Discouragement

Right before our team left PNG (and me!) a couple people put together this suystem where we each wrote each other little notes and delivered them accordingly. It kinda reminded me of leaving valentines in each other’s bags in elementary school. Well, I just now got around to reading the thoughtful notes from the team, and the very last one I read had some insightful words in it: “Don’t let anything discourage you.” It’s only by God’s perfect timing that today is the day that I am most discouraged. There are a few things that have been discouraging about today, and I will not go into detail, but I ended up reading Psalm 42 and meditating on it for the purposes of seeking comfort from the Lord. My enemies are not pursuing me as they were David, and there really is no reason to be discouraged. It’s just sin. Sin that gets in the way of loving God. I was talking with Liz earlier about our shared discouragement

me: You’d think I would get what God is trying to teach me after take 127.

Liz: You’re only on take 127? Wait until you get to take 633.

Com’ on now! Why do we place our hope in false things, things that will fade and die and burn along with the rest of the world? I want my heart to continually be echoing the words of David in Psalm 42:11, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

Back to the note. Don’t let anything discourage you. God is bigger than that. Discouragement is not from the Lord and has the potential of only getting in the way of truly worshipping and serving him. According to the process of Biblical change (Eph. 4:22-24), (1) put off, (2) be renewed, and (3) put on:

put off discouragement, be changed by God’s Word, and put on encouragement

Don’t let anything discourage you!

Sori Tru

Hi all. “Sori Tru” means “I am truly sorry” in Tok Pisin, the language I am learning here in PNG. I am sorry for not writing for so long, especially as I am discovering more and more how many people actually read this blog, are praying for me, and who are being blessed by the Lord and His grace from this blog! Not to say that I have anything to do with it, but I’m just learning yet one more way that faithfulness is key. Since so much has gone on since the last post about our adventure together, I will just touch base for now and write more as it comes.

 Well, our team left PNG on Thursday morning, and I had the privelidge to see them off to the airport All of the team went back to the US/Canada except for 5 of us: me, Doug (staff), Heather (staff), Liz and Jennie.  Doug will teach the next program as well, as he is a retired missionary from the Solong tribe in the New Britian Islands of PNG. Jennie is on the Highlands base with missionaries from her home church and will remain there until we leave on July 19. Heather, Liz and I are now serving on hospitality here at Interface until we leave on July 19.

 This past week has been quite interesting. Things were definitely busy as the program was wrapping up and final thoughts were made. We had ample opportunity to visit the villages and say our goodbyes to the villagers as well as the staff here at Interface. We were provided with much time for reflection, thought and prayer as the time came to an end. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the Lord has put on my heart specifically, and I will attempt to communicate some of that with you.

 There are a ton of unreached people groups, whether they are in PNG, Africa, Siberia, South America, or wherever. They have never heard the gospel message in their own language, or Tok Place, and therefore have not had the opportunity to make the choice between God and the world. On the other hand, there are plenty of people on every continent who have had the chance to hear and make that decision. Are we willing to go and tell the rest? It’s a hard decision to make, and it should be made after counting the cost. It is something that I have been thinking through a lot myself.

 Am I willing? To what extent? In what capacity? Is there anything that would keep me from going? If so, is it more important to me than perishing souls? How has the Lord specifically equipped me as an individual and how does that fit into where He currently has me?

I do not have many of the answers. One of the biggest and most helpful things I have learned since being in PNG and exposed to tribal mission work is that of what it takes to get a missionary (or missionaries) into the tribe and what it takes to keep them there. There is TONS of support work that goes on outside of the actual tribal work, but if it weren’t to happen, then the tribal missionary is going to spend more time outside of the tribe than they are in the tribe. This is where I think I come in. The more I think through and pray through the missionary options, the more I am convinced that a role in missionary support work is best suited for how the Lord has created me. I do not yet know exactly how I might fit into the woodwork, but some ideas have been entertained. Opa comments almost every time I see him how he thinks I would make a great teacher. But teaching (in public school America) is one of the last things I desire. But teaching at an MK school such as the one here in PNG at Lapilo…sure! Or any amount of office/admin work sounds thrilling to me. Honestly. I would love to be in a position where I know that the work I am doing is keeping the tribal missionary in the tribe. As my notes are not in front of me, I am not able to expound on this topic much more. Anyone familiar with this concept is more than welcome to comment, please.

 This week is partial rest. We have activities to do in gearing up for the next program, since the new set of students do not arrive until Friday afternoon. Some of my duties include: supply runs, cleaning, and kitchen prep. There will be some amount of down time each day, with Tuesday being almost a completely free day. I am really looking forward to taking the entire day to bask in the presence of the Lord and spend some undivided time with Him. If I think of anything else to write, I will.

As I went down to the river to…play?

Yesterday (Wednesday) we embarked upon the
long-awaited hike to the river. It takes the typical group
about 1.5 hours to get there-one way-and each group that
goes through the program has only one opportunity to go. It
was a nice hike down there, but really it was more of a
walk-about. I can’t say I’ve hiked in much similar of a
situation, but the closest I can think of is hiking
anywhere along the northwest Pacific Ocean. But even on
those hikes people don’t typically walk through coffee
gardens or through grass that is as tall as your waist and
as sharp as a razor (for reals, most of us got cuts on our
legs). There was even one point that the grass was up over
our heads like a canopy for a while. I got some sweet
video footage that I’ll post once I am capable.

So we were led astray to the river; apparently we were
hiking to a new destination than previous groups have gone
and our leader turned off too soon. So it took us longer
than we thought to get there, but no complaints because it
was beautiful. We spent about 30 minutes actually playing
in the river. It was like the American River up near home,
but dirty and frigid. As we were hanging out some dark
clouds loomed overhead and the missionaries commented
about rain coming. Keep in mind that it has rained a total
of one time since we’ve been here, which is apparently
unusual. So we’re getting out of the river and ready to
hike back when the downpour starts.

This is wonderful because the entire trail is dirt and
mostly full of hills. Oh, and did I mention the part that
we are all soaking wet from the river anyway? And on top of
that, all the girls are in skirts. So we’re pretty much
getting started back as soon as we can…all 34 of us.
Somehow or another I ended up in the front of the group
with a national guide, two MK’s (ages 10 and 14), and 3
other students. We got way far ahead of the rest of the
group and decided to keep pressing on without them. The
trail was pretty slick and even the guys were slipping all
over the place. Additionally, there were parts of it where
the ground was about 6″ wide, with a cliff on one side and
a barbed-wire fence on the other. Safe, I know. I forgot
to mention that the national children love to follow us
wherever we go. In this case we had about a 1:1 ratio of
children with us. I was heading up the back of our group,
with Joerg (a student) in front of me and a village girl
named Wendi behind me. There was another village boy in
front of Joerg who kept looking behind and making sure
that I was okay. Eventually, the village boy (can’t
remember his name), who is all of about 9 years old, pulls
back behind Joerg without saying a word and digs out foot
holes in the mud with his bush knife for me. It was so
precious! Because of the noise of the rain the boy kept
turning back and yelling at me to “stepim here!” and
pointing with his machete at the freshly turned dirt. I
felt very loved and taken care of. As I was sharing the
experience with one of the missionaries upon arriving
back, I couldn’t help but think of how the Lord does that
for me in life. There are so many times where I am just
walking along–not in the best of situations, but
definitely not the worst–and God just clearly shows me
the steps I need to take towards safety in the midst of
potential hazard. Yes, He can take away the rain or
flatten the mountains. But He takes pleasure in me
following His instructions even more. And just as if I
were to not listen to the child, I would be a fool to
ignore the instructions of the Lord.

Our group will be in the air on their way to Singapore
exactly one week from right now. Once in Singapore they
will spend the night and fly to LA the next morning. I
will see them off to the airport and spend another 3 weeks
here in PNG. Two other girls are staying with me, and we
will watch the new group come in. There is about a week of
time between the two groups, and much of it will be spent
doing random jobs around the campus, going into town, and
just hanging out. As for me, today marks the 1/2 way point
of my time in PNG. I love it here and can’t wait to share
more experiences with you as I anticipate coming home.

This Is The Day

Please overlook the delay in getting an update
posted. Tamsen (my sister who is taking care of these
posts for me) had surgery on both of her feet Monday (CA
time) and is steadily recovering. Additionally, I have
been busy here in PNG! I went to write emails yesterday
afternoon and the Internet was down, and there are
constant opportunities for ministry among my teammates and
the other missionaries that are sometimes more important
than blogging or emailing. Thanks for your understanding!

The days here have been one in the same and similar to
previous days. It’s all great and good, but does not
provide much new information for y’all. Except for Tuesday
when we went into town. We drove for an hour into Garoka
and experienced what the typical PNG tribal person might
do with an afternoon in town. We were broken into smaller
groups as to keep a low profile. I was actually led in a
group by a local PNG girl, Shara, who is a believer and
lives just outside of Garoka. She visits the Interface
campus frequently and is a really neat girl. Another guy
in our group is one of the German interns, so he is also
town-savvy. So having the two of them was pretty cool.
Shara knew all the safe shortcuts and hotspots and Simple
kept us on time.

We started first at the Veggie Mart where anyone and
everyone comes to sell their produce. There were many
varieties of fruits and vegetables for sale–pineapple,
carrots, lettuce, kaukau (sweet potato), coconuts, tapiok
(a root they eat here), sugar cane–along with traditional
clothing and children’s toys. It was extremely busy and
due to a high caution of fights breaking out and/or
pick-pockets being around, we went more or less to look
than to shop. No one was stolen from and there were no
fights, but it was still pretty interesting to experience.

After the Veggie Mart we drove a little ways to tour a
history museum of PNG. It was a little run-down museum
compared to our immaculate and dust-free ones in America,
but informative nonetheless. The two main sections were
about the tribal customs of the highlands (the “old ways”)
and then the WWII era that PNG experienced. It was
definitely something that history buffs would be into, and
I was thankful to learn more about this country.

After the museum we visited the big coffee factory here in
PNG. Coffee is the cash crop in the highlands where we are
currently at, and it was neat to be able to see coffee as
I know it in America from the plant to the bag. It smelled
incredible and was even interesting to watch the men work
as sanitation here is not what we are typically used to.
When one of the workers was pulling a batch out of the
roasting barrell, someone asked how long each roast took
(mild, medium and dark). His simple reply was, “I don’t
really know. We just do it by sight.” Fascinating that it
turns out good every time…

After the coffee plant we visited New Tribes Mission
Aviation’s (NTMA) base in PNG. It was so cool! We got a
tour of their offices, workshop, airstrip and the like.
They even have a little simulation room that two men were
working in. Aviation is one of the many support ministries
I have learned about that make tribal missions happen, and
it was so neat to be able to watch the support happen
first-hand. There is so much need in NTMA for different
roles–pilots, mechanics, admin, etc.–that it’s difficult
not to think of people I know who could fulfill those
roles out here on the mission field. (And I’m sure you are
reading this, you whom I’m thinking of. We’ll have a nice
chat when I get home.) 🙂 We had a picnic lunch at NTMA
and then headed into the main part of Garoka.

The majority of the day was spent just wandering and
shopping around downtown Garoka. There are different parts
and the first place we went is called the Artifact Market.
It’s just where anyone and everyone plops down on the
sidewalk and sells things. Again, it reminded me a lot of
when i have visited Ensenada, Mexico. There was also the
“wall of bilums” (bee-lums). They are hand-sewn purses of
all shapes, sizes and colors that the nationals use to
carrying things in–everything from personal items to
their own liklik (leek-leek) pikininis
(pick-ee-knee-knees), their babies. There were literally
hundreds of bilums hung up along the fence line waiting
for a customer.

After that we just walked around town to the places that
Shara and Simple thought we would enjoy the most–mainly
knick-knack stores and the like. There are a couple of
places that sell anything you could ever want, from bush
knives and machetes to material and ribbon by the yard.
One of the stores even sold live baby chicks. The groups
all met up at the Bird of Paradise hotel in Garoka (the
tourist hot-spot) for some snacks and time in the shade.
Then we left Garoka to come back to the Interface campus.

This morning (Friday) we had a language helper session and
my language helper, Doris, took me to her garden to teach
me how to plant kaukau (cow-cow), sweet potato and do
other things. It’s a rather simple process: make a little
mountain of dirt, then pick three kaukau leaves and put
the ends together in the middle of the mound. That’s all!
It takes 2-3 weeks for the root to grow big enough to eat,
depending on the rain. After we all (3 of us) took a whack
at planting kaukau, Doris taught us how to weed. Pretty
much anything that grows but is not edible is considered a
weed. We rooted many a weed and just threw them in the
ditches between the rows of planted food. I asked her if
they ever take the weed and burn it, but she said no
because it is essentially compost for the soil (not her
exact words, but that’s what she meant). So interesting! I
would think it silly because then the weeds just plant
more seedlings of themselves, causing even more weeds to
sprout and have to pull. But that is what is good for
their soil, and what they have been doing for generations.
The 4 of us worked in her garden for about 45 minutes and
then rested in the shade. She told us that our 45 minutes
of work saved her about 3 hours that she would have had to
do on her own. Praise the Lord!

As we were sitting in the shade resting and being
relational, Monica (one of the girls in our group) asked
Doris what kind of music she likes. Doris replied that she
only likes “gospel music” and Monica asked her to teach us
a song. Doris taught us the Pidgin words to “This is the
Day.” It was stuck in my head all day, and I pray that you
find wisdom and encouragement in meditating on such simple
words:

This is the day
This is the day that the Lord has made
That the Lord has made
This is the day
This is the day that the Lord has made
That the Lord has made
This is the day that the Lord has made
I will be glad and rejoice in it
This is the day that the Lord has made.

Village Exposure

Hi friends! As I do not have access to this blog while in
PNG, I do not remember all of what I have written in
previous posts. Please be understanding and overlook any
redundancy (or enjoy, whatever you prefer).
Today I want to write more to you about Village Exposure
times. For starters, I am not sure if I have been clear
that this short-term trip to PNG is not the typical trip
when most of us westerners think of a summer mission trip.
I am in no way, shape or form evangelizing nonbelievers or
teaching/discipling tribal people who are young in the
faith. We are not working on a building project or running
sports camps. Neither are we providing any supplies or
medical assistance to the natives living in the bush. We
are here strictly for educational purposes as students of
God’s Word and will. Sometimes I feel like we’re at camp
because of the setup here on the Interface campus. The 24
students on our team are divided into cabins found in a
common area, have a classroom/chapel to hold classes in
and converse and fellowship in the dining hall over meals.
It sounds rather luxurious, I know. 🙂 But the reality is
that we are learning the ways of the tribal missionary.
Just this morning we finished reading “The Stranger on the
Road to Emmaus” and have been thinking through God’s
redemption plan for the world–starting in Genesis–all
afternoon. Last evening one of our instructors taught on
the importance of prayer–whether at home or abroad–to
the missionary. Day before yesterday we spent the day at
Lapilo where New Tribes Mission base is for all of PNG.
There we learned and were talked through various support
ministries–missionary kid teachers, dorm parents, medical
assistance, bookkeeping, spiritual development,
maintenance, supply buyer, aviation, etc.–that all are
necessary in order to free the tribal missionary up to do
what he needs to do. Likewise, we have been learning CLA:
Culture and Language Acquisition.
While all of this is going on, we are given the
opportunity to walk down the road (supervised, of course)
into the neighboring villages. The overall tribe we are in
is the Bena tribe (80,000-100,000 people), and as I may
have mentioned before, we are near about 5 family lines
within the tribe (about 100-200 people in each). A few of
them are: Gitigefagu, Kirovea, and Yamoyalo. Almost every
afternoon we as students have the opportunity to visit our
tribal neighbors. My personal favorite village is Kirovea
because I am beginning to build relationships with some
women there.
We went to Kirove yesterday. I met and talked for about an
hour with two women about my age: Rebeka (19) and Jeni
(23). Rebeka is the oldest of 6 children, and her youngest
sister, Ester (1.5) was with her. Jeni is married and has
a son (2). Both of them speak English pretty well, so that
helped our conversation. 🙂 I was with two other girls
from our team, Monica and Amanda, and we just sat and
talked about their lives. We learned that Rebeka is an
amazing basketball player, but was not able to attend
school past 5th grade because her father would not pay the
school fee. I didn’t even know that they had to pay school
fees here in PNG, and when I was talking later about it
with Miriam (one of our full-time missionaries), she was
saying that it’s really a matter of priority. Most parents
do not see value in education, so they will not pay the
school fees past a certain grade, as the fee raises with
each grade level. Rebeka wants to be in school, but
instead she takes care of her siblings so her parents can
work in the garden. She told us that she does not want to
get married, which also came as a surprise. I asked Sally
(another full-time missionary) if that was common among
the girls, and she guaranteed me that it never happens.
Girls get married whether they want to or not; it’s just a
matter of time before a man is willing to pay the bride
price for her (Sally would know, she and her husband have
been missionaries here for 13 years). Monica had brought
bubbles along, so we had a blast playing with the little
kids (under 5) and the bubbles. They call them “balloons”
and keep them entertained for quite some time. Jeni did
not talk with us long, as she heard her son waking up from
his nap about 20 minutes into our conversation. We did
manage to find out that she grew up in another district in
PNG and now her parents live in Port Moresby. She does not
see them very often and is rarely able to even make a
phone call from town to them. She told us that they have
never met their grandson because her husband will not
allow her to take him down there. She told us that this is
because her mom would want to not give their baby back
after she saw him. I’m not completely sure if she was
half-joking or totally serious. It was just interesting
because it’s so different than anything I’ve ever known
(especially because I have children and all…).
One more rather profound fact that we learned while
talking to the girls is that they do not eat pig. This is
unique because pig is one of the only sources of meat that
the highlanders have. Pigs are often included in the more
traditional bride prices and are constantly seen running
around. Neither of the girls eat pig because it is
forbidden by their church. Jeni was also telling us that
she goes to church on Saturdays and not Sundays. Some
rather obvious conclusions can be made from these
statements, but for the purposes of avoiding assumptions I
will not state my own opinion.
Many of you may begin to see the need for missionaries to
the tribal people who have already been “missionized.” The
natives are involved in syncretism, and many of them
attend church to fulfill their good works record. Like
much of corporate America or many other places in our
western world, the tribal people here think that they are
saved from eternal suffering just by going to church and
being generally good people. They just add it to their
list of gods to worship; eclecticism at its best. One of
our instructors put this in the perspective that the part
of PNG that we are being exposed to has been missionized
and even evangelized, but it has not been discipled. They
have not been taught about God’s saving grace and need for
redemption. Pray, pray.
I’ve been reading through a book called “Hudson Taylor’s
Spiritual Secret” and came across a really cool section of
his journal this afternoon:
“Pray much for me. It is easy to talk of leaving all for
Christ, but when it comes to the proof–it is only as we
stand ‘complete in Him’ can we go through with it. God be
with you and bless you…and give you so to realize the
preciousness of Jesus that you may wish for nothing but to
‘know him’…even in ‘the fellowship of his sufferings.'”
May our hearts echo his thoughts.

Y-Mart

Today we went to the closest village, Yamiyalo, for
the village market. The villagers put this on specially
for the Interface students and staff. I was writing to Tim
at church that it’s similar to bargaining in Mexico.
Except that the “market” covers about a 200-yard radius
and consists of the villagers placing their goods on tarps
in front of their houses. The villagers make and sell
things like:
– bows and arrows
– spears
– jewelry (of all kinds)
– drums
– bilums (sewn bags/purses)
– traditional dress
– carved bamboo objects for decoration
The currency used here in PNG is called “kina” and the
exchange rate is about 3.5 kina to 1 American dollar.
It was interesting to be buying things from people that we
have already met. They were proud to be selling their
goods to us, and were asking about who we got certain
things from. We stayed up there for about an hour and a
half just looking and chatting. The goods of popularity
were bows and arrows for the boys and bilums for all.
Tomorrow we are going to Lapilo, the NTM base. Then in a
couple of weeks we’ll be going into Garoka for more
cultural experience.
I really have nothing spiritually profound to say, so
enjoy the everyday happenings of life!

Prayer:
– two of Interface’s short-term staff left yesterday
morning because their term was up. Willi and Alena are
both from Germany, and they are not sure what is in store
for them from here. Willi is getting married next spring,
so just pray for direction for all! Pray that their shoes
and roles will be filled as other short-term staff steps
up and that the missionary kids coming in and out would be
of help as well.
– for the salvation of the Bena tribe. They are such a
lost people, but PTL that there are about 5-6 believers in
the Yamiyalo village. Their NTM missionaries are coming
back from furlough shortly, so pray that they would
experience the grace and perseverance of the Lord as they
continue to fight the synergism of the previous ways.
– for our hearts as students here, that we would be
sensitive to the cultural values and traditions as well as
learners of the truth as the gospel is accurately and
effectively furthered.

Weekend Happenings

We went on a walk/hike on Saturday afternoon to a
village called New Camp. It took us about 1 hour and 15
minutes to get there, and then we stayed and talked with
the villagers and played with the kids for about 20
minutes. There was an old man making Tapiok (a root) over
fire and a woman who very well could have been his wife
shelling coconut and mashing it in with kaukau (sweet
potatoe, pronounced “cow-cow”) and water for dinner. Many
younger women (ok, only about 5) were out and about
tending to the children and babies. It’s interesting to
watch the village sort-of “come alive” as we stay. At
first there was just the old couple and maybe one or two
children. Then, before we knew it, there were about 35
children of all ages and their mothers. There were only a
couple of older men, and culturally, our girls are not
really supposed to talk to them, so I’m not really sure
what they were doing. After a while we proceeded further
down the road about for about 20 more minutes and just
romped through the grass to an overlook to more hills and
valleys. Our legs got pretty scratched up because we
didn’t follow a trail or anything, and there is a native
grass out here that is as sharp as razor blades if felt
just right. We sat out on top of the hill for about 30
minutes and then headed back. It was so neat just to take
in God’s creation and fellowship with one another. A few
of the New Camp children followed us there, and we had a
blast taking pictures with them and then showing them on
the digital cameras. That is potentially their favorite
thing to do. It’s cute.

On Sunday afternoon after church I went on a Bena village
visit. There were about 12 of us who went, which is pretty
small compared to our size group. It was nice, though, to
go more low profile. We split into 2 groups and my group
went first to the Gitigifagu (pronounced
“git-ee-g-fah-goo”) village. Our friend Brian (a national)
lives there, and he told us about a certain ceremony that
was going on in their village at the time. He actually
told Doug, our leader, about it, and Doug told us.
Heather, Andrea and I were invited to take a look at what
was going on. There is one hut in the village that is set
up for the celebration of a girl’s “first time” (for lack
of a better term and potential of awkwardness). If you’re
not a girl, don’t feel like you have to read on. It was
just neat because we can so easily relate to it. 🙂
Anyway, the girl being celebrated has to stay in this hut
for 2 weeks total, she actually has to stay in a little
fabric covering that is about 8’x8′ wide. She can have 2
friends stay with her, and her mother as well as older
women in the village come and go. They bring her food and
she is allowed to leave this only to use the bathroom. No
men are allowed to see into the fabric covering but small
boys are allowed in the hut. The fabric they use is
absolutely beautiful, so bright and flowery and tropical.
They also hang flowers and other plants off of it. She has
blankets and pillows to lay on and there is a lot of
giggling with her friends as they play games and just
chat. Additionally, the older women in the village take
this time to instruct her about what makes a good woman in
their culture. Then at the end of two weeks (she still had
a week to go when we saw her), her family hosts a “Mumu”
(pronounced “moo-moo”), which is our equivalent of a
feast, for the entire village. She is celebrated as a
woman for an entire evening. I think that’s the end of it.
Man! I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be
confined in there for 2 weeks! It really seems like it
would be luxury to them.

Yesterday (Sunday) in the afternoon we played a rousing
game of soccer. One of our German interns, Willi, who left
this morning loves playing soccer. Since there usually
aren’t enough young folk around to play, we set up a
specific time to get together. There were 3 teams, and
mine won the championship. So fun!! I was one of three
girls who played (one on each of the teams), so the
competition was brought to a whole new level. 🙂

Let’s see…I think that’s all for now. I can understand
Tok Pisin fairly well and even carry somewhat of a
conversation! It’s pretty fun. I was just writing to Tat
that it’s coming along a lot easier than I thought it
might, especially compared to the Greek that I was taking
just a year ago. But sometimes I let a Spanish word slip
in there and confuse all the kids. They laugh and it’s all
good.

I miss you guys a lot, but know that I am having a great
time–learning a ton of new stuff, having SUCH GOOD
conversation, and looking forward to what God has in
store.

A lot of the girls are sick with stomach stuff. Some think
that it was the hotdogs last night (it’s the 1st thing of
processed meat we’ve had in 2 weeks–the rest has all been
fresh) or something that was for breakfast today.
Fortunately, I haven’t experienced it yet. They’re in good
hands–the staff here really knows how to deal with those
adjustments. Please pray that it passes soon!

Hapi Nun

The above is the cultural afternoon greeting in Pidgin
among the Bena tribe. To say it correctly, pronounce the
English word for “happy” but without the “h” (“appy”) and
then the English word for “noon.” Hapi Nun!
Yesterday (Tuesday) was our second village visit. All of
the students broke up into 3 groups and were led by a
full-time missionary for the purpose of observation. There
are many different family lines in the Bena tribe, and I
went in a group of about 6 other students, led by our
coordinator’s wife, Miriam, and their 2-year-old daughter,
Emma. We hopped the fence into the family line and
wandered around their portion of the village. Many of the
natives speak Tok Pisin, the trade language of PNG (which
we are learning in class), and it is easy for us to
communicate simple things in English as well. This time I
did not speak much one-on-one, but Emma sure does attract
a lot of attention. Usually the native children or mothers
will see Emma and call her over to say hello, thus
encountering conversation with Miriam. We will stand
close-by as Miriam converses with the women fluently in Tok
Pisin and Emma plays with the children. Miriam will tell
the women that we are another group coming through the
program, and they are excited and understanding of our
awkwardness. Then Miriam will proceed to tell us about the
particular women we are talking to. For example, one woman
we met yesterday had just had a baby 6 weeks ago, and
Miriam was asking about how the baby was doing. It was
napping at the time, so we didn’t get to see it. Hopefully
it will provide for more conversation as we continue to
visit!
Observing the tribe is quite interesting. We were given an
assignment in morning class to make observations over an
hour time frame about the family line we visited, and
anything else we noticed along the way. The family line
that our group observed is about a five minute walk down
the main road, and there are other family lines along the
way. Not much goes on in the afternoon because of the
heat. Many adults were sitting on the side of the road
selling things like sugarcane, roasted peanuts (those were
delish!) and various fruits. They were also playing cards
and just being social. The older children were just
getting back from school as we were headed back to the
campus here at Interface. There was one older man who we
dubbed as the “village nail trimmer” because he was
sitting in a circle of all younger children trimming their
toe and fingernails. Interesting, I know.
Once we got into the family line one woman wanted to show
us her garden. I think I mentioned in the last post that
the main cash crop for this time of the year is coffee. So
she showed us her coffee garden and how to pick the beans
off of the plant. They shell the bean and a white bean is
inside. Then they lay the shelled beans out on a tarp to
dry before hauling it into Garoka to sell to coffee
producers. The gardens are huge! And this one particular
lady was “lucky” to have her garden so close to her
village. Some walk up to three hours each way to their
garden. It is something that the nationals are proud of
and gives them a sense of purpose. We were fortunate to be
invited into this kind woman’s garden.
Classes are going well. We had four sessions this morning:
two in Phonetics and two in TERM (The Emmaus Road Message,
which is reading through the book). Phonetics is coming a
lot easier to me than I thought it was. Then again, we’ve
only completed our 4th lesson. The Tok Pisin that we are
learning has been heavily influenced by English and the
Bena language, so it is slightly different than Melenesian
Pidgin. It’s very similar to the dialect that is spoken in
Samoa (for all you Samoa-loving friends out there!). I
can’t wait to learn more and begin talking to the women in
the village, learning their stories and ways of life! We
are having Language Helpers come in soon. They are natives
who come in for the purpose of helping us learn the
language. We’ll be able to sit with them and learn words
and phrases, how to correctly pronounce them, and then we
get to write them phonetically. I’m sure there will be
stories to come from that.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been gone from home for
about 10 days now. Maybe because everything is so new I
haven’t had a chance to really “miss” it. Sure, I miss all
the family and friends, and I sure do wish that you could
all be here, too. And some of the conveniences of home are
noticed when they’re gone. Additionally, without a shadow
of a doubt, I miss the blessed sermons of Pastor Duane
(Creekside) and Pastor Bob (Church of the Canyons). 🙂 But
nothing is missed in comparison to the work of our great
Lord.
Many of my fellow students and staff here at Interface are
asking if I am looking into missions full-time after this.
I can only imagine that some of you are wondering the same
thing. So here we go: I am starting graduate work in
Cross-Cultural Ministries a few weeks after getting home.
I am going for a master’s degree, and because I will not
be going full-time at first, I am looking at taking 3-5
years to complete the program. I really want to take
advantage of the time in grad school to visit different
mission fields around the world that vary from each other
both demographically and culturally. For example, many of
you know the Malakar’s in India or the Hurley’s in Uganda.
I know another family, the Payne’s, in Quito. My desire
and plan thus far is to visit couples and families like
these who have dedicated their lives to mission work and
see if the Lord leads in one direction over another. Other
than that, time will only tell.
Thank you for all your emails and prayers! I look forward
to hearing more about what’s going on back home.

My First Kiss

I know, kind-of a strange first blog entry since arriving
in Papua New Guinea. Yea verily (that was for JPK), I woke
up one morning with a tiny red spec on my upper lip and by
the time I made it to breakfast the red dot had turned
into a massive bump with white around the edges. One of my
teammates remarked at the table, “Now Kate, what are you
doing going around kissing all the mosquitoes?” haha Don’t
worry Mom, it’s gone now. Suprisingly, that is the only
bug bite I’ve encountered thus far.

On to more interesting things…
From our departure in Singapore we flew to Port Moresby,
PNG. We went through customs and a little bit of culture
adjustment during our two-hour layover. Then we hopped on
the smallest plane I’ve ever been on (don’t know the
model, sorry) and flew out to the city of Garoka. The
airport at Garoka consisted of a landing strip, dirt
fields, and two small buildings. We didn’t even go inside
for baggage claim. They just handed it to us across a
folding table after we got off the plane. From Garoka we
had an hour car ride into the highlands of PNG where the
Bene-Bene tribe is, and also where the Interface campus
is. About half of the ride was on a dirt road and we fit
all 24 teammates in the back of a flat-bed truck that had
benches lining the sides. It was pretty cool riding up in
that and seeing all the village people along the way. They
were more than eager to see us.

We met the Interface staff over lunch and had our first
official orientation in PNG after that. I will try to
introduce you more to the staff as time with them
increases. Due to email size, I am not able to send
pictures. For now, I’ll take time to write about what
we’re doing.

Monday through Saturday follows the same basic routine:
8am         breakfast
9am-12pm    class
12-1pm      lunch
1-2 or 3pm  class
3-5:30pm    free time
5:30        supper
7pm         class or other activity such as campfire
9pm on      open house with missionary families

In class we are learning the basics thus far, being taught
by full-time missionaries. A lot of it is familiar to me
because of the courses I have taken as an undergrad
Bible/Missions major. But it’s all a good reminder. And
how different it is to learn it in the place of actual
participation! We are being taught by the missionaries,
and I wish you all could experience their passion with me.
It’s encouraging and exciting and humbling as we continue
to dig further into Scripture and learn more about God’s
call for believers to make disciples and teach all
nations.

We are reading a book called “The Stranger on the Road to
Damascus” by Cross as well as various articles written by
people such as John Piper and other NTM missionaries. Yes,
we have reading and written assignments. We started out
the courses with an exam (not graded, of course, but
closed-Bible) of a ton of questions about the Bible. The
hardest question for me to answer was “List at least 8 OT
prophesies about Christ.” You should take a whack at it.
🙂

Today was the first time that we got to go into the
village. We were led by missionaries Herb and Jana, and
they introduced us to the different family lines. While we
are in the Bena-Bena tribe, there are different family
lines within the tribe. For example, one of the family
lines is the Yamamato. The various family lines get along
with each other and even marry cross-family line (that was
weird, but I think you get the concept). So it’s not like
a territory or property rights thing. The natives mainly
grow crops for their income (cash crops) and the one in
season right now is coffee!!

Before I end this lengthy post (thank you for your
patience), many of you have emailed and asked for prayer
requests. Here are a few:

– humility  Please pray that we as students would have a
humble and teachable attitude toward our teachers and
leaders as well as with each other. It’s easy to let our
knowledge puff up our pride (about 1/3 of the team has
gone through some sort of Bible school/training).

– direction  Many of us in the program are continually
asking the Lord if this is an area that He may be leading
in the future. It seems as though many of us are looking
into mission work full-time, so please pray that our
direction and guidance would be clear.

– health  Praise God that nothing serious has come up thus
far. Yes, there are a few bites and scratches here and
there, but nothing serious. There are a few who are
recovering from colds contracted back home. One of our
teammates, Christina, left her dad at home in the hospital
due to cancer. It has been something he has gone through
for a number of years, and she definitely sought the Lord
in choosing to come even though he was ill. Pray for her
family’s comfort and trust in the Lord during this time.
They are all believers. Pray, too, for Christina as she is
away during what could be a crucial time.

Thank you all! I loved reading your emails, and please
continue to write! Let me know how I can be praying for
you all as well.

MHBS: please email me! and at this account–I miss it!!