new husband. Would you be willing to give up your 4 year old for a husband? It’s hard for me to fathom that a mother could give up her child – to be raised by family in another village so that she could remarry but then I wasn’t born here – and it’s not my custom. (We won’t get into the things that are acceptable in our culture, ie abortion and abandoned children, etc.) That’s just the way it is…

Photos of Wabuku

2007-07-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Wabi World!!

2007-06-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Wabi World - It's a place where you can come and catch up on what I'm doing in the tribe. Isn't it awesome that I can keep you plugged into what's happening in Wabuku while I'm on the other side of the world? The internet enables me to get you the latest news from Wabuku in short order as opposed to what I can get to you in my monthly updates. I'm also hoping to post photos from time to time to give you a glimpse into my world.

In case you're wondering...we often refer to our home as Wabiland - although the name of the village is Wabuku. Since I'm from the Orlando area and Disney World/Sea World and lots of other 'worlds' are here, I had to incorporate that into the blog title too!