Garasa Village Visit

Steven Ttopogogos, (BTA’s Morobe Province Language Program Coordinator) asked SIL to send someone to the Garasa village for five days to film the Waria Multi-Lanugage Project Conference. Since none of our regular videographers were available, I was elected.

After the SIL Kodiak plane dropped me off at the grass airstrip in Garasa, we were given a lei and then led from the airstrip to the meetinghouse by a singsing. 

Garasa singsing  (https://vimeo.com/134672811)

They stopped and allowed me to pose with them for a picture, but I don’t think my dance moves would have cut it!

I learned to bathe in the river and to use the outhouse they built just for me!

I also learned to eat kaukau—their staple diety each day consisted of cooked banana, taro, rice, noodles and a cooked green vegetable. One day they killed and cooked a pig, and then we had a little meat to go along with the cooked vegetables.

Most of the time I was kept busy taking pictures of the conference. 

The Guhu-Saman had a New Testament translation in 1982 but the language has changed quite a bit since then and most of the younger generation no longer speak that way. They needed to find out if it needed a revision, and also if three other related languages Kunimipa, Amam, and Weri need a translation (thus a Multi-Language project), or do they just need an Audibible and oral Bible stories.

At the end of five days when we were ready to leave, the singsing led us back down to the airstrip and the ladies gave us bilums (shoulder bags) as a way of thanking us for coming. 

It was indeed a wonderful, and stretching experience, and God provided exceedingly more than I could ever ask or imagine!

Big Change Happening

Soti, one of the primary Bible translators in the Konai language project, paused in the middle of a translation discussion with his colleagues. An evangelist at heart, who had spent several years in Bible school, Soti was a passionate member of the translation team, who worked on the project for twenty years with Sören and Britten, the Konai translation advisors. “This is better than any Bible school!” he exclaimed, “This is really fantastic! Translation really teaches us what God’s Word says!”

On the 5th of April, Easter Sunday, after twenty years of labor by over fifty people, the Konai New Testament was dedicated in Western Province amid great joy, excitement, and singing. Despite the morning’s rain, many people attended the celebration, with many traditional songs, dances, and speeches. Several of the Konai youth also read the Easter story aloud, demonstrating that the Konai language can easily be read. T-shirts and certificates were handed out to the many people involved in the project. One of the translators, David, faithfully translated everything spoken in English or Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea’s trade language, into Konai so that everyone could understand.

Before coming to advise the Konai language group, Sören and Britten had worked for 20 years with the Ama language group in the Sepik and dedicated the Ama New Testament in 1990. As a result, the Ama and the Konai felt a shared connection which was demonstrated throughout the day as the Ama language group sent some people to support the Konai. Together, both the Konai translators and the Ama representatives prayed over the Bible and helped hand out the Bibles that were sold.

“While I’ve been a part of this work of translation, I’ve seen a big change happen in my community.” commented David, “God has been using the Bible to change our lives in this place!”   —from thePNGexperience

 See the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM_5D-mc4c

His Wondrous Deeds

As I have now been here in Ukarumpa now for three full weeks, the first thing that I noticed is how people from seventeen different countries are working together to seeing Papua New Guinea empowered by the written Word of God. Each person or family here, whether aircraft mechanic, pilot, IT worker, literacy worker, language surveyor, translator, or other type is supported and sponsored by churches and individuals in their home countries, who are also committed to this same goal. It is but a small picture of the many members of the body of Christ working together, each with different gifts that the Apostle Paul talks about in Romans 12.

But this time has also given me a chance to look back and reflect on what God has been doing in my life. We never really get over our grief, but then again we are never really the same after we have passed through it. The joy that Christ alone gives, shines through our grief just like the sun shines through the clouds after a storm, revealing something beautiful.

The other day I read this poem, from Streams in the Desert, which beautifully reflects that thought.

“And now my heart and I are sweetly singing–
Singing without the sound of tuneful strings;
Drinking abundant waters in the desert;
Crushed, and yet soaring as on eagle’s wings.”

During this past year, I have begun to feel God’s comfort and to experience closeness to and a hunger for God that I had never before known. I began to live in Psalm 42:1, 2 where David said, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,” and God began to reveal Himself to me in new and wonderful ways, as I found my soul being refreshed by the abundant waters in the desert.

Listening to sermons this past year from Tullian Tchividjian, Scotty Smith, Steve Brown, and my own pastor Gary Ginn have reintroduced me to the Gospel of God’s inexhaustible grace and His one-way love toward me. The power of the gospel is just as necessary and relevant to us after we become Christians as it was before. We habitually look to someone, or something smaller than Jesus, or even in addition to Jesus, for the things we crave and need, and none of these things are ever large enough to fill that void.

But then God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, began showing me that because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross, my identity was not in myself, but was in Him! I love how in Psalm 66:16 the psalmist responds to the awesome deeds of the Lord, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.” Rediscovering the Gospel has given me a new freedom—a freedom to be “nothing” because Jesus is “everything” and all because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, for me!

I no longer need to worry about being ordinary, because Jesus was extraordinary for me; I no longer have to worry about being weak, because Jesus was strong for me; I no longer need to worry about being a failure, because Jesus succeeded for me. My name is in Jesus’ name–my reputation is in Jesus’ reputation. What freedom that brings!

In 1997 with her first diagnosis of cancer, I marked Psalm 30:5 in my Bible, “Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning.” I again marked that verse in January 2014, and while there is still sadness in my life, God is beginning to fulfill that promise, by bringing me unspeakable joy, which can only come in and through Him.

In Psalm 40:3, King David said “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Amen!

FINAL GOODBYE

This journey has been a long one for me, filled with many ups and downs, and now that it has finally come full circle and I am in a house in Ukarumpa, PNG, the emotions have flooded over me. There have been many events in my life that I could never understand the reason. Nine years ago, Lissie, John and I were headed for an assignment in PNG when God stepped in and stopped it at the very last moment. For years I tried to understand why that happened, but now the “why” no longer matters since God is sovereign, and His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts than my thoughts.

Elise had always wanted me to take her to New Zealand to see where I had been while in the Air Force, and I never was able to do that. She wanted so much to go and serve with me in PNG, and that never happened. And now in the last two weeks, I have seen both countries – alone.

Alone, but yet I’m not alone, because Christ has become more real to me now than ever before. He has given me the closeness to Him that I had always longed for.

Today I again said goodbye to Lissie, as I sprinkled some of her ashes in the land she wanted so much to visit. But this world is not my home, and while her loss is still painful, I have a promise that one day I see Him face to face, and He will wipe away all tears.

Back To Middle-Earth

I spent 3 years in New Zealand while serving in the Air Force, from 1967 to 1969. Now, since I will be spending 4 days in New Zealand, before continuing on to Australia and then Papua New Guinea, I wanted to see a little of the country that I have not seen since then. 

But I was worried about having to spend extra money on a rental car and on motels for those 4 days. What an awesome answer to prayer that God would arrange that I would not have to do that. One of my Air Force buddies has written to tell me that he and his wife will pick me up at the Christchurch airport and let me stay with them, and even drive me around so that I can see part of the country.  

 

We are also going to have a reunion, sort of, with 3 other former AF buddies and that will be great, since I have not seen any of my friends since leaving in 1969. Looking forward to seeing old friends, and the country that I love.

Threads of Hope

The sale of these bracelets by Wycliffe ($1 each), made in Southeast Asia, directly benefits families there who are able to purchase rice and fish with the proceeds. The sale of 250 bracelets can put one teen through a whole year of high school including room, board and tuition!

One of the areas in which I can help while in Ukarumpa, will be to pray for those involved in the translation work. Since Elise and I used to do this very thing for returning missionaries on furlough, this will just be an extension of what we did, in a different location. At Wycliffe, Elise spent much time praying for colleagues who came to her asking for prayer. She used to use these Hope bracelets to remind her to pray for someone. She would buy 2 bracelets, giving one to the other person and then she would wear the other bracelet on her arm, to remind her to pray for a particular request. Since I am now wearing one of Elise's bracelets, I want to use it to remind me to pray for the needs in PNG.

Exodus 17 records that when Joshua led the Israelites in battle against the Amalekites, Moses needed two people to help hold up his arms while he prayed for the battle. As long as his arms were lifted up, the Israelites celebrated a victory already won. When his arms were down, they were fighting a battle that was already lost. I know that Elise will be joining with me in praying for the needs of PNG.