Survey Trip Part 2

OK ... after returning back to Wewak becasue the roads got too brutal, we booked the plane for another go around on our survey by air.  This time we landed in Nuku and Lumi to assess the needs of language groups in the area.  We had a very profitable time and met some of the nicest most helpful people in the world.  This "kulau" (coconut) was handed to me during our stop in Nuku ... one of the sweetest most refreshing I've had in PNG.  Sure beats a Coke ... and it's supposed to be the ultimate rehydration drink too! 

Maprik Lumi Area Survey Trip

Yea, I know ... this picture doesn't look like a normal NTM survey in the Sepik.  We usually are moving by chopper or trapsing around the deep jungle sleeping in remote villages.  Not on this trip, where the purpose was to survey language vitality along the road that heads inland from Wewak past Maprik.  This picture is taken at a high-school along the road where Greg and I swapped stories with students ... in English!  Yes, things are changing rapidly in PNG, and in this area schools are bypassing pidgin altogether and teaching in English from 4th grade on.  It was remarkable to explore these areas not so far but so very different than the Nakui jungle.  

Nakui Morning Bible Study

We are in Nakui. Very good to see the Greenlaws, and our Nakui friends. Coming down the trail and walking into Nakui life once again brings a flood of memories and emotions. Sitting down to a lunch of ham rolls and lemonade in the G-law house was perfect. We visited most of the day … hardly even had enough time to unpack our clothes and food save the freezer/cooler.

I was reminded today from Acts 4 (when Peter was asked about healing of the cripple) that everything that has been done in here has been done “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”.   For 2000+ Jesus has been actively involved in changing lives, from healing leapers and cripples to the physically and spiritually blind. Everything that has been done in Nakui over the last 18 years – through the Kings, Phil, the Gibsons, the Greenlaws and Askews has been accomplished in and through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  He is working in our midst.

In our discipleship time today I was greatly encouraged by Svse, who talked about the pressure on him to perform ceremonial customs on his sick child. “Your kid will die” they tell him.  The accumulated pressure is immense to just slip back a bit in this area in order to get the crowd off his back. Svse’s faith is strong, however, and he has drawn the line. “Not me” he says. “If God takes me or my kids, it’s OK. We hangup on him. If I ever did one of the customs, my fear would be that it might work. Then others would see this and they too would want to follow that path.” Huge statement by Svse … reveals where his life is truly found and – life or death – where he finds his security. The fact that he would rather see his child die without the ceremony than have him live with it reveals a man of deep faith.

Tim's Super Bowl

Thought you might be interested in where I was this weekend. My trek took me to the Uriay language group in the Sundaun Province to a small village of approx 100 about a 2-hour motor canoe (a massive 50-ft long carved out tree with a Yamaha 40hp engine) from an airstrip an hour flight interior from Wewak. I was in checking a selection of their Bible lessons and going over strategy for their teaching program that begins in May. In one of the pictures you can see Elias Struik (a Dutch colleague and close friend) reading a Bible lesson to a group of interested listeners in his office. After they listened to him teach a section (in the vernacular) I would then ask comprehension questions (using pidgin) attempting to assess how the lessons are communicating. Very exciting to not only see the main lesson themes (God's omniscience, power, goodness, love, etc...) hitting home, but also the excitement as many extra spectators sat on the office steps and crammed within earshot to hear for themselves. In a few short months, they will begin hearing those plus about 65 more lessons from creation on through Christ.

If I had to miss the Super Bowl for something, I guess this was worth it :-)

Sepik Report

Living and serving in Wewak these past three months, we have had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with many missionaries and tribal believers. Whether they are in town to check translation or for a well-earned break from life in the jungle, it’s a treat for us to steal away some time and listen to their accounts of all that God is doing in and through their lives.
In the Yembiyembi people group, believers for the first time are being taught truths in their own language from books like Romans and Ephesians. As they have begun to put feet to their faith, a number of them are facing enormous pressure and persecution from within the community.  But they are not losing heart.  Robert describes the written Word coming to Yembiyembi like this, “Now that this talk (the Bible) is starting to be turned (translated) into our language it is like drinking clean water instead of dirty.  I can taste the sweet in it because it is in my language.  I can see the root of it (true meaning) so clearly.”
In one Abau village of about 300 people, there is a Bible study happening almost every day. After Sunday church, 14 Bible study leaders remain to gather with the missionaries to discuss the lesson for the week. During the course of the week, in teams of two, these leaders facilitate study groups of up to 20 people, including separate groups for ladies, married men, single men, and even a special group for widows.
It’s been amazing to watch the transformation in the lives of Bagwido believers as they gain a clearer understanding of who they are as Christ’s body here on earth.  One new believer recently talked about his faith like this, “Do we hang up (depend) on the white man or do we hang up on our Great Creator alone?  My brothers and sisters, let us go to the Bible alone.  That is where the truth is.  When I believed in my Getting-Back-Man (Jesus), I didn’t follow Mark and Brian (their missionaries).  No!  They didn’t come to bring America to Mariama.  They just came and gave the truth of the Bible.  It is not from their words that I am saved. No, it is the truth of the Bible alone.”
After almost eight months with no contact, missionaries flew by helicopter into a very remote village in the Hewa language group to check in and encourage the newly planted church. They were pleased to find the church has been meeting consistently, and absolutely amazed to see how far along they had come in their literacy abilities. Currently the entire village is being taught lessons from Romans two times a day.
God is not only working through his sent ones, but in them as well. Recently some of our dear coworkers headed back to the States for ongoing health issues. Another was recently rushed to Australia for emergency surgery. Others labor on with kids away at boarding school. One family is in the bush right now without a drop of water in their tank. And still another awaits results on a suspicious tumor. What a pleasure it is to serve alongside coworkers who, despite hardship, are living out lives that exemplify faith, obedience and trust in the One who gives meaning and purpose to it all.

Nakui Church Report

This is the Greenlaws most recent newsletter out of Nakui. Despite the cultural roadblocks, it's encouraging to see lives being transformed by the Gospel ...

Last month we wrote about our plans to review the evangelistic Bible lessons with several villagers in Nakui who have been sitting on the fringes but are now interested in being baptized. We were very impressed with the consistency, great questions, and, believe it or not, enthusiasm that they showed through the 14 lessons. There were 10 men and women that participated faithfully, ranging in age from 13 to early 40s. 8 of them demonstrate a clear understanding of the gospel's message. Praise God for this encouraging development. It's a mystery to me why their interest is surfacing now and not 8 years ago, but that's not for us to control. I'm just happy. Here are a some of their responses:

Imo: 20 yr old newly married -
I have one heart about Jesus. It’s good for me to be stuck to him. We know that on the forked tree his blood was shed. Okay, since with one heart I believe about him that he came to the ground and died for us, therefore then with Jesus I am now stuck together. The two of us are now together. The reason is that Jesus wants to hold me as his worker so he joins us together. God decided, ”He will be my child. When he dies I will go and get him”. That makes me very happy. He’ll take me to Heaven. I don’t want to be destroyed along with this ground. I want my spirit to go sit on a throne in Heaven. Jesus’ blood has washed me clean. His blood that shed is powerful. God had only one child but he didn’t think, “Forget it, my child can’t go and die on the ground”. Nope, we are the work of his own hand and so his only son he sent to help us. He said, “Alright, I’ll help the ground people”. He helped us and therefore he is our good Father who sits up high in heaven. Oh, he is our true Father. Satan is not our father, God is. He helped us with his son. We are now ‘alive’ people. Not ‘death’ people, ‘alive’ people because of his shed blood. Before we were ‘death’ people who died all the time, terrible. Even the actions we did with our hands, Satan controlled them. We lived like that as did our ancestors, but God sent his son to shed his blood and now we are ‘alive’ people. Since we are ‘alive’ people, it is to heaven we will go, as God’s children.

Auwolami: 35 yr old mother of 6. Her husband was also in the class -
Jesus is our trail, our good road. He cut a trail from heaven to here. He is the one who saves us. He saved all us ground people. God wanted to remove our sins, “Why ever did Adam and Eve do it? I will now throw away their sin. My only son I will send to them”. He is our good road, Jesus. If you believe in him alone, you will go to heaven. If you don’t believe in him, you just go to the fire place. It’s like he stands on the road and asks, “Where are you going? If you don’t believe in me, then you must go that way, the road to fire ground. If you have believed about me, then you can come with me. Without faith, no.” Jesus alone is our road. His own blood paid for all of us ground people. He was given huge pain. He died and the sky went dark. He helped us ground people so much. Now all of us women and men should believe in him.

Taukiya: 17 yr old single. He stutters and repeats himself a lot so his words are heavily edited -
God’s help is big, not little. The spirits of this world can’t help us, God alone is powerful. I have many, many sins, from the time I was young. I have sinned and sinned but Jesus has helped me. His help is so good. I have decided (about) that with one heart, only his road is the road of help (salvation). I now know I’m going to heaven because Jesus has helped us. He was not an ordinary man, not a sinner, he was God’s true son. God sent him to us ground people. They nailed him, oh, his blood.....oh. They took him into the cave. Then he arose and went back to his Father.

Imo is the only one of this group of 8 that reads. Several are interested in learning so pray with us that our church will rise to meet that need.

Another happy side note is that Suse did a great job of heading up the class. I think his enthusiasm for the work has something to do with the class' attitude.

One more perk, Sobai taught 3 of the lessons and with each one improved in his delivery. He’s gaining confidence (hopefully the right kind) which is very good.

Our next project – Nakui’s first marriage seminar. Well, a couples only evening Bible Study to discuss what the Bible says about their ridiculously dysfunctional marriages.

Whooping cough is going through the village and nearly every Nakui family has a small child suffering from it. A baby in Yabu died from it a few weeks ago and we nearly lost one last week. Please pray for the Lord’s protection for these little ones.

Thanks for the part you play in this ministry and in our lives.

– Greg, for the family

In Wewak, PNG

Greetings! It's been a while since we last posted a blog, and a lot has changed. We have now been in Wewak, PNG for about a month and are getting ourselves settled in. Bekah and Bri are off at boarding school, which by far has been the biggest hurdle for us to get over. It's every bit as hard as we thought it would be, yet we're convinced this is where they belong for now. One of our first purchases were three cell phones (yes, hard to believe!), which has turned out to be about our most reliable way to keep up with the girls. Home school is up and rolling for TJ, who has his very own home school room in the back of our house. It's even air conditioned, so there's no exuses for not wanting to get all his work done!

I (Tim) soon will be taking on most of the administrative tasks of the region: paying bills, handling regional email, overseeing the finances, overseeing the center maintenance workers, and of course, putting out whatever fires happen to come up. On Sept 15, we make the first of our scheduled itinerant trips into Nakui. During that time we will be visited by two church planting consultants and will spend a number of days discussing strategy and future of the work. We also hope to check some translation during that time.

In short, that's what is up with the Askews. If you want to see some pictures such as our house and the beautiful view I have from my office window, take a look at the photo album and slideshow.

Returning to PNG

Racing around ... packed schedule ... eating out every meal ... endless shopping ... and a sense that "we must be forgetting something" ... it must be that we are soon returning overseas! Tickets are in hand and we will be flying out of LAX at 11:20 pm on July 15th. After a 5-day stopover in Cairns, Australia we will arrive in Goroka, PNG on the 22nd. Thanks for your prayers in these crazy but exciting days as we plan, pack and say goodbye. Look for updated news and current information on the Nakui church once we arrive.

A Major Disappointment

Want to know why pioneer church planting in many tribal contexts takes so long? Despite our most well planned and valiant efforts, it seems like something ALWAYS comes up which hamper the expected results. This disappointing report doesn’t deal directly with Nakui church, but the ripple affect touches everyone in the Nakui tribe.

In an earlier posting I described how the VHV medical program holds out hope for the Nakui and many surrounding Sepik tribes to receive basic medical training as well as the necessary credentials to receive ongoing government subsidized medicine. What a deal, right? Finally gaining access to government services - always far beyond Nakui reach until this point - is about the biggest civic development for this society since, well … the discovery of saksak. Or at least that’s the way I, for one, think about it.

After successfully completing the six-week classroom coursework last fall (we paid to fly in and house the training personnel to put the course on at Iteri), all that remained was the practical training for our two students. Problem: the course can only be offered at a medical post about 30 miles and 3-days hike away in a neighboring tribe. Solution: the students hike together with other neighboring students to this location, arriving a day or two before the course begins. They all agreed this was doable (3-day hikes aren’t uncommon) and committed to being there.

What could possibly get in the way now? Finally … the down-and-out Nakui were poised and on the brink of taking a HUGE leap ahead! Their diplomas awaited them. They only need to show up and complete this short, two-week module. But it never happened. Dominik, the medical trainer, graduated students from a number of surrounding tribes, but there were no Nakui certificates handed out.

What happened? A brother of one of the Nakui students had stolen a shotgun from someone who lives in the area where the course was taking place. Fearful of what payback may come upon them, the day of departure they decided not to join the delegation of students. It was the resulting fear of this one man’s actions that held them back.

This is an ongoing theme in these remote tribes; the actions of one holding back the many. Over and over we’ve seen men, in a fit of rage, destroy community water tanks, medical clinic bug screen, and even a community outboard motor. What we work for years to establish can be reversed faster than a jungle sunset. It’s hard to say where we go from here. First we need to get back to Nakui and hear them out and see if there is a desire to fix this. There might be something we can all do about it, but next time it will probably cost them a whole lot more than just a 3-day hike. How bad will they want it?

Five Primary Obstacles in Communicating Christ

I know ... it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything on the blog. A number of you have been asking about this, and I have no excuse except to say that it's been CRAZY since Thanksgiving. Now that a few of my other responsibilites have eased up, I plan to get back to blogging.

I spoke to a group of high schooler this past weekend at Maranatha Chapel, and we spent some time talking about barriers to the Gospel in tribal church planting. Together we identifed the barriers we would anticipate in taking the Gospel to a typical unreached group of people (we used a tribal group in PNG currently asking for missionaries as our example).

Here are the five barriers we determined we would face which would need overcoming in order to fulfill our goal:
1) Geographic -- It takes a team to do this task. We will most likely need to link up with other who we share a common vision or partner with an organization which specializes in mobilizing people to remote locations.
2) Relationship -- You don't get anywhere in missions without genuine relationships. Through relationships we gain credibility to minister and speak into lives. Our model is Jesus, who lived openly and genuinely among those he served.
3) Linguistic -- These groups are unreached because they cannot speak the major languages of the world or the national languages of the country. If we determine the heart language of these people is the vernacular, we must commit to learning this language and doing Bible teaching and translation. This is the only way to give them full access and understanding to God's Word.
4) Culture -- We must understand who they are as a people before we can hope to meet their spiritual need in a profound way. In order for them to engage God's Word, it must be interesting and relavant to their lives. In the case of the Nakui and most animists, they learn better by hearing narratives than by systematized approaches.
5) Worldview -- Everything we teach must speak into or challenge their current worldview. The key themes of the Christian worldview (God is creator, is loving, is omnipotent, is our authority, punishes sin, is gracious, etc...) must be woven into narrative stories and then taught through and explained clearly.

While this is not an exhaustive list, I thought the group did a pretty good job of highlighting most of the challenges we must anticpate in a pioneer missions context. These are certainly among the primary barriers we faced (and continue to do so) in the Nakui context. If you would like to read my lecture notes click on

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhp2jgdq_3dkcb8zdm&hl=en.

Training Medical Workers in Remote Tribal Areas

Malaria runs rampant, indiscriminately takes its toll on young and old alike. Painful boils incapacitate even the strongest men. Chest infections due to almost constant smoke inhalation are common. Neonatal care is almost non-existent. Run-away ear infections cause permanent hearing loss. Traditional first-aid treatments are more counter-productive than just doing nothing. Poor hygiene habits breed germs and disease. These are some of the realities in the Nakui world when it comes to health care.

Beginning in the 1980’s, NTM brought major improvement in medical treatment and training to the Nakui area. An aid post was first established in Iteri, and later in Nakui where indigenous volunteers were trained in first-aid and basic medicine. The result is that infant mortality has been cut from 50% to below 5%, and fatalities from malaria is now exception and not the rule. People in all directions cross mountains and wade through jungle swamps to receive treatment from these trained volunteers. Populations are growing, and the sound of groups of children playing can once again be heard in these villages.

But the question always remained … what happens to these medical programs after NTM moves out of these areas? With no official certification, how will these remote villages gain access to medicine and supplies? Who will help train the next generation of medical volunteers? There have always been more questions than answers. Until now.

This past year, in cooperation with the Sepik provincial health department, NTM began organizing and sponsoring a 6-week village health volunteer (VHV) training program. Upon graduation medical volunteers in these remote villages are certified to receive medicine and supplies from the government and to perform basic medical and neonatal treatment. Presently a VHV course is in full-swing at the Iteri airstrip, with approximately ten medical workers in training, including two Nakui men (Auiyo and Kibo). Though this may seem like a small development, this is the very first time these tribes have received ANY kind of medical education or training from the government. More importantly, this program puts these remote people groups on the health department’s radar, and means access to free medicine (although the airplane freight cost sure isn’t free!) and ongoing government-sponsored training. Windows of hope like this are rare for the Nakuis … I hope and pray both they will take full advantage of it.

Challenging days for the Nakui church

We heard from Greg and Heidi Greenlaw last week, who recently moved back into the tribe after covering leadership needs at the Wewak base for 6 months. The news out of Nakui is not overly encouraging. For the G-laws personally, they returned to find a good number of their solar panels had blown off the house and their power system down. This, in turn, shut off the 12-volt fridge which meant a freezer full of rotten meat greeted them upon arrival. Most of the next week was consumed with repairs and maintenance in order to get their home livable again. We've done that one before and let me tell you, it's not very fun.

One of the keen Nakui believers who has showed promise as a Bible teacher is struggling. This man has been a key figure in the church and was very intstrumental in the outreach to Yabu village last year. After many months of accusations, it has finally come to light that he has been in an adulturous relationship with another woman. To make matters more complicated this woman, who is another believer, is his wife's very good friend. There is now pressure on this man (from her family) to take this woman as his second wife (polygamy is not only common but a sign of status in Nakui culture). This man's wife is beside herself and making life miserable for everyone around her. What a mess. When God's people live according to the world's ways and not surrendered to the Lord, there is always a cost. In this case the Nakui church is paying a heavy price.

Another struggle in the church has to do with the death of Tunawe's daughter Sien. Although Diana spent much time in June nursing her back to health, she died in July of a mystery illness. I'm sure Tunawe, who had just recently lost his father Imo, was devistated. Nakui animistic beliefs require someone or something be blamed for death, and this time the blame was cast toward Yabu - the very village the Nakui church did their outreach. Relationships with Yabu had already been strained. Now they teeter on the brink of war. A few days badk a band of Nakui men left to attack Yabu, but were talked out of it by a man who lives in a village half-way village. During a church meeting the following day it sounds like Greg was able to initiate some healthy discussion centered around 1 Thessalonians 2 where Paul describes being holy, rightous and blameless among they young Thess. believers. This is indeed a key time in the life of TWO churches in the Nakui language group -- they need our prayers.

Watch "Kibo's Story", a 5 min video where Kibo tells of the Gospel coming to Nakui and its impact on him

Watch an 11 minute video about the Nakui church outreach to Yabu village

Fear

I read in this morning's paper about the smell of fear. It turns out scientific researchers report labratory mice were able to detect with their noses the "alarm pheromones" emitted into the air by other mice that were subjected to stress. It also turns out that we humans have the same nerve mechanism at the tip of our noses. Although I've been told my sense of smell isn't overwhelming, next time I find myself in a room of nervous tension, I'm going to take a deep wiff and give see what fear actually smell like. :-)
Not that fear and anxiety are laughing matters. I recently read where nearly a quarter of the adult population in the US will have an anxiety disorder sometime in their lives. That's a lot of stressed out people. Fear certainly isn't unique to our corner of creation. In the Nakui world it's an overwhelming theme in the lives of men, women and children. Fear of the unseen world ... fear that even a close friend from outside the village could be a sorcerer sent to attack ... fear that an unsuspecting illness could take the life of a loved one ... fear of a recently diceased relative roaming the village at night looking to take someone with him. It's no wonder that when Nakui believers meet, it's not long before the subject of heaven comes up. There is a genuine longing for what God has prepared for us once we trade in these imperfect bodies living in this fallen world. In their prayers, as well, it's a major theme. Below I pasted a recent prayer by Tuti, one of the Nakui believers and up and coming leaders, before sharing the Lord's Supper.
"Thank you Papa, you are always helping us. You have given us your Word, it’s no small thing. It is the talk that opens up Heaven’s road to us. Our ancestors did bad actions, they went to the place of fire. We are glad we will go see you in heaven. Your talk of getting us back from the fire is good. Jesus didn’t come to this ground for nothing; he came to help us by throwing away our sins. He came and did this work, then he went back to heaven again. When he knew he was about to die, he called his followers together and he ate with them. He said the wine water was like his blood and the bread was like his body. He told them to eat like this over and over again so they would remember him. Oh God, this is very good. When we do this in Jesus’ memory it is good. Thank you to you, God, for sending Jesus to us. His blood spilled on the ground, his body got broken. He did this for so we can live forever and ever with him in heaven. We say thank you to Jesus."

Moved Again!

We're getting way too used to this. By now we're pretty much able to sort through stuff and move it from one place to the next in our sleep. Our most recent move took us from Univ. City up to San Marcos where we will hopefully be able to settle in for a while. Well, for about a year anyway. In the midst of moving life the pace of life is picking up as school nears for the kids. Bekah is now in volleyball two-a-day practices at Tri-City Christian, and the 4 trips back and forth mean everything else is scheduled accordingly. Diana is in the midst of registering at Palamar College to take some prerequisite courses she will need for nursing school. I am getting the office set up and hopefully will be getting into Nakui Bible translation work before long.
For those needing our address, it is now 671 Corte Loren, San Marcos, CA 92069. Phone # is 760-597-0728.

We're Home !!!

Yep ... we're here! The trip home wasn't without some ticketing hassles in Port Moresby, but thanks to some last minute heroics by the Qantas lady we got out of PNG as scheduled. All was quickly forgotten as we enjoyed the next two nights on Denarau Island in Fiji. Tough but someones got to do it :-). These past two days in SD we've been unwinding, recallibrating our clocks, and buying a minivan. Today we got out for a bit of shopping ... it took about 20 minutes for me to pick out a stick of deoderant, and killed the afternoon in clothing stores.

It's great to be here and great to be with family. When I can connect on something more than dialup, we'll be posting some pictures from our recent Nakui trip.

In Wewak

Wow!  What an incredible three weeks in the tribe.  It wasn’t always easy, but it was definitely worth every bit of effort put into the trip.  After a lot of hours in the office, the Galatians translation finished to teaching draft.  We were able to spend some good time re-establishing our relationships with dear friends.  I did some teaching in the church, and was blessed to participate in baptizing four believers.  I enjoyed some especially dear moments with Kibo and a few of the other key believers.  It was a special family time to be able to spend some good time in our home after a year away.  The cool, refreshing river floats on those steamy hot days were, as always, family highlights.  As we pushed the limits of our physical, linguistic, emotional, and cross-cultural limitations, God met us and ministered to Diana and I both in very special ways.  We praise God for the work He is doing of making his grace known both in Nakui lives and in our hearts as well.  Now here in Wewak for three nights, we are wrapping things up and packing our bags.  Next stop is Fiji for two nights and then LAX on July 8 (1:20 pm arrival).  Soaring gas prices, floundering economy, rising cost of living and all … it will be good for our family to be in the USA again after 3 ½ years!

Diana Braves the Swamp

Wednesday I went with one of my village friends out to get saksak.  And it was quite the adventure.  I could call it the Hike-Scrub-Carry triathlon.  The first half hour of the hike section, we were surrounded by huge towering trees above our heads, peaceful shade underneath without thick underbrush.  It was gorgeous.  I was a little unsteady on the logs we were crossing… the higher they were, the more unsteady I felt.  Then we got to the swamp.  At one point, I missed the log (to my credit, it was about 3” in diameter) and sank down to my knee in “soup” as the Nakui’s call it.  J  I felt like I could easily leave my shoe there forever if I wasn’t careful.  So I did the slow pull against incredible suction, and eventually I was free!   After snaking around in mucky water for another half an hour, we arrived at our destination -- a downed sago tree with half its middle already chopped out.  Linai pointed to some brackish water and told me to wash the mud off (were those my legs under all that?!).  It was about then that I started noticing the amount of mosquitoes around.  I think I could have literally lost every pint of blood I had to them by the end of the day!  I’ve never been so thankful for bug repellant in my LIFE!!!  Even with multiple layers of it slathered on me, they still swarmed around, trying to land, but not liking the taste.  I shared my bug repellant, realizing these ladies came here several times a week without any.

 

Soon, my turn to “scrub” came.  Linai had split open the bark on an 8’ section of the trunk.  I was handed the V shaped stick they use to chop the pith out of the sago palm.  I was determined to try to keep up with Linai, if not in prowess, at least in stamina.  J  Watching her, I tried to copy her style.  Her swings were even, coming down in a fine shave from top to bottom, her pith was fine, and she worked quickly.  My swings were haphazard, my lines were choppy, my pith was chunky and my work was slow.  I felt like a little child working next to a master.  It was fun.  J  But it was so tiring.  My hands started blistering.  My back started aching.  The mosquitoes kept attacking and then horseflies kept biting.  All the while, she just rhythmically worked away like a sago scrubbing machine.  About 11am, Linai, with a piece of sago pith hanging from her mouth, asked me if I’d eaten yet today.  It was then I learned she hadn’t eaten since the day before.  And on that day, all she’d eaten was saksak… the pudding they make from the starch rinsed out of the sago pith.  No greens to go with it, no fish or meat.  I couldn’t figure out what source of energy she was consuming to do all this work!  By about 1pm, I was cooked.  My back was aching, my hands were completely blistered and I had to tell Linai I was done.  I’d scrubbed about ¼ of our 8 foot section and Linai was making quick work of the other ¾ of it.  I put down my little stick with an intense feeling of relief that I didn’t have to do this every day.  I thought the hard work was done for the day. J

 

Around 1:30, we started packing up.  They drained the water out of the rinsing troughs and peeled the starch from the bottom, packaging it in leaves and vines for transport.  That’s when I realized we had to get all this stuff HOME!  Each of those ladies carried at least 70 pounds of starch, axes, bush knives, bark baskets, tools, etc on their backs.  And not in a nice, easy to carry backpack with extra padding on the straps, but instead tied together with a vine and slung over their heads.  I did what I could to help, carrying bilums, tools, whatever… thinking back to the long hike, the unsteadiness… wondering if I could manage the logs with a load on my back and no free hands.  The hardest work of all was just beginning!  We took a small detour up a mountain and Linai got some more betel nut to stave off the hunger.  Then we turned toward home.  It was a long hike and the ladies were puffing under their heavy burdens.  Rosama, a girl of 12, all of 40 pounds and 4 ½ feet tall, had worked all day alongside these two grown ladies and was carrying at least 50 lbs herself.  Never a complaint, always helpful.  Every time the trail got tough, she was telling ME, “Sorry”,  “Sorry”.  Along the way, they stopped to rest briefly (usually just enough time for me to catch up J) and we were immediately swarmed by mosquitoes or horseflies.  What a relief to finally start recognizing gardens near our village.  I had survived!  All I wanted was a huge glass of water.  And then another.  And then another.  My whole body ached and still aches today.  It sure gave me a greater appreciation for their version of the daily grind!

Report from Nakui

Greetings from Nakui village!  If you are reading this, that means the HF airwaves have successfully carried this posting to you.  After email problems for our first five days and now horrible atmospherics, we are again reminded this is not a given!  Yes, after a week of moving out of Lapilo and another crazy couple of days in Wewak getting organized, we arrived in Nakui last Friday.  We were soon reminded that life in Nakui is no less crazy!  Although the challenge of getting our house livable and all systems up and running was a major effort, we seem to have won the battle at least for the time being.  Besides getting unpacked and organized, we have built a new front door, fixed a leaky roof, fought off lots of termites and plumbed in a new water pipe to the Greenlaws house.  Having Josh in here has been a big help.  I'll have no problem keeping him busy for four more days until he leaves.  The Nakui village these days is consumed with politics and money making schemes and is now an important destination for outsiders with motivations of all sorts.  Our first night one particular group deemed untrustworthy was "escorted" out of the village after dark.  The Nakui church is going through a bit of a rough time.  Yes, they are meeting and opening up God's Word together, but a number of unresolved conflicts are hindering them.  One in particular involving Tuti and his wife Abelo has caused Tuti to withdraw from the church body altogether.  Diana and I both spent time trying to encourage them yesterday, and will continue to try and help see this situation resolved.  The good news is there are a number of people wanting to be baptized, and we are making plans to hold a baptism class and then baptize these ones within the next couple of weeks.  That will be a lot of fun.  Whenever possible, I am also trying to steal away time in my office to work on translation.  I would really like to have Galatians ready for Greg to teach from later this year.  Health-wise we are all doing pretty well ... Bri is nursing a nasty sore on her foot but otherwise we’re surviving fine.  All for now … thank for your prayers.