Delight

Elias, always the showman, puts on one of his more serious faces for the camera

From the Language File

We’ve decided that we’ve been slack in sharing some of the mouth mangling tongue torqueing phrases that come up in the Pal tok ples. Here are a few for you to try loudly and in a public place (after you practice in front of the bathroom mirror for a while.)

·         Kaima nungum buh nunung uhb? -  Is this how big your first born is?

·         Umatuh buh tuhkuhguh nuh wa nam intanuh pukokuah.  – The man saw the meat sitting up in a tree. (note: the ‘meat’ in this case isn’t just a hunk of steak – it has fur and is probably wishing it had not climbed that particular tree at that time.)

·         Wa umatuh kuhguh, vilaguh, viluh konunje iewowuh. Val nongom ukuh jua. – The meat sees the man, is afraid, runs around on the tree and then runs home.

·         Wa me vega. Munja viviga, val ukuh jua.   – He lost the meat and is sad in his belly. He goes home.

A young girl sat near Nate and the boys as they cheer for Elizabeth and her basketball team.

Delight

I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight.  Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me. – Psalm 119:174, 175

One of the most intense aspects of our work here in Pal – and the thing that you can be praying about this week – is how we direct our lives and conversations to demonstrate the magnitude of the value of the message that we bring our friends. No joke, there are real challenges that our friends face every day. Their lives are full of hard work, pain, and sickness. They believe deep down that the answer to their troubles will be in the form of a wealthy benefactor and physical gifts and they constantly seek to place us in that role. The problem here is that they do not yet know what it is that they are truly longing for and that they will not be able to really listen to us until we have real relationships with them. Relationships not built on what it is that they may need (or think they need) from us, but on mutual care and respect. We are seeing hints of those kinds of real relationships sprouting with the Pal people who we see regularly, and that is encouraging. At the same time, there are many more with whom we desire to spend time for the sake of the gospel in their lives. We need wisdom with how to respond in true love to Pal people. We want the finger of our actions and words to point in a big way to real relationships and real hope. Our friends will delight in a trinket for a moment, but there is no end to the delight of real salvation.

Thanks so much for your care for us,

Nate for the Cs

‘Dad, just try to get in the house’ – the three musketeers

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Posted via email from PNG Time