Home Again, Home Again...

Thanks so very much for your prayers this past week. The survey went well with no major injuries and lots of information gathered.

Here are some stats:
-Number of vertical feet hiked in three days in Pal: over 10,000 up and as much down.
-Number of Ibuprofen tablets consumed by the team: at least 20 in 5 days.
-Number of places 'that I can name' on his legs that my partner Mason claimed 'didn't hurt': Zero
-Number of villages visited: 3 major and 5-7 hamlets in Pal proper (many more on the way hiking out)
-Number of bowls of kaukau and greens consumed: 8 - it is the staple diet of the Pal people.
-Number of pictures taken: 651 - you can see some of them here.
-Number of white men that the Pal have seen in their region: less than 6 (including the four of us) Some of them have made the two day trek to town and seen white men there, but it was obvious that we were the first for many of the villagers.
-Number of times we were asked if we were dead men come back from the grave: Once - but it was a serious question and the response had to be equally serious and thorough.
-Number of pounds lost by the group in 5 days: more than 30.

I was trying to write about the experience for our newsletter:

It is truly a strange experience, walking over mountain trails into unknown valleys in order to observe first-hand an isolated language group.

I had a restless night beforehand, running through all sorts of questions:

What are the people like? What will they think about us? What kinds of things should I be looking for? What am I going to say to them?

That morning the helicopter dropped four of us off in a small clearing high up in the Adelbert Mountains. Our contact had promised to get word back into the Pal (also called the Messi) people that we were coming. He seemed to think that there would be some there to meet the helicopter and walk us back over the mountain. It was a good thirty minutes after the chopper left that we heard some whooping from up the mountain., Some ten minutes later we were face to face with two Pal men, breathless and skin-glistening with the effort of speeding over the jungle path.

Three days, numerous meetings, and 10,000 feet of vertical climbing later, we took leave of the Pal people, one thing sure in our minds: the Pal people are lost people.

We are planning another trip to Pal shortly after Christmas to explore further the situation there. We do not yet know if it is the place that God has for us to work, but it very well might be!

Thanks again for praying us. Be sure to check out the pictures, we'll be writing more soon. Oh, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Nate for the fam.