Alone in the dark...

The moon rises over the Adebert Mountains…

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

“We’ll find our way back home, you go ahead.” 

These words, while a fine thing to say to friends at, say Disneyland, are not necessarily the best things for two white women (in unfamiliar territory) to say to their guides as the gloom of dusk gathers over them and the long brushy footpath that they must take to get back to their houses. I believe the Greeks had a specific word for this kind of confidence but we’ll just refer to it here as “something we’ll not be doing again.”

How, you might ask, did Elizabeth and Kim find themselves lost at night in the jungle, yelling themselves hoarse for a couple of hours? Really the story begins with unexpected visitors from a village several hours away who came to ask for our assistance with postnatal care for a woman who seemed to be bleeding extensively. Kim and Elizabeth left our houses at around 4:30 pm Wednesday in the company of those women and men, headed for the garden house where the woman had been. After a couple of hours of fairly rough hiking, they neared the place and were greeted by the message that the woman had died and was being carried to an even further village for the time of mourning. Not wanting to burden the folks they were with (family members of the woman who had died), and not wanting to keeping hiking further from home when they were not needed, the Elizabeth and Kim gracefully parted company with the rest of the group and turned toward home.

As dusk settled into the deep blackness of night in that jungle valley, all points of reference disappeared for the ladies and, with only the light of their headlamps to guide them, they found themselves at what seemed to be the end of the trail. After some exploration and serious (I’m sure you can imagine how serious) discussion and prayer, they decided that the best thing to do was to stay put, flash their lights, and yell for help. Finally a guy (who told me later he had to sit and think about it for a while before he understood what was going on) responded to their flashlight signals. That guy grabbed a friend and they came to the aid of the ladies, walking the full distance (2+ hours) home with them before turning around and heading back to their own houses.

You can bet that Mason and I let those guys know very carefully how much we appreciated their help.

Kids everywhere rarely resist clowning for a camera…

That which we take for granted.

On top of what happened to the ladies, this week has been a rather wild one for us – producing enough material for (probably) a year worth of updates. With major events such as a regional soccer tournament and the annual celebration of PNG’s Independence along with tons of interesting other things (snakebites, fights, a bit of drunken revelry, several family feuds, marriage gift exchanges, and the arrival of several different clans on the same day – each with the desire to eat a special meal with us) we’ve been going nonstop.

It was, however, the conversation I had with a man today that helped tie things up and put them in perspective. He asked me:

“Will I see my [dead] father again?”

And

“Is there a way to get stuff from our dead ancestors?... Is that what the Bible is about?”

Clearly, in the same way that the ladies were in the dark about getting home, my friend is in the dark about what the real message of the Bible is. Turns out, he is not alone. In nearly every conversation we have in Pal, we are reminded that our friends are trusting in that which is untrustworthy and hoping in that which will bring them no real satisfaction.

It behooves us then (Ha, I used behooves in a sentence…) to make good use of the time that we have to give our diligent effort and foremost thinking  to the task at hand – that of learning the culture and language of the Pal people-- so that we will soon be able to share with them real light.

Thanks for praying for us,

Nate for the family

PS… lest you are tired of mere news in our update – here is your Pal phrase of the week:  “gag peme keketulo iukura muhnumugago” literally – I’m so glad we didn’t have to sleep all night in the jungle.

Posted via email from PNG Time