Feel the burn baby!

A little hiking… it’s the ‘Glistening Claasens…’

On PNG trail thinking…

While many of our friends in the U.S.A. measure their commute in miles or minutes, we can just as well measure our commute in vertical feet. You see, in PNG, the guys make the trails according to the simple rule of geometry: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line (what, no switchbacks?). Sure there are detours around the odd precipice or large tree, but by and large the trail to the village across the valley is straight down to the river and straight back up the other side. True fact: one of the local villages is close enough to shout back and forth to across a valley but the trail between our houses and it includes  1300’ of vertical drop and 800’ of ascent requiring over an hour of hard hiking. Suffice it to say Ibuprofen is on the menu fairly regularly in the Claasen household.

The Perfect Job

In thinking about the job that we are doing here in PNG, I was struck by how cool it is to be doing what we are doing. What other job has such great social, physical, mental, spiritual, and practical challenges? For instance:

                * We interact with a steady stream of visitors. People who come with questions, problems, gifts, or just to help us out with language. There is simply no way to do missions without spending lots and lots of time with people.

                * We are constantly on the move as well. One day we might spend hunting with a friend on the top of the mountain (5600’ elevation). The next day we could be down working in a garden at 2500’. We have to manage our activities in the same way an endurance athlete might – figuring out how much our bodies can handle while still maintaining health.

                * At the same time, we are basically doing and intensive long-term anthropological and linguistic field study with the associated challenges for filing, memorizing, and recalling information.

                * Did I mention that we get do our own technical support and house maintenance with minimal supplies (as well as educating folks in the repair of tape players, flash lights, etc..)

                * As all that is going on, we are seeking to build a mature church among a people who haven’t the least idea of who God is.

All in all, it is the perfect job! (no need to be jealous – there are plenty of openings here on the field if you are interested.)

Tongue Twisting

So, you’d like to say something intelligent in Pal? Try these on for size:

-          Mesimesi korongang duhvuh uwuhgarot.  (‘the kids are fighting over the food again’).

-          Gna ke bumagam. (‘I haven’t the foggiest idea.’ Or ‘I forgot.’)

-          Maya togoroloti. (‘How are they going to do it?’)

-          Guhvuhlesisi, minda, nengeviluh… (three of the 12 kinds of sugar cane that the Pal people grow.)

Praying

-          Planning – lots of things to think about as we are looking forward to our first check in with our language consultant. We hope that we are focused correctly in the language learning process so that the time is shortened.

-          Good relationships – what do you say to a guy who’d like to adopt you? What if he is the leader of one of the 7 clans in Pal? How do we make sure that we are saying with our actions that the message that we are bringing is for everybody without offending some important people?

-          Health – Nate is on antibiotics, Tim just got over malaria, etc. There are many things that just seem to get the better of our bodies here in the bush.

-          Family time – we are trying to maintain effective time in discipling our own kids in the midst of the other things that are constantly going on.

Thanks all for praying this week,

Nate for the fam.

Posted via email from PNG Time